Page 20 of Running Scared
He sheepishly combed his hair and took a breath.
“Better?”Dean asked as he disposed of Bailey’s towels in the laundry bag where Bailey’d thrown his scrubs and lab coat before he’d jumped in the shower.
“Infinitely,” he replied.“Now, are you going to tell me the plan?”
Dean nodded, throwing the satchel over his shoulder.“Before you freak out, I talked to Sarree, your friend, while she was stitching up my arm—”
“Stitching!”
Dean sighed and cupped his cheek.“Please, Bailey, you can’t afford to freak out about a cat scratch, okay?I’m trying to keep things practical, but, well, I think you stumbled on something dire, so let me finish.”
Bailey swallowed and nodded—and recalled that Dean said they hadn’t much time.
“Go ahead.”
“She’s got you on leave—and because she said you never clock in, it’s leave that startedyesterday.She’s got plausible deniability that you were ever here, and since she was frightened too, I told her to stick with that story.You were never here, she was never in the crib looking for you.Do you understand?”
“Good,” Bailey said through a roughened throat.“I-I would have worried about her.”
“Me too,” Dean said, his expression—had he known it—tender.“She’s your best friend here, Bailey.I’m not stupid.I wouldn’t let her twist in the wind.”
Bailey gave him a small smile.“Thank you,” he said again.
“Don’t thank me yet.It’s going to be a long hard day, and it’s going to start with getting the hell out of here without being spotted.We’re going to assume they’re still here—”
“They are,” Bailey said in a rush.“I saw them as I was coming back to shower.I made eye contact—”
“Did they recognize you?”Dean’s voice pitched, and Bailey knew then—reallyknew—how much trouble he must be in, because Dean sounded panicked now, and Dean, to Bailey’s recollection, had never even soundedruffled.
“No,” Bailey said, shaking his head.“At least I don’t think so.I just kept walking and they kept walking, talking together—”
“What did their voices sound like?”Dean asked quickly.
“Very Russian,” Bailey told him, frowning.“And they were dressed very… East Coast sharp, if you know what I mean.Texas oilman, but cheaper suits, made out of wool, and shoes that were way too shiny.Wing tips.”
“Wow, youdohave a good memory.Anything else?”
“There was a big guy—like,gorillabig—and he must have been the one who stabbed Vlade, because he left his coin.”
“Hiswhat?”Dean asked, grabbing Bailey with almost uncomfortable force.
“His coin—Ouch, Dean, that’s some grip!”
Dean released him promptly.“Oh God.I’m sorry, Bailey, but this is really important.Did youseethe coin?”
“Well, yeah.In fact, here.”He grabbed the comb and went to his locker, because matching the comb to the toiletry kit suddenly seemed like the thing he’d been needing to do all his life.That done, he reached into the toiletry kit where he’d put the coin, neatly placed in a specimen bag, now smeared on the inside with dried blood from the coin.
Dean’s eyes almost bulged.“Perfect.Oh my God—perfect.Okay, I need you to keep that until we can give it to Marcus and have him sign off on it.But first, leave everything here—”
“Buttoothbrush!”Bailey protested.
“I’ve got your home kit packed,” Dean said, and Bailey stared at him.
“I barely had time to take a shower!”
“Your text arrived at a fortuitous time,” he said.“Now let’s go!”
“Fortuitous time?”Bailey asked, but he was following Dean out the door, thinking if Dean had missed anything—razor, toothbrush, comb—it could probably be picked up at the nearest 7-Eleven or Walgreens.“There was a fortuitous time for me to find a dead body and have to hide under the bed in the crib?”
