GH 2018 presents Elizabeth Webber; #038

"Five by Five"

Boulder Colorado Airport…

The sun was shining above as an American Airlines 767 Jumbo Jet Airliner taxied down the runway, and soon its passengers filed out of the giant craft and into the waiting area of the large airport.

One of the many people waiting for a passenger was Jeff Webber. It was late in the morning and he had come to the airport after his daily briefing with his hospital administrators, and now waited patiently for his daughter, Sarah, to emerge among the throng of arrivals.

He waved at Sarah as she made her way past an elderly couple, and then they hugged each other once she had made it over to him. And as they embraced each other, Jeff was grateful to fate, or God, or whatever guided the universe, for giving him a second chance with both of his daughters.

There would be no second chance with his other daughter, Hayden (she is dead in the GH 2018 story), and his estrangement from Steven Lars made their getting back together unlikely for the time being.

Ten minutes later they had made their way to Jeff's BMW-6 sedan. Jeff put her two large suitcases into the trunk and soon he maneuvered the car onto the freeway.

"No one knows you're here, not even your mother." Jeff told Sarah, as he looked over at her. "You wouldn't tell me the reason for the secrecy on the phone last week, so how about now?

Sarah looked over at her father, and tried to read his body language. But then she decided to brush aside his question for one of her own.

"Dad," Sarah said with seriousness in her words, "the last time I spoke with mom, she said you weren't taking your medicine."

Jeff laughed, and realized his daughter was becoming as good as a deflector as his wife was. He looked over at her and pointed an accusing index finger at her.

"You are changing the subject young lady and I get enough of that from your mother and Elizabeth and even Aiden now. But to answer your interrogation; your mother is exaggerating, because I do take my medicine. Now," he added, before she could cut in, "why all the secrecy and why are you staying at the Hyatt instead of with us?"

Sarah thought for a moment, and wanted to be tactful with her answer.

"Not to put it too delicately," she told her father, "but it would be kind of busy there with Liz and her kids and I all sharing one bathroom. Besides," she added, "the reason I am here secretly is because," she paused for effect, "my fiancé will be arriving tomorrow."

Jeff looked over at Sarah with a broad smile.

"Holy shit," Jeff said, "whoops, I mean, wow," he was so happy. "Who is this guy? Mom hasn't said anything to me about you finding a guy."

Sarah smiled back at him.

"Dad, it's me you're talking to," Sarah said, with a wise-ass tone to her voice, "Elizabeth and Steven may not know that you were a secret agent, but I do. And the last thing I'm going to do is you give his name so that you can dig up his past. You know that movie; Meet the Parents? You are so Robert De Niro!"

Jeff gave her an innocent look; and then let it go because his daughter was right.

"You're right," Jeff offered, "but every father has the right to check up on his daughter's fiancé. That is as old as time itself."

Sarah shook her head.

"Bullshit, dad," Sarah fired back with. "This isn't the 17th century, this is the 21st century; there is this thing called women's rights you know."

Jeff shook his head.

"Well, you win for now," Jeff finally replied. "but tomorrow is another day…."

Minutes later, Jeff pulled into the Hyatt's parking lot and helped Sarah check into the hotel. He would have taken her to the Marriott, but there had been a police incident there the night before (unknown to Jeff; the murder of Jerry Jacks).

Boulder Colorado Police Department Impound Lot…

At the edge of Boulder was a large car lot where the Boulder Colorado Police Department kept vehicles involved with various infractions; impounds. If a drunk driver had his car taken away, it was brought to the lot, the same for an unlicensed driver's car; it was brought to the lot. Car crashes, repos, they all came here.

But, more importantly, there was a section reserved for cars that were pieces of evidence in crimes and missing person cases. And in the past two weeks, five vehicles (3 SUVs and 2 sedans) that belonged to five different missing people had been brought to the lot.

And there was a sixth vehicle next to those five; a police sedan. The officer who had driven the sedan had been found shot to death (Garth Landru killed him).

A black 1968 Mercury Park Lane Brougham sedan made its way through the winding road that weaved up and down the lot. There were currently 64 cars in the impound lot, and the Mercury, which was being driven by Detective Quint Meeks, finally came to a stop next to the group of five vehicles that belonged to the five missing persons.

Detective Crimson Noble, a rookie, looked over at Quint; her mentor.

"Five cars," she said to him, "five missing owners. We've interviewed all of their supervisors at the five different area hospitals they worked at. But," she said, as she pointed at the vehicles, "Why come here?"

