The Geek Forum

  • March 28, 2024, 06:30:46 AM
  • Welcome, Guest
Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Due to the prolific nature of these forums, poster aggression is advised.

*

Recent Forum Posts

Shout Box

Members
Stats
  • Total Posts: 129468
  • Total Topics: 7101
  • Online Today: 48
  • Online Ever: 1013
  • (January 12, 2023, 01:18:11 AM)

Author Topic: The Hoyer Misdirect  (Read 4534 times)

Demosthenes

  • Evil Ex-HN Moderator
  • Administrator
  • Hacker
  • *
  • Coolio Points: +567/-72
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • Posts: 9904
  • Just try me. See what happens.
    • View Profile
    • Zombo
The Hoyer Misdirect
« on: January 04, 2011, 01:44:08 PM »

The Hoyer Misdirect

Copyright (C) 2011 T.L. Isaacson


Chapter One

"So do you think you can behave yourself today?"

Kelly looked to his left in response to Wattana's question.  Wattana was a decent guy, but he was still a prison guard.  As such he deserved as sarcastic an answer as Kelly could muster.

"Why Officer Wattana, whatever do you mean?" Kelly responded.

Eric Wattana rolled his eyes.  He couldn't believe he'd pulled transport duty again this week, and this time it was Kelly Hoyer of all inmates.  "I mean," Wattana went on, "are you going to give me any shit?  I really don't have the patience for it today, and I KNOW the kind of shit you pull at every opportunity."

"Me?" Kelly asked in feigned innocence.  "Come on, Eric--"

"Officer Wattana, inmate."

"Sorry.  Officer Wattana.  Come on.  When have I ever given you any shit?"

"Only every time I've ever had anything to do with you."

Kelly Hoyer grinned.  "Someone's gotta keep you COs on your toes.  Besides.  It's not like I've ever done anything serious, like killed anyone, or tried to escape.  Hell, I've never even started a fight since I've been on the inside."

"Yeah," Wattana mumbled, looking out the window of the van.  "Not yet, anyway."  He looked back at Kelly.  "Just do me a favour and play nice today, okay?  I'm not in the mood for games."

Kelly resisted the urge to continue egging Wattana on, and instead sat quietly, staring down at his hands.  His left hand was cold, because of a gel icepack that was wrapped around it, secured with a roll of gauze.  Because of this, only his right wrist bore the handcuff bracelet that was secured to the wide, leather restraint belt around his waist.

The prison van went over a bump in the road and Kelly winced in pain.

Wattana looked down at Kelly's wrapped left hand.  "What'd you do to that, anyway?"

"My foot got hung up in my blanket on my bunk as I was getting up this morning.  I fell all the way to the floor from up there and my left hand took most of my weight."

"Ow.  No wonder you were bitching about it."

Kelly nodded.  "Gee, Wattana, you're so sympathetic.  I'm glad you care."

"Pipe down, we're almost there."  Wattana addressed the driver of the van.  "Hey, Paul.  Go ahead and pull in at the emergency entrance.  They know we're coming."

The guard who was driving the van nodded in agreement and drove up the slope that led into the Granite City Hospital front parking lot, and into the portico that sheltered the emergency entrance.

Wattana and the other guard sitting to Kelly's right on the van's rear bench seat took hold of each of Kelly's arms as the driver parked and got out.  Paul walked around to the van's right side, unlocked the door from the outside and opened it up.

"I meant what I said, Hoyer," Wattana said as they got up to exit the van.  "Behave yourself.  Let's get this over with and get you back and all will be well."

Wattana and the other guard each guided Kelly out of the van and into the hospital's emergency room entrance, all the while keeping a firm grip on each of his arms.  The driver of the prison van slammed the side door of the van and got back into the driver's seat and pulled ahead and into the front parking lot.

Once inside, Wattana stepped up to the front desk and addressed the duty nurse.  "Hiya, I'm Officer Wattana from the Granite City Correctional Facility.  We called ahead."

The nurse nodded.  "This is Mister Hoyer, is that correct?"

"It is."

She looked down at some paperwork.  "Broken hand or wrist?  Was that it, Mister Hoyer?"

Kelly held up his bulkily wrapped left hand.  "Yes, ma'am.  Prison guard slammed it in my cell door again."

