Chapter 8
"Is Joe okay?" Nancy asked when Fenton eventually came back out of his son's room and into the hallway.
Fenton sighed. "It appears he's not as well as we thought he was. Doctor Lyndsey said that if he'd known a stun gun had been used and that Joe's heart had been put under that kind of stress, then he would have been monitoring him more closely, but the Doc said he'll be okay." He went and slumped down into a chair and put his head in his hands. "I don't know what to do for the best," he muttered.
Nancy sat down quietly next to him and put her hand on his knee.
Fenton continued, "those people – from what Joe has described, they're not your normal run-of-the-mill criminals, they're a notch above. If they're prepared to push Joe that far when he doesn't know anything, what will they do to Frank if they catch up to him?"
Nancy leaned further towards Fenton and slid her arm into his. "Frank's as quick as a whip, you know that. For what it's worth, I think the chances of them outwitting him are pretty remote; especially now he's got a whiff of them."
"But he's my son, it's my job to protect him. I already failed abysmally with Joe."
"Frank isn't asking for your help, and you saved Joe's life, remember?" Nancy reminded him. "You're his Caped Crusader!"
Fenton laughed a little at that. "Yes, so he said, but nevertheless…"
"Hello. Nancy, isn't it?" asked a pair of feet that had just stepped into view.
They both looked up to see Con standing above them, grinning down.
"Yes, hi Con, how you doing?" Nancy asked.
"I'm fine. Nice to meet you again." He turned his attention to Fenton. "How's Joe doing?" he asked.
"Not good, had a bit of a relapse, but he'll be okay. Vanessa is sitting with him. He's just told us what happened. Seems things are more serious than we could possibly have guessed."
"Listen, Fenton, I've found something out as well and need to have a talk."
Fenton smiled at Nancy and patted her hand. "It's okay, Nancy can hear."
Con raised an eyebrow and looked Nancy over for a few seconds, then fetched himself a chair and pulled it up in front of them so they made a little intimate circle, their knees touching. He looked up and down the corridor, leaned in closely and lowered his voice. "It seems we have a traitor in our midst."
If it weren't for the fact that Con's face was so deadly serious, Fenton would have laughed out loud. "Eh?" he asked, "What do you mean, a traitor in our midst. Just a tad melodramatic. Who are you today, Con? Poirot?"
Nancy giggled nervously.
Con realised what he'd just said and cringed before continuing. "Remember you told me that a call had been made to the station house by someone who had nearly hit Joe with their car? That apparently no police cruiser was dispatched to look into the complaint?"
Fenton nodded.
"Well, it seems that the reason why no Officer went to look into it was because the call was cancelled and written off as a hoax."
"Excuse me? A hoax?" gasped Fenton.
"Who would do something like that?" Nancy asked, appalled.
Con shook his head and continued. "But consider this also: Another call was made earlier that evening by the man who intervened when Joe was bundled into the mini-van. That call was also voided, and the complainant had to make a further three calls throughout that night before anyone would take him seriously."
"Who was it?" Fenton asked.
"I'm not 100 sure, although I do have my suspicions. Whoever interfered with the system didn't leave their correct I.D., they used the identification of an officer who wasn't in the building at the time – mine, actually! But there is a log of which PC was used to cancel the calls. It's a computer that sits on a hot-desk which is used by quite a few staff members. But I reviewed the rota to see which officers were in attendance and there were only seven that could possibly have had the opportunity. Unfortunately, I don't have enough evidence to actually finger which one it was, but believe me, I'll catch up with him or her. If there's one thing I hate, it's a bent cop!"
The cogs were turning in Nancy's head. "Joe told us that when he was in the mini-van, one of the men was dropped off as he had some sort of job or assignment to do. Joe actually got a look at the guy and could probably give you a pretty good description."
"Is that right?" Con said, leaning further forward. "Why don't we go and ask him?"
Fenton shook his head adamantly, "That's not going to happen tonight," he said "the Doc has told me he's not to be allowed to get excited. We'll have to wait until he's stronger before we quiz him again."
"Fair enough," said Con, relaxing back in his chair, "The only danger, of course, is that if they have someone on the inside, then they'll have access to all the services I have access to, so they'll also know that Frank hasn't been using his bank account etcetera. So if Frank suddenly uses his phone, they'll be able to hone in straight on his location. And there's nothing we can do about that, other than be on our toes and move quickly if we need to." He changed tack. "Fill me in on what happened to Joe."
