Paige and Happy both shook their heads. Happy frowned. "Look here." She moved the sleeve of his gown up his right arm. "Some time ago, his right arm had been broken right here."
Paige frowned as she looked at Walter's arm. "How can you tell?"
Happy looked at her. "Because I'm a mechanical genius, I can tell by surface appearance. Where'd Toby go? I want to see if they x-rayed his arm."
Cabe shook his head as he looked towards the door but didn't see him.
Per hospital policy, except for Paige and Happy as they rushed through so fast, they had to check their cell phones at the front desk and Toby didn't feel like trying to get his back. He saw an open office but with the light out and he stepped over to the desk phone after pushing the door almost closed. He swallowed hard as he picked up the receiver and punched in a number. He stood listening as it rang when suddenly it was picked up. "I wondered how long it would take you to contact me."
"You're a lowlife son of a bitch Bigelow. How dare you do this to my friend." Toby said just over a whisper trying not to be heard by anyone who might pass by.
"Wow, Doc, language please, my poor ears." Jason Bigelow said while laughing into the phone.
"Don't get cute Bigelow. You don't have the genetics for it." Toby replied sarcastically.
"You know, for someone who owes me a lot of money and a friend who is in pretty bad shape you're a little mouthy. I'd hate for an intern there to accidentally give your friend an overdose of something, you know how the universe works, sometimes. Too bad your friend has poor taste and judgment to become your friend." Jason said.
"How did you even figure out who Walter is and how we're connected and why did you do this?" Toby asked, feeling sick.
Jason grinned. "Why? That's obvious, because you owe me a lot of money Doc. And I have to send a loud message so others don't try your stunt. See, the problem with people like you Doc, is that you forget that there are other people in the world, who might not be quite in your league in IQ points, but we're still pretty sharp and we have good memories. I admit when your friend came into my casino it took me a few times before I realized why he looked familiar. One of your big cases got you all kinds of publicity and I saw one of them where you are standing off to the side and behind your friend as he described how your team saved that young woman. When I found out about Homeland I knew I couldn't strike at you directly because of your ties to them so I bid my time. Personally I couldn't believe you let your friend vanish so long without looking for him."
"But the good news is your friend was able to work off all of the interest before he became more worthless than useful. He was costing me a small fortune a day to keep him alive. So after I left my calling card on him we let him escape. A couple of my boys chased him to make it look good. Thankfully he ran into a cop car. Figured by the time they ran the prints they'd notify you and you'd make a beeline down here to get him. Can't believe it took this long."
"The cost of the drugs is on you, that was very stupid. How much would a six-pack of meal shakes and a few liters of water a day have run you compared to how much he was probably making for you? I'm sure you sprung for the very best sludge water New Jersey has to offer. And if you think coming for me directly was a risk with Homeland, you have no idea what hornet's nest you are in now buddy." Toby said in disgust.
Jason laughed. "That doesn't matter to me. There isn't much they can prove against me. And anything that dips into my profits is a no-no. But I did know a few guys who are into that kind of thing. I was able to rent him out, to recoup some of that money. I can tell you that after the third or fourth time with them most of the bleeding stopped if you catch my drift."
"You sick bastard." Toby nearly yelled.
"Hey! If you want to make it to tomorrow morning I suggest you get a hold of yourself Doc. Now, if you want to be able to take your friend home, you better come up with fifty grand in the next three days." Jason told him before he hung up.
Toby dropped the phone on its base. "God Walter, what have I done?" He drew in a deep breath and blew it out before he turned and walked shakily out of the office. He began walking back towards the ward rooms.
"You okay Dr Curtis?" One of the agents asked.
Toby looked over and nodded. "My friend, he's in a bad way."
The agent nodded as Toby moved on.
'Where am I going to come up with fifty grand? Happy is going to kill me when she finds out this is my fault. I wonder if Walter knows or if he is even capable of remembering. Think Toby.' He swallowed hard before he reached the final door and he turned and moved back to the office and picked up the phone and dialed Sylvester's number.
"Hello?" Sylvester answered puzzled.
"Hey, Sly, it's Toby but don't let on. Are you where you can talk privately?" Toby all but whispered.
"Yea, Ralph is doing his Homework finally and Florence went to get us some food. What's wrong? Is Walter okay?" Sylvester asked, feeling scared.
