Day 14: March 24th (EARLY MORNING)
I checked my door to make sure that it was unlocked and planted myself next to it, phone in hand. I had no idea what Kasey had planned or what he even meant by coming to get me, but I was going to do as I was told. Luckily, I was too wired from anxiety to fall asleep again and instead, obsessively checked the time on my phone, waiting for the hours to pass. I was finally starting to lose track of time, my head lolling against the wall when my phone vibrated in my hand.
KASEY: You awake?
ME: Very much so. Where are you?
KASEY: Parked outside Somerset Hills Hospital.
He was here.
ME: What exactly are you planning on doing?
KASEY: Getting you out of there. I’ve tapped into the hospital’s security system and I should be able to bypass the digital locks. But I need you to go through certain doors to make it easier on us. What floor are you on?
I wasn’t exactly sure, but I could find out.
I opened the door to my room just enough to see the adjacent wall in front of me. Along with the little painted arrows pointing out where the commons room and the bathroom was, there was a 2 painted in red above it.
ME: I think I am on the second floor. I was so out of it when I got here, I wasn’t paying any attention.
KASEY: Are you on the end with a wide open room and what looks like a security booth at the end of one hall?
ME: I’m in a room on that hall.
KASEY: Good. Find the staircase: down the hall heading away from that commons room, to the left, all the way at the end. When you get there, send me a text. It doesn’t have to say anything intelligible. I’ll unlock the door there and then you need to head down to the garage level. There’s an atrium there that actually requires a key card to exit, but you’re going to use your phone. Let me know when you’re there and then place your phone, front camera down, over the sensor; I’ll handle it from there.
ME: And where do I go after that?
KASEY: You’ll come out in the parking garage. You need to go to the left and out the back way; the Volkswagen is parked behind the dumpster.
It all seemed simple enough…if I could get past the cameras and not run into security.
ME: Ok, but give me a minute. I need to get my bag because I can’t leave it behind. I’ll ping you when I get to the staircase.
KASEY: Sage…please, be careful. If I don’t hear from you in fifteen, I’m coming in after you.
ME: No, no; don’t do that. I’ll be quick. Heading out now.
And then I turned the screen off on my phone, stuffed it into my bra with my charger, and snuck out of my room, creeping along the walls like a shadow, ducking out of the way of cameras before I got to the storage closet. To my relief, my removing of the tape hadn’t caused the door to lock and I was able to creep in, find my bag with the use of my phone, and got the fuck out of there. I made sure to strap it tight to my body so it didn’t make noise when I moved and didn’t slow me down as I slid carefully down the back hallway till I found the staircase and the directory on the wall that listed the different units in the hospital. One area in specific caught my eye and it happened to be on the ground level.
ME: Here. But I need to make a detour.
I heard a muffled beep and watched the red light on the door turn green, allowing me to open it as slowly and quietly as possible so as not to make a noise, being careful to do the same when I let it close.
KASEY: What detour? We don’t have a lot of time.
ME: The morgue. They told me that no bodies were found, but I know what I saw this morning and the news said they were sending Ally’s body to Somerset for autopsy. I have to see if it’s true or not.
KASEY: Sage…are you seriously wanting to go look for a dead body in a darkened hospital at night by yourself?
ME: Well, not when you put it that way, but I have to.
I was trying to text Kasey and nimbly make my way down the concrete staircase without slipping on those damn grippy socks.
KASEY: This is nuts, but if you insist. You know where it is?
ME: Ground level. You’ll need to probably let me into the morgue itself and then back out into the stairwell.
KASEY: Already ahead of you. Once you exit the stairwell, stay in the main hall till it branches off to the left, turn there and follow that hall till it dead ends at the morgue. Hopefully, no one is working late.
ME: If they are, I’ll turn back around. But I need to know.
I made it to the door at ground level and slipped through without a sound, finally deciding to take off my stupid socks, tossing them in a trash can as I passed by. I took the exact route that Kasey had given me, using my phone for added light to see where I was going, when I made it to the door marked Morgue.
ME: Here.
I heard the beep and watched the light go from red to green with a slight click, allowing me to open the door and step in. I didn’t want to feel my way around in this room and decided that since we were hidden away in a bottom corner of the hospital, that maybe no one would notice if I turned a light on.
