Lost And Found

"Pedro? Pedro who? Who's Pedro?" Peg asked, puzzled.

"You know Pedro, Charlie's gofer at the dealership. His odd job man and errand boy."

"You mean Pete? I always called him Pete," Peg said.

"So you thought since you recognized Pete or Pedro driving the truck that I had it out for you? That's quite a leap!"

"Yeah," Robert said. "And then a few days after I came back into the world from my coma and was beginning rehab, Pedro came up to see me in my hospital room. He apologized for hurting me. He said he was only supposed to run me into the ditch and ding me up a little, so Charlie would have time to get you into bed. But he forgot how far that big rear view mirror stuck out, and when he saw how it had hurt me, he headed for the hills. Charlie was really pissed at him - he was enough of a friend not to want me injured - just not enough of a friend not to fuck my wife.

"Pedro told me that while I was out for my ride, Charlie was taking you up the stairs to fuck in our own bed. I knew then that you were lost to me.

"He left after that. After that might be when you first felt some distance from me. But I tried to shrug it off and convinced myself that Charlie and Pedro were just messing with my head so he could have you."

"Robert, you have to believe me when I tell you that Charlie tried, but he did not succeed in luring me to bed that day," Peg said, softly. She could not tell him how close it had come.

"Well, maybe not. But a few days later, just as they were setting me up to go home, Pedro came back. He said that having tasted the forbidden fruit, you and Charlie had decided that you needed to be together, and needed me out of the way. Pedro said he had a car outside and a bag packed for me, and that we should get out of there as quickly as possible. 'I feel bad about hurting you, Señor Stevens,' he said. 'I don't want Charlie and your wife to hurt you any more. Come with me and let me take you to a safe place.'

"I was too confused from my concussion to put up a fight, so I went with him.

"We walked out the back door of the hospital and got into his car and he drove me for two days until we got here, and then he pulled over by a homeless camp and stopped. He gave me an ATM card and a piece of paper with a PIN on it, and told me there would always be some money in the account. 'Buena fortuna, mi amigo,' he said, then pushed my suitcase out of the car and drove away.

"That was the last I ever heard from anybody in my old life. I think Mary has filled you in on what my life has been like since I've been here."

Peg and Lisa sat there with tears running down their faces. "That bastard!" Peg growled. "I've been sleeping with that no good son-of-a-bitch for seven years! God, what a fool I've been."

Lisa gently touched her arm. Robert had turned his head away and his mouth was fixed in a scowl. Mary stared at her with a shocked look.

Suddenly she realized what she had said. "Oh God, Robert, I'm so sorry. I didn't know. You were gone, I was lonely, he was persistent ... I resisted as long as I could but finally I gave in."

"And then the guy I innocently called 'Uncle Charlie,' the guy who stepped in to fill the gap when you were gone, the guy who drove Laura and me to soccer and was Laura's date for the Daddy-Daughter Dance, moved into our house and began acting like husband and father," Lisa said, through tears.

"Daddy, you have to believe, we didn't know. Mom loves you so much, and was so distraught when you were hurt, and then when you disappeared, she would never have betrayed you in the way you've been imagining all these years. We all were fooled. We thought Charlie was being our friend and helping us through a crisis. We had no idea."

Peg turned to Mary. "Thank you for trying to fill the hole in Robert's life, and being his friend and confidant," she said. "It gives me a little bit of comfort to know that he had such a dear friend to help him through this nightmare."

"Believe me," Mary replied, "Bobby has helped me and the others more than any of us could have helped him."

At that point it was evident that fatigue had overtaken Robert and he needed to rest. His good hand went to his forehead as if he was trying to squeeze the headache out of his head. Mary and Lisa invited Mary back to the hotel for lunch, and this time she accepted. She was dressed in some of the new clothes Peg had bought for her, and after she and Lisa spent a few minutes in the ladies' room with the mirror and some make-up, she felt presentable.

They were shocked when they walked into the hotel to see Charlie, Pedro, and a Latina woman they did not know sitting at the lobby bar, enjoying drinks together. Charlie and the woman seemed to be very familiar. Pedro seemed to be enjoying a taste of the high life.

Lisa started for their table. "I'm going to go kick that no-good motherfucking sonofabitch in the nuts," she said, through gritted teeth.

