Chapter Ten

If I Swallow Anything Evil

Put Your Finger Down My Throat

If I Shiver, Please Give Me A Blanket

Keep Me Warm, Let Me Wear Your Coat

Roughly about 4:00 PM

"What's going on here, Mark?" Katharine turned on the doctor as soon as they were outside the room. "Why is that man being restrained and why is that man Evan Chapman keeping him here?"

Katharine was no idiot. True she'd come to help the doctor on the promise of being well paid to care for a gunshot patient that could not be taken to a hospital. The reasons Dr. Mark Richards had given her were that a family friend's brother had a precarious position with the government and they couldn't let his enemies know they hadn't succeeded in killing him. But now she wasn't sure what the truth was. It all screamed intrigue.

She had connections to the government in the form of the military herself. She'd lost her baby brother and then her older brother both in the Gulf war back in 2003 and 2004 and her husband had been in the war too. She'd lost him afterwards, with her daughter, but she didn't think about that right now. She had grown up an Army brat and her father had been a Vietnam veteran. She knew military the minute she saw it and Eliot Spencer was military all the way down to his toes. But she knew he was more than that. He was black or had been at one time. Deep dark black ops.

The man was more than what he'd allowed her to see and she knew he had done a lot and seen a lot because of his job so she didn't doubt the part of the story that he worked for the government, but after talking with him, she believed this Evan Chapman was not his brother. At least not in a conventional sense. Something was wrong here and she believed that Eliot was more a prisoner here. For all she knew – Evan Chapman could be the assassin meant to kill Eliot. But then she didn't understand why he'd been saved in the first place. Why kill and then not kill? One thing she knew for sure, Mark had no idea what was going on here.

Mark Richards sighed as he looked at Katharine Wakefield. He knew he shouldn't have involved her in this, but he'd needed a good surgical nurse and she was the best at Massachusetts General. He also knew she'd take the money and do her job. That is if he could keep her in the dark. He'd specifically left her instructions not to talk with the patient, but she'd done it anyway and he knew once Katharine got on a mission she was like a dog with a bone.

"Look, I'm not privy to all the details here. Evan Chapman is a high ranking officer in the Department of Defense and he said his brother had been injured and he needed help. He couldn't just take him to a hospital, it's all delicate. I know it's wrong to not report the gunshot wounds, but I figured since the government knew I was safe there, and the man needed my help. He would have died and he still could." The doctor ran a hand through his usually perfectly combed hair, and looked the woman directly in the eye. "I did what I took an oath to do. I helped a man that was dying and that's what I needed you to do. Help me save him and we have, so far. Let's just concentrate on his health and not the why. It's not our place to question that. For all we know he could be an assassin or something; maybe he's the bad guy here, and as such it's logical he'd be restrained."

"That man is not a bad man. I don't know about the assassin shit, but he's not a bad guy. He said Evan Chapman is not his brother, but they look enough alike to definitely be brothers, so there's something there, Mark. I don't like it at all." Katharine thought about it and she realized she'd never get Mark Richards to stand up and do anything. He was a weasel. A coward. He thought he was the next Dr. McSexy, but he'd never fooled Katharine. He was afraid of his own shadow if it were to turn on him. But he was the best thoracic surgeon at the hospital and he was very committed to the care of his patients. "Fine. I'll keep my mouth shut until we're done here, but just so you know, I really don't like this."

She knew she was on her own. She'd have to help Eliot Spencer herself. But she couldn't move him right now; that actually was the last thing this man needed. He was hooked up to machines. He had a two tubes in his chest for God's sake. And you couldn't just pull them out and walk away. One machine was keeping his lung inflated and releasing excess air due to the traumatic hemopneumothorax and another was draining the blood from his lung.

"Good, Kath. I think that's the best for now. Let's just make sure our patient lives for now and then we can worry about what's going on here." The man actually smiled at her as he patted her gently on her arm. "I'm just gonna head to my room for the night. Call me if anything changes in Mr. Chapman's vitals or anything happens. It's almost 6 now, so I'll relieve you in 12 hours." He handed her Eliot's chart and turned to head down the hall to the room he was using for the time being.

Katharine took the chart and set it down on the desk that had been set up outside Eliot's room for their use. She knew that she would have to change his transfusion bag as soon as Evan Chapman left him and then she'd try and see if he could handle some more ice. Then a thought hit her as she was absently thumbing through the chart.

Eliot was getting donated blood from his brother or whatever he really was, but something about that was bugging her. Wait, she thought. Eliot was AB positive which is a rare type. While it is not the rarest, it's close. Only about 4% of the worldwide population have AB positive. Which meant that while AB positive types can receive any blood type in a transfusion, they cannot donate except to another AB blood type through direct transfusions. Their blood is not accepted by other blood types. And Eliot's chart showed that Evan Chapman had AB positive too. This was significant. That meant the odds were greater that they were related.