Wattana rolled his eyes.  "Shut up, Hoyer, nobody buys that shit anymore."

Kelly chuckled.  He looked at the nurse and he could tell immediately that she found him amusing.  And why not?  He was a pretty funny guy, after all.

"Okay, Officer..."

"Wattana."

"Officer Wattana.  They're ready for you upstairs.  If Mister Hoyer will have a seat--" she indicated a nearby wheelchair, "-- you gentlemen can wheel him to the elevator and go up to the third floor.  Radiology is right down the hall, and hospital security is already waiting up there to assist."

"Thanks, ma'am," said Wattana.  "Get in the chair, Hoyer."

Kelly did as he was told and the guards took him to the elevator.

"Wait!  Kelly!"

Wattana stopped and turned just as he was about to push the elevator's "up" button.  A young woman, carrying an infant, was swiftly approaching from the waiting area.  What the hell was this?

"Ma'am," Wattana began, holding out his hand to keep her back, "you have to stay back.  This is a prisoner--"

"I KNOW," the woman interrupted.  "Kelly, are you okay?"

Wattana looked down at Kelly, who was still in the wheelchair.  "You know this woman, Hoyer?"

Kelly nodded.  "Yeah.  She's my girl."

"Okay.  Ma'am, we can't let him have contact with anyone that's not hospital staff, we're--"

"But he hasn't seen Janie since she was born!  Can't I just ride up with you guys in the elevator?"

Wattana looked at the baby the woman was holding and sighed.  "Let me see some ID."

She dug her drivers license out of her purse and handed it to Wattana.  "Danielle Vaughn?"

"Dani."

"Dani.  Ms. Vaughn, we're not supposed to allow prisoners any contact with anyone that is not hospital staff.  He's here for medical reasons, and that's it."

Dani pointed to the ID card clipped to her shirt.  "I AM hospital staff.  I work here, see?"

Wattana looked down at Dani's hospital ID card.  She even worked in radiology.  He looked back at Kelly, who had a hopeful look on his face, probably the first sincere emotion Wattana had ever seen Kelly Hoyer exhibit.

He sighed again.  "For Christ's sake, Hoyer, you're going to get me canned one of these days.  All right, Ms. Vaughn, you can ride up with us.  No physical contact though, okay?  This isn't a conjugal visit, he's just here for x-rays."

"Thank you!  Thank you so much, officer!  I'll be good, I promise!"

Wattana pushed the button for the elevator and the doors opened for all of them to get in.

Dani was looking at Kelly's free hand, the one wrapped in gauze.  "Oh honey, what happened to your hand?  And why aren't they treating you at the prison?"

Kelly was about to speak when Wattana cut him off.  "Ordinarily we would, but the x-ray in the infirmary isn't working lately, and the doc there is pretty sure that Kelly's hand or wrist or both are broken, so here we are."

"What'd you do to it, honey?"

"Nothing much, babe.  Just fell on it and landed funny, that's all.  Nothing major."

Dani pouted and made sympathetic cooing sounds as if Kelly were the baby girl she was holding.  "Awwww.  Well, we've got good people upstairs, we'll take care of you."

The elevator doors opened and Wattana and the other guard wheeled Kelly out onto the hospital's third floor and into the Radiology Department's waiting area.

Two hospital security guards joined their group and stood by while Wattana talked to the desk attendant about why they were there.  Meanwhile, Kelly was smiling at the baby Dani held in her arms.

"She's so beautiful!  What a doll," he said, on the verge of tears.  Dani held the baby down near Kelly so he could see her face.

"She has your hair, babe.  Lookit that, it's gorgeous, isn't it?"

Kelly nodded, not wanting to say anything for fear of letting his emotions get out of control.  The baby did indeed have a thick, black shock of hair on her sleeping head, much like Kelly himself.

"Okay, Hoyer, come on."  Wattana was standing next to Kelly and took his right arm to help him out of his wheelchair.  "They're ready for you in x-ray."

Kelly got up and was accompanied into x-ray by Wattana and the other prison guard while Dani and the baby sat down in the waiting area.  The attendant in x-ray looked at them as they entered.  "Oh.  You'll need to remove his restraints."

