Chapter 13 - In Search Of Sanctuary
As the train neared it's destination a satisfied silence resumed amongst the friends, content to all be back together and to be safe once more, though the thought remained, who was this Jocelyn Smart?
The answer was to come to Mark as they all alighted the train.
"Sarah Riding!" Mark said, as he snapped his fingers. The name came to him in a flash of inspiration.
"Huh?" said Jesse.
"Wasn't she your nurse, Mark?"
"Did you get a bump on the head Dad?" I mean, there's no way that she could be all three people."
"Mark, I'd be lying if I said that I understood you. Are you sure it's me that's the one with the concussion and not you?" Amanda shot Jesse a glare so sharp that it could quite easily have taken his eye out!
"It sounds ridiculous, but I just know it's her. We need to get her before the train goes on. I just know that she's got to be the key to all of this."
"Dad, that's crazy talk."
"Please Son, humor me. Get after her. We need to speak to her."
As Steve as about to get back on the train, the doors beeped shut, leaving them stranded on the busy platform and carried on its up-coast, up-state journey.
"We missed the chance to find out what was going on."
"I'm sorry Dad. I." They all began to mingle amidst the other commuters and began walking the length of the long platform.
"I know son. Mind you, I'm sure that she won't stay in hiding for long, not with the frequency with which she has appeared to date."
"How on earth could she be so confident, not to mention how was she able to move between spheres. I mean stewarding on board a train is one thing, but nursing is a whole other ball game."
"She must have been very clever, Amanda. I'm not quite sure how she managed the transition, but she did."
"Well, I've heard that Renihan-Pierce will not even accept the applications of training nurses. They're so careful with their checks. You can't enter the wards without your own personal code, which you wouldn't be given unless you were working there, which means that you're fully qualified, with excellent references, and brilliant to boot." Everyone looked at the small, blond man, somewhat taken aback.
"Jesse, how do you know all that?" Mark questioned.
"Susan applied for a job there. She got turned down. Not good enough apparently. They are really meticulous, though. They check for full career history, education, family background even. Only the best will do, there's no room for potential trouble-makers, even if the scale is only rippling the surface. They're worse than the FBI."
"So that means that she has to be a nurse. That at least, narrows it down some."
"No Steve, that narrows it down a lot!" Mark corrected. "If that really is the case, she will be a registered nurse. We also know her real name, if the checks were that frenetic then she would have been forced to use her own name and identity. Besides, she never had any intention to harm us there, too easy to trace. I think she probably only got to us there to enable her to keep tabs on our movements."
"So we can safely assume," Amanda's voice concluded, "that her real name is Sarah Riding."
".Sarah Riding." Another voice said simultaneously.
They all turned on their heel to see who had placed themselves in the middle of their conversation.
* * * * *
When the train had stopped and the gang had dismounted, two eyes watched earnestly as they meandered along the platform. They eyes then relied on a now familiar strategy - using being seen as the perfect hiding place. She slipped into the throngs of people. Now all she had to do was bide her time.
* * * * *
"How did she physically manage to be in all those places at once? I mean, it's not as if she can rely on the power of telepathy."
"I may be able to help with that." A voice volunteered.
They sat in a small dimly lit room, that the seventh had led them to, not a five minute walk from the railway interchange. Not dissimilar in décor to a cell. Furnished elegantly with the finest selection of wooden crates. It had your standard two-tone paint job: a dirty grey bottom half, the top half much the same, only cleaner. The only source of light in the room was a tiny window that sat way above their heads, (well, way above Jesse's head, marginally higher than the heads of the others.
After the conversational formalities; summarised effectively in three simple phrases: "How are you?" "I have a concussion." "So I've heard." And the case facts so far, the conversation proceeded thus:
"I know Sarah."
"So we gathered." Jesse interrupted bitterly, rubbing his sore head to emphasise his point. He was glared into silent submission.
"As I say, I know her. She's got a brilliant mind. Her and her brother. I'm sure they could have calculated the distance and braking degree that would be required to snap the cable and end up in the admission district of Renihan-Pierce. Had she gone there straight away, she would have beaten you easily, then all she had to do was call in sick and go and pretend to work for the train company. Her brother has. connections.
"Susan." something had suddenly dawned on Jesse. "how come you've not asked about Dniel yet. I mean, you and he were married, weren't you?!"
"I kind of resigned myself o the fact that he would be killed. He volunteered to come and find you, give me a chance to keep my head down." She said sadly.
"Why'd they try and kill me and Mark then?"