"No, wait," Mary said, grabbing her by the arm. "They don't know me. You guys go back out and come in the back door. I'll go grab that table next to them and try to hear what they're saying."

Peg told her the room number and told her to charge a beverage to the room, then come up when she had something to report. "Take my phone and see if you can record them." She showed Mary how to start video recording, and how to aim the camera.

****

Mary had spent the last several years living among desperate people. Some desperate for food, some desperate for drugs, some desperate for human companionship. Many who just desperately wanted to be left alone. She was not prepared for the conversation she heard from the next table.

"I've put up with this shit long enough," Charlie said. "I've played Bob's best pal, I've played Peg's consoling comforter, I've played surrogate daddy to those entitled bitch girls. I am ready to cash in and cash out."

"So, what do you want to do?" Pedro asked.

"I want Bob to suffer an unexplained medical reversal and die. Then I want to marry the grieving widow, who will have a terrible accident. I'm willing to share the pot with the girls. I like them, and if I play it right, I might even be able to fuck the younger one."

"Nice, pendejo real nice. And I'm sitting right here," said Maria. "When you're fucking the wife and fucking the daughter, think you'll have enough left for me?"

"Don't worry, Kiddo. I'll always have enough for you. And Pedro will get a nice reward too, if he doesn't fuck it up this time. Christ, it was supposed to be a simple swerve and run; cheating wife, adultery divorce, and then rolling in dough. Instead it's been this endless charade."

"I'm sorry, boss, but these are nice people. I don't like this." Pedro was nervous.

"You don't have to like it. If you want to share the pot, you have to take care of business."

Mary had heard all she could take. As she stood up to leave, she bumped the conspirators' table, spilling their drinks. Her aim had been good, and Charlie's drink went in his lap. "Oh, I'm so sorry," she said, as she bumped into Maria's chair.

****

"We have to get Bobby out of the hospital and to a safe place," Mary exclaimed as she rushed into Peg's hotel room. "They're going to kill him!"

"Wait - what did you say? Charlie was his best friend. Why would he want to kill him?" Peg was incredulous. In spite of what Robert had told them, she still had trouble grasping that Charlie was a bad guy.

Mary handed her the phone. "Play the recording," is all she said.

****

"Maria, why don't you come to my room and help me out of these wet clothes?" Charlie said as he stood up after having the drink spilled on him. "And Pete, why don't you go look things over at the hospital and see how we can go about helping Robert out of this vale of tears."

"What of tears?"

"Never mind, come on, Maria. I haven't been laid in almost two weeks. Pete, give your sexy 'sister' and me a couple hours to be nasty with each other."

****

Peg's blood ran cold as she watched the video on the phone. Lisa cried quietly. They were appalled to realize just how thoroughly they had been conned. Lisa spoke first: "I'm going to kill him. He wants to kill dad and sleep with my little sister? Isn't going to happen."

"I let the bastard into my bed. I never thought ... oh God, what a fool I've been. And all this time Robert has been sleeping on the ground because he thought I had fallen for this monster."

"Sorry, girls, no time now for feel-bad." Mary saw she needed to take charge. She was finding that interaction with people from the 'real world' was emboldening her, and sharpening her wits. "We can kill people later. Right now we need to protect Bobby." Peg and Lisa looked at her with surprise. Mary grinned back at them. "Hey, I'm crazy, but I'm not stupid!"

She looked at the phone. "Is there some way to print a picture from that?"

"I could if I were at home with our printer," Peg said.

"Let's take it to hospital Security and see if they can do something with it," Lisa suggested, pulling herself together. The women grabbed their purses, and headed for the door.

At the hospital Peg and Lisa went to find Security. Mary headed straight to Robert's room, her knife hidden under her clothes. He was asleep when she got there, so she moved the chair closer to the door so she could block the path of anyone who didn't belong there, then took up guard duty.

In the security office Lisa explained who they were and asked for protection for her father. She showed the chief of security the video to back up her story, and asked if they could make copies from the phone to show the faces of the suspects. Working together with an IT guy they transferred a screen shot that clearly showed all three faces to the hospital's network, to be sent to monitors on all floors with a "be on the lookout" message.