The fluorescent lights flickered and whined as they fought to turn on, finally illuminating the room in a glow as cool as the temperature. I could see embalming equipment sitting out, saws and other utensils, and two cold, metal slabs; one of which had what appeared to be a body on top, covered in a white sheet. There was also the typical body storage up against one wall, but I had a feeling that whoever was under that sheet was exactly who I was looking for.
I was hesitant as I crept over to the table, checking to see if there was any sort of toe tag visible, but there probably wasn’t enough of the body left for that sort of thing. That meant I had to lift the sheet, but then what? I wasn’t going to be able to identify anyone, but I would assume that the body was so badly decomposed that no one could by sight alone; I had to prepare myself for what I might see.
I took a deep breath and with shaky hands, deftly lifted the sheet to peer at what was beneath it. The shock of it almost made me recoil, but I had to stomach it long enough to get a good look at the body.
The body almost looked mummified, dry and shriveled with hair and clothes still preserved and clinging to brittle skin. But the features on the corpse were surprisingly intact despite the fact that she had clearly been dead for decades. It looked like she had once been blond and had suffered a broken nose, whether before or after she was attacked, and she was wearing what looked to have once been a pair of flared jeans with a pink, name brand top and a fur collared jacket. I had no way to know, but I knew I was looking at the body of Ally Horner, something familiar about it all. It may have been wrong, but I needed to take a few pictures so I could show Kasey and we could add it to our files.
I quickly snapped a few pictures before laying the sheet back in place, apologizing to Ally for what had happened to her as I backed out of the morgue, cutting the light as I left. I hurried back down the hall and pinged Kasey when I got to the door; he wasted no time letting me through.
I made it down the last flight of stairs and out into the window lined atrium, noting the card reader by the sliding doors. I sent Kasey one last message and then laid my phone over the sensor, front camera side down. I heard and immediate beep and then the doors slid open.
I was free. And as soon as I was free, I broke into a sprint, turning to my left to follow the route Kasey had given me. I hopped a concrete barrier at the back of the parking garage and frantically looked around for a dumpster in the dark, almost missing it propped up on the side of the building near the HVAC units. I was in the home stretch, but I kept my head down just in case, rounding the giant dumpster to find Frank’s VW van parked facing me.
Sitting in the driver’s seat was Kasey and Kasey alone; he had stolen Frank’s van and driven this whole way by himself.
“Quit standing there like a deer in headlights and get in!” He hissed at me from the open window, pointing to the opposite side of the van.
I hurried over to the passenger side and practically threw myself into the van through the open window, my bag smacking me in the back of my head as I tried to right myself in my seat.
“Just go. Go, go, go.” I grunted, my face practically in Kasey’s armpit.
The van had been idling this whole time, making it easy for Kasey to throw it into drive and coast out into the back parking lot and down a dirt road that began to wind into the woods.
“We’re taking a back way; I want us to be seen as little as possible.” Kasey informed me as we bounced along the dirt and gravel road.
I had finally gotten my butt in the seat and was strapping myself in when I asked rhetorically, “Frank knows you took this, right?”
No immediate answer, but Kasey winced.
“No? I mean, he may know now. Can you call him on my phone and tell him what’s going on?
Kasey tossed me his phone and I rolled my eyes in the darkness at how reckless he had been—reckless because of me; for me.
I found Frank’s number in the phone under UNCLE, there not being many other actual numbers in the phone. I hit send and waited for it to connect and when it rang, it rang once before Frank answered.
“Where in the fucking hell are you, Kasey Shea?”
Shea? No time to consider that one.
“Frank, it’s me.” I responded timidly.
“Red? Sage, is that you, doll?” Frank’s voice immediately changed when he heard my voice.
“Don’t be too mad at Kasey; he stole the van to rescue me.” A gave a dry laugh, still in a bit of shock from my escape.
But Frank scoffed, “Rescue you? Meaning Somerset didn’t just release you on your own recognizance?”
“Mmm, not exactly. My parents were on their way to possibly take me back home to England. It’s too long of a story to get into right now, but if Kasey hadn’t come to save me…I don’t think I’d ever see you all again.”
That thought, that feeling, really settled in at the moment, glancing over at Kasey focused on the rocky road, hands gripped tightly to the wheel. I could see that he was still vibrating from all the adrenaline.