Wattana didn't like that, but then, where was Kelly going to go?  He shrugged and unlocked the handcuff from Kelly's right wrist and unlocked the belt and removed it.  He crouched down and removed the chains from Kelly's ankles as well.

"Thanks, Officer.  Mister, Hoyer, go ahead and have a seat on the table.  Take down the top part of your jumpsuit if you could."

Kelly complied and unbuttoned his light blue prison jumpsuit and took the top half down so that it was around his waist.

The attendant worked on unwrapping the gauze and gel pack from his left hand while the two prison guards stood by the door and looked bored.  She proceeded with preparations for doing the x-ray and had Kelly sit on a chair next to the table and positioned his left hand under the crosshairs that were projecting from above.  She made sure the lead apron she'd put on him was secure.

"Okay, looks good.  Now hold that position for a minute."  She looked at the two prison guards.  "Gentlemen, you'll need to either step outside and close the door, or accompany me into the side room so you don't get exposed when we take the x-rays."

Wattana was concerned for a moment, since the door to the room wasn't locked, but reminded himself of the hospital security guards out in the waiting area.  He and the other guard went with the radiology attendant and watched Kelly through the leaded glass window.

She shot a couple of x-rays of Kelly's left hand, came in and repositioned him, and shot a couple more, and then came out and re-wrapped Kelly's hand the way it had been when he came in.  Once she finished, she told them they would wait outside.

The guards took Kelly out into the waiting area and Wattana directed Kelly to have a seat back in his wheelchair.  "Goddammit... stay put, Hoyer, I left your restraints in the x-ray room.  Chuck, keep an eye on him."

The other guard nodded as Wattana went back into the x-ray room.  He frowned.  Where were the hospital security guards?  There had been two of them before they'd gone into the other room.

He stepped over to the radiology desk to ask the nurse who was sitting there.  "Hey.  Weren't there a couple of security guards here before?"

The nurse nodded.  "Yes... but they got a call and I think they went upstairs for a minute.  They should be back soon."

Just then, while the guard's back was turned, Kelly stood up, reached into Dani's lap and picked up the baby Janie, all in one smooth motion.

"Honey, what--" Dani started, but Kelly disregarded her.  He went down the hallway that led out of the waiting room to the west like a shot, Janie in his arms.

The guard heard him running, but by the time he turned around, Kelly had already rounded the corner.

"Oh, shit!" he swore as he pulled his sidearm.  "WATTANA!" This wasn't good.  He started running down the hallway Kelly had taken, and got around the corner.

Kelly Hoyer was gone.
« Last Edit: January 04, 2011, 01:48:16 PM by Demosthenes »
Logged

Coolio Points: 89,000,998,776,554,211,222
Detta Puzzle Points: 45

Banning forum idiots since 2001

Demosthenes

  • Evil Ex-HN Moderator
  • Administrator
  • Hacker
  • *
  • Coolio Points: +567/-72
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • Posts: 9904
  • Just try me. See what happens.
    • View Profile
    • Zombo
Re: The Hoyer Misdirect
« Reply #1 on: January 06, 2011, 12:39:22 PM »

Chapter Two

Copyright (C) 2011 T.L. Isaacson


In the grand scheme of things, Granite City, Minnesota wasn't that big a deal.  It was at least an hour's drive away from anything interesting in the Twin Cities, and at only around 200,000 where population was concerned, it wasn't even on the map for anyone who wasn't a Minnesota resident.

But Granite City was home to a lot of businesses, a lot of money, and a lot of corruption, and that meant one thing: criminals loved it.

Kelly Hoyer was one of them.  He was a con man, a thief, and a top-notch B&E man, who, up until recently, had never been caught.  Before he was double crossed and sent to prison a year ago, Kelly Hoyer was the number one in-demand man in Granite City for his profession.

And all of that was washed down the drain by an unfortunate partnership with Adrian Stansfield.

Kelly's friends in the business had warned him against working with Stansfield on this job, but the money was just too good.  Besides, Kelly was a pro.  He was extremely well-connected – with the cops, with the local mob, with fences, you name it.  Nobody double crosses a guy like Kelly Hoyer.

But Kelly teamed up with him for a job, and Adrian Stansfield did.  The job went off without a hitch, the data got handed over, the goods got fenced, and then the cops were waiting for him when Kelly had gotten home.

