Part eighteen
Wilderness retreat
With heartfelt thanks to Dancinstar, my wonderful beta. ;-D
"Bling ?"
Her lips formed the word but the sound that reverberated painfully through the room was not recognizable in any way, not even to her. Beverly felt like she had just climbed the Everest, but decided that opening her eyes was more important than controlling her breathing. Blinded by a very intense brightness, she shut her lids again and resigned herself to a few more minutes of rest and blissful ignorance. Or rather incapacitating anxiety.
She moved one hand slowly at her side. The bed was hard, but there were sheets. Rough sheets, as if they had been starched. The bed, was it metal or wood ? Wood.
Her thoughts seemed quite coherent considering the pounding in her head. Now if only that blinding supernova would just collapse in itself and fade away.
They must have drugged her. Judging by the trouble she had with breathing, she suspected she had inhaled quite a lot of smoke, too. But from where? The last thing she could remember was taking Bling to see Logan's body. Everything was going well and then - nothing. Damn. One more try.
"Bling ?"
Still no response. She managed to move her legs to the side of the bed and dared to open her eyes again. It hurt, but at least she could keep them open this time.
She found herself in an incredibly sunny room furnished with a huge double bed, a desk and a chair. Kind of like a cheap motel. Right next to her was Bling, breathing evenly. Still out. Weird. He should have woken up earlier. He had more body mass, any tranquilizer would be out of his system quicker. For once she was glad her analytical side had taken over. That way she wouldn't worry too much.
She stood quite shakily and went to the window first considering the door was most likely locked. There were no curtains and judging by the brightness of the sun, this was definitely not Seattle. No buildings outside, just plain grass and trees everywhere around. Damn again. From her angle of view there were no cars to be seen. Nothing to use as an escape vehicle. However, that shouldn't be too much of a drawback if they could make it to the line of trees. Something was telling her that this was too easy, much too easy.
"Bling ?" Her voice held a certain urgency and this time the man stirred and jumped up as if propelled by a spring. The groan followed right after.
"Don't open your eyes yet, wait a while."
"Could ... said ... earlier", he mumbled back. Bling felt like elaborating with a few choice words, but his heavy tongue refused to comply.
Darn it, he always managed to get himself into trouble. To be truthful, it wasn't his talent, just Logan's. Logan. That hadn't been Logan in the morgue. Bling grinned widely, aches and pains half forgotten. He might not remember much of that night, but he had felt flawless skin on the back and seen a few other details he didn't care to go into. Just thinking of that shattered bloody head made him curl his lips in disgust. But this was no time to be sick, he needed to get up now.
Seeing that Bling was at least halfway up, Beverly decided to go for the bedroom door.
"Wait a second."
This time Bling was fully up and grabbed the doorknob, placing himself in front of the coroner before she could try the door. Beverly couldn't help but smile at this old fashioned way of ensuring her safety. One twist and the door creaked open.
"Incredible", Beverly whispered. "Should I stop being afraid ?"
"Not yet."
Bling ventured out with a sudden movement and after seeing that everything was clear he motioned Beverly out. Moving carefully through the house, Bling was flabbergasted to find it empty. Nothing. There was just a hallway, a kitchen and the bathroom. The front door was locked, but that shouldn't be a problem when there were plenty of windows on the ground level.
"Is this weird or am I imagining things?"
"It is unusual."
"This doesn't look like anybody cared whether we would run away or not." Beverly mused.
"We should get out while we still can. Anything else can wait."
"I guess so. But any way I see it, there should have been a welcoming committee."
They were still whispering, although the lack of a direct threat had allowed them to be somewhat more explicit in their communication. In fact, Beverly felt half of a theory forming in her mind.
"What do you remember last, Bling?"
"The morgue. The body. It wasn't him."
Beverly almost jumped, her eyes shining as her annoyance with Bling's lack of interest in the mystery waned.
"Are you sure ?"
"Positive. However, that doesn't necessarily mean he is still alive, just that that was not his body.
But that's the least of my worries now. Still have your cell phone ? Even if we get out, there is no sign of a car. It might take a while to get away."
It irked her that Bling was more interested in getting out than in solving the mystery, but she glanced around, looking for some means of communication. There weren't many places to hide things. She soon came back empty handed.
"It's gone, even the beeper."
"Mine too."
Every concern they might have had suddenly became inconsequential. The sound of a car approaching sent a rush of adrenaline surging through both of them. With two swift moves, Bling dismembered an already frail-looking chair and turned, motioning Beverly to hide. To his surprise, the coroner had already positioned herself to the right of the entrance door, her hands behind her back.
Clutching a chair leg in his large fist, Bling took her place behind the door. With a stern look he sent Beverly behind a tall kitchen cupboard. A car door slammed. Sending one last look of reassurance to Beverly, Bling took a deep breath. He almost choked on it a second later, though, losing his concentration. Beverly had grabbed a large frying pan and was swinging it back and forth as if on a tennis court. The loud click of the lock brought the seriousness of the situation crashing down on them. Bling concentrated again and Beverly swiftly retreated to her hiding place.
It all happened so fast, they would be barely able to remember it afterwards. The slender, young man entering was no match for Bling's raw muscle power combined with the element of surprise. He might have had a chance of escaping the neck lock he found himself in after the first step into the house. However, all hope must have been lost the moment a heavy object collided with the back of his head in a manner only an expert coroner could apply.
