"So what do you think, Hannibal?" Face asked the next morning.
"I think we need to split Frankie and Mad Dog up and talk to them separately, and see what each of them has to say," Hannibal answered, "I'm sure that there's something they're not telling us, we just have to find out what it is, and we have to make sure it's not Frankie's words coming out of M.D.'s mouth."
"Suppose we do that and they still give us the same answers?" Face asked.
"Then we'll have a new problem to deal with," Hannibal told him, "Murdock's talking to them right now, we'll give him a few minutes and then we'll go in and see what we can get out of them."
"You want to what?" Frankie asked Murdock.
"I know that there's a stigma attached to people who see psychotherapists for help, but if you can find a real one they are a lot of help, I ought to know, I've been seeing them for 10 years," Murdock told her, "And there's one doctor in particular I've been seeing who I think could help Mad Dog."
"Nobody can help him," Frankie said.
Mad Dog had come out of his drug induced stupor still a bit groggy and not all there, so Murdock had excused him initially to speak to Frankie. She had been all there when she woke up, she just happened to be entirely on the pessimistic side when she had, and she hadn't liked one thing Murdock had suggested yet; and now, Murdock noted, she just seemed to be getting worse.
"Shrinks ain't gonna help him," Frankie told Murdock, "Nothing can ever make the nightmares go away, he's ruined, isn't he?"
"Frankie," Murdock scratched his head, "You ever have nightmares?"
"Sure," she answered.
"Often?"
"Yeah."
"About Masterson?"
"All the time," Frankie answered, "I'd say he takes up about 60% of all my nightmares."
"But you see," Murdock pointed out, "You're still a very functional person in spite of this. Now, Murdoch will continuously suffer flashbacks to what happened, that is inevitable, but perhaps with the right psychiatric treatment, the nightmares in and of themselves will taper off, any progress that can be made with him will be better than the way he is now, you have to realize that. I know that you want him to get better than he is."
"Yeah, I do, but nobody's helped us yet, why would this doctor of yours agree to do it now?" Frankie wanted to know.
"Because," Murdock said, "Dr. Richter is not one of those dime a dozen quacks who's nuttier than the patients, he actually knows what he's doing and he cares about his patients."
Frankie sneered and rolled her eyes, "Oh yeah right."
"He does, Frankie, believe it or not there are doctors that do," he said.
"Alright, I don't believe it," she told him, "If doctors knew anything then it wouldn't have taken me attempting a human torch act to get locked up in the first place. Getting thrown into the madhouse was a lot easier when Nellie Bly did it 100 years ago."
"Yes well…anybody can and will argue that the doctors know more what they're doing today than when she did it," Murdock pointed out.
"Not much, they still use electroshock therapy and everybody knows that doesn't do any good," Frankie told him.
"Point taken," Murdock replied, "Look Frankie, do you trust me?"
"Right about now you're the only person I trust," Frankie told him.
"Then believe me when I say if we can get back to the V.A. and find Dr. Richter, that he can help Mad Dog."
"We'll see," she said.
"Are you sure this is a good idea, Hannibal?" Murdock asked once he'd been informed of the others' plan.
"I think we need to get to the bottom of this," Hannibal said, "Twice now since we've gotten Mad Dog out of the hospital, he's woken up screaming, Frankie hasn't had such a reaction once, and I'd like to know why."
"Well you consider that it's two different situations for them," Murdock said, "Frankie hasn't said anything about the orderlies beating her up, and there's a reason for that, she's not the one locked away for killing someone."
"Still, if what they say is true, wouldn't you think that nightmares would be a somewhat regular occurrence for her as well?" Hannibal asked.
"While that is definitely true, Colonel, I feel a need to remind you that not all nightmares leave you waking up screaming in the night, sometimes you just wake up," Murdock pointed out.
Hannibal was getting the feeling that his captain was being less than cooperative with him today. Murdock met his gaze as if they were two gunslingers facing off at high noon and Murdock said, "You still don't believe them, do you?"
"I believe them, and I trust them, the only question is how much," Hannibal said, "That's why we're going to do this, they had a very convincing story when they first told us, but we're going to see if they give us the same answers a second time around. B.A. and I will speak to M.D., you and Face talk to Frankie."
Murdock nodded and said, "Alright, Colonel."
Hannibal and Face each did a very good job of pretending to have a poor memory and so asked Murdoch and Frankie to refresh their memories on certain details of what they'd been told. Hannibal, B.A. and M.D. were holed up in Hannibal's room and Murdock, Face and Frankie were in Murdock's room since that left Face's unoccupied room between them and no chance that one could hear the other.