In short, Kelly was fucked.

Adrian Stansfield had set him up, and walked away squeaky clean, like sleazeball lawyers always do, and with half a million bucks in his pocket as a result.

And Kelly Hoyer got twelve years in the Level 4 Minnesota Correctional Facility in Granite City for his trouble.

Kelly was furious, but what could he do?  He had a reputation, but a clean record, so they couldn't really sentence him any more severely than that, even though he hadn't cooperated in any way or told them a thing.

But because of that reputation, the prosecutor recommended that Kelly do his time in a Level 4 facility or above, since he was a severe escape risk.  And the judge agreed.

Oh well.  At least he didn't end up in the supermax at Oak Park Heights.  It could always be worse.  Kelly actually even knew some of the inmates in the Granite City prison, so there was that.  So he'd resigned himself to behaving so that he could potentially do his time and get out early.

He still had his charm and his social skills, after all.  And with his connections, he was able to get luxuries and protection on the inside, so it wasn't really that bad.

Not bad at all.

Until he found out that Stansfield had gone off the deep end.  Because of his relatively light sentence, Adrian Stansfield apparently thought that Kelly was cooperating with the police, and had some sort of evidence that he was going to turn over in exchange for early release.

Stansfield put a contract out on Kelly, and in prison, nothing could keep him safe from that.  Nothing.  When someone wants you dead behind those walls, you eventually end up dead.  End of story.

So Kelly had to escape.

And then he had to come up with a way of taking care of Adrian Stansfield.

MCF-Granite City was a Level 4 facility.  That was just shy of maximum security.  Breaking out of it would be difficult if not impossible, even for someone like Kelly Hoyer.

Kelly knew this, and he'd made arrangements.  First, he'd gotten messages to friends on the outside, since he needed help with this.

Then he arranged to have a trip off the premises.  The easiest way to do that was to get injured and create a need to be taken to the Granite City Hospital for treatment.

Kelly had purposely whacked his left wrist against the concrete wall of his cell so as to produce a nasty looking bruise.  It hurt a little, but it wasn't debilitating.  Then he ran his hand under scalding hot water until the whole hand and wrist were bright red, puffy, and swollen.

After that, it was a simple matter to complain to the correctional officer that morning that he'd fallen out of his top bunk and thought he broke his hand.

The prison had its own x-ray machine in the infirmary, but Kelly'd already taken care of that.  He paid off an intern who was working there to damage it the day before, so when they brought him in to examine his hand, they had no way of knowing that it was not, in fact, broken.

So he had to be transported to the hospital.  He arranged it so that Eric Wattana was the CO in charge of the transport.  He liked Wattana, and even though Wattana expressed contempt for Kelly, he was reasonably sure that Wattana wouldn't shoot him if it came down to it.  Well, pretty sure, anyway.

Besides, Wattana was one of the more senior COs at the prison, which meant that he wouldn't go all overboard with a huge, elaborate security detail like some of the less experienced guys would normally do for someone like Kelly.  Wattana was sure of himself, knew what he was doing, and he brought with only a couple of guys, because that's all he needed.

And that's exactly what Kelly had wanted.

Once in the hospital, it was easy to have his buddy Garrett Warner – who'd gotten a job as a janitor there a few weeks ago – make a well-timed call to the 3rd floor radiology desk requesting immediate hospital security assistance on the 5th floor because of an out-of-control visitor, which got rid of the additional hospital security.

Since Kelly's hand wasn't actually injured, it was a simple matter for him to grab the baby out of Dani's arms and bolt down the hall when the time was right.

Chuck, the other correctional officer Wattana had brought up there with them, was an idiot, and couldn't run very fast, so by the time Chuck had huffed and puffed his way down the hall and gotten around the corner, Kelly had already ducked into a stairwell and was on his way down to the 2nd floor, baby Janie in-hand.

Garrett was waiting for him by the door to the 2nd floor lobby with a small duffel bag.

Kelly handed Garrett the baby, who was still giggling.  Apparently she found the dash down the hall and down the steps amusing.  He took the duffel bag from Garrett and shook his hand.  “Thanks, man,” Kelly said.  “Now, better hurry, they won't be long.”

Garrett nodded.  “Good luck, Kelly.  You should have everything you need.  I left the linen closet four doors to your left unlocked for you.  I'm off!”

