Beyond Blue by Austin S. Camacho Page B

at the dining room entrance. He had his mother’s big, dark eyes and her hair, only a bit longer so it hung nearly to his eyes. He brushed his hair away from his forehead before he spoke.
    â€œMommy, when’s lunch? I’m getting hungry.”
    Linda looked into his face where he stood behind Sherry, and then her focus shifted forward to Sherry’s anxious visage.
    â€œThey don’t have to ask me.”
    Gorman didn’t like hospitals. They were places of mystery, and their mysteries weren’t meant to be solved.Doctors made a point of keeping you in the dark about what they were doing, like auto mechanics who are afraid that if you understood what they were up to, you wouldn’t need them anymore.
    Feeling helpless, he pressed one palm against the window to Alex Brooks’ room. Beyond the glass, Brooks lay on a bed, covered up, with a variety of tubes running into or out of both arms and one hand. His eyes were closed, but he was neither dead nor resting. His chest rose and fell unevenly, as if he were having an endless nightmare. Maybe he was. Maybe that was what brought him there.
    Gorman had pulled on the first suit his hand hit and raced to this place. He found Francine Brooks and her daughter, Amy already there. Alex’s partner, Vinnie Giles, was also there, pacing the way a concerned spouse normally would. The actual spouse sat quite still after talking with the doctors. She saw Gorman at the window to her husband’s room, but never asked who he was. He imagined that if he were to reach out to her, he would find this woman cold to the touch.
    After noting that all the monitors in the room were beeping or pulsing rhythmically, as they were supposed to, Gorman slapped Giles on the back and headed down the hall. Around the corner he found Chastity Chiba in the next waiting room. She sat in white boots and skirt, her arms hanging from the armrests and her head down. When she sensed Gorman’s presence, she raised her head no more than necessary to make eye contact.
    â€œWhat happened?” Gorman asked.
    â€œI almost missed it, G. Almost lost him.”
    He beckoned for her to come out. They walked the antiseptic halls while they talked. His hands were clasped behind his back. Hers moved in front of her as she spoke.
    â€œI had decided to maintain surveillance on them today,” Chastity began. “I got up and parked at a safe distance down the street where I could keep their doors in view andwaited for activity. If Francine was going to the club, I planned to get ahead of her and try for another bonding session. As it was, both breakfast and the morning passed without incident. Then Francine and the daughter went next door.”
    â€œHow did they look?” Gorman stepped around a man pushing a wheeled I.V. holder. How fragile we are, he thought.
    â€œNo signs of agitation, sir,” Chastity said. “Both appeared quite relaxed. I figured there was nothing odd about the wife and daughter visiting neighbors without the husband.”
    â€œI concur,” Gorman said. He next passed an elderly man in a wheelchair. All the infirmity surrounding him was starting to bother him.
    â€œI had listened for part of the day with the bionic ear, but all I got was normal domestic chatter. After the girls left the house, I put the ear away so I could eat some lunch. A few minutes later, he started the car. I heard it start up through the garage door.”
    â€œWas it your intent to follow him?” Gorman asked. He saw a haunted look in Chastity’s almond eyes. Her rice paper skin looked even paler than usual, and her usual exaggerated confidence seemed to have deserted her.
    â€œI didn’t want to follow him. I was there to watch the wife, to see if she went anywhere. I guess that’s why I didn’t pay any attention at first. The engine was very quiet once the car was started. I was busy shoveling rice and vegetables into my mouth. I let minutes