*****

By the time the women had reached the hospital, Pedro had finished his walkthrough. He had paced off the distance from the nurses station to Robert's room, and had spotted security cameras and blind spots. He resisted the impulse to chat up a particularly pretty nurse, because he didn't want to call attention to himself. He reckoned that if he could get a janitor's outfit or orderly's scrubs, with his Latino appearance he could become invisible.

He walked into the hotel room to find Charlie happily fucking Maria from behind. She was bent over the side of the bed, naked and panting. "Hey, Pedro, come take my place here for a minute," he said. "I have to piss."

Pedro dropped his pants and in a swift move replaced Charlie's cock with his own. He went to work with enthusiasm. Charlie grinned and told Pedro, "Trading that old Navigator to you for Maria was the best deal I ever made."

"Stealing her from that 'coyote' at the border was the best move I ever made," Pedro replied with a wink.

Maria didn't blink as Charlie came back from the bathroom and stuck his cock in her mouth. Charlie and Pedro got into a push-pull rhythm that had Maria rocking and swaying. She was loving it, but the men didn't care. She was there to provide them pleasure, and she did.

While they pumped away, Pedro briefed Charlie on what he had learned at the hospital. "If we go to a uniform rental place and get me a janitor's suit and a nurse's scrubs for Maria, one of us can get close enough to shoot something into an I.V. or disconnect something."

"Okay, first thing tomorrow we find a uniform store. Oh, that feels good," Charlie grunted as he shot cum down the willing Latina's throat.

"Me too," said Pedro, as he came in her pussy. The two men stood together and waited while she licked them both clean, then instructed her to get them drinks.

****

Meanwhile, Peg and Lisa went up and joined Mary in Robert's room. As they reported on their success at Security, Robert stirred and moved as much as he could. "What's going on?" he asked, "a convention?"

"Sweetheart, as soon as we can get those bandages off your eyes, we need to get you out of here - you're in danger."

"I knew that as soon as I heard your voice," he replied, bitterly.

"Bobby, honey, you've had it all wrong. It's Charlie, he's the one behind all this." Mary told him, taking his free hand. "Peg and Lisa and I are going to protect you and make sure nothing happens to you. But we need to move you to a safe place, where they can't find you."

"I'm not really in any shape to walk out of here," he commented, dryly.

"I have an idea," Lisa chimed in. "I thought we'd move him to the hotel," she said to Peg and Mary. "But better still, let's have the hospital transfer him to a rehab facility. We can keep the location secret and he can get the PT and OT he needs to get strong. Dad, when does your doctor usually come by to check on you?"

"Hell if I know, I haven't seen a clock since I got here," he joked. "Usually after breakfast, and then I suppose it's afternoon, before he goes home."

"Has he been here yet this afternoon?" Peg asked.

"Not unless it was while I was sleeping."

"I'll go to the nurses station and tell them we need to talk to the doctor ASAP," Peg said, walking out to the corridor. As luck would have it, Robert's doctor walked up just as she arrived. She asked if he had seen the security alert, and he said he had. "It's Robert they're after," she told him. "Can we get him moved to a rehab facility where they won't be able to find him?"

"Yes, but it takes a while to make all the arrangements."

"Can we move him to a different room in the hospital? Someplace they won't think to look?"

"Let me check on that."

An hour later a small army of medical and transport staff moved Robert to a private room in the birthing center of the hospital. Security was provided by a retired cop dressed in scrubs, and by Mary, who again took up a post just inside the room. Somehow, nobody had yet discovered and confiscated her knife. Anyone going to his former room or calling on the phone would be told he had been discharged.

***

Next morning Pedro and Maria, wearing their rented costumes, went separately up to Robert's old room. Pedro passed by working a broom in the corridor, then went back down the stairs. "Nurse" Maria checked at the nurse's station. One of the real nurses was about to tell her where he had been moved, but noticed she was not wearing an ID badge. "I don't know you, where's your badge?" she asked. Maria started to feed her a story about having lost the badge when the nurse saw the security message and photo pop up on the computer monitor.

"Wait right here, I need to check on something," she said, and stepped to the other side of the pod. When Maria saw her reach for a phone she panicked, and walked briskly toward the elevators. The nurse hit the speed dial for Security, and alerted them to watch for her getting off the elevator. Maria walked into the arms of a security guard as she stepped off at the lobby, and was hustled to a holding area to wait for police. Coming out of the stairwell, Pedro saw her being hustled off. He slinked out the door and headed for his rental car, then called Charlie.