With that, Garrett ran down the steps.  Kelly smiled.  The janitors in Granite City Hospital were issued light blue coveralls to wear while working.  They were almost identical to the ones issued to inmates at the prison.

Even better, Garrett Warner was the same height, weight, and build as Kelly Hoyer, and even had similar facial features and hair color.  They weren't identical, but they could have been brothers, or maybe cousins.

At any rate, Garrett was now dashing down the stairwell, wearing a light blue jumpsuit, and carrying a baby.

And that's all any witnesses would see.

Kelly casually walked into the lobby of the hospital's 2nd floor and went straight to the linen closet Garrett had mentioned, went inside, and shut the door behind him.  He swiftly opened the duffel bag and took out a pair of dress slacks, a dress shirt, a tie, and a pair of dress shoes.

Perfect.  This was exactly what he'd asked for.  Garrett deserved a thank you card for this one!

Kelly rapidly unwrapped the gauze and gel pack from his fully functional left-hand, stripped out of his jumpsuit, and dove into the clothes Garrett had given him.  The tie was even already tied, so all he had to do was slip it over his head and tighten it.

In the left-hand pocket was the disposable cell phone he'd requested, charged up and ready to go.  In the same pocket was $300 in cash, mostly in tens and twenties, also as he'd requested.  However, in the right-hand pocket of the dress pants he found a surprise: a wicked-looking, fold-out hunting knife.  Bonus!

He hid the empty duffel bag behind a stack of sheets on one of the shelves in the linen closet and cracked the door open.  Nobody was in the hallway down that direction, so he carefully walked out.

All clear.  

Kelly calmly walked down the hall.  He had to get to the other side of the building and take an elevator down.  Wattana's attention would be focused on Garrett, particularly because of the baby (which was actually Garrett's daughter, not Kelly's), but that ruse would only last until they caught up to him and discovered that he was not the man for whom they were looking.

On his walk across the 2nd floor of the Granite City Hospital, Kelly looked like he belonged there.  He smiled at patients he passed in the hall, and winked at the pretty nurse near the north lobby on that floor by the elevators.

He took an elevator down to the first floor and walked out of the building and into the north parking lot without a hitch.

Step one of his plan was good.  But that was just the beginning.  Escaping was one thing, but keeping one's self from being recaptured was another.  And that was the hard part.

Kelly started walking north along 6th Avenue until he got to the end of the parking lot, where he took out the disposable cell phone and called a cab.  After he was done calling, he stayed on the phone and pretended to be talking to someone about “work”, so that any passersby wouldn't think it odd that a man in a tie was just standing around, waiting.  He also made a point to keep from facing the hospital or the street directly, so it wasn't immediately clear who he was.

After standing around for a couple of minutes, he heard sirens getting closer, and they weren't from ambulances.  They were Granite City cop cars, approaching quickly.

He hoped his cab arrived before the cops did.  The plan was for Garrett to lead Wattana and the hospital rent-a-cops on a merry chase around the hospital, and since Garrett had spent the last two weeks familiarizing himself with every room, hallway, closet, stairwell, and office in his role as a janitor, he figured he could keep them busy for at least a half an hour.

But Kelly had learned never to rely on that kind of plan for longer than a few minutes.  Wattana was pretty smart... there was a good chance he'd cut Garrett off somewhere and pick him up unexpectedly and realize they'd been duped.

Kelly's cab pulled up and he got in.  “Bus terminal, downtown, please,” he told the driver, and they pulled away.

Simple as that.  Misdirection one was a success.  Now to misdirect even further and throw them off his trail so he had some time to work.
Logged

Coolio Points: 89,000,998,776,554,211,222
Detta Puzzle Points: 45

Banning forum idiots since 2001

Demosthenes

  • Evil Ex-HN Moderator
  • Administrator
  • Hacker
  • *
  • Coolio Points: +567/-72
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • Posts: 9904
  • Just try me. See what happens.
    • View Profile
    • Zombo
Re: The Hoyer Misdirect
« Reply #2 on: January 07, 2011, 05:03:25 PM »

Chapter Three

Copyright (C) 2011 T.L. Isaacson


Stearns County Deputy Sheriff Carl Becker arrived at the hospital's emergency room entrance just after Kelly pulled away in his taxi cab on the opposite end of the building.