"They shouldn't have known who you are. Really I don't know. I can only apologise." Jesse rolled his eyes in disbelief.
"I think I might know. They found us when they killed Daniel, then in order to follow us, they sabotaged the car figuring we would then transfer back to the train as the only available means to travel, hence being easier to follow."
"That means they could have followed us here!" shrieked Susan. "We have to get out. Now!"
"Where can we go? If we go out the same way we came in, they'll probably be waiting for us."
"That's not a problem, Steve. There's a back door. We'll be able to slip out there unnoticed."
"Where can we go after that? That plan is only gonna work if we have somewhere to run to."
"Anybody know anyone in Carmel?" Steve asked hopefully.
"Perhaps I could suggest something?"
"Go ahead, Dad."
"Could we not go and seek sanctuary in the hospital? Do you know the easiest one to get to, Susan? At least then we won't have to worry about Sleepy over there." Mark said inclining his head towards Jesse. Jesse Sat up immediately, aware that he was being talked about.
"I was not asleep!" he started indignantly. "I was just resting my eyes is all."
"Course you were, Jess." Steve smirked.
"What about the boys, Mark? I'm not having them running about and being left open to a dangerous situation."
"That's why I think we should go to the hospital. We'll take three cabs. Amanda, you take the boys in the first one, Jesse and Susan, you take the second, I'll go with Steve in the last. That will look the most credible to the independent observer." And so they left.
* * * * *
In the cab Jesse and Susan got there first opportunity to talk, to really talk.
"Why are they doing this, Susan?"
"I can't tell you that. Not here." The cab driver glanced in his mirror, then carried on.
"There doesn't seem to be much that you're able to tell me, does there?"
"You mean Daniel."
"Yes I mean Daniel. But Daniel's hardly the first thing you forgot to tell me about, is he?"
"Jesse, what?"
"Well, there was Greg for a start."
"Greg?!" Susan gulped, remembering all too well.
"Why didn't you tell me how to get in touch with you. It never occurred to you that I might be worried. You just ran. Mind, it appears you're good at that too."
"Yes, Jesse. It occurred to me to tell you. You seem to forget that I loved you." It was Jesse's turn to flounder. "I didn't tell you, Jesse, because I knew how you would react. Besides, what I did is nothing to do with you. It's my life Jesse and I make my own decisions. Can we please drop it?!" it was more of an instruction that a question.
"So. how long were you married." Said Jesse breaking the silence, he never had been one for letting silence prosper.
"Six months. Six of the best months of my life."
"Where were you living? Mark never said."
"You'll laugh when you hear."
"Will I?" Jesse said, cynically.
"We've been living in Searidge. I've been working there as a private nurse."
"Searidge?" Jesse almost choked on the word. "How could you go back there?"
"Well, it is a pretty little town, and it was fine once they got rid of all the nasty inhabitants."
"Nasty inhabitants?" Jesse mocked. "Susan, they tried to kill us!"
* * * * *
Amanda took the opportunity the journey presented to ring Phil Martinez in Cregtown to find out the results of the autopsy.
Traces of a very mild sedative had been found. Just enough to calm Daniel long enough for sufficient air to be injected and for him not to remember anything about it and be back up and about on his almost straight away. The sedative, Phil told Amanda had entered his body through a mark that at first glance appeared to be a bug bite, probably fired at him from a short distance, not giving him an opportunity to avoid the poisoned dart. By the time he would have realised what was coming towards him, it would have been too late. Other than the tranquilliser and the embolism, the autopsy came back clear. All this was to be confirmed in the official report, which Phil would ensure reached the path lab at Community General Hospital straight away.
* * * * *
The cabs deposited them outside the hospital: Hope Hospital, as indicated on the large (off)-white sign. When they had all congregated, Mark said:
"All right Jess, exaggerate the symptoms your concussion. Horrendous headache, overwhelming nausea, deep feelings of lethargy. Hyperbole is your friend."
"He's never had any trouble with that one so far!" Susan said.
"Right Jesse," Mark said entirely disregarding Susan's comment, "in character now please. Steve, could you help him to make it look good." Steve took Jesse's weight against his left hand side. "Could you cough a bit too, Jesse. Then we can always fall back on the smoke inhalation line."
Jesse coughed dramatically, which he regretted immediately, as his throat was still raw from the previous day's exertions. The show must go on, however, so the coughing continued, although henceforth it was done with a little more delicacy.
"Here goes." Said Mark. "I only hope that this works" he added under his breath as he went to take a post at Jesse's other shoulder.