"Did you say you'd ever met Frankie's parents?" Hannibal asked.
"No," he answered.
"Had you ever met Masterson?"
"Once," Murdoch said.
"How long ago were you arrested?"
"Three years."
"And how long did you say you'd been locked up at Freemont?"
"About two years," he answered.
"Did Frankie ever try to help you escape from the hospital?"
"Once," M.D. said.
"What happened?" Hannibal asked.
"We cut the power and left, we got halfway down the stairs and we ran into one of the guards, another inmate had gotten loose, and he stabbed the guard, we jumped over him and ran down the stairs. Then another guard caught us, after that they made sure it was impossible to sneak out of my room again after lights out," Mad Dog explained.
"Why were you transferred to the V.A. hospital?" Hannibal asked him.
"I don't know," he said.
"You never met Frankie's parents, do you know what their names are?"
"No, she never told me," Mad Dog said.
"Did Mad Dog ever meet your parents?" Face asked.
"No, with the age difference between us, it wouldn't have been a good idea," Frankie said.
"Did he ever meet Masterson?"
"Once, he answered the door one night when the pervert came to call," Frankie answered.
"How long has Mad Dog been locked up at the Freemont hospital?" Face asked.
"Two years," she said.
"How long have you been locked up at the same hospital?"
"Two months."
"When was Mad Dog arrested for murdering that woman?" Face asked.
"Three years ago."
"What took so long?" he asked.
"The prosecutor was killed and a new one had to be brought in and familiarize himself with the whole case," Frankie answered.
"Where were you when that happened?" Face asked.
"Standing next to him on the courthouse steps," she said.
"Who shot him?" Face asked.
"Nobody knows," she answered, "The gunman got away."
"How old were you when M.D. got arrested?" Face asked.
"17."
"How old was he?"
"22."
"How old were you when Masterson first started trying to get in the house when you were alone?" Face asked.
"13."
"Does Mad Dog know what the names of your parents are?" he asked.
"No," Frankie said.
"What are their names?"
"Frank and Luciana Murdock," Frankie answered.
"Their answers are almost exactly the same," Hannibal said, "The only questions that didn't match were things that they didn't tell each other."
"Of course now the issue of trust has reversed, they know why we questioned them so I doubt they're going to believe us too much," Face said.
"That's alright, for the time being they don't have to, they can't get off this island without us," Hannibal said.
Well, Murdock thought, that wasn't entirely true.
"Uh Colonel," he spoke up, "About our situation to get back home."
"Yes?"
Murdock leaned over to Hannibal and asked, "What's the plan for the big angry mudsucker?"
Hannibal patted his chest pocket and said, "I've got a dose of his bedtime shot ready to go."
Well, there went that idea out the window. Oh well, he'd just have to come up with something else.
"It's too bad we have to go back," Murdock said, "I'm really starting to like it here."
"Well one good thing about it is with Lynch in the hospital for the time being," Face said, "We shouldn't have to worry about anyone else popping in at the V.A. and making the unpleasant discovery that you're gone, that way as far as anybody in the military is concerned, there's just the three of us to look for once we get back."
The next morning, Crane and Decker found that the trees had been moved out of the road and, in a new car, headed out to the V.A. again to check on Captain Murdock. The evidence of the storm was still plain to see, there were trees down all over, several others had been hit by lightning and cracked down the middle or turned white, and the curbs of the road had been flooded with standing water that still hadn't dropped down the sewer grates yet.
By the time they pulled up to the V.A., it was obvious that the hospital hadn't been spared damages from the storm either; large tree limbs were scattered all over the road, drag marks indicated whole trees had been removed, but not before some vehicles apparently had to drive over the hospital's lawn to get onto the main road.
"This place is a mess," Decker observed as they got out of the car.
And inside wasn't much better.
As soon as they got in the doors they were lost in a crowd of people coming and going, only half of them looking like staff members, and the rest were anybody's guess. Decker and Crane pushed their way through to speak to someone at the front desk, but there was nobody there. Decker looked around for anybody who looked like they worked there to speak to, and up behind the desk came a short plump black woman in her late 30s or early 40s who was half a foot shorter than he was and looked like she was ready to start stabbing people with hypodermics just for the fun of it.
"What do you need?" she asked.
"We're here to see H.M. Murdock," Decker answered.
"Do you have an appointment?" she asked short-temperedly.
"No," Decker started to answer.
"Then I can't help you, goodbye," the nurse said.
"Now wait just a minute," Decker said as he grabbed her by the sleeve to get her attention, "I am Colonel Roderick Decker of the U.S. Army."