Quint looked at her, but didn't answer. Instead, he opened up his door and got out of the car. Crimson rolled her eyes and got out of the car as well.

Because the lot was located on the outskirts of town, it was quiet. The few skyscrapers of downtown could be seen in the near distance, and there was a light breeze; but it was very peaceful.

Quint made his way over the five vehicles and then reached into his pocket and took out five keys; one for each. Crimson watched as he opened up the front door of one of the cars; a gray Honda Civic, and got inside.

She watched as he put his hands on the steering wheel and then closed his eyes; as if he was meditating. And then, unexpectedly, he lit up a joint and started puffing on it; inhaling deeply.

Although marijuana was legal in Colorado, it was still illegal for law enforcement to smoke it while on duty. The right to smoke it off duty was still being fought in court between the city and police union; but for the here and now, law enforcement officers were not allowed to smoke it on duty.

"What the hell are you doing?" Crimson said to him from where she stood in front of the car.

He didn't answer, and then five minutes later, he stepped out of the Honda, threw the joint on the rock/sand ground and rubbed it out with his shoe. He walked over to Crimson and looked at her.

"I'm going to do the same," Quint said as he pointed at the other four vehicles, "for those. I want to feel the soul of the cars, just like our car." He pointed at the car they had arrived in.

Crimson shook her head. In the past three day she had come to realize that Quint was a bit strange.

But she had also learned to just roll with it, after talking with her dad (Section-7 Director William Noble) on the phone the night before.

Her dad had told her "he is your mentor; listen to him".

"Alright," she finally replied.

But before walking to the next car, he tapped her on the forehead; and repeated the same question he had asked for the past three days since they had been investigating the five missing person cases (the five people Jason Morgan executed for doing illegal body harvesting).

"Detective Crimson Noble," Quint said, with the aroma of pot on his breath, "I'm going to ask you again; how are these five people connected?"

She repeated the same answer as she had said for the past three days.

"They are all in the medical field," she said, as she looked at the notes in her small notebook.

Before she could continue, he grabbed the notebook from her hand and tossed it as far as he could into a pile of car parts.

"Hey," Crimson said, as she watched the notebook disappear in a clump of junk parts.

"Without looking at your damn notes, rookie", Quint came back with, "I want you to tell me what YOU know; from here," he tapped her forehead again. "Give me their details; what did each of them do?" pressed.

She thought of the five and reiterated what her notes had listed but used her memory, and told Quint.

"The five missing people includes one lead surgeon, one closing surgeon, one anesthesiologist, Crimson stated, "one lead nurse and one nurse's assistant," she finished.

He arched an eyebrow, hoping she'd connect the dots but decided to help.

He brought out his wallet, opened it, and smiled as he pointed at a black and white picture of a man in an Army uniform.

"That's my grandfather; the late Captain Gregory Meeks. He was a doctor in the Korean War," Quint explained.

"And to make a long story short," he continued on as he put his wallet away, "he told me many times that whenever they did field ops at a portable hospital; they would always take a team of five." He then used his fingers as he counted, ""One lead surgeon, one closing surgeon, one anesthesiologist, one lead nurse and one nurse's assistant."

Crimson nodded her head.

"That would be interesting," Crimson said after a moment, "but they worked at different hospitals."

"I know," Quint said back. "And according to rumors, they may have all been swingers; sexually involved with each other. All but one of them was married; Garth Landru, the lead surgeon. Now; I read the interviews with the spouses of the other four, and all of them denied the sexual innuendos. I think these rumors of swinging doctors were planted (by Section-7) to throw us off the track."

Crimson began to put the dots together.

"Then, what you're saying," Crimson said slowly, "you think these five people, from different hospitals and with no connections in their private lives, were getting together as some sort of medical team; and no one knew about it?"

Quint nodded his head.

"And, here is the topper," Quint continued, as he headed toward the second car, "I think they all met up at the same place; and then something happened. All their cars were later found at five different spots all over the area."

Crimson chuckled.

"Maybe they were abducted by aliens from another world," Crimson said, not totally buying into Quint's theory.

He stopped and turned around to face her.

"I have a more Earthly suggestion," Quint's words were laced with suspicion. "I think they were all murdered…"

Crimson's expression became very serious, because if Quint was right, if all five of them were murdered, then the entire ordeal was more troubling.

Continued…

This issue featured;

Richard Dean Anderson as Jeff Webber

Adele as Detective Crimson Noble

Dominic Cooper as Detective Quint Meeks

...and

Sarah Laine as Sarah Webber