This thought made her wonder what was going on here. She didn't know what to believe anymore. She believed Eliot when he said he didn't have a brother, but the blood typing was confusing. It was possible they could both be AB positive and not related, but it definitely made her think again. She needed more information here and she couldn't ask Evan Chapman and she wasn't going to ask Eliot.

No she needed to question someone who understood the deep dark secrets of the government and the military. She sighed as she realized she'd have to ask someone who had once been… well a friend. But she hadn't really talked to him since he'd come to her after her younger brother Luke's death. She had no idea where or what he was doing now, but she had one number that she knew would reach him.

She looked at the closed bedroom door and decided she would need to find someplace where she could make a call in private. She reached for her cell phone in her purse in the desk and pocketed it as she turned and headed down the hall outside to the terrace on the left side of the house in the back where she figured she'd find some kind of privacy. At least that's what she hoped. She had no idea she was being watched.

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Roughly about 4:15 PM

"Listen, I need some answers here and you're my only hope in this, Travis." Katharine said into her phone. She tried to keep her voice down, but she was having a hard time not getting angry with her brother's former best friend.

True she hadn't seen Travis is over ten years, but she had tried to keep in contact. The man was a ghost most of the time though. All she knew was he didn't work for anyone and yet he worked for everyone. He was deep into the black too. She knew that, so she hoped he'd help her out here.

She listened to the man's voice. "Look, Kat I'd love to help you, but I'm a little busy right now." He sounded winded as if he'd been working out or running.

Katharine smiled at the nickname Luke had given her a long long time ago and Travis refused to let die. She'd hated the name, but she'd always let Luke get away with it and as such Travis had picked up the habit. It brought back some old memories.

"I don't know what else to do here. The man is obviously into the same kind of thing you are and we both know you aren't a copy machine salesman. I don't see a big need for copy machines in the caves of Afghanistan or where ever you are right now. I can hear the echo and your out of breath, so you're either running or you're fighting. You can't fool me."

The man sighed on the other end. Damn the woman could get under his skin at the drop of a hat. "Okay fine. I can't possibly get to you before tomorrow night, but I'll try to expedite my departure from… my cave." He smiled at just how close she was. He wasn't in Afghanistan, but close – Uzbekistan's Peshagar was a cave, a big one. "What's his name?"

"Eliot Spencer."

The man choked on a breath at the name. Damn it again, he thought. Leave it to this woman to find the one man he had a rivalry with. "Kat, listen to me very carefully. Whatever you do, do not let anyone get to that man."

Katharine heard the strong tone of his voice. "Why? What's wrong? You know him, don't you?"

Travis Quinn couldn't help but smile at the memory of the broken ribs he'd taken three years ago from Spencer. Of course he'd given the man some of his own. "You could say that." He thought about this sudden turn of events. "Look the man is… well let's just say he's a colleague. I know what he's capable of, but I also know he's not into the same thing as me…at least not anymore. He's… well he's complicated."

"Am I safe with him?" Katharine suddenly panicked. Had she misread the man? Could he really be a bad guy? "Is he the bad guy?" She didn't want to think it possible that Eliot was bad, but she needed to know.

Quinn thought about that statement. "We're all bad guys Kat." He replied softly. "But let's just say, as long as you aren't on his radar, Eliot Spencer will not hurt you. I'll finish up here and take the next plane out. I'll call you tomorrow when I land. You have to find a way to get him out before then, do you understand? You can't stay there for long. This man who says he's his brother, well he probably has plans for Eliot and if you get in the way he won't hesitate to take you out of the equation."

"How the hell am I supposed to move him when he's hooked up to three different machines keeping him alive?"

Quinn thought about this. "He's really that close to death?" He was mildly surprised by that, but then again in their business they were always close to death.

"Yes!'" She gritted through her teeth at the man. "I can't pick him up and carry him out of here and I can't unhook him and roll him out the front door. There's guards all over this house. I can get him down to the basement where Dr. Richards has set up the test equipment and he has him scheduled for a scan in the morning before I go off duty, but the doctor would be with me. After that, I'm off duty for a few hours and come back on at 7 tomorrow night."

"Okay, I probably won't be there before then so that's good. See if you can get a lay of the land while you're off and I'll contact you while I'm en route with a plan. I'm gonna make a few calls and pull some help in for this. Just hang in there and if everything goes according to my plan, we will be coming for you. You won't have to get him out by yourself."

She breathed a sigh of relief at that, but she still was worried. "Travis, what about this Evan guy? Do you know him?"

Quinn thought about that. No one other than Eliot's own team knew very much about him, but he was willing to bet they didn't even know who this guy was. "There's only one guy I know of that may know who he is. I'll check that out too. Just hang in there and poke around descreetly. But be careful. And just wait. I'll be there, I promise."

Katharine ended her call as she stood there on the terrace thinking. She looked at her watch and realized she'd been there for at least twenty minutes and she needed to get back to Eliot in case something happened.

As she turned to return to her patient, she missed seeing Dr. Mark Richards looking down at her from the balcony overlooking the terrace.

