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Jill’s chair was pushed next to the buttons by the door and the woman spoke again.
“Hmmm. Up or down? Up or down?” The woman spoke in a sing-songy voice. “I wonder if there’s a furnace in the basement? That’s probably only in the movies, huh? Roof it is then, little whore. You can jump from the roof. Poor Andrew will have to do the obligatory mourning thing for a while, but don’t worry, I’ll be there to see him through it.”
Jill’s head was beginning to clear and her limbs were coming back to life. The rubbery feeling was slipping away, but she kept her head down, stayed slumped over as she processed.
This was the woman who hit Jill with her car. Hit her with a rock. And stability didn’t seem to be in this woman’s repertoire. But what was her connection to Andrew? What was going on?
Jill knew she needed to stop this before they reached the rooftop. Keeping her body still, she thought things through. The elevator wouldn’t go all the way to the roof. They’d have to get off at the top floor and then use the stairs.
Would the top floor have people on it? Should she wait until they were off the elevator and then call for help?
Jill was facing the wall of the elevator. The woman stood behind the wheelchair. Could she shove the chair back and fight? No. Better to wait until there were other people around to help her. Because the way she felt, she didn’t have a whole lot of fight in her.
As they climbed into Jason’s Suburban, Andrew asked Kelly for the list of hospitals she had called. Kelly handed him her iPhone with the search results for nearby hospitals on the screen.
“You asked about Jane Does and Jill Walsh?” Andrew asked as he scanned the list. Four hospitals. Two to the north and two to the south.
“Yes. None of them had anyone like that,” Kelly said.
Andrew punched the number for the first hospital into his phone and then tossed Kelly’s phone back to her. “Call the second one and ask for any unusual IDs,” he said and then began to speak into his phone when someone picked up at the hospital.
“Hello. We’re looking for a missing woman. I understand you have no Jane Does there, but can you tell me if anyone was brought into the emergency room with any unusual form of ID? Someone else providing the ID or an ID that maybe didn’t look like the person? An ID that doesn’t look real?”
Kelly gave out phone numbers for the others to call. Andrew heard the woman on the other end of his phone talk to other voices in the background before coming back with an answer for him. They’d had nothing like that.
Andrew hung up just as Jack and Jennie were hanging up their phones. They both shook their heads at Andrew. Chad was still on hold.
“Which way now?” Jason asked Andrew as they approached the highway.
Andrew had no idea what the hell he was doing. It seemed ludicrous to think if Theresa took her, Jill would have somehow made it to a hospital. But even so, for some reason, Andrew’s gut was telling him Jill was in one of those hospitals. He could feel it in his bones.
He just prayed he was right. Because if Jill really was up on that mountain and he was taking them further away from her, he would never forgive himself.
“South. The only other hospital is south. Head there,” Andrew said, saying a silent prayer over and over.
Chad hung up the phone. “I’m getting the runaround at the last hospital. It’s one thing for them to say they have no Jane Doe’s but they won’t say if they have anyone who might be Jill under a different name. Jason, maybe you can make it an official inquiry?”
Jason continued speeding down the highway, eating up the road between them and the last hospital. He grabbed his radio and spoke into the mic. “Dispatch, I need you to patch me through to Angels of Mercy Hospital.”
The radio crackled and the gravelly, female voice of a longtime smoker came through. “I was just about to radio you. I’ve got an Officer Kelter on the line. Thinks he saw your missing woman earlier. You want me to patch him through or get you the hospital?”
“Patch,” Jason answered quickly.
It took a minute before another voice came on the line.
“Jason? It’s Matt Kelter. I think I saw your missing woman a couple of hours ago. Pulled over a woman for speeding. She said her friend had been in an accident and she was trying to get her help. The friend was there clear as day in the backseat with a gash in her head, so I gave an escort. The friend didn’t try to run off when we got there or anything. Sat in the waiting room to wait for news. They’re at Mercy now. Well, at least they were when I left.”
Andrew felt both a wave of relief and a wave of anguish wash over him. Theresa must have gotten caught speeding and done the only thing she could. Made up some bullshit story to cover the fact that Jill had been knocked out and lying in her backseat.
But Andrew had no idea what Theresa would do now. Would she run, leaving Jill safely at the hospital? Or would she remain, trying to get Jill out of there or get into her room to hurt her? Never mind his worry over the head wound Jill had. No telling what Theresa did to Jill before that cop found them.
Jason’s foot pressed on the gas, increasing his speed and Andrew was grateful for the red flashing lights of the Fire Chief’s truck.
“Kelter, I need you to call Mercy. We’re four minutes away but the woman Jill is with is dangerous. They need to take her into custody and get her away from Jill,” Jason barked into the phone.
“Got it,” the officer said and the connection was broken.
Jason exited the highway and turned right, following the large blue H signs to the hospital. As they pulled into the lot, the radio crackled to life.
