The older man at the desk glances up at me and bursts out laughing. “Is that some kind of joke, son?”
I close my eyes, willing away my impatience. “No, a patient has gone missing.” My eyes scan the lobby. “Is there another way out of the hospital?”
“Yes, there’s an exit on the second floor, on the south side.”
Shit.
I run for the stairs and take them two at a time until I’m on the second floor and running to the south. I find another lobby, but this one doesn’t have a reception desk.
I run outside. To my right is a wall; I run to the left, scanning the parking lot as I go.
Nothing. Then Rover turns the corner in front of me.
“Fuck. There’s no trace of him,” he says.
Movement in the parking lot catches my eye. “There he is.” I point.
Rover turns, and Joseph waves at us. Then he slowly gets into the passenger side of a car which drives away, honking the horn in quick succession as it goes.
“What the fuck? Did he just ditch us?” Rover demands.
“Yeah, he did.”
“You know, most people accept protection, but this guy has tried to shake me every chance he gets. I am officially pissed off. I’m going to find that guy and handcuff him to his damn desk,” Rover growls.
“Did you get a good look at the driver?”
“No. You?”
“No.”
“I got the plate, though. Maybe we can track down the car that way,” Rover says.
Who the hell is helping him? I scratch at my scruff, thinking it through. “We still don’t know who called him to his house.”
“No, but I have an idea how we can figure out who helped him break out of here,” Rover says. “He made a call on his cell phone this morning. He didn’t say much, but he kept saying, ‘I’ll owe you one’.”
“I thought he’d just woken up when you got hold of me.”
“He did. Then he asked me for his phone. I handed it to him. After the call I asked him what that was about. He said his sister was helping him with the insurance claim on his house.”
“It isn’t his house. It’s his father’s. I’ll see if Trip can get his cell phone records.” I pull out my own phone to call him.
“I have a better idea. He wasn’t allowed to bring anything with him for the x-ray, so I bet his phone is still in his room,” Rover says.
We get back to the third floor and into his room without Kaitlyn spotting us.
“Yep, here it is.” Rover grabs the phone off the table.
I look over his shoulder as he opens it and pulls up a list of recent calls. The last call was made to a contact named G. Rover hits call and puts it on speakerphone.
It rings three times.
“Joseph, what the hell do you want now?” a man demands.
I know that voice. I quickly press end.
“Do you know who G is?” Rover asks, frowning at me.
