The Butterfly Forest

SEVENTY-TWO

The next day I drove to Memorial Hospital. Elizabeth had already been discharged and was waiting for me. She was sitting in a wheelchair in the patient pick-up area with an orderly standing next to the wheelchair. I parked and walked around the Jeep to greet her. She stood and hugged me. “If feels so good to breathe fresh air. It feels so great to be alive, to have a second chance.”

“Let’s get out of here.” I opened the door for her.

I drove through the parking lot just as a white Ford van pulled up behind us. Two men were in the front seat, both wearing dark glasses. The man sitting on the passenger side had a phone to his ear.

Elizabeth smiled. “Thank you for coming to get me. I so want a long, hot shower and a change of fresh clothes.”

I pulled out into traffic and got in the far right lane. The van stayed two cars back. I turned right, the van followed at a distance. I couldn’t tell if the man was still on the phone.

“The doctors and nurses were truly wonderful,” Elizabeth said. “Once they figured out I hadn’t tried to kill myself, it’s amazing how more dedicated they seemed at making sure I got better. Sean, you’ve been so quiet. Are you okay?”

“Is your seatbelt snug?”

“Yes, why?”

I watched the traffic light go from green to yellow. “Oh, I thought I’d take a little detour about… now.” I swerved across three lanes of traffic and cut through a Seven Eleven parking lot.

“Sean! What are you doing?”

“Hold on.” I looked in the rearview mirror. The driver of the van tried to change lanes but was stuck in traffic as the light changed from yellow to red. I drove fast in the opposite direction, cut down a side street, came out to an entrance onto I-4 and headed north.

Elizabeth turned in her seat to look behind us. “Is someone following us?”

“Not anymore.”

“Call the police!’’

“Tell them what?”

“That we’re being followed!”

“I lost the guys in the van. How good are the police when they were ready to write off your near comatose event as a suicide attempt when it was attempted murder?”

Elizabeth was quiet.

“Look, you really can’t go home, at least not yet. I’m not sure how safe you’d be staying at your girlfriend’s house. Also, you can’t put your friends in danger.”

“I have nowhere else to go.”

“Yes you do.”

“Where?”

“You can stay on my boat?”

“Your boat?”

“You’ll have to dramatically downsize. Jupiter’s only 38 feet long. She’s got two comfortable beds and a large shower with plenty of hot water. Ponce Marina is the epitome of a neighborhood watch. The docks are locked at night.”

“That’s so thoughtful of you to offer, but I can’t keep the restaurant closed too long. Although that’s the last place I want to be right now.”

“It’s just for a few days. Most of your customers know what’s happened in your life. They’d expect for you to be closed for awhile.”

“I don’t know what to do. Besides, I don't have anything to wear or my make-up and stuff. Obviously, you don’t pack when you’ve been poisoned.”

“If this Mexican family believes Molly told you something, anything that could tie Izzy Gonzales to the drug operation and Molly and Mark’s deaths, you aren’t safe.”

“I’m tired of feeling afraid.”

“I know you are. You’ll be safer with Dave and Nick looking in on you”

“Where will you be, Sean?”

“In and out.”

“Does out mean you’re going back into the forest?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t want to lose you, too.”

My cell vibrated. It was Dave Collins. “Sean, I’m watching the local news and the reporter said that, in Luke Palmer’s bond hearing, the judge set it at a half million dollars.”

“That’s better than being held on no bond or a million dollar bond.”

“Indeed, although I doubt that Palmer has friends or family that could qualify to make bond on half a mil.”

“I’m betting exactly that.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m betting it won’t be Palmer’s family, but rather the Gonzales’ family.”

Dave was quiet for a long moment. “If that happens, Palmer’s a walking dead man.”

“I’m buying a GPS tracker tomorrow. Can I borrow your satellite phone?”

“Of course. Where are you going to need that?”

“The heart of a dark forest.”