"He's in bad shape, Sly, but I think he'll be okay eventually, which is probably more than I will be. I need your help, really bad." Toby rushed. "This guy I owe money to found out I was here and he's threatening to have something happen to Walter and me if I can't come up with fifty grand in three days. I can delay getting Walter transferred if I have too, but I really need the money now. Then we can get on the flight tomorrow and get Walter home."
"Fifty grand? W-where am I supposed to come up with that kind of money?" Sylvester asked nervously.
"How the hell am I supposed to know Sly? If I knew I wouldn't need to ask you for help." Toby swallowed. "I'm sorry Sly, just seeing Walter like this has me thrown."
"O-okay, give me a few hours to think. Maybe I can figure something out." Sylvester told him.
Toby smiled. "Thanks Sly, I really owe you."
Sylvester sat for a moment after hanging up. Slowly he slid his laptop over and he pulled up his hacking interface. He went through several portals designed to throw off security trackers and arrived at a bank in Saudi Arabia. He quickly hacked his way through their firewall and he targeted their largest accounts and was about to start siphoning off all the fractional cents from the accounts. He figured they'd never notice since they generate so much interest every hour and just as he started to hit to execute, he stopped.
He swallowed and then quickly dumped all the connections before he powered down his laptop. He pulled his phone out and he pulled up his contacts and stared at the name for a moment before he pressed to dial.
"Sylvester, how are you son?" Kenneth said.
"D-dad." Sylvester choked out.
"Sylvester? What's wrong son?" Kenneth asked as he sat forward in his recliner laying his paper aside.
"A-a friend is in some serious trouble. He owes a very bad person a lot of money. I was about to hack a bank and take it but I; I couldn't do it. I-I know I have no right to ask, but can you help me, please?" Sylvester begged.
Kenneth swore. "Sylvester of course you have a right to ask me for help. I'm your Father. How much do you need?"
Tears ran down Sylvester's face. "I've got just over twenty thousand but he needs fifty."
Toby had appeared back in the room and he'd looked pale, paler than normal but no one really seemed to notice. He got a nurse to bring him some supplies and got the password to examine Walter's records for x-rays and any other tests that had been done but not entered into the physical record. First he addressed the burn before looking at the computer for the x-rays. Thankfully the break was well healed and by remodeling of the bone, Toby figured it was broken about six months ago.
It was a short bit later that Jack walked into the room and gently tapped Cabe's arm. Cabe looked back and saw his smile. "What's up?"
"I'm about to leave for the night but I wanted to talk with you for a few minutes if you can spare it?" Jack asked as he thrust his thumb over his shoulder.
Cabe nodded. "Paige, Happy, I'll be back shortly."
They both nodded as Cabe left the room.
Cabe frowned seeing four of the agents were now standing along the wall outside of Walter's room. He looked at his friend. "You aren't about to go home are you?"
Jack shook his head. "I don't know how to tell you this Cabe. This facility monitors every single penny and so it actively scrutinizes every outgoing call. Anyway about a half hour ago an unauthorized phone call was placed from an office that isn't used today. Even though the call was local to New Jersey it was still to a different exchange and the system flagged it right before it flagged another going out to California."
Cabe nodded.
"The calls were recorded. As soon as I played it back I called Katherine Cooper. She's sent people to pick up a shady casino manager named Jason Bigelow. You were correct. Your son isn't a druggie, I'm sorry for my words earlier. Apparently it was this person who has inflicted all of this on your boy Walter in there." Jack told Cabe watching the anger build up on his face.
"Why would he do this? He couldn't possibly have a reason to go after Walter this way." Cabe asked as quietly as his anger would let him.
Jack nodded as he handed him a print out of the phone call and the one to Sylvester.
Cabe shook his head as he read the conversations.
"Son of a bitch, I'm going to stick my foot so far up his ass." Cabe turned and stormed into the room dropping the print out on the bed as he walked past the bed and up to Toby at the computer. Cabe grabbed his arm and yanked him around and before a word was said his right fist flew out and slammed into the side of Toby's face.
Toby cried out even as he fell to the floor, clutching his eye.
"Cabe! What the hell?" Happy demanded as she jumped up and got between the two men.
