The Viking Seal

CHAPTER 31 - Just when You Thought . . .

When the detective named Tom arrived in the room where Arny was installed, he listened patiently to a plea to go to the hospital and see Gretta. He told Tom that the hospital would give him nothing over the phone, and she wasn't allowed any unauthorized communication with anyone.

Gretta's part in the affair was slightly more serious than Stone's. It was true, he had shot Declan, but in self-defence. Gretta on the other hand had to be restrained from choking Moira to death, even after things were under control. The detective listened with a sympathetic ear and then agreed to take Arny over, but could only stay for a short time and under observation; there would be no private meetings. Arny agreed wholeheartedly.

The moment they arrived at the hospital they knew something wasn't right. Tom seated Arny on a bench and ordered him not to move while he conferred with hospital officials. Word had gone out to the station while they were in transit, and a moment later Tom's partner and several uniformed police charged into the lobby, spreading out, weapons drawn.

Arny stood and began looking about frantically when he saw a nurse leaving the elevator do a one-eighty and hurry toward the exit stairs. For a second he stared curiously and then as she pushed through the door she looked back and Arny recognized her. Moira!

"Hey! Stop her!" Tom turned from the desk and glared at him, then in the direction he was pointing. "It's Moira! She's gone down the stairs!" Suddenly he realized that Moira was escaping from the hospital so she must have already escaped from the jail and the only reason for coming here was Gretta.

In a panic, he dashed across to the stairs ahead of an irate Tom, and through the same exit doors but upstairs instead of down after Moira. Arny exploded from the stairway onto the recovery floor right into the arms of two uniformed police. When he began shouting and struggling, they spun him around, forced him to the floor and handcuffed him.

He growled angrily and stared down the hallway, seeing the figure of Gretta rolling slowly toward him in a wheelchair, her face set in an expression of concerned pride.

"I'm okay, Arny," she managed, before she was wheeled behind him and he lost sight of her.

"You people have your own rules don't you?" Tom was hoisting Arny to his feet and glaring angrily. "I told you not to move. Your visit is over, bub." Tom turned to the uniform and told him to take Arny back to the hotel right then.

"But it was Moira! She went down the stairs, that's who I was chasing."

Tom turned when he heard his name called and watched his partner slide up to a halt in front of him. "She got away from the station. We found her guard unconscious in the interrogation room."

"I told you!" Arny struggled in the grasp of the two uniforms.

"Get her picture out and lock off all the main streets around the hospital. She's only been gone five minutes."

A nurse hurried down the hall waving her clipboard and shouting for security. Tom grabbed her arm as she passed.

"What's the trouble?"

"A patient on the recovery floor has been strangled and there's a policeman lying there too. I don't know if he's alive or not."

"Leave him and follow me," Tom ordered the two uniforms. "You stick with him and the girl, Dave."

"Can I speak with her?" Arny asked. Dave nodded and followed him over to where Gretta sat in a wheelchair.

"Exciting eh, Arny?" She grinned at his downcast features. "Can't get this kind of action in a Florida condo can you?"

"It's not funny, Gretta. Look at you. The doctor said another bit to the left... or right or whatever . . . you could be dead." He frowned at her, but his lips were trembling.