Chapter 5: An Ally Shows Up

This visitor was someone I was very glad to see. Fred Warren came waltzing in the door saying, "Well it's another fine mess you've gotten us into Henry. What do I have to do to get you out of this one?"

"Fred, you old shyster, who rang your bell and how many ambulances did you have to chase to get here?"

We shook hands, and Fred pulled up a chair. "Ok, now that the BS is out of the way, what happened and who have you contacted so I can know who the players are."

I explained everything I knew, some of the things I guessed at and my theories about what I thought happened. Once I was done, Fred asked his questions concerning what he thought of as I told my tale of woe.

"Okay Hank, I need to find where your truck is. I'll contact your insurance company once I find it so we can see about getting you a new ride. Then I'll get a hold of this Detective and see what he can has found out so far and where's he going from here. Now, do you want me to start proceedings against this hospital for endangering your life by allowing that assassin in here to try to kill you?"

"No, Fred, this is a private hospital and other than the administrator, who I think has something to do with all this, the rest of the staff is really nice. After hearing about all my injuries today, I think Dr. Levitz was justified to put me in a coma. However, since my cell phone was dead, and I didn't have an emergency contacts card in my wallet when I got here, there was no way to know who to contact. Until my wallet showed up on Monday, I was a John Doe. You know how paranoid I am about the emergency contact card; therefore, someone had to have taken it out. Whoever they were they didn't want my next of kin or people that know me, contacted. All this secrecy adds up to drug running to me, what about you?"

"I think you're right as rain about that. Let me see what I can find out, and I'll be back to see you."

"Oh yeah, you might want to represent the nurse who was assaulted too, that is once we find this scum bag who tried to finish me off. Her name is Carin Winslow; she is the night nurse for this floor, but she will probably be off tonight."

After some talk of families and such, Fred left right before supper. Beef broth, and some crackers, apple juice and jello, but tonight I got two jello squares and an ice cream cup. Wow, I was moving up in the world.

Cindy brought my supper tonight, and that's why I think I got two wiggly squares and the ice cream. I thanked her with a hug and a kiss on the cheek. She was embarrassed and left with pink cheeks.

Not much happened after that until Sylvia came in about 9:00pm. We went for another long walk up and down the hallway. Well, we actually went around the whole square of this floor. The building was probably two-hundred by one-hundred-fifty feet on the inside, plus the outer walls; say the building was two hundred and fifteen feet by one hundred fifty-five feet with three stories above a basement. Yeah, I could see this as an old sanitarium built back in the early 1900s or so. I found out later that this was the site of the Texas Christian University until their main building burned down in 1910. Afterwards, in 1913, this building was erected as the Joseph H. Hiller Mental Facility. It was closed in 1949 and subsequently reopened as a hospital in 1951. The basic structure was used, but the rest was pretty much gutted and new rooms built to accommodate a hospital. When it first was used as a hospital, the whole third floor was just six open wards with about thirty-five beds in each one. A renovation in 1974 divided the open wards up into three four-bed and six-two bed rooms on each long side. The short side had six-two bed rooms each. All the interior rooms were supplies, common rest rooms on each short end, the elevators, and three nurse's stations. However, since the economic downturn and the big new hospital on the south end of town, only one or two nurse's stations are manned at night, but all three are during the day.

I gleaned all this most informative info from Sylvia. Her mother was a nurse here for many years before Sylvia graduated, and had retired about ten years ago. It was an interesting history lesson. I had told Sylvia what I did for a living now, and she provided the commentary while we walked. By the time I was walked out, we had done two complete circuits of the hallway. Furthermore, I could walk more or less on my own and not have to lean on Sylvia. When we got back to my room, I used the rest room and then lay on the bed. I guess I was tired as I was soon asleep.

The next thing I knew it was morning, and a nice nurse came in to give me breakfast. I excused myself, got up, and walked unaided to the bathroom. I came back and was startled by Alan sitting in the chair by my bed. He looked at me and said, "No wonder you're so skinny; they actually feed you this stuff?"

"Good morning to you too Detective Carmody, I suppose that you went by McDonald's for yours this morning?"

"As a matter of fact, a matter of fact I did, and I got you something too ... here," he said as he handed me a wrapped bacon egg and cheese biscuit.

"Oh my God, you didn't. How did you know I love these things?"

