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| Page Seventeen |
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"How is he?" Chet Kelly anxiously inquired. Brackett folded his arms and frowned. "Right now, he's all worked up! Claims he has something important to tell the two of you. Gentlemen, it's essential that he remain as calm and as quiet as possible..." ICU's visitors nodded their understanding. So, Kel' pushed the portal to 602 back open and waved them inside, "One minute!" he allotted and let the door swing shut. Gage spotted his guests and practically shouted, "You guys have got to get back to that house! There's somebody hurt!" "Calm down, Johnny!" his partner pleaded. "Who's hurt?" "I don't know. It was kinda' dark. It looked like a man." DeSoto and Kelly exchanged knowing glances. They decided to humor him. "Okay, Johnny. We'll go back to the house and rescue the man. You just lie still and don't worry...he'll be just fine..." Gage gazed into his friends' faces. He could tell they didn't really believe him. "You don't believe me!" he exclaimed and tried to sit up. "You gotta believe me! He's layin' at the bottom of a SECRET stairs!" The ICU nurse shoved his antsy, all-riled-up partner back down on his bed. "We'd better leave!" DeSoto quickly determined and he and his fellow visitor began beating a hasty retreat. "No! Don't go! I hafta tell yah how to get to the SECRET passage! It's behind the bookcase! Mystery On Dobbin's Moor! Be careful! The bookcase is DEADLY!" John stopped shouting as the door swung shut. He turned to his tough nurse, "Let me go! I've got to make a phone call!" Brackett glanced up from the medical chart he'd been studying and gave Gage's guests an annoyed glare. "That visit went over well!" he sarcastically commented. "What was all the shouting about?" "That bump on the head must've scrambled his brains," Roy replied, "He saw a Late Late show about a month ago, and now he's hallucinating houses with hidden rooms!" The doctor cocked one eyebrow, "What did he tell you?" "Why?" "I don't think he was hallucinating. What exactly did he say?" Gage's guests glanced at each other again. Kelly went first. "Well, he said there was somebody hurt back at that house." "Yeah," DeSoto chimed in, "He said it looked like a 'man'." "Then he said something about a secret stairway and a secret passage," Kelly concluded. "I think you should check it out!" John's doctor advised, speaking in dead earnest. "I examined Johnny just before you went in there. He was completely mentally alert. And," he paused,"he's covered with bruises... like the bruises one would get from falling down a flight of stairs. Now, Chet claims he didn't fall down the stairs he was watching...so...maybe he fell down a hidden stairway?" |
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Roy remained skeptical. But Kelly was beginning to come around. "It would explain a lot of things," he was forced to admit. "What things?" DeSoto wondered. "Well, the call for instance. Remember? It came in MAN down...unknown type rescue. And, Johnny had to get to the first floor somehow...and somebody had to phone the call in...It would also explain why they couldn't find his helmet!" "That call has been bugging me all night!" Roy remarked and started striding off in the direction of a phone. Brackett and Kelly followed along. Roy picked up the receiver and dialed a number from memory. "Los Angeles County Fire Department Central Dispatch," one of the dispatchers answered, "May I help you?" "Yes. This is Squad 51. I need to speak to the person who answered an emergency call at around eleven. The call was to 213 East Morrow Drive." "Standby, 51," the dispatcher acknowledged and placed the call on hold. Two minutes later, a woman came back on the line. "Hello?" "Hi. This is Squad 51. Did you receive the call from 213 East Morrow Drive last night?" "Yes. Why? Did it turn out to be a hoax?" DeSoto stiffened, "Why'd you ask that?" "Some hysterical woman called, screaming something about her husband finding a secret passage in her brother's house. Can you imagine? A secret passage?" Roy slammed the phone down. "Tell Johnny I'm sorry I ever doubted him!" he requested of Brackett, before tearing off down the hospital corridor with Chet hot on his heels. They skidded to a stop in front of the elevators and DeSoto hit the DOWN button. "L.A., Squad 51," he spoke into his HT. "Go ahead, 51..." "L.A., we have a silent alarm at 213 East Morrow Drive. Request an ambulance and Engine 51's assistance." "10-4, Squad 51...213 East Morrow Drive... Two-One-Three East Morrow Drive... Ambulance and Engine 51 responding... Time Out...2:13" Kelly caught the Time Out time and turned to DeSoto, wearing the oddest expression on his moustached face. "2:13? How weird is tha-at?!" The elevator arrived and swallowed them up, before Brackett could catch the paramedic's reply. The physician managed an amused snort and decided to go deliver DeSoto's message. He turned around and ran smack dab into his father. "Don't you ever sleep?" the senior Dr. Brackett queried lightly. "Dad! What on earth are you doing here at this hour?" "Attempted suicide. 604. What about you?" "Concussion. 602. Since when do you get called in for a psyche consult?" "Since I volunteered my services in the--in your E.R.. Since when do you get called in for a concussion at, " Brent paused to glance at his Rolex, " 2 a.m.?" "Since I left standing orders to be notified whenever any of my family members or close, personal friends come through the doors." "Then...you'd be called in...for me?" his father tentatively inquired. "Twice!" Kel assured him, with a wry smile, "You made BOTH lists!" The younger Dr. Brackett's smile broadened into a grin, and he disappeared behind the door to ICU Room 602. Brent Brackett chuckled and then vanished next door, into 604. ---------------------------------------- |
