Page 7 of Silos and Sabotage

The doctor’s expression remained grave. “I’m not going to sugarcoat it. When our Jane Doe arrived, she had a near lethal dose of xylazine in her system. She’s in bad shape.”

“A horse tranq?” Blood boiling, Gage’s hands flew to his head. No wonder her pulse had dropped so dramatically after only a few sips of water. If she’d drunk the entire glass, it would’ve killed her.

“I’m afraid so.” The doctor’s voice grew resigned. “Not sure if it was accidental, attempted suicide, or what. We’re doing everything we can to offset the symptoms, but this is the part where we pray for a miracle.”

In other words, she might not survive. And if she didn’t, she would be the second death under mysterious circumstances tied to the Bolanders.

That I know about.As diligently as Gage had been investigating their family after hours, this was not the kind of evidence he’d been hoping to gather about them. The woman in the ER, who was no longer able to breathe on her own, didn’t deserve to leave the world that way. Nobody did.

“I take it you haven’t yet figured out who she is?” He watched the medical personnel continue to scurry in and out of the curtained-off area, wishing there was something he could do for the woman fighting for her life on the other side of it. She’d been so soft and lovely, so animated one moment, then snuffed out like a candle only seconds later.

“That is correct.” The doctor held out a heavily wrinkled, folded piece of paper. “Since you’re the one who found her, you may already be aware of what she had in her pockets.”

Gage shook his head.

“This.” The man waved a crumpled and folded piece of paper at him. “Along with a bottle of anti-rejection meds and just shy of a thousand dollars in cash. We locked up the money for safekeeping, of course.”

“Anti-rejection meds?” Gage frowned at him as he reached for the folded-up piece of paper.

“For an organ transplant,” the doctor explained. “From the location of her scars, it could be the liver, pancreas, small intestine, or even a kidney. I’ve put in an order for some imaging to try to figure out what’s going on, just as soon as we get her stable.”

Man!As if the woman didn’t already have enough on her plate! There was no way of knowing if the organ transplant would reduce her chances of survival, but Gage was speculating that it would.

“A thousand dollars is a lot of cash to travel with,” he mused. From her dusty, bedraggled appearance, he would’ve never guessed she was carrying that much money on her.

“That it is.” The doctor watched him unfold the piece of paper.

Gage frowned as he studied it. His first thought was that it looked like some sort of treasure hunt. It was a map of all the major towns and interstates traversing the southern half of the United States. A big dark circle was inked across Corpus Christi. From there, a series of dotted lines had been drawn in a somewhat disjointed path to what had once been Ft. Benning, Georgia. It had since been renamed Ft. Moore.

He was fascinated to note the hand-drawn shield that represented the seventy-fifth ranger battalion. It was the same unit he’d served in. The dotted path continued from Ft. Moore, back across the southern states in a slightly different route to Heart Lake, Texas. The X’s on the first leg of the journey were more smudged and faded than the X’s on the second leg, making him think they were older. The only other thing that jumped out at Gage was the fact that he’d traveled a similar path a year ago from the state of Georgia to the state of Texas.

Correction.He’d traveled the exact same path.

His gaze narrowed on the individual cities circled. Whoever had drawn the map had made the same stops he had — for gasoline, meals, and a few hours of sleep at a rest area before continuing his trip the next morning. It was as if the owner of the map had been tracking him!

He replayed his conversation with the Jane Doe right before she’d passed out.

How’d you know my name?

Her response had caught him off guard.

I’ve been looking for you.

Though he still didn’t have the faintest idea why, their lives were connected somehow, and not just because of his personal digging into the background of the Bolanders.

He withdrew his cell phone. “Mind if I take a picture of this?”

The doctor waved a hand wearily. “Knock yourself out. I’d be mighty grateful if you’d help us track down her next of kin before it’s too late.” He paused before continuing in a quieter voice, “Assuming there’s anyone to track down. We haven’t received any calls about her. Nothing.”

“We’ll do our best.” Gage snapped a few photos. It was unfortunate that no one had come looking for her yet. “Have you shown this to the police?”

“No. I was hoping there wouldn’t be a reason to,” the doctor sighed. “But if no one shows up to claim her soon…”

“I’ll do it,” Gage offered, folding the map and handing it back.

“I’d appreciate it.” The doctor waved the folded map at him. “We’ll stick this in the bag with her clothes and money.”

An hour or so later, Jane Doe was pronounced stable enough to transfer to an intensive care ward, where she remained unconscious and fully intubated. She wasn’t out of the woods yet.

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