Fenton went over the story again, with Nancy's help when he overlooked details.
Con hissed when they'd finished, as shocked as they were by the behaviour of the men. "They tortured him, and for what? Something about someone called Pandora?"
"Actually," said Nancy, "I'm not convinced that Joe should assume Pandora is a person. What if Pandora is a something? Frank has never once mentioned knowing anyone called Pandora and it's not the most common name."
"I agree," said Fenton, "The only Pandora that springs to my mind is the Pandora from Greek mythology."
Con frowned. "Remind me, something about a box wasn't it? And didn't the Greeks believe she was the first woman, much like Eve?"
"That's right," said Nancy. "And a beautiful one at that. Zeus created her as a punishment to man because Prometheus stole fire and then gave it to mankind. It is said that she carried a box or jar that contained all the worlds' evils, which she ultimately released on the earth. But amongst all those evils, and the only thing that didn't escape, was humanity's only salvation – Hope."
"Very good, Nancy!" said Fenton.
Nancy laughed, "Don't be too impressed, I did a paper on her at college and have probably forgotten more than I've remembered!"
"So perhaps Frank is trying to find out whatever Pandora is?" wondered Con.
Fenton nodded thoughtfully. "Either that, or he already knows what Pandora is and that's why these men are after him."
"They also mentioned a 'key' as well." Con reminded them. "But a key to what? A box? Without some hard facts, it's all a bit of a mystery and all we can do is surmise."
"There's one thing that you can do in the meantime though, Con," said Fenton.
"Shoot."
"Ask your lab guys to concentrate their tests on the back seat directly behind the driving position of Joe's Ford. That's where the man sat who pulled the gun on my boy. If we can just find something to do a DNA test with, then maybe we can identify him."
"Consider it done."
The door to Joe's room opened and Doctor Lyndsey stepped out. He nodded to the threesome and carried on down the corridor away from them. Closely following was Vanessa.
"Mr H, Joe's asleep, so I'm going to go home and have a bit of a freshen up," she said and then saw the Lieutenant. "Oh – hello Con!"
"Hi Vanessa," Con said.
"Would you mind holding on for a little while longer, Vanessa," Fenton requested. "I know it's a lot to ask, but I need to go back to the office and check if Frank's passport is still there. I forgot to do it yesterday."
Vanessa smiled. "Of course I'll hang on," she assured him. "Just take your time." She waved at Nancy and ducked back into the room.
"I'll be leaving myself," Con said, raising. "I'm going to spend a while looking over those officer's records to see if there's anything odd about any of them. I'll speak to you later. Nice seeing you again Nancy."
"Likewise," Nancy said and she and Fenton watched as Con walked off down the corridor. She then turned to Fenton. "Listen," she said. "I've got a few ideas of my own about where Frank may have gone so I'll have a scout around and see if I can turn anything up before I leave for home."
"I'd appreciate that. Do you want to look in on Joe before you go?"
"No, I won't disturb him. When he wakes, say goodbye to him and let him know I'll be in touch?"
"Yes, of course," Fenton assured her. "Come on, I'll walk you out."
Nancy and Fenton walked silently side-by-side out to the front of the building.
"My car is around the other side," Nancy said. "So rather than you going out of your way, I'll leave you here."
"Okay," Fenton said. He was pretty distracted at this point, Nancy noted – obviously working things through in his head.
"Bye, Fenton," she said, and reached up to give him a kiss on the cheek. "I'm sure it'll all be fine," she whispered, before pulling away and leaving.
"Thanks Nancy," Fenton said, and headed off in the opposite direction.
Once she was at her car, Nancy checked the car lot furtively for suspicious looking characters and glanced at the backseat to ensure it was empty before feeling secure enough to climb into her car. Joe's story had made her jittery and she wasn't about to be taken by surprise like he was – even though there really wasn't any reason for someone to involve her in the whole sorry mess.
She centrally locked her car as soon as she was in and removed her hat, abandoning it on the passenger seat. She noticing for the first time that snow was starting to drift down, the first drop of the season. Usually an excuse for celebration and fun, but not today. Today she had too much on her mind. A vision of Fenton's drawn and worried face haunting her thoughts.
She checked the clock on her dashboard, pulled out of her parking space and followed the arrows out of the parking lot until she was able to pull into the slow moving traffic. Once she had exited the hospital compound she was able to put on some speed.
