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I call Rok too, asking him to try and trace both of Eva’s phones, and laptop if he can, though I don’t think she was lugging that around today. He didn’t ask questions, just told me he’ll get busy.
But what are the odds that her kidnapper didn’t think to destroy the phones or dump them somewhere far away from where they took her? Slim to none, that’s what.
I just leave my car on the sidewalk by the trauma center and run inside, where two harried looking nurses in crumpled white uniforms try very hard to stop me.
“There’s no time,” I keep telling them amid asking to be taken to Dino’s room.
It’s Brina who settles manners, arriving a couple of minutes after me, flashing her badge and instructing them to take us where we need to go. She keeps glancing at me like she’s worried I might snap at any moment.
I won’t. This is too important and there’s no time for that either.
Dino is in an intensive care room on the third floor, his throat and stomach bandaged up with thick gauze.
“His vocal cords were severed, so he can’t talk,” the nurse informs us. Her loud, deep voice echoes in the high-ceilinged room and wakes Dino, who blinks at us blearily.
But as soon as he recognizes us, he jerks and tries to sit up. When he can’t, he starts to frantically point at a notepad and pen by his bed.
I rush over and hand it to him, but he shakes his head and points at it. I look down and see that he’s already written something on it.
Blonde woman. Greasy hair. Dirty. Young.
Not much to go on.
He waves at me that I should hand him the pad and I do.
He adds, She tookmy car, followed by the registration number, and the address where they were.
We already know all that.
“Was it the journalist woman?” I ask and he shakes his head and starts scribbling on the pad again.
Priest. Kicked her out of youth center. Lesbian relationship with another girl.
This isn’t getting us anywhere. He’s trying so hard to communicate that his heart monitor is beeping shrilly, but it’s not as helpful as it would be if he were able to talk. Unfortunately.
“We’re already looking for the car and Rok is working on getting the traffic cam footage from the area,” Brina says. “We’ll find her, don’t worry.”
“This happened what, at least eight hours ago. She could be anywhere.” I didn’t mean to snap, but I did anyway. Brina and Dino have very understanding looks on their faces though. Both Eva and our daughter could be dead. “Who the hell attacks a heavily pregnant woman?”
Dino writes,Crazy eyes. Totally insane. The woman.
His heart rate monitor is beeping louder and louder.
“You should go now,” the nurse tells us in her deep voice. “He needs rest.”
Find her! Dino writes before we leave.
I tell him I will.
And I will, if it’s the last thing I do, I will.
* * *
EVA
I have no idea what time it is, but it’s full dark outside now and I feel like I’ve been locked in this room forever. She brought me a sandwich like she said she would but made from hard white bread and with only a thick slab of mayo inside. She also brought me a shriveled up apple, saying I should eat it for the vitamins, and a glass bottle of water that tasted like rotten fruit.
She still wouldn’t tell me her name and called me stupid and ugly when I insisted she should take me to the hospital. She also brought me to the bathroom when I asked to go. It was the dirtiest bathroom I’ve ever seen, stains ranging in color from black to light brown and everything in between covering all surfaces. She had tried to clean that too, but all it did was leave streaks of dirt everywhere. If I didn’t really have to go, I would never enter that bathroom.
