The Memorist

Chapter 79

Thursday, May 1^st-11:31 a.m.

“Thank God.” Jeremy Logan was enormously relieved to see Meer and Sebastian. His voice was weak and he was pale; there was no doubt her father was unwell.

“Meer, did they hurt you?”

“They? No. I’m fine but you should be in the hospital. Are you hurt?” She turned to Sebastian. “How are we going to get him out of here?”

He held up a key: old and worn and made of brass. Like so many other things related to this place, it looked familiar. “I have the key,” Sebastian said. “I was on my way down here when you rang the bell. Meer, you can stop worrying now. Everything is going to be fine.”

Meer took a breath, tried to relax. It was all going to be fine now that she and Sebastian were there.

Sebastian swung the cell open and Meer rushed inside to help her father, who had stood up but seemed to be shaky on his feet. Jeremy opened his arms to hug her and even though his grasp was weak, it reassured her that she’d found him in time. He really was all right. They could get him to the hospital now.

Jeremy looked over the top of her head to Sebastian. “What happened to you?” he asked, concerned. “Did they hurt you? I can’t remember anything after-”

“Dad, how did you get here?” Meer interrupted.

“Sebastian came to the hospital this morning and said you’d been tricked into coming here, thinking I was here and in danger but that it was a trap and that you were the one in danger. We rushed over together and almost as soon as we walked into the building I was knocked out. When I came to I was locked in this damn cell, not knowing where you were or what I could do to find you.”

Meer’s shivering resumed as she desperately tried to make sense of what he was telling her and comprehend its implications. Without looking for it, her father found her crescent-shaped scar and he rubbed her back.

“You took my father from the hospital.” Meer spun around and accused Sebastian. “Even though he’s scheduled for a procedure today you brought him here and endangered his life? What made you think I was in trouble? I don’t understand.”

“You haven’t been here all along?” Jeremy asked Meer. Now he too was confused.

“No, I was at the hotel when-”

The sound of the iron door closing shocked Meer into silence and the click of the key turning in the lock punctuated the moment. Meer and Jeremy looked away from each other and through the bars at Sebastian, standing on the other side of the cell.