"I would have except it seems that Dr. Meachner has gone to visit his mother in Montana. No idea when he'll be back. Something about a family emergency." Hook said with a shake of his head.
"Is his mother the one who...."
"The one who doesn't believe an any modern form of communication?
That's the one." Hook said as he shook his head once more as he thought
about it. It was always a bet around the hospital how Meachner was going
to get his Christmas gift of badly knitted socks each year with his
mother's distain for any communications starting after 1850. He thought
she had used a carrier pigeon last year. "His office is locked up tight
and his secretary isn't going to let me in there unless the police get an
order. She's even stricter than Mrs. Powell. Chris is taking a look at
Lona's employment record, seeing if she can find any clue how to get in
touch with those cousins."
"Why? Lona didn't like them." Elmer said with a frown. Why were they wasting time looking up Lona's cousins when they ought to be looking for Lona?
"Can't say I blame her either." Chris said with a shake of her head as she came down the hallway.
"You found them?" Hook asked her.
"Oh, yes. They weren't listed on Lona's employment record, of course, but it did list the town where she was born. I called directory assistance. If Dr. James notices any long distance calls on the hospital bill, you know nothing."
"They didn't know anything about where Lona could be?" Louis asked.
"No, and when I explained that I was one of Lona's co-workers, the
first thing they asked was if she was dead, when could they come to get her
stuff. I don't blame Lona for not wanting anything to do with them"
Chris told them. "And it seems that they're her only relatives, so that's
pretty much a dead end. What now?"
Hook stood quietly for a minute, debating. Honestly, he really had no idea where they should go next but knowing that even with the police getting involved that they needed to be doing something, anything, to try to find Lona. The problem was where to look, though. "Elmer, Louis, you have any ideas?" he finally asked. If anyone would have any clues about Lona's life outside of the hospital, it would probably be them.
Louis started to speak but Elmer got there first. "What about the college? Lona's done some classes over there before and she goes over there for fundraisers and stuff."
"College. Good idea." Maybe they had been focusing to narrowly on strictly the hospital and the people there. Okay, Lona didn't seem to really have much of a life outside of it but.... "Chris, could you run by admissions and the ER, see if anyone from the college might have been here the night that Lona disappeared?" If someone Lona had known from there had been present, perhaps they had taken her home to tend and didn't even realize that there was a problem.
Chris nodded and hurried away, a slight bit of hope forming as she did. Maybe after all of the worry they had gone through, it would turn out that there was a simple explanation for everything.
"I'll go and call the college administrator." Louis told Hook.
"We've met a few times and he's a pretty reasonable man. I'll let him know
what's going on and see if he's heard anything, if anyone over there might
have any clue about where Lona could be." He started down the hallway,
motioning for Elmer to follow him. "Elmer, you come with me. You might be
able to think of something that I won't."
"I'm going to go and talk to the police again." Hook said. "See if they need any help with anything, introduce them to the rest of the staff."
"Hook, just don't make them spend all of their time interviewing
Steg to freak him out!" Elmer called. "We're trying to find Lona here,
not give Steg a breakdown!" Not that it would really take that much more
to push the other doctor over the edge if he wasn't already there. Elmer
knew they needed Stegman gone, but he wasn't about to let Hook waste
valuable time that could be better spent on the search for Lona doing it.
"Wouldn't even think of it, Elmer." Hook said with a grin and a shake of his head, trying to hide the fact that he had been picturing taking the police officers to meet Stegman and exactly how the insane surgeon would react. "Wouldn't even think of it."
"Dr. Hook?" As Hook aproached the elevator, it opened and Sally started to step out. When she saw him, she stepped back, motioning for him to join her. "Have you found out anything about poor Dr. Massingale?"
"Nothing yet. The police are downstairs right now checking out the basement and then they're going to start interviewing people." Hook told her. "Nothing yet, though. What about.... Do you think you could do a seance?" It sounded more than a bit odd to be discussing a seance in the same breath as he was discussing a police investigation but if it might help and from the strange things that Hook had seen, he was unwilling to think that it wouldn't....
"I just came from talking to Mr. and Mrs. Rickman and telling them
the problem. They're willing to do anything that they can to help." Mr.
Rickman had seemed more than a little upset when Sally had been talking to
them, making her a bit suspicious that Dr. Hook's suggestion for the seance
might be a very good one, that Dr. Massingale's disappearance might have
supernatural overtones. "Do you think you can come to Mr. Rickman's room
tonight? I think the sooner that we do this the better, don't you?" Sally
knew that there were other spirits, evil ones, in the hospital in addition
to little Mary. If they had something to do with Dr. Massingale's
disappearance, they needed to find her quickly.
"I'll be there. Is there anything you need?" Hook asked. This would be his first seance, after all, and he wasn't sure exactly what was customary for it.
"Oh, I'll handle all of that. You just come and bring that nice Dr. Draper and probably the Traffs if you think they would be alright with it." Sally told him.
"Anything that might find Lona, Elmer's going to be all for." Hook
shook his head as he thought of it. He just hoped Elmer's overeagerness
didn't scare little Mary too much. Of course, with how childlike Elmer
could be at times, maybe he would get along well with the little ghost.
"Listen, I have to go and talk to the police now but I'll meet you at say
nine, in Peter's room."
Sally nodded as he exited the elevator heading in search of the two detectives. Hook just hoped that something, he didn't care what, would turn up some trace of Lona and soon.