"Whoa, slow down." Beth held up her hands. "Who is trying to steal your lands?”
"The committee! They want to make my ancestral lands into protected lands, stealing them right out from under me, now that they know how much they’re worth!” He yelled, spittle flying from his mouth.
In a ridiculously calm voice, Carol asked, "How are they your lands?"
"There was a deal with my great-grandpa, years ago." His words were a torrent, eyes wild. "I have the papers, even though the town refuses to acknowledge them."
"Then, that should be easy to prove,” she told him simply.
His gaze swung back to one of the doors leading to hospital rooms. "Not with these crooks! These bastards! These thieves!”
Security managed to regain their hold, pulling the man down the corridor, his shouts still echoing long after the elevator doors closed. Beth exchanged a look with me, a silent signal to press on despite the chaos. The thing was, I was filing all that information away, just in case, because it seemed important.
As we continued down the hall, reading the numbers on the hospital rooms, I spotted two nurses at their station. Both looked beyond weary, with foam cups of coffee clutched in their hands, and bags in their eyes. They were shifting from foot to foot, as if they’d been standing all day.
Seeing the tired nurses, my heart went out to them. Their job was already hard enough without having to deal with jerks like that. Using a little of my magic, I stretched it out to the two women who looked like they wanted nothing more than to get off their feet. Nothing happened, but it would. I knew that. Sometimes karma worked on its own time.
Beth and I continued heading toward Nam Durgin's room, following the numbers on the outside of the doors to find our way since everything looked the same. When we reached it, we found that the door was ajar, so Beth put her face near the opening.
"Mr. Durgin?" Beth called out gently.
"Come in," came a voice from inside, surprisingly steady.
We stepped into the room to find three people there, Trudy, a strange man, and who we assumed was her husband, Nam. Nam Durgin was propped up on his hospital bed, white bandages wrapped around his chest. His short, white hair and equally short, white beard brought out the rich brown color of his eyes. His face was kind, but tired, and there were wrinkles at the corners of his mouth and eyes.
"Miss Ari. Miss Foxx." He smiled at Beth and greeted me with a nod. "Thank you for coming."
"Of course, Mr. Durgin." Beth pulled up chairs for us from the corner of the room.
Trudy stood by the window, her silhouette framed against the late afternoon sun. Beside her was the man I didn't recognize. Trudy turned, her face solemn but composed.
"This is Mestin Finespike," she introduced. "Mestin, this is Beth Ari and Emma Foxx. They are private investigators I’ve hired."
Mestin was one of those people who were instantly forgettable. He had brown hair, left a little long, brown eyes, and casual clothes. He was neither tall nor short, and I didn’t get a good feeling or a bad feeling from him. It was like he was a piece of furniture.
"Good to meet you." Mestin extended a hand briefly, which Beth and I both shook, before turning back to Trudy. He handed her a small, dark bottle, its contents obscured by the glass.
"Thank you, Mestin." Trudy took the bottle and placed it carefully on the bedside table. Then she picked up a suitcase from the floor and handed it to him.
"Everything's there," she said to him.
"A pleasure doing business with you, Mrs. Durgin," Mestin replied with a curt nod before slipping past us and out the door.
"Business?" Beth asked, an eyebrow raised as the door clicked shut behind him.
"Later," Trudy said with a dismissive wave of her hand, gazing fondly at her husband. "Right now, we need to focus on Nam."
Beth nodded, turning her attention back to Nam as well. "We'll do everything we can to figure this out," she promised.
Nam gave a grateful smile, his eyes flickering with a spark of something that might have been resolution or just a reflection of the afternoon sun. "I know you will."
We sat down in the chairs, and my gaze went to the man in the bed. "How are you feeling?”
"Not my best certainly, but I can talk,” he said quietly.
"But not for too long,” Trudy hurriedly said.
"We’ll make it quick,” I reassured her.