“Well, get your arses back here quick, but do it safely. They may already know you’re gone and I know Kasey is smarter than most people on this planet, but when you act impulsively, you get messy. Hopefully, no one saw ya’ll.” Frank warned me.
“Don’t worry. I’m pretty sure he knows how dangerous this could be; at least I hope so. Is Kacey doing ok?” I needed to know one more thing before I hung up the phone.
“He’s doing really well, doll. Up and walking, not much of a limp. He’s a good, strong boy.” Frank assured me and I felt myself deflate with a reassured sigh.
“We should be back at the inn in about two hours.” Kasey called out and Frank clearly heard him.
“I’ll be up and waiting for you. Ain’t no way I’m sleeping now.” Frank tutted, but he sounded more worried than mad.
I apologized to him, which he repeatedly assured me that it was alright and he just wanted us back safe before we ended the call. I passed Kasey’s phone back to him and then just sat there with my hands tucked in my lap, still wearing the ridiculous hospital scrubs, sans the socks. Now that I thought about it, I was pretty sure that the clothing I was wearing and the sandals on my feet weren’t in my bag; at least I hadn’t had anything on that I really liked.
“You doing okay, Sage?” Kasey’s soothing voice popped me little thought bubble and I turned my head to look at him.
“Is there a sliding scale for “okay”, because I don’t really know how to answer that.” I admitted, feeling a little defeated that I just couldn’t say that I was fine like usual.
“It’s okay to not be okay. You’ve been through a lot of psychological trauma the past few weeks and it’s gotten personal. If you need to take a while to just not be okay, I’ll make sure that everything is taken care of around us.” Kasey’s words, his continual reassurance—the way he spoke to me with such sincerity and kindness.
Maybe I could just lay bare before him and not worry about how it looked because he didn’t seem to care that I was so irreparably damaged, at least it felt that way…what he cared about, was me entirely.
“I’m not,” I shook my head as the tears started in my throat, “I’m not okay. But I know that I’m not crazy. They fucking gaslit me in there, but I’m not crazy. I saw her, Kasey, I saw Ally in the morgue.”
That was the second thing to hit me as the rush of adrenaline started to leave my body. I had just seen a dead body, a corpse of what used to be a young seventeen year girl over twenty years ago. And for some reason, I couldn’t stop thinking about the shirt she had on.
“Seriously? Are you sure it was her?” Kasey asked, but not in disbelief; he knew we needed to be sure.
“I’m pretty sure. Looking at the body…she’s been dead for a long time. As morbid as it is, I actually took a few shots in case you wanted to see. Maybe you remember what she had on that day? I know it’s a long shot, but it has to be her.” I replied adamantly.
“Show me when we get back, but I want you to rest for right now; I’ve got things handled.” Kasey assured me that he had everything under control, reaching across the seat lay his hand on top of mine.
“Thank you,” I flipped my hand over and wrapped my fingers around his, “Thank you for coming to save me. My knight in shining armor.”
I started to mutter, feeling suddenly very tired, my lids heavy.
Kasey glanced over at me, a strange smile on his face as he squeezed my hand, “Don’t thank me; I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”
That made my heart skip a beat.
“Wake me when we get back.” My voice sounded soft and airy as it reverberated in my ears; sleep had almost won.
“Of course. Codladh sámh, Sage.”
(*)
The sun was starting to come up in front of us when I opened my eyes. We were turning down the side road towards the inn and I looked beside me to see Kasey steering with one hand, the other holding a coffee cup pressed to his lips.
“Did you seriously stop for coffee?” I grumbled, repositioning myself in my chair so my face wasn’t pressed against the window.
“I figured I’d do it in a place where no one would recognize us many miles back; it’s cold now, but I needed a little boost.” Kasey admitted, gesturing at me with his cup.
“I’m not trying to chastise you; I just don’t want anything to happen to you, especially while I’m asleep.” I grumbled, rolling over to face him as I undid my seatbelt.
“Hood up, sunglasses on. Bloke behind the counter was watching taped matches and barely paid me any attention anyway. But we are going to have to be extremely careful from here on out. If you really want to disappear with me, then we’re going to have to disappear until, if and when, we can clear ourselves of accusation.” Kasey tried to ease my concern, but reminded me of what I had committed to.
But I was committed.
“Then let’s disappear. You’re the expert, so what’s the plan?” I tried to show no fear.
