Chapter Six
Daniel unpacked the two units from the bottom of his cooler and cringed as he crammed them into the new extra-large incontinence underwear he’d lifted from the abdominal pain’s bedstand. He settled them low in his crotch and breathed deep a couple of times to shake off the dick-shrinking chill. He pushed his supply cart back to lab stores and restocked before his lunch break.
His supervisor asked, “You’re off tomorrow, right? Any chance you can come in for time-and-a-half?”
Daniel shook his head and tried to look sorry. “Taking my sister to an allergy specialist over in Boise,” he said. “A promising clinical trial, and my sister likes her.”
The supervisor shook his head. “We have some great people here in town. Why doesn’t she want to—”
“She has severe social anxiety besides her allergies,” he interrupted. “She likes this woman, so we’re going to Boise.”
His supervisor humphed and shook his head, tight-lipped. Daniel took his coat and briefcase from his locker and started for the exit. His supervisor stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. Daniel could smell the life of him, even taste it, so very close to his nose and mouth.
“Mr. Hunter,” he said. “Why do you bring your lunch in that briefcase? Most people make do with a paper bag.”
“I like my briefcase. Makes me feel professional.”
“May I have a look?”
Daniel knew this was coming, knew that the other phlebotomist suspected something, but he’d come prepared. He raised his eyebrows, pressed his lips together, and stood straighter to look incensed. He handed over the briefcase.
“It’s a nice one,” his supervisor said. “What kind of leather?” He thumbed the latches and opened the case.
“Ostrich,” Daniel said. “Been in the family for a couple of generations.”
One uneaten sandwich, one baggie with crumbs.
“You didn’t finish your lunch,” he said.
“What’s it to you? You my mother now?”
“Jesus, Hunter, stow the attitude!” His supervisor handed back the briefcase. “May I check your pockets?”
“What for?”
“Anything from the lab. Some inventory’s missing and only since you got here. Inquiring minds want to know.”
Daniel shook his head. “I’m no junkie!” he snapped. “Everybody knows the new guy’ll always get blamed. Check the fucking coat and start advertising for a new phlebotomist.” He tossed the coat at his supervisor’s face, then took off his lab coat and threw that, too.
The startled supervisor caught the coats and took a couple of steps back.
“Don’t get pissed at me,” he said. “This is part of my job.”
“Then get on with it,” Daniel said. “I’m hungry and you’re stealing my break time.”
More indignation means more distraction.
Searching the two inner and two outer pockets of the overcoat and the two pockets of the lab coat took less than a minute and produced one opened travel-size pack of facial tissue, not from the hospital, and one rubber tourniquet for blood draws and IV starts. The supervisor dangled the tourniquet in front of Daniel’s face. “Need this at home, Hunter?”
“I always keep an extra in my lab coat because nurses snatch them off my cart when they’re in a hurry. It’s efficient. Missing somebody’s morphine?”
“Well … no. Several units of whole blood.”
Daniel snorted his impatience and said, “For what? My curbside transfusion service?”
The supervisor tossed back the coats and tried to stammer himself out of the situation.
“Look … I know your work’s good … I mean … look, don’t get so riled up. You’re ruled out now and we can—”
“Let me go home?” Daniel interrupted. He unclipped his ID from the lab coat and dropped the coat to the floor, then shouldered his overcoat, pocketed his ID, and picked up his briefcase.
“Are you quitting?”
“If I’m not back for my next scheduled shift, mail my check.” Over his shoulder, Daniel tossed, “HR has the address.”
“Hey, now! Wait a minute!”
But Daniel didn’t wait. He hurried to the parking lot, trying for an indignant but cautious stride. Already the IV bags chafed his freezing crotch. He gave his Uber driver an address several blocks from his storage unit and started rehearsing his argument for Diana.
An unfiltered unit should calm her down, he thought. At least enough to get us out of town tonight.
Daniel unlocked the storage warehouse and found their unmarked box truck just as the dead Proxy had promised and his sister had left it, their Mercedes wagon hitched behind on a trailer. The dead Proxy’s new Lincoln was now in the hands of Darkest Knight, and Daniel regretted having to dump it. He had no gripe with equipment. His tools and lab gear appeared undamaged. Copper mesh panels from his clean room in San Francisco lined the walls, ceiling, and floor of the truck. Their emergency bed was set up, and the blackout curtain rolled up above the roll-up door. Cartons of his special sculpting clay were stacked against the cab wall, and he would need it immediately upon arrival in Salish Landing. He kicked the freezer holding the Empty and cursed his sister. New Washington plates front and back on both vehicles. New Washington ID for both of them on the truck’s front seat. He found their cooler, placed the two units inside, and plugged it into the cigarette lighter.
He checked his watch, the map on his phone, the drive times on the map.