Deputy Becker had been informed that the prison was going to be transporting a prisoner to the hospital today for treatment of a minor injury, which was according to standard procedure, but these things usually went pretty well.

He hadn't been expecting to get a call saying that a Level 4 prisoner had escaped his security detail and was on the loose in the hospital with a kidnapped infant, all while he was getting ready to have his lunch.  That wasn't good at all.

Becker had only been several blocks away, in downtown Granite City, when he got the call, so he flipped on the siren in his squad car and raced to the hospital, meeting up with Wattana in the emergency room.

“Officer!” he called to Wattana as he jogged through the automatic doors, which for some reason had to be manually opened for him by a corrections officer.  “What's the situation?”

Wattana looked relieved to see him.  “One prisoner, still on the premises, without restraints, unarmed.  But he has snatched his infant daughter and has her somewhere with him.  I hope there are more Sheriff's departmen men on the way.”

“At the moment, I'm all you've got.”

“Figures.  Always making do, aren't we?”

“You got that right.  I'm Deputy Sheriff Carl Becker.  What's your name, Officer?”

“Corrections Sergeant Eric Wattana.  I am in charge of this detail, and the prisoner is my responsibility.”

“I was given a report this morning that you guys were doing this today, but I confess, I didn't pay too close attention to it; these things usually go pretty quietly.  So who is this guy?”

“Kelly Hoyer,” Wattana said.  “He's doing a dozen years here in GC for a variety of offenses.”

“Any of them violent?”

Wattana looked at him.  “No, sir.”

“You hesitated.  Why?”

“Kelly Hoyer has not been convicted of a single violent crime.  But I have reason to believe that he's not as safe to be around as he might seem.  Plus, he's got his baby daughter with him, and in my experience--”

“People act irrationally and explosively when it involves their kids.  I getcha.  So we need to be careful around him.”  Deputy Becker nodded.  “So what's the plan?”

Wattana shrugged.  “We do a floor by floor search.  I got the hospital administrator to give the order to hospital security to do a lockdown, so no non-essentials can enter or leave the building.  My men and all the hospital security staff they can spare are in the process of doing a thorough inspection of each floor, starting with the ground floor and working up.  We'll find him.  Have no fear.”

“What can I do to help?”

Wattana frowned.  “You can try and figure out what I'm missing, Deputy Becker.  I know this prisoner, and if we're doing a floor by floor search with the outside doors locked, it's because Kelly Hoyer wants us to.  And that's what bothers me.”


At that moment, a cab carrying an escaped felon was approaching the bus terminal downtown.  Most of the bus traffic at this station was local city buses coming and going on their various routes around the city and surrounding communities.

However, Greyhound and several other carriers operated out of this terminal, and that's what Kelly was counting on.  The cab pulled up to the terminal and stopped at the curb.  Kelly paid the cabbie $60 in twenties.

“Hey, mister!” the driver called as Kelly was getting out, “I can't take this, your fare was only $8.00!”

Kelly smiled at him.  He knew that a cab driver would remember a big, ridiculous tip like this one.  “You sir, are the finest cab driver I HAVE EVER HAD.  Keep the change, friend, you deserve it!  And remember me, I might need a good driver again soon enough!”

The cab driver studied his face and then smiled.  This guy just made his day!  “Thanks mister!  Have a good one!”

Kelly walked into the bus station and looked around.  Not too many people were hanging about, but then, it was late morning on  a weekday, and there was only one Greyhound that was departing today, and that wasn't for another hour.  Kelly had a little time yet before they figured out what he'd done and where he went, so that departure time was fine by him.  He wanted to make sure at least a few people remembered seeing him here.

He went to the little Greyhound counter and paid cash for a ticket to Minneapolis.  He flirted with the ticket girl, cracked wise, and made sure he made a good, unforgettable impression.

Then it was time to wait.  The bus should be here and gone before the cops figure out where he went, and by then he'd have his false trail to Minneapolis complete.  He just had to be seen here for enough time to make it plausible that he got on, and then he could move on and become invisible.

Kelly smiled to himself as he sat down on a bench and started waiting.  There was almost no way this could go wrong now.