Kasey pulled into the parking lot of St. Nick’s, parked, and then got out quickly before he rounded to my side and opened my door, holding out a hand to help me.
“Well, the first thing we need to do is get away from here. There’s been a lot of in and out from this place using the same vehicle and if the wrong someone were to notice, it could be bad; we don’t need to be ambushed. After what just happened to you, there’s clearly someone watching us and it’s most likely Ceartas, which is a story we need to discuss all on its own.” Kasey gently slipped an arm around me as I stepped out of the van, closing the door behind me before he led me to the front door.
“Noted. But where do we go? We can’t be too far if we want to stay involved in the case. Just like you were walking about town, that is still going to have to be done. We need a secure hideaway that’s in fairly close proximity to Saltgrove.”
“Honestly, I don’t know if there is a vacant house for us to squat in, and all the motels out this way are still full; I checked.” Kasey reminded me.
We didn’t get a chance to talk much more because as soon as we entered the church, we were greeted by Frank and a surprisingly enthusiastic Kacey.
“You know you’re going to have to go, right?” Was the first thing out of Frank’s mouth as I crouched down to hug my baby boy, letting him lick my face even with his stinky breath.
“I know. We need to pack and then I may need to borrow a car. You have any that are running?” Kasey asked him as the two broke away from me and the pup and walked towards the lift.
“Our truck may become a permanent fixture at Tommyknocker’s, boy; we’re going undercover. Do you want an alias? It could get confusing with two of you.” I just prattled away at the dog, forgetting that we were in a very urgent moment.
“Sage, come on! We need to pack things up.” Kasey hollered at me and I stood on auto-pilot, Kacey by my side.
I asked Frank to watch the dog so he didn’t have to climb the stairs and I went up to Kasey’s room, finding him already shutting down his computer and packing things up. Of course he’d have it down to a science if he had to move around a lot and without a moment’s notice.
I found my stuff mostly in its own pile, save for my toiletry bag and comb. I shoved it all in my duffle, including a growing wet bag of dirty clothes, and then went on to my laptop and its case.
That reminded me of something.
“Do you have Penny’s laptop?” I turned over my shoulder to ask Kasey as I zipped up my bag.
“Yeah, it’s in my bag. That’s part of what we need to talk about in regards to Ceartas. I found something that is beyond my scope of expertise and I’m hoping it’ll make sense to you. But try not to give it too much thought till we get settled again; we have to stay on track.” Kasey sounded slightly agitated, but I know it wasn’t at me. He was worried that we might be caught.
I was done packing in no time and told Kasey that I was going to take my things down first and then come back to help him with the rest. He waved me off with a thumbs up before he went back to taking things apart. I left the room and toted my things down the stairs, finding Frank in the sanctuary, feeding Kacey pieces of what looked like jerky.
“Oh, Sage, baby,” He tossed the last bit to the dog before hurrying over to me, “I packed you a little canine first-aid kit. It’s got the rest of his antibiotics, which he needs to take, extra dressings and ointment, a bottle of saline and one of rubbing alcohol, medical tape, extra sutures, and some cod jerky because he’s such a good boy.”
He handed me a reusable Saltgrove novelty tote that had everything described all wrapped up inside.
“Thank you, Frank. Can you be my uncle too?” I joked with a dry laugh, sad to know that we were leaving for an undetermined amount of time.
“Oh, doll, I consider you family at this point even though it hasn’t been as long as it’s felt. I just need you and Kasey to take care of each other. He’s used to this sort of stuff, but never with another person and you’ve never done it at all. There are going to be a lot of obstacles that will test you both: separately and together. Stay strong; I believe in you both.” Frank gave me oddly sweet, but completely random words of wisdom.
“Trust me—I won’t let anything happen to him. We’re closer than he’s ever gotten to this piece of shit and I plan to help him get closure, get me closure. We probably should have called the cops a long time ago; things got far too serious. But if it comes down to it, his safety is more important to me than anything.” I admitted.
I didn’t want to sacrifice anyone else, but I wouldn’t sacrifice him for anyone else. That would be my job.
“I expected no less from you.” Frank smiled before holding up a finger to gently wag, “I actually have a surprise for Kasey that I’ve just been waiting for the right time to reveal. You want to see it?”