“Shit!”
Good thing he had an excuse to cut out so early in his shift. Still, he worried that they might not make it up the coastal highway by daybreak. He’d have to take the freeway and a ferry to make it in time, or they’d sleep in a rest area, always risky. He started the truck, saw that both tanks were full.
Good, no stops for gas. She’d better be ready to move.
Daniel found Diana insensible and snoring on the couch, her bloody hunting suit ripped around her chest and arms, scratches healing on her face and hands.
“Shit!”
He peeled off her soiled black silk and covered her in her least favorite caftan and bulky winter coat, then cut her bloody clothes into strips and flushed them down the toilet one by one.
No sign of blood anywhere else, he thought, with some relief. She must’ve done this one outside.
He packed his appliance, his tin of Matrix, their boxes and bug-out bags in the truck, then wrestled Diana upright and into the passenger seat.
“We go now?” Diana whispered. “You remembered Robert?”
She loved that plant, a gift from their mother long ago. Daniel had made a sun box for it, to fit between their blackout shades and the window.
Pain-in-the-ass plant that even needs special water.
She’d already slumped against her door, in a stupor or deep asleep. He raced back up to the apartment and retrieved her plant with all of its spiky, reddened leaves locked shut on drying blood. Daniel drove at the top of the speed limit along a seemingly endless corridor of trees and made the last ferry at 2:30 am.
Daniel sipped a cold coffee and stretched his legs at the rail, surprised at how much marine traffic cruised through the night. Diana snored the whole way, which was just as well. He didn’t have the patience to hear her latest story. The ferry’s horn startled him and his cup dropped overboard. He never liked being on the water.
“Land-based life form,” he muttered.
The ferry loudspeaker announced, “Welcome to Salish Landing. This is the last run of the night. All passengers must disembark.”
Daniel pulled his overcoat collar closer and took in the few other cars as engines started up. He checked the hitch on the car trailer, climbed into the cab, started the truck and followed the ferry worker’s signal down the ramp.
His dashboard clock read “3:45 am.” He drove down the nearly-deserted main street of Salish Landing, stopped under a streetlight and glanced at the sky.
“Close,” he told no one.
He switched on the dome light and activated the map on his phone. He traced a highlighted yellow line with his finger from his downtown location along a winding road to a red mark on a bluff just out of town. A tap-tap-tap at his window startled him.
A police officer with the name tag “Sergeant Tom Aldrich” stood on the running board and gestured to roll down his window.
Aldrich flicked a glance at a sleeping Diana and smiled.
“Can I help you find someplace?”
Daniel manufactured a matching smile. Aldrich smelled full and warm. He’d also had sex recently. Daniel shifted his hunger to the cooler, swallowed hard and showed Aldrich the map.
“My sister and I bought this property at the end of Bluff Street. I think I’ve turned the wrong way.”
“Bluff Street, huh?” Tom said. “That’s the old Mandell place. They disappeared on a trip to California about a year back. Crazy about fishing.”
“I didn’t hear about that,” Daniel said. “The county put it up for auction, and we got the lucky bid. The photos looked like a good deal, and I don’t mind some work.” His restless fingers played an imaginary tune on the steering wheel.
Tom nodded at Diana. “She’s sure a sound sleeper! Well, congratulations, you won some of the nicest property in the county. House is finished, utilities in, but the garage—”
Daniel interrupted. “I’m sorry, officer, but we’re really tired. Could you direct me …?”
Tom stepped down from the running board and touched the bill of his hat. “Of course,” he said, “sorry. You don’t have to turn around. Go left at that light up ahead, follow that road 4.2 miles to Bluff Road. You’re at the very end, another half mile.” He offered his hand and said, “I’m Tom, stuck on the night shift. Looking at two days off.”
Daniel hesitated, then shook Tom’s hand. “I’m Daniel …” he hesitated for a moment, searching for his new name. “Daniel Cazador.” He nodded toward Diana. “My sister Diana there. We’ll need a day or two off, too, before digging in to the house project. Thanks for the help.”
His headlights illuminated the narrow, wooded drive and, finally, a large two-story house with an attached garage still under construction. Daniel pulled into the unfinished garage and hurried to the back of the truck, hands trembling. He flung open the roll-up door and his blackout curtain dropped on his face. He pinned the drape aside with a Velcro strap and hurried to Diana’s door. Sweat pinned his shirt to his back; his breath came fast. He wrapped Diana’s scarf around her face, picked her up and carried her to the back where he placed her on the bed. He reached to drop the roll-up door, yanked the blackout drape loose and flopped down exhausted next to Diana. His stomach cramped hard, but he’d left the cooler in the cab. No time to get to stasis. A nap would have to do. Long day ahead. He keyed his secure line with trembling hands and started the necessary calls.