The Wolf Code

Chapter 10

Mark pushed the wheelchair down the quiet hall and into the room as the man in the chair went through the motions of walking his feet lightly across the polished linoleum floor.

“How did I get into the wrong room?” Eric Wise asked in confusion.  “I thought I knew which room was mine.  I hope Hannah can find me when she comes to visit today.”

Mark let out an exaggerated sigh. 

“Hannah saw you before you ended up in the wrong room,” he lied, his voice animated as if he were talking to a toddler.  “It’s not night; it’s morning, and you need to get a little more rest before you start the day.”

Eric looked around the room, his muddled thoughts confusing him even more as he looked around the gray room and tried to make Mark’s words make sense. 

“It feels like nighttime,” Eric insisted.

“You know that you can’t trust your brain after the stroke,” Mark said.  “You’re all turned around.  I’ll have to order a CT scan soon.  There must be something going on.  It’s not like you to get confused about which room was yours.”

“Oh my.  You might be right because I don’t even know how I got in that room.  Do you know how I got there?”

“No, Mister Wise.  I sure don’t.”

Mark parked the wheelchair beside the bed and helped him get up.  The left side of his body was completely dead, his mouth drooping on one side and his speech slurred despite the articulate way that Eric spoke.  Of all the stroke victims in this wing of the nursing home dedicated to long-term rehabilitation, Eric Wise was the best off.

 At least he knew his name and where he was.  And there was a chance, however slim, that he would be able to go home someday.  Not that Hannah would be there to greet him, but he didn’t need to know that.

His memory was still shot, and Eric was aware that he forgot things.  It would be easy to convince him daily that he’d forgotten Hannah’s visit.  Anyone who happened upon the man asking about Hannah would assume that he was senile and think nothing of the missing teen. 

It was the perfect plan, and now that Mark had helped the Sheriff with the acquisition of Hannah Wise, he hoped the Sheriff would leave his family alone.  They didn’t want any more trouble, and Mark had a young cousin he wanted to protect.  The Sheriff had convinced him that helping him get Hannah would keep his cousin safe, but now that it was done, Mark was having second thoughts.  The guilt was eating him alive, and he was beginning to wonder if his actions would actually protect his family, or if the Sheriff was just using him.

Mark helped Eric into the bed, reassuring the man again that Hannah was fine and would be in to see him that evening. 

When he closed the door, and left the man alone in the dark room, he breathed a heavy sigh, but he found no relief.

“What have I done?” he whispered under his breath in despair. 

He fought back the panic and the self-loathing.  Hannah had no one, and it was only a matter of time before her father died, too.  She was practically an orphan.  It wasn’t like anyone would miss her.

He tried to convince himself that he was right, and that was how he really felt, but he knew that he was fooling himself.  Hannah’s life was as important as anyone else’s, and he would pay for his part in whatever happened to her.  Maybe not now, but in the next life. 

If there is a next life, he amended. 

He sure hoped that there wasn’t, or he would have a lot to answer to.  Whether he’d wanted to or not, Mark had been a part of more disappearances than he cared to admit, and he didn’t see an end in sight.  He was trapped, and the only way out was to get out of town and take his family with him.

That wasn’t going to be an easy feat, especially without telling them why they had to leave.

He looked at the clock, relieved that his shift was almost over.  Maybe he would go home and convince his aunt and mother that they should all take a vacation.  He had money in the bank thanks to his finder’s fee for Hannah.  It was blood money, but at least it would get his mother, aunt and his sweet cousin out of harm’s way.  When they were out of town and somewhere safe, he would tell his mother and aunt why they’d left.

He was sure that he could convince them to stay away if they only knew how much danger Ellie was in staying here.

Hopefully, he would be able to convince them that he was serious. 

Mark watched the clock until the next shift came in, then he took his leave, leaving a sealed note on the desk for his supervisor.  In it was his resignation.  He left no forwarding address for his last check.  If they didn’t deposit it directly, that was fine.  He had nearly one hundred thousand in the bank, courtesy of his work with the Sheriff.  One paycheck wouldn’t make a difference either way, and he wasn’t about to come back into town to pick it up.  It was too risky.

Satisfied that he’d made the right choice, he gathered his things and left for the day, saying goodbye as he always did so he didn’t arouse the suspicion of his coworkers.  In two days, when the supervisor came back from her days off, his coworkers would be blindsided, but they would suspect something when he didn’t show up for work the next day.  By then, Mark would be long gone.  And Glen Rose, Texas would be nothing but a distant, painful memory.