Talisman (81 page)

“We
don’t
lock
doors around here!” he barked, like I was three.  The grouchy lab tech stormed into the room and practically slammed his carrier of collection tubes and vials down on a nearby table.

Well, excuse me
, I thought with a cock of my head.

“You’ll have to step outside
while I collect Mr. Clark’s blood for his lab work,” the man snapped.

“That’s okay,” I replied sweetly as I looked at the clock on the wall.  “I have to be going anyway.”  I returned to Samuel’s bedside and gave him a peck on his cheek.  “Bye, Samuel.  I hope to see you
…
soon?
” I announced uncertainly.

“
You will.  You can’t get rid of me
that easy
,” my surrogate father insisted playfully.

“Take care,”
I called back as I stepped into the hall and closed the door behind me.  The look on his face was comforting.  It was like any other time we’d parted — no more and no less emotion.

I hope he’s right
, I thought quietly as I headed for the elevator. A week ago, you couldn’t have kept me in Welch, not even if someone had glued my feet to the floor or tied me to a chair.  Now, it was all I could do to keep from going.  Never in a million years would I have dreamed that leaving this small hick-town, nestled in the mountains of southern West Virginia would be tearing at my heart in such a way. My one and only desire was to
stay
.

I pressed the
“down” button on the elevator as I emerged from my thoughts.  After about a minute of waiting, I glanced back up at the lights above the shiny stainless-steel door.  The elevator hadn’t moved.  It remained parked on the first floor.  Impatiently, I resorted to the old “two-punch tap” and waited a few more seconds. It still didn’t budge. 
It’s only three floors
, I thought, so I turned to head for the stairs.

As soon as I spun around,
I found myself face-to-face with Officer Pete Ryan, one of Welch’s finest that I’d roughed up the other day.  The corners of his mouth turned down into a nasty scowl.

“Just the person I’ve been lookin’ for,”
Officer Ryan announced arrogantly.

By the look on his face and the tone of his voice, I knew th
is wasn’t a “happy coincidence”.

“
Why’s
that?”
I asked curiously.  Samuel had said that Chief Roberts wasn’t going to press any charges for the other day. 
Surely he hasn’t changed his mind?  Crap!  Maybe he found my purse at the football field?

Officer Ryan
swiftly removed his handcuffs from his belt.  I stood there and watched, totally stunned by his brash move.  The next thing I knew, the officer had grabbed my wrist and hurled me around, slamming my face into the wall beside the elevator.  The blow didn’t hurt, but he had shoved my face into a large metal cross hanging on the wall and it was pressing into my cheek.  I was
willingly
pinned, simply because there were too many people around for me to “resist” like I wanted.

Officer Ryan leane
d over and grunted into my ear, “You’re under arrest for the assault on Mike Riverside.”

Well, part of my
first assumption was correct. 
Right charge, wrong victim
.

“Coach Hayes
has already punished me.  I’ve been
suspended
,” I replied defensively. 
He’s lost his freaking mind
.

“You’re eighteen now…
Right?
” Officer Ryan questioned snidely.

I froze instantly
and my eyes widened. 
Damn!

Immediately, he
slapped his cold nickel cuffs around my wrists.  When he pulled me back towards him, the large metal cross fell off the wall and hit the floor.  A loud
“clank”
echoed throughout the hall.

A hospital security guard came running up the hall towar
ds us.  It was Jack Patterson.

“What’s going on here, Pete?”
Jack Patterson demanded.

Officer Ryan straightened his back.  “This doesn’t concern you Jack,” he bellowed.  “She’s wante
d for assaulting Mike Riverside —
a minor
— at school the other day.”

A
minor?
  I could feel my eyes rolling. 
That’s a bit of a stretch, to say the least
.  As soon as Officer Ryan had announced officially “who I was” and “what I’d done”, the entire staff of nurses and technicians who’d been watching erupted in cheers for my apprehension.  Several of them clapped, and one little witch even came over to shake Officer Ryan’s hand.

Jack Patterson seemed a bit skeptical.  The stocky securi
ty officer scratched his head.  “Did the Riversides’ press charges against her?” he asked.

“No,” Officer Ryan snapped.
“I’m an honorable officer, and I have to uphold the law.  I can’t just let a violent crime like this go unnoticed.  Especially when there was a room full of witnesses who will attest to what she did.”

Jack Patterson stood there shaking his head.  “That’s
WHY
you’re arresting her?  It wouldn’t have anything to do with the ‘
honorable’ bet
you placed on the last game,
now would it?
  I heard you gave Terry Cobb an even grand the other day.”

I listened quietly while Mr. Patterson accused Officer Ryan of placing an illeg
al bet with Terry Cobb, a shady dirt-bag who was a notorious small-scale bookie and moonlighted as the town’s resident pimp.

Officer Ryan’s brow rose.  “You don’t know jack
…
Jack!
  I’m taking her in!”  Not even a second after Officer Ryan pressed the button, the elevator began to rise towards our floor.

Oh,
NOW it comes!
  I lowered my head, disgusted by the recent turn of events.  I wasn’t so much concerned about Officer Ryan, or even the fact that I was being hauled in to jail.  The only thought gnawing at me was placing my “one phone call” with a magic purple rock.

Ughhh!
 
