Trip to Murder 24
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Matt sat beside Kitty that evening as she slept. The weather had turned and a cold wind, sweeping across the river, whistled in through the cracks of the old shack, chilling the occupants of the small decrepit building. Especially affected was the frail woman who was currently swaddled in two blankets and still unconsciously shivering.
Once again, Matt wiped her brow with a piece of cloth and checked her temperature. Inexplicably it had sky rocketed and he couldn't get it to come back down. Picking up the water bottle he had been using to keep cool wet clothes on her, he saw that the water was running low. The fearless law man was beginning to be very afraid.
"Matt," Sean stood beside him, pouring more of the water onto a cloth and handing it to him. "We've got to get her out of here. This damp, cool air isn't helping her any at all."
"You don't think I know that?" Matt glared at him. "But where, exactly, do you think we can take her? We can't go back over to Herman's house. And we sure can't go to yours. She needs a doctor, but other than Sheridan, I don't know one. And if Herman was found out, it's a very good possibility, he was too."
Sean rubbed the back of his neck agitatedly and nodded. "Yeah, I've been thinking the same thing. I've also been thinking that there's more going on here than a mere infection in her arm. She got awful sick, awful quick."
Matt nodded. "I know. But I've been going back over everything and I can't figure it out. If there'd been something wrong with the food, we'd all be sick."
Sean nodded again. "Yeah, I guess you're right. I mean, she ate the same thing we did today. As a matter of fact she didn't even eat as much as we did. And we're not sick."
Matt sponged her forehead again and reached for the water bottle to re-wet the cloth when it hit him. "She ate the same thing we did. But she didn't drink the same thing." He said, as he looked at the bottle in his hands in horror and quickly took the cloth from her head.
"What do you mean?" Sean asked with a puzzled note.
"You drink any of this water?" Matt asked him in reply.
Sean shook his head. "No, she seemed so sick; I figured it was best to save it for her."
"Same here," Matt told him, as he pulled the stopper on the bottle and took a whiff. "I can't really smell anything, but I have a feeling there's something in this." He looked worriedly back over at her slight, fevered frame as she fitfully thrashed around on the pallet, alternately sweating and shaking with chills. Kitty was sick and she badly needed a doctor.
Matt licked his lips and looked back up at Sean before finally getting to his feet. "You know this town better than I do." He told him. "She needs a warm, dry place and a doctor. How and where do we get that for her?"
Sean stood in thought for several moments considering the question. Many places came to mind, but most of them wouldn't be safe for one reason or another. Then it dawned on him. "I have just the place, Matt." Sean told him. "It may seem ludicrous at first, but it's probably the only place safe, for tonight at least."
"Where?" Matt asked. He was willing to carry her into hell it's self, if it offered her help. He didn't realize that was what Sean had in mind.
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"I can't tell which one of us is the craziest," Matt hissed as he carried an unconscious Kitty into the bowels of the police station. "We get caught..."
"We won't if we play our cards right." Sean answered in a whisper. Carrying a lantern high, he swiftly led the way down a steep flight of stairs and along a long, dark hallway in the police station's basement. "I told you. I grew up in this station and I know every little…"
"Nook and cranny." Matt finished for him. "Yeah, I know. But that's no guarantee that we won't be found."
"That's true," Sean said. "But it's more than likely that we won't. They're combing the city for us, not the police station. Almost no one ever comes down here and it's warmer than just about any place else we could take her. Besides, I have an ally here."
Matt quirked a brow at him. "Herman was an ally, remember?"
"I know." Sean agreed ruefully. "But we don't know yet that he poisoned that water. It could've been some kind of contaminant."
"Yeah, right." Matt muttered. "And pigs fly in Dodge on windless days."
Sean didn't have a reply to that because he agreed with Matt. The chances were too good that Herman had purposely tried to poison them all. But right then was not the time to worry about that. The frightfully ill woman that the Marshal carried so carefully in his arms, needed all of their concentration at that moment and nothing else mattered.
Sean finally paused at a door at the end. Reaching above the door, he pulled down a key and swiftly unlocked the door, holding it open for Matt to walk in first. Walking in behind him, Sean closed and locked that door and then crossed the room to another on the other side, opening it. Once inside there, Sean pointed to a small cot in the corner. "Lay her down over there." He told Matt quietly.
Matt carefully laid her down and pulled the blanket up to her chin. Straightening up, he looked around the small room. The cot, Kitty lay on, was next to a small desk and across the room from a large brick furnace. Apparently this furnace room was used as either extra office space or staff quarters or both.
"I used to come down here and sleep when my pop worked overtime." Sean whispered to him. "I still use it occasionally. Very few know this room is even here."
"That's great." Matt said almost snidely. "Now what?"
"Now we get help." Sean whispered. Stepping over to the other side of the room next to the furnace, Sean picked up a small metal bar from the floor beside it and softly tapped 3 times on a long pipe that extended from the furnace up to and into the ceiling. Waiting a few seconds he then repeated the effort and waited another few seconds.
Several seconds passed and Matt was beginning to wonder about Flannery's sanity, when suddenly an echoing tap could heard on the pipe. Tap, tap, tap.
"What th…" Matt looked startled.
Sean motioned for him to remain silent and softly tapped the pipe again.
The echoing tap was heard again. Tap, tap, tap.
Putting the bar down, Sean looked over at Matt with a grin. "Helps on the way."
TBC