As the train neared it's destination a satisfied silence resumed amongst the friends, content to all be back together and to be safe once more, though the thought remained, who was this Jocelyn Smart?
The answer was to come to Mark as they all alighted the train.
"Sarah Riding!" Mark said, as he snapped his fingers. The name came to him in a flash of inspiration.
"Huh?" said Jesse.
"Wasn't she your nurse, Mark?"
"Did you get a bump on the head Dad?" I mean, there's no way that she could be all three people."
"Mark, I'd be lying if I said that I understood you. Are you sure it's me that's the one with the concussion and not you?" Amanda shot Jesse a glare so sharp that it could quite easily have taken his eye out!
"It sounds ridiculous, but I just know it's her. We need to get her before the train goes on. I just know that she's got to be the key to all of this."
"Dad, that's crazy talk."
"Please Son, humor me. Get after her. We need to speak to her."
As Steve as about to get back on the train, the doors beeped shut, leaving them stranded on the busy platform and carried on its up-coast, up-state journey.
"We missed the chance to find out what was going on."
"I'm sorry Dad. I." They all began to mingle amidst the other commuters and began walking the length of the long platform.
"I know son. Mind you, I'm sure that she won't stay in hiding for long, not with the frequency with which she has appeared to date."
"How on earth could she be so confident, not to mention how was she able to move between spheres. I mean stewarding on board a train is one thing, but nursing is a whole other ball game."
"She must have been very clever, Amanda. I'm not quite sure how she managed the transition, but she did."
"Well, I've heard that Renihan-Pierce will not even accept the applications of training nurses. They're so careful with their checks. You can't enter the wards without your own personal code, which you wouldn't be given unless you were working there, which means that you're fully qualified, with excellent references, and brilliant to boot." Everyone looked at the small, blond man, somewhat taken aback.
"Jesse, how do you know all that?" Mark questioned.
"Susan applied for a job there. She got turned down. Not good enough apparently. They are really meticulous, though. They check for full career history, education, family background even. Only the best will do, there's no room for potential trouble-makers, even if the scale is only rippling the surface. They're worse than the FBI."
"So that means that she has to be a nurse. That at least, narrows it down some."
"No Steve, that narrows it down a lot!" Mark corrected. "If that really is the case, she will be a registered nurse. We also know her real name, if the checks were that frenetic then she would have been forced to use her own name and identity. Besides, she never had any intention to harm us there, too easy to trace. I think she probably only got to us there to enable her to keep tabs on our movements."
"So we can safely assume," Amanda's voice concluded, "that her real name is Sarah Riding."
".Sarah Riding." Another voice said simultaneously.
They all turned on their heel to see who had placed themselves in the middle of their conversation.
* * * * *
When the train had stopped and the gang had dismounted, two eyes watched earnestly as they meandered along the platform. They eyes then relied on a now familiar strategy - using being seen as the perfect hiding place. She slipped into the throngs of people. Now all she had to do was bide her time.
* * * * *
"How did she physically manage to be in all those places at once? I mean, it's not as if she can rely on the power of telepathy."
"I may be able to help with that." A voice volunteered.
They sat in a small dimly lit room, that the seventh had led them to, not a five minute walk from the railway interchange. Not dissimilar in décor to a cell. Furnished elegantly with the finest selection of wooden crates. It had your standard two-tone paint job: a dirty grey bottom half, the top half much the same, only cleaner. The only source of light in the room was a tiny window that sat way above their heads, (well, way above Jesse's head, marginally higher than the heads of the others.
After the conversational formalities; summarised effectively in three simple phrases: "How are you?" "I have a concussion." "So I've heard." And the case facts so far, the conversation proceeded thus:
"I know Sarah."
"So we gathered." Jesse interrupted bitterly, rubbing his sore head to emphasise his point. He was glared into silent submission.
"As I say, I know her. She's got a brilliant mind. Her and her brother. I'm sure they could have calculated the distance and braking degree that would be required to snap the cable and end up in the admission district of Renihan-Pierce. Had she gone there straight away, she would have beaten you easily, then all she had to do was call in sick and go and pretend to work for the train company. Her brother has. connections.
"Susan." something had suddenly dawned on Jesse. "how come you've not asked about Dniel yet. I mean, you and he were married, weren't you?!"
"I kind of resigned myself o the fact that he would be killed. He volunteered to come and find you, give me a chance to keep my head down." She said sadly.
"Why'd they try and kill me and Mark then?"
