"The detectives!" The redhead shouted.
Joe went over to Nick.
"Why didn't ya say so instead of just mumbl'n." Nick growled out. Joe extended a hand to shake. Nick looked at it and then said. "Follow me ya two."
Joe and Antoine followed Nick through the doors to the inner workings of the file department.
"Dawg gum blasted filly, called me away from the files." Nick muttered as he shuffled along. "Doesn't give me any respect and keeps yelling at me like I'm deaf."
Nick's voice sounded like it belonged to a bear, not the little old man that Joe was following. Joe looked at Antoine and Antoine shrugged at hearing this little speech.
"I tell ya, she's a looker. Love ta see those flushed cheeks, makes a man proud. Bet she's been doing someth'n again, probably got the files wrong when she pulled them. No wonder the darn blasted cops keep showing up, first the feds and now detectives, makes me wonder what in tar nation is wrong with the youth of this day."
Joe didn't know whether to laugh or pity the old man as he shuffled down the long walk and then turned into an office. He turned around and went behind a desk and sat down.
"Well, slap it on the desk and let me take a gander at it." Nick said.
Joe sat the file down. "It's the last page, I need the files for that record as well as obtaining the last page of the record we have." Joe said loudly.
"No need ta shout boy, I ain't deaf ya know. Just don't tell the filly up front." Nick looked up at him. "Take a seat."
Antoine sat in one chair and Joe sat in the other, Antoine had a grin on his face and Joe glared at him. Nick lit a cigarette and then opened the folder, the cigarette hung out his mouth while a cloud of smoke billowed up. Joe was reminded of a small smoking chimney as he watched the smoke rise.
"Damn blasted hypocrite these are the years he was working here. Damn an tar nation, he crossed the years up. This one should be in naught of ninety-one and the other in ninety." Nick shook his head and drew in a good long drag. Joe watched the tip of the cigarette flare to life as it moved down the white paper and darkened it. Nick looked up, "Ya say ya need both files? Why is that boy?"
"The case I'm working on requires both files. The prints on the last page showed positive for a person who is being detained." Joe answered, "Who was working here during those years?"
"Damn blasted leather and pig skin was working here." Nick answered as he drew in another puff and let the smoke billow down and out his nose. Nick stood up grabbing the folder Joe brought with him, "Come with me, I sure hope ya ain't got nuttin' better ta do, because I'm gonna need some help in the file room finding what ya need."
"Don't you have anyone working here to help you?" Antoine asked.
"Not where we're headed, ya think I let just anyone in. I don't ya pole cat." Nick told Antoine. "Follow me and ya'll see why."
"Does this leather and pig skin have a name?" Joe asked. He shrugged his shoulders to Antoine and they followed crotchety old Nick out of the office.
"I done tol' ya his name boy." Nick answered.
"Leather and pig skin, isn't a name." Antoine said.
"I ain't talk'n ta ya pole cat."
Joe coughed to cover up his laughter. Antoine hit Joe in the shoulder. "Shut up."
Nick waved his hand to the left as they walked out of the hall way into a vast room that was three to four stories high. "This here is the main room, the clean room. The room hypocrite didn't get a hold of. Has the naught years of ninety-four to present in them."
Joe looked over the room and swallowed hard.
"Damn, I'm glad we don't have to go through that." Antoine said.
"Ah! Dawg gum pole cat thinks this room is hard. Nah, ya ain't seen the blasted room we do have ta go in." Nick came to the stairs and each stair down one at a time. At the bottom of the stairs he put out the cigarette in a standing cigarette container. "Boy, if I were ya, I drop this here pole cat, ain't got no sense, no sense at all."
Joe snickered. He was beginning to like this crotchety old geezer.
Nick shuffled along with Joe and Antoine following him. "We use ta have others helping me. But, then they just thicker than goats fat in a deep fryer. Can't nothin' sink into a brain made of concrete. Now it's just me and the filly up front. An she ain't suppose ta pull the files in the leather years. I don't know why she done, done it anyway. Damn filly makes a mess of things when she pulls files she ought ta know not ta pull."