Paige had picked up the papers almost as soon as they hit the bed and had started reading before Cabe had struck Toby. She looked up at the situation even as her eyes went back to the papers. "What the hell Toby? This guy tortured the hell out of Walter because of you?"
Happy's eyes went wide as she moved to the side and looked back at her. "What?"
Paige pointed at the papers. "Cabe dropped these, it is a transcript of a phone call made a half hour or so ago between this hospital and some casino and a man named Jason Bigelow and Toby."
Happy spun around as she looked down at Toby. "Fungus?"
"You should have told us about this the moment you came back to the room instead of calling Sylvester to try and get you fifty grand." Cabe yelled.
"Fifty grand?" Happy grabbed Toby and yanked him up. "You swore to me you weren't gambling anymore."
Toby nodded. "I did and I'm not. This was from an old debt, one of the debts I ran away to California over. I had no idea Bigelow had done this, until I saw the burn pattern. But apparently he had seen me in one of the interviews done about us saving Richard's daughter. And one of the times Walter had gone to his casino he finally realized why he knew him."
"Why didn't you just tell us?" Happy yelled, almost ready to give him a matching black eye.
"I was scared of what you might do to me." Toby backed up.
"Thick head, if you didn't do anything wrong I wouldn't have done anything to you. I'm not unreasonable Toby. This wasn't new gambling and as long as you didn't know it was happening there is nothing to blame you for except for trying to hide it and not tell us the moment you knew." Happy said in disgust before she turned and walked over and sat back on the bed.
While all of that was going on Jack answered his phone and nodded before he stepped into the room. "Cabe, I just had a call from Katherine. She intervened and took care of it on that end so Sylvester and his Dad know they don't have to worry about the money."
Cabe looked back and nodded. "Thank you Jack, that helps. I swear to God Toby, I get that this happened a long time ago but how could you ever think it was okay to hide this from us?"
Jack nodded and left the room even as Toby flinched from Cabe. "Cabe it isn't that I was trying to hide it, I just didn't know how to tell you. To know all of what Walter has suffered this past year is because of me. It is overwhelming to say the least."
"Oh my God, Toby, am I interpreting this correctly? Did this sick bastard sell Walter sexually to some guys?" Paige looked up with fear and disgust.
Happy looked from Paige to Toby.
They watched him nod. "I'm pretty sure he was telling the truth. I was a little shaken so I could have missed a marker that he was lying. But I certainly hope he was just trying to make it sound worse than it is. I'm ordering blood work for STDs, they already tested for HIV because of the drugs.
Paige broke down even as her hand dragged across Walter's left shoulder.
Cabe stepped back and put his hands on Paige's shoulders. "Don't worry, we'll get him back home tonight and get him taken care of."
Toby looked back. "You think we can arrange to have him at the Garage? I'd also like to arrange help in caring for him. I think after all this time it would be better for him and for all of us to be able to see him and interact with him there. At least until there is a medical need for him to be in a hospital."
Cabe looked up and slowly nodded. "That shouldn't be a problem. I don't know if Homeland will help with it or not, but I think the corporate account can support that, right Paige?"
Paige sniffed and nodded. "If needed I can get out of my condo and that money can go to help provide care for him. I can stay in the trailer and Ralph can stay in his room."
"No, no one needs to lose their home over this. We'll make it work, somehow." Cabe smiled down at Paige.
"Well I can sell my motorcycle. It is worth a small fortune, whatever Walt needs. He's coming first." Happy said as unemotionally as she could.
Greetings! I hope this finds you all well!
Railman - Yep, lots of answers, including he was indeed being held against his will!
Marti - Not good! Was you surprised? hehe
SkunkeeFunk - hehe Glad you are enjoying it!
JerBr23 - Indeed they are! Looks like they are for now, ready to just play it safe with Walter.
Margaret - You are welcome! Enjoy your trip and we'll see you when you get back and have time!
Susan - It was a bit shocking huh? This chapter definitely sheds some light on things. Including who was directly responsible for what happened to Walter.
Marie Mac - Not anywhere good for sure! hehe
LouBe - Always good to see you join us! Definitely not self inflicted as we see. How will he react? Only time will tell. Yes, I really do. And I hate that I do bad things to the poor guy. He got it bad in this story.
To the Adventure! -Tim