"He's gone, Boss, and security grabbed Maria."

"What do you mean he's gone? Where did he go?" Then, "Shit! They'll discover Maria's here illegally and ship her back to Mexico. I've had my last sex with the slut. You better get out of there before they spot you," Charlie said. "Come back to the hotel and we'll try to figure this out."

Pedro walked into Charlie's hotel room to find him sitting at the desk with his laptop. "I bet they spotted Maria because she didn't have a badge," Charlie said, as Pedro looked over his shoulder. "I did a screen grab from the hospital website and got a logo. I'm making myself a badge. It won't be perfect, but it should pass if nobody looks too closely."

"It's worse than that, Boss. They have our faces on all the computer monitors all over the hospital."

"Shit shit. How did they do that?"

"I don't know. I just caught a glimpse of it as I passed the nurse's station on the way out. It looks like it was taken when we were sitting in the hotel lobby."

"That means Peg knows something. We're screwed. When I go after Robert I'll have to wear a surgical mask, like a doctor."

"Why go after him now? And how do you find him?"

"He has to die. Maybe I can convince Peg I haven't done anything, and the plan can still go forward. Either way, I'm tired of supporting my old pal Bob. He needs to meet a tragic end. Maybe we will sue the hospital for a bundle.

"That leaves finding him. We'll lay low here and watch for Peg. She has to come back here sometime. Then I'll let her lead me to him."

The next morning, Charlie followed Peg as she drove away from the hotel. Instead of going to the hospital, she drove 10 miles in the opposite direction, and parked in front of a rehabilitation center affiliated with the main hospital. She walked slowly toward the front door to be sure that, if she had been followed, she'd be seen going in. She walked briskly through the lobby and down a corridor leading to an exit in the rear. As she walked out the door she glanced back to see Charlie just walking up to the front. Satisfied that he had not been able to see her leaving, she closed the door and got into the little nondescript sedan Lisa had rented earlier in the morning. Charlie was at the front desk trying in vain to get a room number for Robert as they drove away, this time headed straight to the hospital.

Lisa dropped Peg at the door of the birthing center, then drove on to the airport to pick up her sister. Laura had managed to arrange things with the school so she could break away early. She'd be taking her last two finals online from OK City.

When Peg got to the room she saw that Robert was awake and Mary was still at her sentry post by the door. "Have you been up all night?" She asked Mary, concerned.

"Yes. I think I might have nodded off a couple of times, but not for long."

Peg handed her some money. "Go get some breakfast. I'll take over for a while."

Mary hesitated, but hunger and fatigue prevailed, and she stood to go. "Here, you better have this," she said, handing Peg the knife. "It isn't very big, but it's sharp." Mary pointed out the plainclothes security officer in the corridor, and walked off toward coffee and food.

Peg greeted Robert and told him about the astonishing events of the past 24 hours.

"You were so right about Charlie," she finished. "I am ashamed that I let him fool me so completely for so long." Robert just nodded.

"Tell me about the ATM card, Robert. How does that work?"

"You mean you don't know? I always assumed you were behind it, paying me an allowance to stay away and leave you two alone."

"Oh God, Robert. It kills me that you could think such a thing. No, as far as I knew you disappeared into the mist one day and I never knew where or why. Or when or if you would come back. So tell me about the card."

"The day Pedro dropped me by the side of the road here he gave me the card and the PIN, and told me there would always be some money there. When I went to use the card I found there was $1,000. I used money sparingly and tried not to get the balance too low, but eventually it got down to $200. Next time I used the card it was back up to $1,000. From then on, whenever I'd draw it down to $200, it would get recharged back up to $1,000. I figured you had enough pity for me in your heart to make sure I didn't starve."

Tears rolled down Peg's cheek. It wasn't only what he was telling her, it was how he spoke with no emotion. No anger, no sadness, no bitterness, just empty.

She reached over and hugged her long-lost husband. "I love you, Robert. I can't believe how cruel and selfish that guy I thought was our friend has been to both of us. He won't get away with this, I promise you. I don't know how long it will take or what I will have to do to convince you that I had nothing to do with this treachery, but I will never stop trying."