“Carissa?” Carrie turned in her chair at the voice and pasted a smile on her face. She spent the morning fielding questions from reporters. Well, not quite fielding, so much as avoiding. She and Reggie had finally decided they would call a press conference for this afternoon. She now had two hours to decide what to tell them.
She honestly didn’t know how to spin the story. She was considering contacting a PR company to see if they could help her keep the clinic open through the scandal.
William Tyvek stood in her doorway and gestured to the door. “May I?”
It wasn't often she got a visit from Mr. Tyvek. In fact, she wasn’t sure he’d been in her office at any point in the last year. If anything, he would send an underling to deal with any clinic or shelter business, only showing up himself for publicity events such as the gala.
She noticed he didn’t look quite as put together as he normally did. Scratch that. His suit was wrinkled, as though he might have worn it the previous day. Hair that was normally combed almost too neatly, looked slightly unwashed and out of place. She wondered about his stress level and thought perhaps there was more going on here than simply the scandal with the clinic. Tyvek always seemed to be the man in control in the room, the man who knew exactly how to push a deal through or make people do his bidding.
Carrie had a feeling his daughter’s death had hit him a lot harder than people realized. That no one really understood how deeply that would cut this man.
“Of course.” She stood as he shut the door, then gestured for him to sit in one of the chairs in front of her desk. Rather than go behind the desk, she sat in the other chair opposite him. If she lost the funding of Tyvek Technologies and Victoria Staunton Tyvek Foundation, she could say goodbye to her clinic. She had to find some way to convince him that this was all going to blow over quickly.
“I’m sure you’ve heard the news by now,” she said. “I know it must’ve come as a surprise.”
He raised his brows. “Surprised? I’d call it more like shock. How did this happen?”
“I’m afraid I can’t tell you very much.” That was one of the problems she was having with trying to figure what to tell the press as well. She didn’t feel like she could reveal much about what was going on. It wasn’t like Jarrod had told her expressly not to talk about the case, but she had no idea how much she could say.
Mr. Tyvek sat a little taller in his chair, as though steel had just run down his spine. “I think I’ve earned a little insider knowledge, wouldn’t you say?” The way he stressed the word earned told her exactly what he was referring to. The millions of dollars he’d contributed to the clinic and shelter over the past few years.
Carrie nodded. “I understand, it’s just that I haven’t asked the police how much we’re allowed to tell anyone. I do want to assure you we’re working with them to resolve this as quickly as possible. Reggie and I will be holding a press conference this afternoon to assure the public we’re doing everything possible to—” He cut her off and she couldn’t really blame him. Her assurances sounded weak and empty. The fact of the matter was, someone had been using her clinic to use homeless people as guineas pigs. If it horrified the public only half as much as it horrified her, they’d be crucified for their involvement.
“What’s happening with the investigation?” He asked, but his tone said he expected answers, not more excuses.
“As I’m sure you read in the news, they’re questioning Warrick and Jonathan.” It suddenly occurred to Carrie that Tyvek might be here out of concern for Warrick more than concern over the scandal or the future of the clinic. He might be here out of concern for his former son-in-law. Carrie knew the two men hadn’t been close, but the fact remained, at one point they’d been family.
“I’m so sorry, you must be worried about Warrick. I think you should know, the police are fairly certain he’s being set up. I don’t think he’s going to end up being connected to this, and neither do they.”
Where Carrie had expected to see relief, or at the very least a small measure of reassurance, she saw only a blank stare in the face of the man in front of her. He was quiet for a minute and then he began to nod, but not to her. Almost to himself as though he had made some kind of decision.
“Are you all right Mr. Tyvek?” Carrie leaned forward, reaching for the man. “Do you need some water?”
At first, the gun that came up between them was so out of place, Carrie’s brain couldn’t process what she was seeing. She didn’t process that William Tyvek was holding it or that he was pointing it at her. She simply stared at the weapon.
“I’m fine, thank you, Carrie. I’ll just need to revert to a backup plan. Honest to God, I never would have expected the police to be this dense.”
“What are you doing?” Somewhere in the back of Carrie’s mind, someone was screaming at her. Telling her she wasn’t reacting the way she should to a gun in her face. But she just couldn’t fathom that William Tyvek would be holding a gun on her. Nothing about the situation made any sense.
“The lab.” Tyvek seemed to be talking to himself now as he stood and pulled her up roughly by one arm. “When they find a body in the lab, they will not be able to ignore it. They’ll have to trace it back to him.”
Carrie’s brain clicked into gear and she sprang into movement, wrenching her arm free. She took a wide-eyed step back. She was trapped. He was between her and the door and he had a gun.
“We’re going to leave here calmly and quietly together.” He smiled at her, as though they were going to lunch together. The man was insane.
“I’m not leaving with you.” Carrie remembered being told once that you should never let an attacker move you to a new location. That once you did, you were dead. Not that he was an attacker. Her brain fumbled through strange thoughts. He wasn’t attacking her. He was calmly and coolly…what? Kidnapping her? This couldn’t be happening.
“Yes, you will.” Tyvek gestured toward the closed door behind them. “I’m sure there are several children sitting in the clinic right now, maybe some you know, maybe some you don’t. Either way, if you don’t walk out of here with me, they’re going to die today. I’ll walk out there shooting and I won’t stop until somebody stops me.”
“Why are you doing this?”
He waved the gun a little, wiggling it back and forth in his hand as if it were nothing for him to be holding it pointed at her. “We don’t have time to talk about that right now. I’ll tell you the whole thing when we get on the road.”
He grabbed her arm again and this time she didn’t fight it. She couldn’t. He was right about the children in the clinic. Even if there were no children there, there would be people. Patients, the doctors, her staff. She couldn’t take a chance on him going in there with the gun. Because he was right, they wouldn’t be able to stop him before he did a lot of damage. Before he killed an awful lot of people. And there was no way Carrie could live with that. She already had enough blood on her hands.
That didn’t stop panic from setting in and she felt herself begin to tremble.
Tyvek jerked on her arm before they reached the end of the hall, sending pain shooting through the joint at her shoulder. “You need to get it together before we step out there. Make this an Oscar-worthy performance, Ms. Hastings, or the gun comes out.”
He dropped her arm and stepped forward so abruptly, she forgot to step with him. One cold look over his shoulder had her moving in place beside him. She would get him out of the building, then figure out some way to get away from him. She had to. Because she could tell, there would be no mercy coming from this man.