He’s going to be SO
pissed
…

While we waited for the elevator, my gaze cas
ually drifted down to the large metal cross lying on the shiny terrazzo tiles in front of me.  Jack Patterson picked it up off the floor.  He handled it in a rather unusual way — grabbing it by its small tip, rather than by its much longer end.  Almost involuntarily, I tuned out all the sounds around me while a strange feeling overwhelmed my mind.  My eyes were fixated on Jack Patterson as he presented the large metal cross to one of the women at the nurse’s station.  The way he was holding it upside down, it looked like…
a sword
.  Suddenly, a memory surfaced about what Mike had revealed when he’d driven me to the mine after the dance…About Lazarus chanting to some sort of
cross
that he kept in a chest.  The “ding” from the arrival of the elevator mirrored the bell that was going off in my head.  My eyes widened at the revelation that had surfaced.

The
HILT!  It did resemble a cross! Tanner was right.  That had to be what Lazarus was chanting and talking to…It makes perfect sense.  It did lead him here.  It’s been here all along!

As soon as the stainless-
steel door opened, Officer Pete Ryan shoved me into the elevator.  I crashed into an empty stretcher sitting idly inside.

Jack Patterson rushed over and began to chastise Officer Ryan.  “You don’t have to be so rough with her, Pete!”

He snarled back at Jack Patterson.  “
Trust me
…She can
handle it
.”

I hav
e to find that hilt, but first…I need to take care of a little “police business”
, I noted quietly as I watched him enter the elevator.

“This will be an arrest I won’t forget,
” Officer Ryan announced smugly as the elevator doors closed.

Not if I can help it
…

“
Alone” arrived a lot quicker than I’d anticipated.  No one else was in the elevator, so Officer Pete Ryan whirled me around and pinned me down, just for kicks, digging my hips into the stretcher.

“I have to frisk all the violent criminals,”
Officer Ryan guffawed.

As he patted me down, I could tell he was taking a lot of enjoyment in this standard procedure.  In fact, his “enjoyment” was pressing against my rear.

Ugh!  I’m gonna puke…Mental note — Change of plans.

Officer Ryan
paused and tapped several times on the front pocket of my jeans.  “What do we have here?”  He reached in and pulled out my two little stones — the tumbled amethyst, which Tanner had given me, and Gallia’s rough serpentine.  He held them up in the air. “
Hmmm
…Rocks could be considered
dangerous weapons
.”

You have no idea
, I thought as I turned around, glaring.

Officer Ryan was standing there casually
, tossing my stones up and down in the air like a reckless fool.

“I’m surprised,” he ch
ucked, “I figured you just had ’em in your head.  I didn’t expect to find ’em in your
pants
, too.”

“You’re an asshole,” I replied flatly.

The cocky officer grinned.  “Sticks and
stones
.”

This time I laughed with him —
sarcastically, of course.  I waited until his eyes were looking up at the stones in mid-air, then I used my head to cold-cock the arrogant bastard.  One quick blow to the front of his skull was all it took for him to drop to his knees.  Though it was hard (mentally), I did manage to keep a lid on 99% of my strength.  I even caught my stones behind my back before they landed on the floor.  Quickly, I snapped the chain connecting the handcuffs.  I bent down and felt his wrist for a pulse. I shook my head and giggled. 
What do you know?  He does have a heart after all
.

I
glanced up at the digital numbers above the elevator door.  We were almost at the first floor.  Without a second to lose, I hoisted him up and threw him on the vacant stretcher.  The broken cuffs were dangling like bracelets from my wrists.  I’d succeeded in yanking one of them off, but I had to stop abruptly when I heard the sound of the elevator “dinging”, announcing the arrival to our destination.  Not knowing whom, if anyone, would be standing outside when the doors opened, I quickly yanked the loose white sheet over Officer Ryan to conceal him from anyone’s sight and tucked my stones back inside my pocket.

From o
ut of the corner of my eye, I noticed the doors were now open.  I looked over to see Beverly Rhodes standing there, staring wide-eyed back at me.  She stepped into the doorway of the elevator.

“
Shiloh?
  What are you doing?”  She spotted the shiny handcuff still locked tightly around my wrist.  I’d tried to hide my hand behind my back, but I was too late.  Beverly gazed at the stretcher suspiciously and then whipped back the crisp, white sheet.

“
Pete Ryan?
” Beverly questioned, confused.   She glanced down at the dangling cuff on my hand.  “Did
YOU
do this?”  Before I could say anything she waved her hand in the air in a “shushing” motion. “Don’t tell me,” Beverly insisted and grabbed his wrist to check his pulse.  Once she had discovered it, Beverly leaned over him and gave his forehead a hard “flick” with her fingers.

“Shiloh, honey…
I’m going to show you what cocky
‘big pricks’
get,” she announced with a devious look in her eyes.

Beverly motioned me out of the elevator as she covered Officer Ryan back up with the sheet.  While she guided the stretcher out into the hall, I whispered to her
“why” he was arresting me.  She was instantly outraged.  Beverly hurried over to a nearby desk where she grabbed a chart and began jotting something down on it.

Beverly hu
gged me and instructed, “Run along now, Shiloh.  I have to take our
patient
down the hall.  You wouldn’t want him to be late for his procedure, now would you?”

“What
procedure?”
I asked curiously.

B
everly flipped the chart around.  “His
colonoscopy
, of course…and
don’t worry
…After I pump him full of
Rohypnol
, he
won’t
remember a thing,” she replied with a wink and then shooed me away with her hands. “Bye, Shiloh.”

I couldn’t help but laugh as
I watched Beverly Rhodes bounce down the hall with a noticeable “pep-in-her-step”.

Thank you, Beverly
, I thought as I ripped the other cuff off my wrist and tossed it in a nearby trashcan.  I’d planned on compelling the good officer, but her plan had a nicer ring.