Left for Dead

51

7:00 P.M., Monday, April 12

Tucson, Arizona

Detective Rush had been gone only a few minutes when the first reporter showed up at PMC. Hearing raised voices in the hall outside Rose’s room, Sister Anselm went out to find a reporter, backed up by a cameraman, attempting to interview Connie Fox.

“What’s going on?” the nun demanded.

Connie nodded in the reporter’s direction. “What should I do?”

The reporter stepped forward and held up her ID for Sister Anselm’s perusal. “My name is Abby Summers,” she said. “I’m with the FOX affiliate in Phoenix. Someone who knows I’ve been following Rose’s story for years sent me a tweet about it—a tweet from someone named Jasmine—claiming that Rose had been found and was being treated here.”

In her head, Sister Anselm replayed the telling glance that had passed between Jasmine and Lily Ventana when Detective Rush had been explaining the need not to go public with Rose’s situation. It seemed clear that even then the cat was already out of the bag. Sister Anselm also knew that if one reporter was here, others were bound to follow. And no telling who else. So if the strategy of keeping quiet wasn’t going to work, maybe it was time to do the opposite. She thought it might be time for a media circus of her own making.

“I think you should go ahead and tell Ms. Summers the whole story,” Sister Anselm said decisively.

Connie Fox’s eyes widened. “All of it?”

“All of it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure,” Sister Anselm said. To the reporter, she added, “I think doing the interview right here in the waiting room will be fine.”

As the reporter and cameraman moved into position, Sister Anselm set out on a brisk walk through the hospital, looking for something that didn’t fit. She found what she was looking for in the next wing over when she walked past a man pushing an enormous floor polisher.

She looked at the man, smiled, and nodded. When he ducked his head and looked away, she knew. This was the guy.

One of the terms of sale between the nuns of All Saints and the doctors who created PMC had been a written agreement that, wherever possible, the hospital would make use of workers from a nearby sheltered workshop that was also operated by All Saints. Developmentally disabled adults from there did much of the hospital’s grunt work, from the laundry to routine janitorial functions. One glance was enough to tell Sister Anselm that the guy pushing the floor polisher wasn’t developmentally disabled.

She stopped off in a restroom long enough to dial Bishop Gillespie’s number. “I need some help,” she said when he answered. “I want an anonymous but urgent tip to go out to every media outlet in both Tucson and Phoenix.”

Bishop Gillespie had a reputation for being well connected inside the law enforcement community, but his media savvy was just as extensive. “About?” he asked.

“I need a flash mob of reporters here at PMC as soon as you can drum one up. Tell them that Rose Ventana, a teenager from Buckeye who went missing three years ago, has been found outside Tucson. She was the victim of a vicious assault and is currently receiving treatment at Physicians Medical Center.”

“Are you sure?” Bishop Gillespie asked. “This doesn’t sound like you.”

“I’m sure,” Sister Anselm said. “And I need those reporters here ASAP.”

She made three more calls before she left the restroom. The first one was to Detective Rush. “Where are you?” the nun asked.

“I just dropped Al off in Vail and I’m on my way back to Phoenix. Why? What’s up?”

“I think we have a problem. There’s a guy here running a floor polisher in the wing next to Rose’s. I think he’s a ringer.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean he’s someone who’s pretending to be an PMC janitor who isn’t an PMC janitor.”

“Do you think he poses a danger to Rose?”

“I don’t know for sure, but I think it’s a very real possibility. Enough that I think we need her out of the hospital immediately.”

“All right,” Detective Rush said. “I’m on my way back to the hospital right now.”

“No,” Sister Anselm said. “I want you to go straight to the All Saints Convent. It’s on San Pedro Road. The entrance is on the left, about a mile and a half beyond the hospital. Ask for Sister Genevieve. She’ll know what to do.”

“But—” Detective Rush began.

“Please,” Sister Anselm urged. “Just go. I’m working on a plan to smuggle Rose out of the hospital, and I need to make two more calls.”

The next call was to Sister Genevieve. The one after that was to Dr. Lazlo. When she left the restroom, the floor polisher was still working his way down the corridor. Once again, she smiled at him as she passed. Once again, he looked away. By the time she got back to the hospital’s main lobby, the first Tucson-based camera crew was already arriving on the scene.

Thank you, Bishop Gillespie, she thought.

Outside Rose’s door, Abby Summer was finishing her interview. As the second crew came down the hallway, Sister Anselm motioned for them to stop. “Mrs. Fox will be doing interviews one at a time on a first-come, first-served basis,” she announced to the woman leading the charge.

“Not a press conference?” the reporter asked.

“No,” Sister Anselm said. “Individual interviews only.”

And the longer they take, the better.

Sister Anselm nodded encouragingly to Connie Fox on her way past. She hadn’t told Rose’s mother what she was planning, for fear she wouldn’t be able to carry it off. Right now she was better off not knowing.