The Delilah Complex

Sixty-Seven

Philip Maur’s wife was sitting by his bedside. The heart attack had been Thorazine-induced and had done only minor damage. She held her husband’s hand and wept silently, muttering the same five words over and over.

“I thought you were dead. I thought you were dead.”

Jordain and Perez stood in the doorway, finishing up their conversation with the doctor.

“We won’t stay any longer than we have to.”

“I’m going in with you, just as a precaution.”

“That’s fine,” Perez said.

“Do you know where you were?” Jordain asked after he and Perez had identified themselves and told Mr. Maur how happy they were that he was alive.

Phil nodded. “At her house,” he said in a hoarse voice. He licked his lips. Once, and then again. His wife handed him a glass of water. He drank from it slowly. All the way down.

Jordain was impatient but didn’t show it.

“You were at her house?”

“We were all at her house.”

“All?”

“Five of us. Tied up like…” His voice cracked and he started to cry. Damn. But he could no more stop the tears than he could let go of his wife’s hand.

“You and four other men. Are all of them dead?”

He shook his head. His shoulders heaved.

The doctor moved in, ready to stop the interview if the monitor showed any change in the man’s heartbeat, but the pattern stayed consistent.

“I know this is terrible, Mr. Maur, and we are very sorry to have to ask you to talk about what happened, but we need to find the house. We need to find the people who did this to you.”

Phil was shaking his head vehemently.

“Everyone is alive. Drugged. But alive…” A sob escaped. “I’m sorry…never meant to…” The tears flowed. His wife was staring at him.

Jordain figured that Phil was not going to say anything with his wife sitting there. He sought out Butler’s eyes and motioned to Mrs. Maur with a slight incline of his head. She walked over, gently took the woman by her arm and said, “Mrs. Maur, could you just come outside with me for a few minutes? I have some questions I need you to help me with.”

Once she was out of the room, Jordain took her place by Phil’s bedside.

“All that matters right now is finding out where you were. Where the other men are. So we can get to them in time. Do you know whose house it was?”

He nodded.

“What is her name?”

“I didn’t mean to…”

“There is time for that later, Mr. Maur. Right now, we need to know where you were and where those other men are being held.”

“I only know her first name. The name she used.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know if it was her real name. A lot of them didn’t use their real names.”

Jordain felt as if he were deep under water, struggling to get to the surface where it was light.

He wrote down the name that Phil gave him. Only a first name. Not much help. “Where was the house? Do you know that?”

“Somewhere in the country. Sorry, I was already groggy by the time I got in the car.”

“Do you remember how long it took her to drive you to the hospital?”

“No. It felt like five years.”