"Yesterday when I mentioned sending out for breakfast you got this longing look in your eyes, and they are my favorite too. So I thought I would bring an extra in case, well, in case you might want something a little more substantial in your diet."

I quickly opened the package, and I took a small bite. I seemed to go into shock and so did Alan. This was just like the ice and Sylvia; it was a momentary spike of ecstasy and then back to pure enjoyment in tasting real food again.

To say that Alan was flustered would be an understatement. He sat there and wondered how he had had a shot to his libido that caused an instant hard on. Said hard on was now slowly retreating back to normal. He looked at Henry and saw a crooked grin on his face as he savored the bite he had taken from the biscuit. But that sensory overload couldn't have come from him, could it? The doc had said something about Henry moaning about the loud voices in his head, but they attributed that to his coma, his concussion, and subsequent awaking. This case was getting weirder by the minute.

After that first spike, Henry was normal and really relished the biscuit. Soon it was all gone, washed down with weak coffee and apple juice. He saved the jello for later.

"Okay detective what did you find out?"

"Henry, call me Alan please. Now on to other more important things; I found your truck, but it was not where I thought it would be. I found it in a wrecking yard in Corsicana. Why it was there I have no idea. The yard foreman said it just showed up one morning, actually the morning of the 6^th of June. Now that in itself is strange, but there were no prints anywhere on the vehicle and other than some new black paint on the left side of the truck, it appeared just like it should after being broadsided by something big. I am having it brought down here for our forensics guys to look at it to see why you remembered something yellow while the truck looks like it was run over by a black semi due to the damage. However, the only things as big as you described and yellow are school busses. There are no wrecked school busses that I can find within a hundred-mile radius that that were wrecked around the first part of June. On top of that there's nothing in that area for all of June. That said, I think what we will probably find is school bus yellow paint in the cracks and crevices of the damage...

"Also I talked to Rural Hill and they did not bring you here. It may have been an ambulance painted up to look like one of theirs, but no one was dispatched to bring you here. Next, I checked at each of the regional hospitals and emergency clinics within a hundred miles, and no one has had a John Doe or even anyone who fits your description. Then we come to the deputy who brought your stuff on the 5^th. No known dispatch or handoff has been recorded in the ten counties around this one. So that is a dead end as well. With your permission, I would like our forensics people to go through your bags and see if they can come up with anything. We did find one smudged print from the baggie of coke you took out of your bag, but it was not yours or Hector's. So we are drawing a blank on that too. However, the formulation of the coke may give us a break if we can match it to any found elsewhere here in Texas. If we can trace that down we might have somewhere to start, but right now we are at a dead end until we can get some answers from the lab guys."

"Alan I need a favor, there are a couple of secret compartments under the truck bed where I keep a couple of weapons. The truck key unlocks them. It just looks like a boxed-in frame in each side. There you should find a M1911A1 and a modified AK-47 on one side and ammo for each in the other one. They are packed in foam that pulls out once unlocked. I have a concealed carry permit for them, plus my military permit which are also in those boxes. I only carry the permits when I actually carry the weapons on me. I really like the 1911 and hope nobody has found that. The AK - I can get another one if I have to - I have a friend in Baton Rouge who makes them."

"Like I said Henry, you surprise me more each time I talk to you. I'll see what I can do. You won't be able to claim them until you get checked out of here, but if they're still there I'll personally hold them for you. I have to get going, but I wanted to get you up to date on what I have found out so far. Get well soon, then come see me, and we'll have some real coffee together."

"Thanks Alan I will hold you to that. I hope to see you soon."

I called my insurance agent and told her about the accident, where the truck could be found tomorrow, or maybe later today. I explained why I hadn't called earlier, and was told not to worry about it. I called Fred and brought him up to date. He said he would contact Alan to let him know who to contact for legal help. Next I called Cecil again and told him I was improving and should soon be back to normal. I rested some more and then walked around the hallway with the IV pole, mainly for balance, but I found I was using it less and less. I flirted with all the day nurses and generally made a pest of myself. At 2 pm, I drifted off to sleep, and was awakened for supper. I was given vegetable soup, five crackers, one slice of whole-wheat bread, a jello square, weak coffee, and orange juice. I was told I was on a modified liquid diet and if everything stayed down and I had no problems it might get better tomorrow. Cindy dropped by again, and we had a nice chat for a while.