––––––––
Joan paced back and forth in front of the Applebee’s that she’d been waiting in front of for over twenty minutes. Just as she was about to give up and go back to the hotel, a black SUV rolled to a stop in front of her. Joan quickly got into the car with its black tinted windows and they drove off.
“What took you so long?” she demanded as the man in the driver’s seat kept quiet and didn’t answer.
“Relax, Joan.” He sighed, fed up with her already and she hadn’t even been in his car for thirty seconds. He didn’t say anything else as he eased the car out onto Veteran’s, heading towards the Long Island Expressway.
“You’re taking the L.I.E.?” Joan practically shouted with barely masked annoyance, looking at the traffic that was building up on the highway as they neared the expressway.
“We won’t be on it long.” The man replied and then sneered a moment later as his eyes rolled over her. “You just can’t wait, can you?”
Joan didn’t say anything as they continued on in silence. She didn’t like this asshole, or the fact that he was getting too deep into her business. She also didn’t trust him, or the fact that he’d brought a fourth person into this deal.
But she was definitely going to say something about it when they got there.
***
Carrie sighed and rolled over to tuck her head against Ryan’s chest like she always did but she startled fully awake as she realized that he was not lying next to her.
Then she remembered.
He had been sleeping on the couch ever since they’d gone to the therapist three days ago. She got out of bed and headed towards the living room to see if he was up yet.
“Ry....”
Carrie stopped short as she saw that he was already gone, and she let her shoulders droop in despair.
She hated this.
She hated fighting with him.
She made herself a bowl of oatmeal, which remained untouched as she scrolled through the contact list on her cell phone.
“I need to talk to you.” She whispered into the iPhone a moment later, her voice quivering as she spoke. “Please call me back when you get this message. I don’t want to fight anymore.”
Carrie ended the call, hoping for the best with her simple message, threw out the oatmeal and then took a shower before getting dressed.
She would pack a bag, just in case she had to leave.
Whatever happened, things could not stay as they were.
That much was certain.
***
Sandy walked up to the nurse’s station in the maternity ward, showing his badge as he asked to speak to Nurse Hallowell. She was the head nurse they had spoken to when they’d first picked up the case from Detective Anson.
“I’m sorry, but Nurse Hallowell is not in today.”
“When will she be available?” Millie asked, making a notation on her notepad. “It’s important.”
“We’re not sure.” The young nurse apologized, “I think she had a family emergency or something.”
“Thank you for your time.” Sandy said, giving Millie a look as they turned and headed back towards the elevators.
“Pretty convenient don’t you think, Dee?” Millie said as Sandy nodded.
Something was off here.
They managed to cover some more ground in regards to the whereabouts of Nurse Hallowell, but basically no one seemed to know what was going on with the woman.
“Let’s try her place.” Sandy said as they headed towards the Human Resources Department. “I don’t like this. If she’s in charge of the ward, she’s gotta know something.”
“Well let’s get to it, then.” Millie said as she opened the glass door leading into the Human Resources Department, pulling out her badge and presenting it as she asked for the office manager.
In a matter of moments, they were comfortably seated in a plush office with windows overlooking the inner courtyard, the sea of white and teal blue as doctors, nurses, interns and other hospital personnel sat outside having coffee or lunch. Although it was officially fall, the weather still had a summertime feel to it and Sandy felt his armpits getting moist as they sat in the stuffy office.
“Ellen is such a devoted worker, and has been with us for years...” the manager began as they waited for the assistant to return, obviously very uncomfortable with having two police detectives in her office. “She’s not in any kind of serious trouble, is she?”
“We can’t divulge that information, ma’am.” Millie said as Sandy leaned forward in his chair.
“We just have some questions for her since she was the head nurse in charge during the Ashby abduction.
“Those poor people.” The manager, Addie, said sadly as she shook her head. “I couldn’t believe it when I heard that something like this had happened here. Has there been any news of the baby?”
“We’re trying to get to the bottom of it.” Sandy replied as the assistant scurried in with a manila folder and set it on the desk.
“Thank you, Ann.” Addie said as she opened it and pulled up the first sheet lying there. “Here’s her address, phone number....”
