“I know you’ve gone through a lot today but it’s important that you work with us. Besides getting shot, you arrived with cold-exposure injuries to your toes and fingers. Your toes especially showed signs of first-degree frostbite.”
Elle tried to look at her toes but the blanket hid them. “I can’t…”
“You might not feel them, but I promise, they’re still there. You’re a very lucky lady. Any longer and you could have lost them. We treated the blisters and you should regain feeling in them when the painkillers wear off, but we don’t want them to wear off too quickly, do we?” He pulled a pre-filled morphine syringe and alcohol swab packet from his pocket.
“Don’t,” she protested. “I can’t be here. I have to go.”
“Right now, the only thing you have to do is rest. Your body has been through a lot. It needs time to heal.” He uncapped the syringe. “Do you think you’re up to talking to the police and telling them what happened?”
She shook her head and mumbled gibberish, closing her eyes.
“I’ll tell them they have to wait until this morphine wears off a little bit.” He injected medicine into her IV and she instantly felt heavy.
I need Ice.
Chapter Fifteen
Ice kept his head down as someone walked past him. The jacket was wet from the rain, but he didn’t care. His thoughts were elsewhere.
Elle. She’d been so weak, so pale, so covered in red. If he were to unzip the jacket, he’d see her blood staining his clothes.
Ice hoped she would be all right. He needed her to be all right. If she died that would be on him. Though, he might never know her fate.
Elle would not like him talking to strange men, but he had no choice. He needed guidance around the city, and news of the aspirin thieves had spread through the Denver street people. One had even made reference to a blue man being involved. Ice glanced at his off-colored hands. His skin had finally changed from blue to more of a brown-tan.
“Yeah, man, my cousin was there. Said he saw one of them. Said he was painted from head to toe with blue paint,” the man had said before billowing an interesting-smelling smoke from his lips. His brown pants were stained at the knees and his t-shirt had holes in it. “Very hippy, man. I bet they were like saving babies or something with it.”
The woman with the smoker had insisted the aspirin thief was just a stupid criminal, and that the cousin was a liar because there was no way the robber was blue. The news would have reported that. The two bickered a little over the details, but in the end, the woman had been a little more helpful in pointing him in the direction he needed to go to find the pharmacy in question.
He looked up at the sign, Junior’s Pharmacy, and knew he was in the right place. The building was where the woman described it—next to a blue dumpster with a bright orange happy face painted on the side.
Ice tried to look at the building from all angles before going toward the door. He detected none of the fighters who’d attacked them. He walked in and looked around. The small store had rows of bottles and boxes. The cracked floor tiles were clean but discolored in spots. Seeing a man in a white coat behind a glass shield, he approached him. The man was much shorter than Ice, and he could see the top of his gray head more than his downturned face. The word “pharmacist” was scrolled across the chest.
“Can I help you?” The pharmacist did not look up.
Ice placed his hand on the counter a little too hard to get the man’s full attention. “I am looking for the men who took your aspirin.”
At that, the pharmacist looked up at him. “Excuse me?”
“I need to find the men who took your baby aspirin.” Ice didn’t move his hand.
“Are you some kind of private investigator?” The pharmacist shook his head, turned back to what he’d been doing and finished jotting down a notation before moving toward a shelf.
Belatedly, Ice lied. “Yes.”
“I can’t help you. They took some cases of aspirin, that’s all. I reported it to the police because insurance doesn’t pay out unless there’s a report, but other than that, there isn’t much call to find a couple of whack-a-doodles when generic baby aspirin isn’t exactly the narcotic authorities care about.”
“I must find them. They are my brothers,” Ice said.
“So you’re not a private investigator?” The pharmacist put down a container and came back to the window.
“No. I am a man looking for his brothers. They need help.” Ice had no idea if honesty was the best route, but he didn’t have any experience lying to humans to get information.
“You do resemble them.” The man nodded. “Listen, I get it. My son has the same struggles with addiction. He’s a good kid, but those demons are hard to fight.” He leaned closer to the speaking holes in the glass and said, “Your brothers didn’t hurt anyone. It’s like I told that news reporter. They were the politest criminals I’d ever seen. One even apologized and said he needed it. I don’t know what they were planning on doing with that much baby aspirin, or if they were confused, but my insurance covered the theft.” He reached beneath the counter and held up an envelope. “Three days later, I found this shoved under my back door. It’s filled with cash. I have no idea what the writing on it means, but I can only guess it’s payment for the cases and the candy bars. Honestly, if that is the case, this is more than they were worth. I can’t think of anyone else who would want to give me money. I haven’t been sure what to do with it because I don’t know where it came from.”
Ice leaned closer to the glass. “May I see the writing?”
The pharmacist glanced at his hand and moved his fingers aside. “It’s just some symbol.”