"Well whatever your problem is, I can't help you," she said, "You'll have to take a number like everyone else."
"Can you at least tell us which is Mr. Murdock's room?" Crane asked.
"Yeah, it's 104, but don't bother going because he ain't there," the nurse told them.
A light bulb went off over Decker's head, aha.
"He's not here?" he asked.
"No he's not," the nurse sniped him, "Take a look around, pal, we just about got wiped out by that storm last night. Our generator got hit by lightning and was set on fire, so was part of the east wing, the damn roof collapsed, we've been busing patients out to other hospitals all night and have had 20 wounded relocated, and 30 others who escaped during a riot. Top it all off, half of our patient records were ruined by water damage when the rain started pouring in despite all windows being shut tight. We've been taking head counts all morning to find out who's still here, so I can't tell you if Mr. Murdock is among the wounded transferred out to other hospitals, or if he was one who ran out of here during the jailbreak. And you come in here asking about 1 patient when we've got a hundred others still running around loose and need to be recaptured and put back in their rooms? Pal if you don't get out of here in the next ten seconds, you're going to need a room here!"
It was not often that someone put Decker in his place, least of all a woman, but suddenly as he took a step back away from the administration desk, he felt like he'd been beat down with a sledge hammer to the size of a tent stake.
"May we at least see his room?" Crane asked.
The nurse let out a sharp huff and said dismissively, "Yeah, sure, fine, just stay out of my way."
As they made their way through the labyrinth of patients and doctors, Crane started thinking about a rumor he'd heard several years ago, about how that movie "Halloween" had been based on a real story when a group of mental patients broke out of a hospital, and suddenly he couldn't wait to get out of here.
There was half an inch of standing water in the hallway outside Murdock's room. Decker looked in the small screened window in the door and saw that nobody was there, but the door was unlocked so he opened it up and they stepped in. Decker's plan had been to rifle through Murdock's belongings and see if there was anything that would indicate he still had any ties to the A-Team, but his attention had been drawn away from the task at hand and instead he looked, as did Crane, at the row of arcade games over against the wall, all of them had been unplugged and a few even had 'Out of Order' signs on them. And beside them was a tall easel with a large roll of paper slung over it, the type newspapers were printed on, only this roll had been used for paintings that looked like a child had done them with finger paint.
Decker managed to pull himself away from that unusual sight and started sorting through everything by and under Murdock's bed; under the bed was a plastic milk crate that held a teddy bear, a toy gun belt with two plastic six shooters, a decoder ring, old pictures of Murdock has a kid with his mother and grandparents, only one picture of him with the members of the A-Team, dated 1971.
"A grown man lives here?" Crane asked as he looked around at the childlike environment of the room.
Decker was starting to have his own doubts as well. He sorted through the contents of a shoebox under Murdock's bed and found a metal wings pin that children got on commercial flights, a couple of plastic toy airplanes and a few paper ones that had come unfolded. Next he opened the drawer on the nightstand and saw something that convinced him they'd hit pay dirt.
"Postcards," he said as he took them out in handfuls, "Dozens of postcards, his only family is dead, so else who could he possibly be writing to?"
"I don't think anyone," Crane told him, and showed Decker what he'd found. A pile of sheets of drawing paper that had pictures from the postcards cut out and pasted on to make one big scene with them.
Decker was just about ready to give up. "So maybe I was wrong," he said.
For not knowing Decker any longer than Crane did, the captain had a feeling he ought to ask for that in writing because he doubted the colonel would admit to it too many more times.
The same nurse from the front desk walked past the doorway, then stepped back and asked the men, "Which Murdock did you say you were looking for?"
Decker had just opened his mouth to answer when the question fully hit him, "Which Murdock?"
"That's right, I just found the paperwork for another patient, an M.D. Murdock," she said.
Decker took the file from her and scanned over it and shook his head, "This patient is too young to be the man we're looking for, we came to see H.M. Murdock."
"That's what I thought but I figured I'd check anyway," the nurse told him.
"Well, now what?" Crane asked.
"Now I suppose we're back to square one," Decker said reluctantly.
"Oooooooohhh," Murdock groaned as he rubbed his stomach and leaned back in his chair, "I think I ate too much earlier."
"You think?" Frankie asked from where she sat on the foot of the bed, "You spend all morning stuffing yourself on imported licorice and chocolate covered honey in the hotel's gift shop and then eat a five course lunch in the dining room, I'm surprised you haven't popped yet."
"Oof, nobody get a pin out," Murdock said as he covered his mouth.
The door opened and B.A. came in and said, "Ooh boy what a meal that was. I don't think I've eaten so much lobster and steak in my whole life."