“Ma'am, I think I'm not understanding what you're trying to say.”  Deputy Sheriff Becker was trying to be patient, but this woman, this “Dani Vaughn”, was getting on his last nerve.  What was she up to?  “Just tell me again.  Where would he be going?  Where would he take your baby?”

Dani rolled her eyes.  “I TOLD you, officer.  He wouldn't take her anywhere.  I'm really not that concerned.  There is no way Janie's father would ever, ever hurt her or take her away from me.”

“Ms. Vaughn, I'm sorry, but I'm just not following your train of thought here.  He is a convicted felon who just committed yet another felony by escaping from prison.  On top of everything else, he just kidnapped your daughter, which is going to get the FBI involved as soon as we can get them over here.  Doesn't that bother you in the very least?”

“Not at all.  He is a law-abiding citizen, and my daughter is just fine.  That is a FACT, officer.  A fact.”

Becker threw up his hands.  “I don't know what to say to you, ma'am, but I can certainly tell you that this is not helping the matter at all.  You're not doing Kelly Hoyer any favors by--”

“Kelly Hoyer?” Dani laughed.  “Kelly Hoyer isn't my boyfriend.  Don't be silly.”

Becker frowned.  “What do you--”

Eric Wattana burst into the room.  Deputy Becker had been interviewing Dani Vaughn in the waiting room of the radiology area, where she was still sitting, and Wattana had been assisting in the ongoing floor by floor search for Kelly Hoyer.

“Deputy Becker, I think you'd better see this!”

Becker got up and followed a frantic Wattana out into the hallway.  There, with Chuck and Paul from the Granite City Prison flanking him, was a man in a light blue jumpsuit.  The man looked angry.  Chuck was holding a baby.

“You got him!” Becker exclaimed.  “Great work, boys!”

Wattana shook his head.  “This is not Kelly Hoyer.”

The man in the light blue jumpsuit snarled at him.  “THAT'S what I've been trying to TELL you, you idiots!”

Becker was confused.  “But... is this the baby that--”

Wattana nodded.  “It is.  But this is not Kelly Hoyer.  I don't know who this is.”

The man in the jumpsuit dug a hospital ID card out of his pocket.  “God damn it!  Will you listen to me for once?  I'm Garrett Warner!  I work here!  Now give me back my child, if you please!”

“Garrett?” Dani's voice came from around the corner.  “Oh, there you are!”

Wattana covered his face in his hands.  He was so boned!  How did he get into this mess?

Becker still looked confused, and now a little angry.  “Will somebody please tell me what's going on?”

Garrett pointed at the prison guards.  “I'll tell you what's going on.  These two morons just about tackled me and made me drop my kid.  I was trying to find my wife so I could have lunch with her--”

“We take our breaks together,” Dani offered with a smile, “you know, since we both work here at the hospital!”

“-- and here I find you guys bothering her after dragging me halfway across the building, and THIS IS CUTTING INTO MY LUNCH HOUR, you know!”



Kelly Hoyer looked at the clock on the wall of the bus station.  Not long now.  Once the Greyhound showed up, he figured he'd wait a few minutes and then walk as publicly as he could out of the bus station and around to the other side of the bus.  

Sure, nobody would be able to positively place him getting on the bus, but he knew that that wasn't how cops worked through things, mentally.  

He knew from experience how this was going to go.  “Oh sure, I remember this guy,” the cab driver would say, while the cops showed him a mugshot of him.  “He gave me a fifty two dollar tip!  So what'd he do?”  “Oh, never mind what he did,” the cops would say.  “Where'd you drop him off?”  “I dropped him off at the bus station,” would be the answer.

And the cops would make a beeline for the bus station and find him gone.  They'd ask the Greyhound ticket girl if she'd seen him and she'd smile and say “Sure, I remember him.  I sold him a ticket to Minneapolis.  It just left about a half an hour ago.”

And off they'd go to try and catch the bus, which by then would be all the way to Clearwater.

So Kelly wasn't worried.  He had no intention of hanging around to be picked up, and he knew that there was no way the cops would get onto his trail before then, so he continued to wait, smiling patiently as the minutes ticked by.


