Roses Are Red

Chapter One Hundred and Nine

The strangest thing happened the following morning. As Szabo was passing me in the hall, he rubbed against me. He managed to look flustered and he apologized for supposedly 'losing his balance," but I was almost certain he had done it on purpose. Why? What the hell was that all about?

About an hour later, I saw him leaving the ward. I was pretty sure he knew I was watching him go. As soon as he was out, I hurried to the door.

"Where's Szabo going?" I asked the aide who'd just let him out.

"PT. He signed out. Szabo has full grounds and town. He can go wherever he likes."

He had been vegetating on the ward for so long that he'd caught me off guard. Tell the head nurse that I had to leave," I said.

"Tell her yourself," The aide frowned and tried to blow me off.

I pushed past him," Tell her. It's important."

I let myself off the unit and took the rickety and temperamental elevator down to the lobby floor. PT was physical therapy, and Frederic Szabo hated the gym. I remembered reading it in his nursing notes. Where was he really going?

I hurried outside and saw Szabo skulking across the courtyard between hospital buildings. Tall and bearded like the physical description we'd gotten from Brian Macdougall.

When Szabo walked right past the gym, I wasn't surprised.

He was on the move!

He kept on going and I followed. He seemed kind of nervous and skittish. He finally turned his head in my direction and I ducked off the path. I didn't think he'd seen me. Had he?

Szabo continued on and walked through the hospital gates. The street outside was filled with traffic. He walked due south. Not a care in the world. Was this the Mastermind?

He hopped into a cab a couple of blocks from the hospital. There were three of them parked in front of a Holiday Inn.

I hurried to one of the other cabs, got in, told the driver to follow.

The driver was Indian. "Where are we going, mister?" he asked.

"I have no idea," I said. I showed him my detective's badge.

The driver shook his head, then he moaned into his hands. "Oh brother. Just my bad luck. Like the movies -follow that cab."