“Thank you.” Sandy said, taking down the information, relieved that she hadn’t given them a hard time about it. Most people asked to see a warrant, which would usually hold things up for hours, days even. “We’ll be in touch.”
“If I can do anything else to help...”
“Thank you again.” Sandy said, with a quick nod as he and Millie left.
They headed outside and to their car, with Millie looking at the information and then back at the hospital.
“That was nice and easy, wasn’t it?”
“I guess.” Millie mused, as she shook her head while she looked in the folder and rifled through the information there. “I don’t know, Dee. That was a bit too easy. Something still doesn’t feel right.”
“Well, all we can do is check out this address and see what we come up with.” Sandy said as they got to the car and Millie got into the driver’s seat of the black Ford Crown Victoria as he sat on the passenger side.
“Do we really have to drive all the way out to Ronkonkoma?” he grumbled as Millie slipped her designer sunglasses on, smiling as she started the engine.
“All part of the job.”
***
Ryan was using the electric saw on site when his boss called out to him.
“Ashby!” he bellowed over the noise, “Get over here!”
Ryan nodded, and stopped the saw, flipping the safety switch before he left it and took off his goggles.
He had gotten there super early and had hit the liquor store on his way in. It wasn’t a big deal, but he needed a little something just to get him through after a long, hard workday.
“What’s up, boss?” he asked as Roberto, the other man on the crew, joined them.
“We’ve been called off the job for now. Financing fell through.”
“Fuck!” Roberto swore as Ryan let out a heavy sigh.
“Sorry, fellas, but that’s just the way it is sometimes. They can’t pay so we can’t finish the job right now. Pack up and go home.”
“Marc.” Ryan said as Roberto stormed off, angrily shaking his head. He had four kids and one on the way. His wife was a stay-at-home mother because they couldn’t afford child-care. He had needed this job. “Is there anything else at all? I’m scuffling, man.”
The slightly older man nodded, clapping a meaty hand on his broad shoulder. “I know this fucks up everything for us all, but there’s really nothing I can do. They don’t got it, they don’t got it. As it is, I am going to have to fight to get what they still owe us for what we’ve done already this week. I’ll be sure and get it to you and Robbie. Hopefully something will come up between now and then.”
“Thanks, boss.” Ryan said as Marc slapped him heartily on the back and walked away, already on his cell phone to chew someone out over what had happened.
“Shit.” Ryan hissed as he gave a nearby crate a savage kick, glad that he had that bottle of Smirnoff in the car.
He didn’t really want to go home, but he had no choice. The fact that he was now out of work was going to affect him and Carrie, greatly.
With her still on a leave of absence, the stress of what was going on with the baby and now this, it was too much to bear.
The first thing Ryan noticed when he rolled into the block was that Carrie’s little red Mini-Cooper was not in the driveway.
He hadn’t seen the familiar hardtop vehicle as he’d come into the neighborhood, so he hoped it meant that she had gone out for a while.
The change of scenery might do her good.
Even though he was glad to see that she was getting out of the house, Ryan still wasn’t quite ready to face his wife yet.
He didn’t know how he was going to break the news about his job loss to her. The job was supposed to carry them through the fall and it was supposed to be a big payout at the end too.
On the plus side, however, Ryan was licensed and he often did work out of their garage or went to people’s houses to fix things. He would usually call Roberto to come and help him on bigger jobs and they’d split it, fifty-fifty.
Already he was planning on giving the guy a call and seeing if they could possibly do something together to fill the void while they waited for another big job to come along. He knew that Marc meant well, but with this economy and people spending less on home improvement or worse, watching goddamned YouTube videos to learn to do it themselves to save a buck, it wasn’t looking too promising.
He was sure they’d be able to think of something once their anger died down. Marc really had done right by them, as always, but they’d just gotten into the shit with these clients overspending.
He got out of the car, gave a wave to Destiny Rivera, who waved back as she walked her dogs and talked on her cell-phone.
He felt the annoyance swell in him as her mouth ran a mile-a-minute. Ryan knew that half of Nassau Country was being made aware of all their business now.
He hated this.
He was tired of the reporters coming around and asking him stuff. Some even tried to suggest that he had done this, because that bitch Joan had told the cops some lies about him.
Most of all, he was tired of feeling like a fish in a bowl every time he came out of his house.
