chapter 161

word count: 1319

without so much as a word from boa,, the driver knew exactly where to take her.. the escalade meandered down some pretty rough looking streets before it came to rest in front of a large warehouse turned loft space.. under armed guard, boa exited the escalade,, slipped her pass key into the digital lock on the warehouse door and stepped into the dimly lit entrance way to the safe house..  

accompanied by manny,, her driver, and the cleaner that went by no other name,, they made their way up the scantily lighted staircase, where the driver nodded to boa, signifying that was the apartment the good doctor was being held in.. 

with a flourish in her walk,, and a smile on her face she entered the elaborately decorated loft space,, where she saw kevin stretched out on the italian leather sofa, asleep, as he awaited her arrival.. 

“wake up sleeping beauty!” she said as she prodded him with her sealskin handbag.. “time to get down to business here..”

kevin rousted,, surveyed his surroundings and then sat up.. “what the fuck is going on here boa?” 

“when you didn’t show up at the prescribed meeting,,  i sent one of the boys over to collect you.. i told you when you so forcefully cajoled me into meeting with you that i had a prearranged meeting, and therefore i had no time to come around and collect you myself."

“but jeez,, was it necessary to have the idiot drug me? you know i would have come along peaceably,, after all it was me who wanted to meet with you,, not the other way around.” kevin said as he rubbed the irritated injection site on the back of his neck..

“the idiot,, as you so deftly referred to him, said he found you on the floor of your office, quite disoriented.. tell me about that..”

boa took a seat there by giving the impression that she was truly concerned about what had happened to cause him to miss their meet up at the recovery room.. 

“ok.. let me start at the beginning here,, as it is all rather convoluted,, and even i am not quite sure exactly what lead up to that woman lying me out in my office.."

boa checked the time on her cell impatiently.. “can we just get to the point here??” she goaded him on.. 

“it all started with an emergency surgery i did this afternoon.. a kid was admitted in acute abdominal distress,, and the x-rays pointed to a foreign body located in the stomach.. everything looked rather routine,, till i opened him up,, and found the source of his distress was a fucking diamond ring.. and i am not just talkin’ your mama’s wedding ring here,, i am talking a rock!!”

“get to the point kevin,, i haven’t much time..” boa instructed him,, careful not to show any interest in the diamond what so ever.. 

“ok,, so since we were short staffed,, it was only me and gina, uhm, nurse o’houlihan in the o.r.  at the time,, well there was of course the anesthesiologist,, but he was so busy monitoring the patients vitals,, that when i announced the mass was inconsequential,, he took little or no note of what we had actually removed from the kids stomach..”

boa sighed loudly as if to emphasize the fact that this whole reenactment was boring her to death, as kevin continued. 

“so gina and i, realizing we had something amazingly valuable on our hands,, and no one was any the wiser, informed the family that the mass had been removed,, it was nothing of any consequence and the patient should make a full recovery..”

“and what may i ask does any of this have to do with me?” boa feigned agitation..

“well i sent gina off to pick each of us up an overnight bag,, with instructions to meet me at the recovery room at 7:15.. at which time i would have you and your cleaner there,, to eliminate her  from the whole scenario,, thus leaving you and i in possession of the diamond..”    

boa replayed the parking lot scenario,, and wondered if the woman the cleaner had disposed of was this gina, of which kevin spoke.. 

“well what happened after that is still a bit  confusing.. i dropped the diamond into a bottle of mercurochrome that i use as a paperweight on my desk thinking it was safer than keeping it on me,, and then wanting to maintain my usual schedule so as not to raise any red flags, i went for my post shift run.. when i got back, i was met at my office door by some british journalist,, or at least she said she was a journalist,, hot little number too i might add,, who said she was doing a story on effect the emergency surgery i had performed that afternoon had on the family,, and said she wanted to get my take on the situation..”

boa made every effort to impress upon kevin that she was clearly getting pissed..  she glared at him giving him the impression that this whole scenario was a total and complete waste of her time,, yet was inwardly rejoicing in the fact that she had possession of the bottle of mercurochrome,, and no one but her was any the wiser..

“long story short,, this little brunette job,, choked me out,, took the bottle of mercurochrome containing the diamond and left me on the floor,, which is evidently when your guy came into the picture,, spiked me,, and the next thing i knew,, i was here,, coming out of a funk."

“so then the whole story ends with you no longer in possession of the diamond,, and some brit looker  on the loose with it.. i fail to see where i fit into the picture..” 

“i am telling you boa,, this thing is a rock.. it’s worth millions if it is worth a dime.. the only other person that knows about it is gina.. we still need to take her out of the picture, so that when we locate the brit, the stone is all ours..”

“when??” questioned boa sarcastically. “don’t you mean if?? for all we know this little sweat meat has already boarded a plane with your precious rock and is on her way out of the country..” 

“well if anyone can find her,, it’s you, boa.. and believe me when i tell you it would be well worth your time and trouble to do so.” kevin attempted to stand,, found his legs still unable to solidly hold his weight,, and sat back down on the couch.. 

boa stood up,, “and this gina?? where can i locate her??”

“837 rockwell apartment 412.. if she’s not there she might have gone back to my apartment to wait for me since i never showed up at the recovery room.. she’s gonna be on edge,, but i think if you tell her i sent you,, she will be just greedy enough to follow you wherever you want her to go..”

“alright then,, i’ll look into it..” boa muttered as she headed toward the door,, and without so much as a glance back in kevin’s direction,, exited the apartment. 

she was met in the hallway by her driver,  manny,, and the cleaner who stood at the ready.. 

“manny, bring the car around.” she barked,, and he jumped into action..

“and you,” she said as she made direct eye contact with the cleaner,, ”this one,, and the skank.. get rid of them both,, they will be of no further use to us.”

secure in the fact that the cleaner would not only follow through on her direct order but also do so in such a way that would never implicate her involvement in any way,, she had just one loose end to tie up..

 gina o’houlihan,, and she would see to that little trifle on her own..