He seemed rather excited, yet proud, as he continued to smile. I had this sense that Frank was concerned that if he didn’t give this surprise to Kasey now, he might never get the chance.
“Of course. I’d love to be in on the surprise.” I agreed with a genuine smile of my own.
Frank waved for me to follow him down the back hall and out the emergency door that I had escaped from nights before. He led me out into a mini junkyard of sorts, with old car parts, metal sculptors, and vintage relics. In the dark, I hadn’t noticed any of it, but I hadn’t been in the mindset to notice anything that night.
“So, I’ve had that old VW van since before Kasey was born, but he always loved it. It’s been a million colors will all sorts of stuff painted on it; I even used to let him and Fern have at it and they would draw all sorts of crazy stuff on it. Well, he assured me that one day he would have a van just like that except it would be equipped to live in and he and Fern were going to travel around Europe. They had it all planned out to take a year off before university and just see the sites. Obviously, that never happened, but—“ Frank paused as we came to a huge object hidden under a dark green tarp. He tore the tarp from the thing to reveal an old camper van that looked like it had recently been painted in a matte green that almost matched the tarp.
“I found this baby at an auction and actually had Tommyknocker’s working on it for a bit; there’s just some things I can’t do,” Frank went on, sliding the door open on the van so we could see inside, “But I had everything refurbished on the inside, reupholstered, new appliances, a solar panel on top, even a shower. I’d been waiting to give it to him, but until he showed up back in town a few weeks ago, I hadn’t seen him in years.”
“Well, now you can. I know this will mean the world to him.” I gave Frank a warm smile with a hand on his back.
“I hope so. Now, you need to get your butt back inside while I drive her around to the front; Kasey’s probably wondering where you got off to.” Frank gave me a little pat on the shoulder to shoo me towards the door.
I gave him a quick nod before I returned back to the staircase, finding Kasey with an armful of black plastic cases and an army style rucksack trying to maneuver down the steps. I offered my help and he gladly passed a few things along before we carried everything into the sanctuary. It looked like this was his second round of luggage and I wondered if it was the last.
“That’s all of it. I got the bigger stuff down first, but didn’t realize how many little things I thought we might need.” Kasey huffed as he set down the boxes, stacking them on top of one another.
“You think this is all going to fit in the boot?” I joked, knowing damn well that he would probably have plenty of room with his new house on wheels.
“I’ll just have to load it in from most important to least and if it doesn’t fit, it just has to stay behind.” Kasey gestured flippantly as he pointed at different containers, most likely counting to see if it was all there.
Frank came through the front door then with a set of keys in hand and stated, “Your car is waiting for you out front, sir.”
He bowed lowly with a mischievous laugh before he extended his hands, indicating that he would help carry our bags.
We gathered up as much as we could while still being able to open the door, and I made sure that Kasey was taking up the rear as we brought everything out to the curb.
“Your new luxury mobile home, sir.” Frank smirked as he bowed in front of the van, grabbing ahold of the handle on the sliding door before he pulled it open.
The expression on Kasey’s face was one of complete confusion that slowly developed into excitement and then quickly devolved into happy tears.
“You’re letting me borrow this?” He asked for clarification, walking over to stick his head through the open door.
Frank shook his head, a nostalgic smile on his face as he replied, “No, gorgeous; it’s all yours. You always said you wanted a van, so I found you one. Spiffed it all up over the years and thought now was the perfect time to give it to you. It’s all gassed up and just had a tune up a few months ago, oil changed, all that. As long as you can park it, you won’t ever have to worry about not having a place to go if things get too bad. Never again.”
There was context in his words that I was missing, but I figured I’d eventually learn. Now wasn’t the time amidst this beautiful familial moment. It was emotional as the two hugged and spoke quietly to one another while I stood there quietly with my bags, waiting for them to finish.
“Now, let’s get her loaded up and you two can get the fuck out of here.” Frank’s voice shook a little as he spoke, wiping tears from the corners of his eyes.
It didn’t take us long to get everything into the van, considering that Frank had it designed with a nice pocket under the kitchen nook-slash-platform bed for all of Kasey’s equipment and bags. We got Kacey into the van and settled in on one of the cushions from the dinette table before I hopped in the passenger seat. There were some tear-filled goodbyes between all of before we were finally able tear ourselves away from the St. Nicholas’ Inn.
