Chapter Three
“Here we are,” Kinzer said as they walked through a parking garage, heading into a hospital.
They’d spent the day after Kinzer’s tryst with his contact driving to Houston. Then they’d rested the night before pursuing Kinzer’s lead early the following morning.
“What makes you think this guy knows where Veylo is?” Maggie asked.
“Because he helped Veylo dispose of me… at least for a little while.”
They walked along a path that led around the hospital, to the visitor entrance.
Though Kinzer had given her pieces and clues, he’d never explicitly explained their association.
They entered a room on the fifteenth floor.
A man lay in the bed on the opposite wall, his face disfigured, lopsided, the flesh appearing to have spent a few turns in a microwave. He wore an eye patch and appeared to be enjoying a peaceful sleep, one that he surely deserved considering his state.
Kinzer closed the door behind them.
What could Kinzer need from this guy?
He walked around the bed and sat in a chair beside it.
“Hello, Jerry,” he said softly.
The man stirred, turned to him. He opened his mouth to speak, but only made a faint wheezing sound.
Maggie felt bad for him. What had led to him becoming so horribly grotesque? A car accident?
“Or is it Carl?” Kinzer asked.
“K-k-k-” Jerry, or whoever this guy was, stuttered.
“Been looking for you,” Kinzer said. “Wasn’t that easy to track you down. Guess you’ve had a lot of aliases over the years.”
Jerry looked at Maggie, his expression seeming to plead with her, “Help me!”
Had Kinzer mutilated him? Surely not. And yet, it wouldn’t have surprised her if he had. Kinzer had a darkness within him. Something angry, brooding. Something waiting to lash out. He did a good job of suppressing it, but she pitied any creature that stirred the aggression within him.
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking…” Kinzer said, “… been trying to find someone and it occurred to me, I didn’t end up in that place for no reason. No. You know something.”
“N-no,” Jerry said, his words nearly indiscernible as he spoke through half of his mouth.
Kinzer smiled. He seemed amused by the man’s response.
“Come on, Jerry. You expect me to believe they just randomly picked your place, out of all the places in the world they could have put me?”
He nodded, a patch of loose flesh that hung from his neck shaking.
Kinzer chuckled.
Maggie was disturbed by a sadistic gleam in Kinzer’s eyes. What was he thinking? What was he planning on doing to this poor man?
“I don’t know!” Jerry exclaimed.
“Well, Jer… I can’t say your fate is much better with me if you don’t tell me.”
“Look at me. What else can you do? I’ve got nothing. You know what those guys did to me? You know how pissed they were? They were like animals.”