"They shouldn't have known who you are. Really I don't know. I can only apologise." Jesse rolled his eyes in disbelief.
"I think I might know. They found us when they killed Daniel, then in order to follow us, they sabotaged the car figuring we would then transfer back to the train as the only available means to travel, hence being easier to follow."
"That means they could have followed us here!" shrieked Susan. "We have to get out. Now!"
"Where can we go? If we go out the same way we came in, they'll probably be waiting for us."
"That's not a problem, Steve. There's a back door. We'll be able to slip out there unnoticed."
"Where can we go after that? That plan is only gonna work if we have somewhere to run to."
"Anybody know anyone in Carmel?" Steve asked hopefully.
"Perhaps I could suggest something?"
"Go ahead, Dad."
"Could we not go and seek sanctuary in the hospital? Do you know the easiest one to get to, Susan? At least then we won't have to worry about Sleepy over there." Mark said inclining his head towards Jesse. Jesse Sat up immediately, aware that he was being talked about.
"I was not asleep!" he started indignantly. "I was just resting my eyes is all."
"Course you were, Jess." Steve smirked.
"What about the boys, Mark? I'm not having them running about and being left open to a dangerous situation."
"That's why I think we should go to the hospital. We'll take three cabs. Amanda, you take the boys in the first one, Jesse and Susan, you take the second, I'll go with Steve in the last. That will look the most credible to the independent observer." And so they left.
* * * * *
In the cab Jesse and Susan got there first opportunity to talk, to really talk.
"Why are they doing this, Susan?"
"I can't tell you that. Not here." The cab driver glanced in his mirror, then carried on.
"There doesn't seem to be much that you're able to tell me, does there?"
"You mean Daniel."
"Yes I mean Daniel. But Daniel's hardly the first thing you forgot to tell me about, is he?"
"Jesse, what?"
"Well, there was Greg for a start."
"Greg?!" Susan gulped, remembering all too well.
"Why didn't you tell me how to get in touch with you. It never occurred to you that I might be worried. You just ran. Mind, it appears you're good at that too."
"Yes, Jesse. It occurred to me to tell you. You seem to forget that I loved you." It was Jesse's turn to flounder. "I didn't tell you, Jesse, because I knew how you would react. Besides, what I did is nothing to do with you. It's my life Jesse and I make my own decisions. Can we please drop it?!" it was more of an instruction that a question.
"So. how long were you married." Said Jesse breaking the silence, he never had been one for letting silence prosper.
"Six months. Six of the best months of my life."
"Where were you living? Mark never said."
"You'll laugh when you hear."
"Will I?" Jesse said, cynically.
"We've been living in Searidge. I've been working there as a private nurse."
"Searidge?" Jesse almost choked on the word. "How could you go back there?"
"Well, it is a pretty little town, and it was fine once they got rid of all the nasty inhabitants."
"Nasty inhabitants?" Jesse mocked. "Susan, they tried to kill us!"
* * * * *
Amanda took the opportunity the journey presented to ring Phil Martinez in Cregtown to find out the results of the autopsy.
Traces of a very mild sedative had been found. Just enough to calm Daniel long enough for sufficient air to be injected and for him not to remember anything about it and be back up and about on his almost straight away. The sedative, Phil told Amanda had entered his body through a mark that at first glance appeared to be a bug bite, probably fired at him from a short distance, not giving him an opportunity to avoid the poisoned dart. By the time he would have realised what was coming towards him, it would have been too late. Other than the tranquilliser and the embolism, the autopsy came back clear. All this was to be confirmed in the official report, which Phil would ensure reached the path lab at Community General Hospital straight away.
* * * * *
The cabs deposited them outside the hospital: Hope Hospital, as indicated on the large (off)-white sign. When they had all congregated, Mark said:
"All right Jess, exaggerate the symptoms your concussion. Horrendous headache, overwhelming nausea, deep feelings of lethargy. Hyperbole is your friend."
"He's never had any trouble with that one so far!" Susan said.
"Right Jesse," Mark said entirely disregarding Susan's comment, "in character now please. Steve, could you help him to make it look good." Steve took Jesse's weight against his left hand side. "Could you cough a bit too, Jesse. Then we can always fall back on the smoke inhalation line."
Jesse coughed dramatically, which he regretted immediately, as his throat was still raw from the previous day's exertions. The show must go on, however, so the coughing continued, although henceforth it was done with a little more delicacy.
"Here goes." Said Mark. "I only hope that this works" he added under his breath as he went to take a post at Jesse's other shoulder.