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Roughly about 4:40 PM

Travis Quinn slowed his pace as he pocketed his cell phone. He wasn't actually in the cave or he wouldn't have been able to get reception to his cell, but he was as close to the entrance as he could get to avoid the men he'd just liberated the item in his pack from. He smiled as he quickly entered the cave to stow the item until he could get it to his client. He had other things to handle right now and he knew the item would be safe. For now.

He thought of his best friend, Lucas Malone as he hid the pack in the place he'd already selected for just this reason. He hadn't really thought of Luke in ten years, but with Kat's call he knew it would bring up memories. He owed his life to Luke on that last mission, so in turn he owed Kat his help. He'd always thought of Kat like his big sister too, so it wasn't hard to agree to help her. But for Eliot Spencer?

To say he knew Eliot was understating it. The two hadn't always been on the opposite side, but they'd had their share of competition to say the least. They both had handled jobs in the past that had brought them in contact on several occasions. They were both specialists in their field and they both knew the other's reputation. The only difference between them now was that Eliot had changed sides, if there were sides in their business.

The business usually meant you worked for who ever paid the most and that's what Quinn did. It was all business for him, just do the job and collect his payment then move on to the next job. But Eliot was different now. Some said he'd lost his nerve. Some said he'd given up.

But Quinn knew that neither were true after their showdown at that airplane hanger. Eliot Spencer still had it and he'd beaten him. He might have walked away hurt, but he'd been the one walking away. And that had reluctantly given Quinn pause. He'd had to admit that time that yes Eliot had changed, but he'd also remained true to who he was. That man was the best in the business and if he was now using his skills in a different capacity, then let him.

Quinn was not a team player, but if it worked for Spencer then so be it. He wasn't gonna put the man down for that. Besides he'd always known he'd be seeing him again and it looked like that was about to become true.

As he returned to the entrance of the cave cautiously noting he hadn't been followed, he decided that if he did this and helped Eliot, then he'd be even with the guy and they'd go back to their own corners of the world. And no one would ever have to know he'd actually helped the great Eliot Spencer out.

He smiled as he thought about that. Yeah he'd be helping Kat, but he'd also be doing something he'd never dreamed he do again since losing Luke. And that was helping out a friend.

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Roughly about 4:30 pm

Detective Bonanno listened as David Hoskins, his lead CSI on Eliot's case explained the test results from the tissue that Dr. McEvoy had sent to have run asap. This changed everything.

"So you're saying that because the tissue was showing signs of decomp that the remains were deceased before the bomb blast?" He asked to make sure he was understanding.

"That's right Patrick. I tested the rate of decomp on the tissue and it tells me that this man was dead at least 24-48 hours before he was blown up in the blast. So that and the other results you have prove it can't be Eliot Spencer." He replied evenly. "I also can tell you that after examining the tissue, I'd say the man was in his late seventies at least. Maybe a little older, but he'd been in relatively good health I think. I mean I couldn't find any kind of decease in the tissue, but of course that doesn't mean anything without the organs to test. There's no way to tell how he died though."

"Late seventies?" The detective repeated. "Maybe it's an uncle. I spoke with his sister and their father is alive and he just turned 63. Now I have a whole new set of questions to work on."

"I've got Spencer's blood from the kitchen floor and the DNA from his toothbrush along with the report from the doctor you contacted for his records. They are a match, so he was shot in the kitchen where he bled out and then was somehow moved, but not to the garage. The blood trail you found ends at the garage door in the house. The amount of blood we found meant the guy was close to death if not already, but after the trail we have nothing on him in the rest of the house." The CSI paused as if he was turning pages in a folder. "I have all the photos from the scene and it looks like the guy just disappeared. We have nothing on how they got him out of the house, but I can tell you this, there were at least three intruders in that house."

"Three? You're sure?"

"Yep. Two sets of shoe treads were found in the kitchen around the blood, just from the tread on the soft stone floor leaving impressions, the shoes had to be new to leave a slight impression and not very special; just you're average workboots. But the third set was found in the blood trail. It was hard to define them at first, but after running all the photos through the computer, they showed up. The prints are from an older pair of boots, military issue combat boots. If I didn't know better I'd think the first two men were professionals and knew to wear the most common pair of boots out there, but the third, I just get the feeling he's not as smart. Military boots are not common and I can run them; I'll at least get an idea which branch uses this type of boot the most. They are also kind of small prints for military boots, size eight. The guy's kind of small or it's possible he's a she. That may help also. I'll let you know as soon as I get something on those."

"Yeah, do that. And let me know if you find anything else." The detective replaced the phone on his desk in its cradle as he thought about these new facts. Military boots meant military and he knew Spencer had ties to the military.

It was beginning to look like Eliot's past had caught up with him and he wasn't sure he'd be able to help him now. He reached for his cell phone in his pocket as he realized that maybe it was time Ford filled him in on just exactly what kind of man Eliot Spencer was.