Murdock groaned from where he sat and started to look a little green. B.A. saw this and giggled as he went over to the pilot and added, "Of course, I don't think I could eat as many deviled eggs as you did, Murdock, let's see how many was it, 10, 12, 14…"
Murdock groaned even louder and jumped out of his chair and made it into the bathroom and slammed the door behind him. B.A. laughed at the pilot's expense and sat down in his chair.
"What'd you go and do that for?" Frankie asked.
"As much trouble as that fool's caused me over the years, this is my payback," B.A. told her.
Face came into the room and said, "Well, Sosa just got a call from Masterson about the matter of his date standing him up last night."
"So now what?" Frankie asked.
"Well it doesn't sound like he's hurting too much for it," Face said, "Masterson says that he's going to be flying back to California tomorrow anyway."
"And what do we do now?" Frankie asked.
"I think it would be in our best interest to leave before Masterson does," Hannibal said, "He knows not a lot of people come here, especially by airplane, so if he thinks he's traveling the friendly skies alone tomorrow, it'll keep his guard down and we'll already be on the ground waiting for him when they land."
"So when should we leave?" Face asked.
"Soon, of course we can't let B.A. know that for obvious reasons," Hannibal explained, "So, you guys get your stuff packed up and put back on the plane, then later I'll keep B.A. distracted so you can get our things put on the plane as well, and then we'll come find you and that'll be the time to put B.A. right back into dreamland."
"Just hope he doesn't catch on to it," Face said.
Once Hannibal left the room, Face went and found Murdock and the others and told them about the plan. They quickly went to work packing up everything and sneaking it out of the hotel and back out to the aircraft carrier at the shore and up into the plane. They made a second trip back and cleaned out Hannibal and B.A.'s room as well and got their stuff loaded on the plane also. As Face was making his way down the platform the second time, he heard Murdock call out, "Face, watch out for Billy!"
"Who's Billy?" Frankie asked as they got down the platform.
"My dog," Murdock answered.
"What dog?" Frankie and M.D. asked.
"His invisible dog," Face answered.
Frankie and Murdoch turned to each other and she said, "You hear that? The guy talks to an invisible dog…why the hell not?" she shrugged, "I knew a guy at the hospital who talked to green canaries."
"Green canaries," Murdock laughed.
"So what're we supposed to do until they come and find us?" Mad Dog asked.
"Hey, I know, I know!" Murdock ran back up the platform, up the jet's stairway, and came back down a moment later carrying his baseball and bat, "We've got plenty of time for one last game before we have to leave."
"Why not?" Face asked hesitantly, "Play ball."
Hannibal and B.A. had heard the sound of the ballgame a while before they ever came up on the scene. By the time they got to where Murdock had drawn a rough diamond in the sand, everybody had had a turn at a different position; Murdock, Face and Mad Dog had all taken turns as batter, and had come close a few times to losing the ball. Now it was Frankie's turn at bat and Murdock was pitching, Face was behind her catching but so far he hadn't caught anything except one ball to his collarbone. Thankfully for him, he thought, Murdock wasn't a baseball pro in his previous life before they knew him.
"Alright you guys, it's getting late!" Hannibal called over to them.
"Aw Colonel," Murdock whined, not wanting the game to be over just yet, "Can't we play just a little while longer?"
Hannibal smirked, how could anybody say no to that? He gave in and said, "Alright, Murdock, one more toss, but that's it."
"Oh goodie," Murdock said, then turned back around and delivered a strong windup and a pitch.
Face was just hoping that he didn't get hit with the ball again, and he was surprised because from where he stood it appeared to be moving in slow motion. But he could tell from the angle that there was no way Frankie was going to be able to—
CRACK!
So he was wrong.
Again, in what seemed like slow motion, everybody watched as the ball spiraled back up into the air, far higher than Murdock had pitched it, and watched to see where it was going to land. They realized the where but it happened before they could say anything.
BONK!
The rubber ball hit B.A. square in the head and his eyes rolled back and he fell backward and hit the ground, everybody came running to see what had happened, Frankie still with the bat in hand.
"Did I kill him?" she asked worriedly.
Hannibal knelt down and checked the large man's pulse and said, "Nope, just knocked him out and saved me the trouble of sticking him with a needle. Alright, everybody grab a limb and let's be off."
"Man, did you see that, Face?" Murdock asked as they grabbed B.A.'s arms and started to lift him up.
"I'll say, that's a million to one shot if I ever saw one," Face said, "Too bad we couldn't plan it out to happen again, that would really come in handy."