Page 56 of The Burnt
Her eyes narrowed. “Fifteen. Maybe a bit younger.”
Charlie had an idea. He looked at his watch. They had time.
“Would you recognise him again if you saw him?”
“Possibly,” she said, nodding.
“Would you be willing to try and identify him? Now, I mean. School will be getting out soon, and I don’t know when I’ll next be getting back to Banff. It could be a clue that’ll help me find out what happened to Milo.”
It’s a long shot, but why not?
Jasmine smiled. “I can see why Mr Griffin hired you. Let’s go get our coats and maybe you can give me a ride in that car of yours.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Simon was uneasy when Jasmine told him that Charlie was coming out to interview her while he was away, but Simon knew she could be trusted not to reveal any of the secrets of Monarch Holdings—secrets that had been weighing on his mind a great deal lately. He’d decided that today’s business couldn’t wait any longer, just in case Harlen Feist rallied from his latest malady.
It took him almost two hours to get to his destination. A long line of cars had slowed to see a small herd of elk at the side of the road near the park boundary. Some people had even gotten out of their cars to get a selfie with the animals. Simon had sat in the traffic jam wishing the elk would gore one of them just to teach them a lesson. Their stupidity had added an extra twenty minutes to his journey.
It was a little after two when Simon finally pulled his rental Audi A6 into the parking lot of Calgary’s Tom Baker Cancer Centre. The car was the best the insurance company could give him while his beloved Bentley was being repaired. It felt like riding in a four-wheel insult. He was careful not to get road salt on Tom’s camelhair coat when he stepped out of the car. Simon wasn’t the only one who was precious about his belongings. He wrapped a scarf up around his face, and donned a pair of aviator sunglasses. He cursed as a gust of wind almost blew the fedora off his head. Simon normally bundled up in more practical clothing, but he wanted to make sure that if any of the staff was asked to identify him later, that the person they described would be dressed in Tom’s clothing.
Simon walked into the hospital and encountered a pretty young woman at the visitor information desk.
“Good day, sir. May I help you?”
“Yes… I’m here to see Harlen Feist. He’s having treatments of some sort and I was told that he was here. I assume he’s still, uh, ‘up-and-running’.”
“Up-and-running?” she asked.
“You know…heart still beating and all that.”
“Oh… Let me see.”
She plugged away at the computer for a moment. “Yes. Your friend is, as you say, up-and-running. Let me give you a map to show you where you can find him.”
She highlighted a route on a floor plan of the hospital and passed it to him.
“Thank you, my dear,” he said, then headed off to find Harlen.
When he finally managed to navigate the maze of hallways, he was surprised to discover that Harlen was in a semi-private room.He couldn’t afford private?As Simon walked through the door, he noted the other bed was currently vacant.Thank God.
Simon looked at the once-mighty Harlen Feist lying in bed, hooked up to countless machines. The disease had aged him. He wasn’t the fit seventy-year-old that Simon had remembered. His eyes were closed, but the heart monitor showed he still had a pulse.
Simon sat himself in the chair beside the bed. The journey into town had worn him out, and he shut his eyes preparing himself for the job ahead.
“How long have you been here?” a voice said, startling him.
“Not long. So… Nature’s given you a bit of a kick, has it, Harlen?”
“More than a kick. More like a full-body check into the boards.”
Simon nodded. He found these situations awkward. He was never sure what to say. “So, are they treating you well here?”
“Pretty good. At least the nurses are pretty to look at,” Feist said with a laugh that turned into a body-wracking cough.
Simon waited until Feist’s cough had calmed down, then asked, “Do you have everything in order?”
“Just about.”