Still breathing heavily with the effort of holding the previously struggling body, Bling felt for his nose that had been on the receiving end of a right hook. He eyed Beverly strangely. It didn't occur to him that he had backed away a step.
"Nice job!" Bling panted.
"Right back at you."
A few seconds passed before they were able to concentrate on the intruder again. Technically they were the intruders, but Beverly dismissed the thought in outrage. Whoever had brought them here and locked them in could have said something first before sending them to lalaland to dream off their worries.
"Now what?"
"Can you find something to tie him up with ?" Bling proceeded to search the man, but all he could find was a gun and a coded cell phone.
"You found a phone!" Beverly exclaimed, already feeling better as she handed Bling a sturdy piece of rope.
"It's not much use, though." Bling remarked. "It's locked. I can neither call nor answer unless I punch in a password. I've seen those things before. I can't crack the code, not without the proper equipment".
Working together in companionable silence they tied the man up and heaved him up on an old couch. Just as Bling was about to voice some of the nagging thoughts that had haunted him for the past minute, the cell phone they had swiped started ringing madly.
Beverly drew closer, trying to figure out a way to answer the annoying cell. As she stood on tiptoe, head bent over Bling's arm, she became aware of the way he suddenly tensed and frowned.
"What?"
As if on cue, a phone started ringing from somewhere.
"This is beyond weird", Beverly whispered as she went looking for the phone they had obviously not noticed before.
Bling finally found it under the couch and answered, trying to keep his voice as neutral and low key as possible.
"Yes?"
Silence.
One more try.
"Hello?"
This time somebody answered on the other end:
"Hey Bling, are you guys ok?"
Bling's mouth gaped open for a few seconds and Beverly tensed, fearing for his sanity. What followed next made her alternately blush and smile.
"Fucking bastard! When I see you, you better have a doctor handy to pick up the pieces."
It was the first time in a very long while that Bling's temper went overboard like that. Years of working as a PT had trained him to be patient and not loose his cool, not even with the pissiest of his charges - to which category Logan surely belonged. He had surprised even himself with the violence of his outburst. Trying to calm down, he let himself fall on the kitchen chair and concentrated on the happy thought of hearing Logan's voice.
"Yeah, we're fine. Where are you, you all right, man?"
"It's kind of complicated right now, but yeah, things are looking up."
"Ok, then how about telling us where we are?"
The otherwise barely noticeable crackling of the practically antique phone lines seemed to suddenly become thunderous.
"Logan, are you still there?"
"Bling, calm down, you're somewhere just outside of L.A. The guy who got you there went out on an errand and got himself a tail, so he is playing hide and seek right now, and can't come back for you yet."
"Ummm... I think you're not up to date on that part."
"What do you mean ?"
"Well, is it a brown haired guy, rather young, athletic, with a strong right hook ?
"Sounds like him. Is he there? Why didn't he answer?"
"He's still out. He'll be up soon, we just need to untie him and give him some ice." Before Logan could answer or ask more questions, Bling charged on:
"California, huh? Man I'm awfully glad you are well, but you have it coming big time. Is that why you got us to L.A. in the first place, nice and far away?"
"That's part of it. Seattle is definitely not the place to be right now. Listen, I'm sorry. It wasn't like I planned it this way. You were just caught in the middle of things when Matt started to clean up the loose ends. Your move took me by surprise, you know."
"Look who's talking. Loose ends, hm ? Lots of those left behind. So, what now ?"
"Bling, do you think you can keep Dr. Shankar out of it?"
"Not likely, man, Beverly is ok, she's right next to me."
Bling felt like giving his ex-employer a trashing over the phone but reminded himself in time that the least everybody knew the better it was.
"Then you'll have to sit tight for a while, Bling, at least until I can get you set up with new papers. Stetter will hopefully be up soon. Until then, the fridge should be full."
"That reminds me, you have contacted Max, haven't you ?"
"Bling, say "hi" to Beverly for me, I have to go, call you later."
"Logan? Logan!"
"I should have known, he hung up on me. Man, when I get my hands on him..."
Bling was relieved and mad at the same time. Logan wasn't his employer anymore, he could have shown a bit more tact. Besides, all this could only mean that the job at the clinic outskirts of Seattle was gone. For good. Probably Beverly's job as well. Wonderful. But then, Logan probably was up to his neck in trouble, more so than Beverly and he. And anyway, California sounded much better than Seattle right now. Neither he nor Beverly had any family left, not as far as he knew. Gotta look at the bright side.
"What's up, is he ok ?"
"You heard it, he said to sit tight, the fridge is full, then he hung up. I wish I knew where he was. At least the guy on the couch is a friend."
"No answers to our questions?"
"None whatsoever. Not likely that we'll get any soon, either."
Beverly settled into the next chair, only mildly disappointed. She could add two and two together herself, after all. It was as she had suspected. Eyes Only was alive and well and had made his presence known to them, even if unwillingly. All the secrecy barely bothered her. Who wanted to be hunted down in Seattle when they could enjoy an Eyes Only wilderness retreat right outside of sunny LA?
She smiled warmly at Bling, trying to chase away any misgivings he might still have:
"Then we should do as he says, shouldn't we ?"