Leather, leather and pig skin. He keeps calling them leather. Pig skin. Football is made of pig skin, a basketball is made of pig skin. Football, basketball, Joe thought. His mind kept racing as he listened to Nick and his mutterings. Wilson makes a lot of those balls. Wilson. Wilson.
"Nick, is Wilson, Leather and pig skin?" Joe asked.
"See now this is why yar the boy and he's the pole cat. Ya can tell when ya look at people which ones has the brains and which ones don't." Nick said as he stopped and turned around to look up at Joe. "Wilson was a damn blasted hypocrite ta boot, gave me more fits than a dog with two peters and don't know which bitch ta go after first."
Joe laughed. "I can imagine it would."
Antoine crossed his arms across his chest. "I'm not stupid, Nick."
"Ah, pole cat, quit ya teasing ya self." Nick turned and shuffled onward.
Joe kept laughing at the hurt expression on Antoine's face. This old coot is crazy, he isn't senile but he sure is crazy. Bet no one wanted to work with him, could be why he has to have help. Joe thought.
"Tell us more about Wilson." Joe said.
"Ah, back ta the pig skin are ya. Well, this here pig skin is dark as ya can get. He's one of them crazies. Would talk about naught on the phone all the time, always talked ta the one demon filly he had in his barn. Now leather didn't bother ta think naught while I was around, he thought I was deaf as a doorknob back then just as much as the filly out front."
"You didn't bother to correct them?" Antoine asked.
"Now pole cat, how can I tell ya about Wilson if ya gonna go an interrupt that way." Nick said.
Joe slapped Antoine on the arm. "Ya, don't go an interrupt the man."
"See pay attention ta that boy, he's sharp as a tack that one is." Nick came to the end of one of the long row of files and turned right then started down that aisle. "Now, where was I, oh yeah, now I remember, leather was always talkin' ta his here demon filly, and she always was a yelling and a screaming about some joke of a blow hole she had a hanker'n for."
Nick stopped and pulled out a set of keys and unlocked a large caged door. He swung the rusted gate forward and stepped through. Joe and Antoine followed him dutifully through the gate and Nick shut it after them. He moved on and Joe could see the files were not so neat and orderly as they had been on the floor they had just left. These files were still in boxes. Loose papers scattered here and there in tall piles.
"This here be Wilson's mess. Naught of ten years of paperwork from three separate hospitals." He turned to look at Joe and Antoine, "What we're a lookin' fer will take some time. I tol' ya I was gonna need some help. I had the feds in naught but two weeks ago. Them dumber than shit cow turds made more of a mess than Wilson." Nick let out a deep huff. "I'm gonna trust ya boy ta keep this here pole cat in line."
Nick moved over to a desk in the middle of one of the piles. He cleared a space off and laid down the file that Joe and Antoine brought to him. He sat down and opened the bottom drawer and pulled out a ledger. He flipped open the birth folder and then opened his ledger. Joe watched as he checked the ledger for the marks on the left bottom of the birth record.
"Alright, this here is what ya have ta do. Ya see the MCMXCI and then the MCMXC, that there is the years. One is naught of ninety-one that is the lone prints ta the file ya are needing ta restore, then the other is ninety that just needs the last page of the file for it ta be restored." Nick looked up at Joe.
"Okay, keep going." Joe said.
"This here ninety file I have almost done. After ya get through the years, ya see the SFMC, that is one hospital." Nick pulled Alex's prints out and then pointed to the other initials. "This is SMFC. The first being St. Francis Medical Center and the other being St. Mary Francis Convent. Now if that had been Trenton Methodist Hospital, ya won't be having them problems with the files. I got all of them sorted out," Nick pointed to the row of file boxes towards the back of the room about fifty yards away. "Stay out of those boxes pole cat. Those are done and clean."
"Did you here that pole cat?" Joe questioned. His grin firmly in place.