Once inside their modest home, he made a sandwich and then sat at the wooden dining room table where their utility and credit-card bills were spread out.
Ryan didn’t even want to look at them right now, and he pushed the papers to one side with a heavy sigh. He didn’t know what they were going to do because they had no savings, and no family to ask for help.
All those tests and procedures that Carrie’s health insurance didn’t cover had drained their savings drastically.
They had been living paycheck to paycheck for the past few months. Ryan and Carrie had both cut back spending and started spending more evenings at home instead of going out.
He didn’t mind so much since he was usually bone-tired by the time he came home, but he could tell it bothered Carrie. She was accustomed to going out with her friends, shopping, dining at fine restaurants or going to the city to see a Broadway show.
They hadn’t been out to do any of those things in months and it sucked. There were things he wanted to do too, including go on a cruise ship vacation. It was something that they had talked about off and on, and they planned to wait until the baby was a bit older since they planned to go as a family.
Life wasn’t meant for working just to pay bills and nothing else.
Sighing he got his mind back on the task at hand, determined to make a change and at least try to get something in the works so that breaking the news to her wouldn’t be so bad.
They kept their laptop computer on the dining room table, and he turned it on with a sigh, watching as the Microsoft Windows logo appeared briefly on the screen.
When the computer finished loading, he felt a sob catch in his throat as he saw the background desktop wallpaper they’d put up last time they’d used it.
It was a picture of Carrie holding the sonogram from when she told him she was pregnant, and he was on his knees kissing her bare stomach where she’d hiked her shirt up.
He almost shut the computer down right then and there, but he remembered that he needed to put the feelers out to get on a crew somewhere or secure a project.
He tried Craigslist, Angie’s List and a few other home improvement and repair type websites he could advertise his services on.
Four o’clock came and went and Carrie still hadn’t returned.
“Carrie?” he said into his cell phone a moment later, “I’m at home. I think we need to try and work things out. Can you call me as soon as you get this message?”
He hung up, the tiniest bit of fear gnawing at him.
Ryan and Carrie hadn’t spoken to each other at all today and now she was no where to be found. When it got to be five o’clock and he still hadn’t heard from her, he got scared. It wasn’t like her to stay out like this and not answer her cell phone.
Just as he opened the front door to go out to his car, planning to go look for her, the beams from Carrie’s headlights washed over him. He sighed heavily as he walked down the path to the driveway and met her at her car as she got out of it.
“Thank God.” He said, hugging her, all the nastiness between them forgiven as she hugged him back. “I’ve been worried half-out of my mind. Where were you?”
“I needed some time alone to think about things.” She said, softly as she looked at her feet. “I made an emergency appointment with Dr. Cooke to talk to her some more.”
“Are you okay?” he asked, brushing her hair back from her pale face.
Carrie didn’t answer him, but he knew they were about to have a serious conversation as she walked into the house
***
Ryan watched Carrie as she put her small suitcase into the back of her car. He couldn’t believe that she was actually going to do it, but she begged him to understand that she needed time to process all that had happened with the baby.
She was due to check into some sort of in-patient program at a local wellness center for evaluation while she calmed her nerves.
When she named the place, he knew exactly where it was and they had passed it often while out and about.
Her doctor had set it all up for her and told them she was coming there immediately.
“I haven’t been eating or sleeping well....please, Ryan. Don’t make me feel worse about this than I already do.”
“Can I at least come visit you?”
“As soon as it’s allowed.” She promised, leaning up to press a delicate kiss on his lips. “The doctor thinks that it will help me to just get a change of scenery and work out my feelings about....well, about what happened.”
He could definitely understand that.
It had been hard for him being in the house too.
Seeing the nursery, waiting there for their baby to fill it tore at him every time he had to pass it to the point they just kept the door closed.
Now she was at him again, wrapping her arms around his waist as she hugged him.
“Thank you for understanding, Ry.” She whispered as he squeezed her tightly. “I love you.”
“I love you too. I’ll call you tomorrow morning....”
“I’ll call you when I can. Promise.” She said, walking towards the car and getting into it.
They stared at each other for a long moment before she slowly backed the car out of the driveway and headed off down the street.
Now he was completely alone.