Nancy headed into the centre of town, which was only a twenty-minute drive away. Hitting Main Street, she drove up and down until she found a likely parking space and pulled in.
She sat in her car for sometime, deep in thought; panning her gaze up and down the various stores until eventually, something caught her eye. It was a jewellery shop, the window of which was glinting with the various items for sale. She exited the car and went for a better look. What she saw pleased her greatly so she entered.
"Can I help you?" asked the dark haired assistant from behind the cash register.
"I was just looking in your window and I saw a really nice pair of earrings. I wonder if I could take a closer look at them?" Nancy asked.
"Show me which ones."
Nancy returned to the front window with the assistant and pointed to a pair of blue, enamelled flower-shaped studs. Taking another look outside at the crowds of shoppers.
The assistant leaned over, lifted them from the display and bought them back to the counter. "Would you like to see what they look like?" she asked, lifting a mirror onto the glass counter.
"Thanks," said Nancy, dipping down and holding one of the earrings up to her lobe. "They're really nice," She conceded, smiling. "They'll bring out the blue of Bess's eyes. I'll take them."
"Excellent!" said the assistant, smiling back. She took them from Nancy and wrapped them in tissue paper before depositing them into a small cardboard bag. "That'll be 15.99 please."
Nancy handed over 16.00 and awaited her change. "Have you a back exit?" She asked, "I've got another store I need to visit and it'll be quicker if I don't have to walk all the way around, and what with the snow and all..."
The assistant handed the receipt and cent over. "Yes we do, it's just through there."
"Thanks." Nancy bustled her way around the various racks and left the shop. The cold air made her shiver, so she tucked her scarf and little more tightly down the front of her coat and hung her bag on her shoulder. "Okay, you can come out now." She suddenly called out, "I can sense you're there." She tipped her head to one side and lingered until Frank's tall, lean shape unpeeled itself from a dark corner. He stood there silently, staring back at her.
Nancy stalked towards him with the full intention of giving him a piece of her mind, but as she neared him, all that fermenting anger just fell away. He'd only been missing for two nights, but even so, those two missing days had been bearing down heavily on the 23 year old. He seemed to have lost weight and aged, his shoulder hunched. He tried hard to hold her gaze, but his eyes dropped guiltily to the floor.
"I'm sorry Nancy," he said in a low voice, "I shouldn't have phoned you and dragged you into this." He took a small step backwards and shoved his hands deeply into his jeans pockets. "If you want to go home I'll understand."
"Oh shut up…" she said "…and come here!"
He came towards her unsteadily and she met him halfway. They embraced simultaneously. Frank allowing himself to be drawn into her arms, burying his face into her neck and bringing his arms up around her middle and shoulders. She rubbed the back of his neck and tried to draw back to look at him properly, but he held on tightly, refusing to release her so she pulled him in even more securely. Ultimately he was the one to withdraw and look down at her, his eyes roving from one side of her face to the other. "You look…beautiful!" he said simply.
"Frank..." Nancy whispered, feeling herself being drawn too far into his gaze and into the danger zone, "…Frank…don't, this isn't right, we can't."
He snapped out of it. "You're right, sorry Nan, I'm such an Klutz."
"You're anything but that." She disagreed and tugged gently at the fringes of his hair, tidying it a little. "You're just all over the place at the moment, it's okay, I get it." She suddenly smiled. "You nearly had me though, nothing more irresistibly cuter than a guy with snowflakes on his eyelashes."
Frank allowed himself a little grin before picking her up to swing her around. "Twelve months, Nan, it's been twelve months since we last saw each other!" He announced gleefully before gently setting her back down again, his delight immediately drifting from optimistic revelry to bleakness. "Are you sure you weren't followed?" He asked, stepping back to look around.
"Are you doubting my professionalism?" She asked, swatting at him lightly with the back of her gloved hand. "I monitored the traffic all the way here, checked reflections in the store window and even used a mirror. Didn't spot anyone showing interest in anything more sinister than shopping." She paused and regarded Frank up and down again. "I'm bursting to ask you some questions, and I can tell you're dying for me to share, but it's not secure here. I've got us somewhere nice and quiet to stay and it'll be safer if we talk once we're there."
Frank dropped his chin in agreement. "Bring your car up to the side of the building," he instructed.