Antoine growled. Nick snickered and had a coughing spell. Joe slapped the old coot on the back to help clear his lungs.
Nick waved his hands about the room, "On the left there is SFMC and on the right there is SMFC. We'll let pole cat find the SFMC, shouldn't be ta hard considering he only has ta find one piece of paper. Just go ta the left side, ya see that red line on the floor, cross it and don't step back." He motioned for Joe to follow him. "Ya and me are gonna find that other file, and while we're at it, just because I like ya. I'll tell ya more about Wilson."
Alex laid down on the doctor's exam table. She had her eyes closed and her teeth grinding away as Doctor Hyde moved his fingers over her rib cage on the left side. Lester and Bobby were standing outside the exam room. His nurse was at the foot of the table. Doctor Hyde looked up to his nurse. "Are the x-rays back from developing?"
"I can go check," she said.
"Go do that." Doctor Hyde pulled down the flimsy medical gown. "Tell Lester and Bobby they can come back in now."
She gave him a nod and left the room.
"Well?" Lester asked.
"I'll know as soon as we get the films back." He moved Alex's head straight, "Open those eyes." Alex opened her eyes and he checked the dilation.
"Sit up." Alex sat up and swung her legs so she was facing him, she could see Lester and Bobby had taken the other two seats in the room. She saw Dr. Hyde take the pen out of his pocket.
"I want you to follow the pen. Only focus on the pen." He started moving it, Alex watched as the pen went in every direction. He moved it behind her head on the right side. "Now tell me when you can see it, and keep your eyes forward, no cheating." Alex stopped him when she could see it. He then repeated the same process for the left side.
"When was the last time you had your eyes checked?" Dr. Hyde asked.
"Like at school?" Alex asked with her brow furrowing.
"No. A real optometrist." Dr. Hyde replied.
"I've never been to one." Alex said.
He turned to Lester, "Take her to Jacobs. I'll have Betty call and get her in today. I want that left eye examined."
"Told you she was weak on that side." Bobby said.
"What do you mean weak?" Alex asked.
Dr. Hyde turned back to her. "Not like what he means, your peripheral is off. I want to check and make sure it is not permanent." He touched her chin and moved her head to the right to look at the left eye. "How swollen did your eye get before this afternoon?"
"I don't remember, um…a couple of weeks ago it was swollen shut." Alex replied.
"A good reason to get it checked." Dr. Hyde moved over and pulled out two vials and a strip of rubber and the needle to take blood. "I need a blood sample. Then will check your films and you're done."
"No! No needles." Alex hopped down from the table and grabbed her shirt.
Bobby moved for the door and Lester went to Alex. This was the first time Lester had seen any real fear in her eyes. "Alex, it'll be okay."
"No needles." Alex told him.
Dr. Hyde moved over to her. "I really need your blood. I sent the dart off to toxicology, and I didn't like what came back. I really need to have your blood checked."
Blade sat in the beat up truck one block from Ranger's building on Haywood; he had spent most of the night here and switched vehicles two other times. He had seen the SUV leave and the binoculars he used saw three occupants inside. He noticed the heat signature of the smaller occupant sitting in the back. He smiled. He had found his target. Blade had three other places watched, but he was sure they would bring her back here. The building was well monitored.
He pulled out and followed at a safe distance. He turned down several streets and met back up with them at different intervals to make sure they didn't notice the tail. When he watched all three of them get out and go inside the medical clinic he smiled even more. Getting out of the truck he went to the SUV and pulled the picture out of his pocket. It was one of Alex when she was two years old, the black curls flowing from her head in ringlets. He made sure he kept the gloves he had on and then taped the picture to the passenger window.
Nabbing her now wouldn't be wise. He knew these two from his research were well versed in the art of combat and one in particular well versed in the art of stealth. Now the time was to play with his prey. Let her worry, let her start feeling the fear that would come, it may not be today, but one day, she would know it. The truck would have to be replaced and he drove off. He would pick up the trail another day, maybe a day when she wasn't surrounded and guarded so heavily.
"Soon precious, soon."