Ashley had done another sketch. And it was of John Mast, also known as David Wharton. The man who’d been hanging around the hospital. Sending the cops on wild-goose chases.
He broke out in a cold sweat, fumbling in his pocket for his cell phone. He tried Ashley’s cell first. Her voice mail picked up. “Whatever you do, Ashley, stay away from David Wharton. Do you understand? Stay away from him. I’m on my way home.” He hesitated. “Whatever you’re feeling about me right now, Ashley, it doesn’t matter. I believe that man was involved with the murders of four women and possibly the attack on your friend.” He hung up, then tried the bar. He prayed that Nick would pick up. He didn’t.
Katie came on. Nick was gone; she didn’t know where.
“Ashley?”
“Ashley slept until noon, can you imagine? Then it was a zoo here, and, let me think…”
“Is she still there, Katie? It’s urgent that I talk to her.”
“No, no, that’s what I was just about to tell you. She left for the hospital about an hour ago.”
“Great. Thank you.”
He tried the hospital, and went through a series of recordings and instructions to push different numbers, none of which got him anywhere. He swore, hung up and pulled the car out onto the highway.
He called Carnegie and told him he was certain that the man who had been calling himself David Wharton was really John Mast, former cult member, presumed dead, but alive and well. “Ashley has been talking to him pretty recently. I need you to get to the hospital yourself and tell her to be careful. It’s imperative that we find him—now.”
He’d covered another thirty miles when Carnegie called back. “Jake, I’m at the hospital. Something is going to break soon. The doctors are convinced Stuart Fresia is coming out of the coma. All sorts of brain activity and stuff I don’t understand. Anyway, they’ve taken him for some kind of a scan or something. They think he could be talking by tonight.”
“What about Ashley Montague?”
“She was here just a few minutes ago. She went to be with her friend’s parents during the scan.”
“Did you tell her what I told you?”
“Yes. She assured me that she’d hang around until you get here.”
Jake exhaled. “Keep her there. No matter what, keep her there.”
As he drove, he played everything in his mind, again and again. Every word that Bordon had said. Every fact, every supposition. Then he saw that his message light was blinking, and he frowned. Someone must have called while he was talking to Carnegie. He didn’t recognize the number on his caller ID, so he quickly hit the message key. “Jake.” She sounded very stiff. Well, they hadn’t exactly parted on good terms. “I got your message from Carnegie. Sorry—I’ve managed to lose my cell phone. I’ve had some strange conversations with David Wharton. I know you say he’s John Mast, and I guess it could have been bull, but…he sounded sincere. All right, go ahead, tell me I’m an inexperienced idiot, but he’s convinced that there’s a cop involved somewhere. Or cops. I’m here. At the hospital. I—I have to admit, I don’t know who to trust anymore. If…for any reason you don’t see me, I left you something. In a ‘tight’ spot. I—I’ll see you when you get here.”
He almost veered off the road.
He heard Bordon shouting again. “Cops!”
No. It couldn’t be.
His stomach churned and tightened. That was just Mast, blowing smoke. And yet…
He looked at the speedometer. Bordon had been with Nancy. He knew about her killing; he might even have witnessed it. But he hadn’t carried it out. So beautiful…your partner…
Screw the speed limit. Broward cops liked to ticket Dade cops. Not today. He turned on the siren and floored the gas pedal.
John Mast knew the hospital layout better than the back of his own hand. He had known how to approach the cop at the door, the Fresias, even Ashley Montague, where she sat in the room with Stuart and his parents, waiting, hopeful. He had Stuart’s chart, and he’d given the right papers to the floor nurses. He had copied Dr. Ontkean’s signature to a T, and he was calm, cheerful and able to carry out his mission with no trouble whatsoever. He was friendly to the on-duty cop who had challenged him at the door, assuring him that he was certainly welcome to come along and guard the patient during any medical procedure, and convinced the Fresias to go to the cafeteria for coffee.
It was once they started walking down the hall that Ashley began to look suspicious. “This isn’t the way the sign said. I thought they did the CAT scans closer to the emergency room.”
“Is she right?” the cop following them demanded.
John glanced at Mary. This was her department. He prayed she wouldn’t falter. He needed to leave the hospital with Stuart, and that meant keeping everyone calm until he could deal with them.