‘Mr. Johnson. Time to act. No more games, no more discussion.’
‘Can I speak with my son?’
‘No. Let’s get this transaction completed and I will call you and tell you where you can pick up your son.’
‘But …’
‘Enough! I’m tired of this crap! Listen carefully. There is a pawnshop on the corner of NW 7th Street and NW 30th Avenue. Put the keys in a sealed brown manila envelope addressed to Winnie Nelson. Give the envelope to the proprietor and go back home. I’ll call you when I have my keys.’
‘The pawn shop will be open this late?’
‘It’s open. How many keys do you have?’
Kenneth paused for a moment.
‘Don’t lie to me Mr. Johnson.’
‘Three.’
‘Good. Put them all in the envelope. Hurry Mr. Johnson. The clock is ticking and your son may not have much time left. Oh, one more thing. I want to remind you that we still want to keep this between us, that means, no police.’
Why hadn’t he called back? Had he harmed Kenny? Why hasn’t he called? Call you bastard!
Out of the corner of his eye, Kenneth noticed Sean watching him. The room was dark, with the only light source coming from the TV. Images flashed across the screen from the CNN news feed. Despite the poor and intermittent light, Kenneth tried to make eye contact, but then realized that Sean was gazing, not watching him. Sean had one of those distant looks in his eye.
‘Sean. What’s up? What’s on your mind?’
Sean slowly focused on Kenneth. ‘I’ve been mulling over what Kenny said. Something has been bothering me.’
‘Shoot.’
‘He seemed to focus a lot of time and effort on what he was going to eat.’
‘Yeah. I thought we agreed that was to give us a frame of reference. Help us isolate the location.’
‘It could be …’
‘But you don’t think so?’
‘Well, no. Think about it. He already said he had Wendy’s, and then he said he was trying to decide between Taco Bell and Burger King. Why bother to say that he was going to have a huge Whopper? What is the relevance of that? What message is he trying to send us?’
Kenneth sat for a moment, looking at Sean. He lifted his legs up and rested them on his desk. Suddenly, Kenneth pushed himself up. His chair slipped and he crashed to the floor. Footsteps could be heard running towards the study by the time Kenneth jumped up.
‘Jenny! I know where Kenny is!’
Kenneth and Jenny rushed into the Emergency Room of Mercy General. They frantically read the signs and hurried to the counter. A middle-aged woman in what looked like green overalls looked up from the desk.
‘Yes? Can I help you?’
‘I called earlier, and you said you had admitted a John Doe boy who had suffered from sesame anaphylaxis? We are his parents,’ Jenny blurted out.
The nurse checked a chart, leafing through sheets of paper. ‘He has been moved to Intensive Care. Second floor. The elevator is to your right.’
Jenny squeezed Kenneth’s hand as they hurried to the elevator.
‘O God, please let it be him,’ Jenny whispered as they waited. The wait was unbearable as the elevator doors slowly opened and closed, as Jenny impatiently kept pressing the number two button. The elevator doors had barely parted before Jenny darted out into the corridor, leaving Kenneth behind, as he had to wait for the doors to open a little more for him to get through. Kenneth arrived at the desk to hear Jenny being told that the boy was in room 5, and she shot down the corridor, bursting into the room.
‘No!’ Jenny exhaled.
Kenneth entered the room to find Jenny bent over at the waist hugging herself. A low primeval groan escaped from Jenny. Confused, Kenneth looked up and saw a small Hispanic boy with a cast on his left arm sitting up in bed. Sitting beside the bed was a woman with a white scarf tied over her hair and glasses perched on the tip of her nose. She looked up from a book that lay between her and the boy, with a startled look on her face.
‘Digame?’
For a moment, time seemed to stand still for Kenneth. He looked from Jenny to the woman and boy, and back to Jenny.
‘Que pasa?’
‘Ah, lo siento. Ah, hablo ingles? Kenneth sputtered.
‘Poco.’
‘Ah, donde estas?’ Kenneth said.
‘Que?’ the woman said, a very confused look on her face.
‘Ah. El numero?’ Kenneth said, pointing to the floor and around the room.
‘Ah, si. Es habitation cuatro,’ the woman said, smiling.
‘What? Cuatro?’ Kenneth whispered. He hesitated for a moment, then said, ‘Jenny. Jenny, we are in the wrong room. This is room number four. The nurse said five.’ He put his arm around Jenny and guided her towards the door. ‘Muchas gracias,’ he called over his shoulder as they went out the door. Kenneth stopped at the neighboring door and took a deep breath before gently pushing it open. Through the crack that he had created he could not see anything but darkness. His heart dropped into his stomach, but then he noticed a small flashing red light on the far side of the room. He hugged Jenny a little closer and pushed the door further open. They slowly made their way into the room. Kenneth stopped and fumbled around on the wall, feeling for the light switch. Finally, he found it and turned on the light. The darkness receded suddenly, and there, lying on the bed, with tubes and wires hanging from him, was Kenny!