“Okay, Ms. Vaughn,” Deputy Becker began.  He had Dani Vaughn all alone in a small conference room on the 3rd floor the hospital made vacant for them for this purpose.  Wattana was sitting next to him at the table, and both men were giving her as serious and dark a look as men of official authority could muster.  “Why did you lie to Officer Wattana before and pretend that Kelly Hoyer was your boyfriend?”

“I told you, I didn't--”

“I'd like to remind you AGAIN Ms. Vaughn, that I can take you into custody right now for aiding and abetting the escape of a convicted felon by your role in this.”

“I think not, Deputy Becker,” Dani said.  “What, exactly, was my role again?”

“You masqueraded as Kelly Hoyer's girlfriend, and provided him aid in escaping.”

“How did I do that?”  She looked at Wattana.  “Did I ever once tell you that I was his girlfriend?”

Wattana frowned as he thought about her approach when they had first arrived at the hospital.  Now that he thought about it, she never did say what her relationship was to Hoyer.  She obviously knew him, but it was Hoyer that had said that she was his “girl”.

“No, Dani.  You did not,” Wattana admitted.  “You never said that.  So.  What IS your relationship with Kelly Hoyer?”

“He's my daughter's godfather.  I've known Kelly for six years.  He's a friend of my husband's, and he's a friend of mine.  And what, exactly, did I do that helped him escape?”

“Well, you...” Wattana began.  This was getting frustrating.  

“I didn't pass him anything.  I didn't get him out of his cuffs.  I didn't bake him a file in a cake.  Shit, I didn't even hold a door open for him!  I was in the radiology waiting area WHERE YOU MADE ME STAY, never out of the sight of you or your men, Officer Wattana.”

She was right.  But Wattana knew that she had to have something to do with this.  He just couldn't put his finger on what.  To be fair, Wattana did not actually see Hoyer escape.  He heard Chuck yell his name while he was in x-ray and when he came out, Hoyer and the baby were both already gone.  Then how did this Garrett Warner janitor guy get the baby?  He must have--

“Wattana, what is it?” Becker was looking at him as if waiting for him to say something.

“Becker, we can't waste our time with these two any further.  This is it.  This is where he meant us to be.”

“Oh, I don't think so, Wattana,” Deputy Becker was getting worked up.  He jabbed his finger toward Dani.  “THIS woman, and her lying husband are going the fuck to jail.  You hear me, Ms. Vaughn?  JAIL.”

“For what, Deputy Becker?” Dani asked sweetly.  “What did we do, again?”

“Kidnapping, for starters!”

Dani laughed.  “Wouldn't you need me to press charges for that to be true?  Press charges against Garrett, my own husband?  I knew he had Janie.  He was going to meet me downstairs for lunch.  He always takes her for a walk before we meet for lunch, because he takes his lunch a little earlier than I do.  You can't charge us with kidnapping our own child, who never left our custody.  Please, you'll have to do better than that!”

“She's right, you know,” Wattana told Deputy Becker.  

Becker was fuming.  “All right!  Then impeding an investigation!  Lying to a police officer!”

Dani laughed again.  “And what did we tell you that impeded your investigation?  What did we say that was a lie?  I told you a truthful answer to every question you asked.  You asked me where Kelly Hoyer is.  I told you I don't know.  You asked me how we knew him.  I told you.  I'm sure Garrett did too when you were busy interrogating him.  What next, you gonna waterboard us or something?”

Wattana was getting frantic.  “Deputy Becker, this is what Hoyer wanted!  He set this up... I don't know how, and I don't know all the details, but this mess is all his, and he did it just for us.”

“Why?”

“To do one thing.  To waste our time and give him a better lead.”

“Bullshit.  He's still in the building somewhere, and until Ms. Vaughn here starts cooperating and tells us where--”

“He's gone,” Wattana interrupted.  “I'm sure of it.  Come on, we need to move, or we're going to lose him for real.”

Becker followed Wattana out of the conference room.  “So what do you suggest?”

Wattana shrugged.  “What would you do if you needed to get somewhere in a hurry around here and you were on foot?”

Becker nodded and took out his cell phone.  “Good point.  I'm calling the cab company right now."
« Last Edit: January 07, 2011, 05:15:16 PM by Demosthenes »
Logged

Coolio Points: 89,000,998,776,554,211,222
Detta Puzzle Points: 45

Banning forum idiots since 2001