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**************************** From: 'Katherine Bird' <kathbird@hotmail.com> Subject : [emergencytheaterlive] For Whom the Tome Tolls. Date : Sunday, December 15th, 2002. 23:22:09 GMT Roy and Chet beat the Engine to 213 Morrow Drive and got out. They shed helmets onto the squad's roof, knowing that they wouldn't be needing them inside. Chet was bouncing with more than just professional urgency. Nervousness was making him babble. "I don't know what you think I can do once we find him in there Roy. I'm not a paramedic." Chet whined, taking drug, IV, and the splint box from the side compartment as they hastened to gather all they would need. Roy afforded him a wry look. "You got two arms and know how to use a resuscitator. That's all you need to know if CPR's needed. I can handle the rest until the Engine gets here. It's been a half hour, no doubt Johnny's replacement has already reported in. He'll be coming with the Ward and the gang, sitting in your spot." "True enough. I wonder who was sent as Johnny's replacement.." DeSoto snatched up the defibrillator, short 02 case, the biophone and two hefty hand held flashlights. He freed one hand long enough to thumb his HT. "L.A., Squad 51. On scene." "10-4, 51." "L.A., what's Engine 51's ETA?" Before L.A. could answer, Cap's sleepy voice piped in over the open frequency, punctuated by background sirens. Roy could hear gears shifting at a rapid rate as the LaFrance wove through the late night traffic. "Squad 51, our ETA is four minutes!"Cap replied immediately. "10-4, Engine 51." Roy said. ::Man, Mike must be breaking all speed records to get here.:: Chet and Roy hurried to the front porch landing with all of their equipment. The full moon had settled over the trees, making the neatly fire station gang weeded stone path, invisible, but Roy and Chet already knew the front garden sidewalk's curves by heart. Kelly asked a question. "Just what did the dispatcher tell you about this potentially injured guy?" he panted, as Roy and he pushed opened the front door with their hips and rushed into the main entrance hall. |
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Chet could still see the wrappers they had left behind from Johnny's nasal cannula tubing Cap had used on him and from Marco's left over bandaging on the oriental rug by the stone bench. Roy immediately got his bearings and started running up the main staircase to the second floor of the vast, dark Victorian mansion. They both returned to the library at the head of the stairs. "Chet, it went like this. Dispatch said Margaret, the lady we found, is Fajou's sister and that it was she who called in last night's run on her husband, Norman. Dispatch thought her nuts when she started yelling about him being lost in a secret passage.." "So that explains the mismatched gender on the call; Man down, when we found a woman. " "Yeah.." Roy said., hurrying even faster. Chet said. "She must've panicked, trying to find him. Don't blame her. These are number one grade A creepy surroundings, man." If she freaked, she could've fallen and hit her head easily." "That's what I'm guessing." Roy said. Fireman and paramedic plunked down all of their gear on the carpetting in the dark library and both immediately went to the rows and rows of ornate bookshelves, seeking out one title that Gage had embedded into their minds so urgently.... Unconsciously, they turned protectively back to back to each other, and turned in place eyeing the wall to wall book shelving all around them with their flashlights. Chet whistled, "Man, where do we start?" "Anywhere.." Roy licked dry lips, but smiled when he heard the sounds of Engine 51 approaching. He lifted his HT. "Squad 51 to Engine 51. We're in the library." "10-4. There in one.." Stoker acknowledged. |
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Roy turned back to a twitchy Kelly. "Johnny said the title of the book that activated the passageway's door read,..The Mystery On Dobbin's Moor.." Chet and Roy fell mute when thousands of books met their sight. And most of them were almost too dusty to read. "And I promised myself I'd never come back here.." Kelly said, "That's what I get for having an overactive curiosity about this house. We'll never find it in time, Roy.. Geez, the guy's been lying alone for hours. He might even be dead already." "Yeah, well. Third time on a run to the same location's always a charm. I prefer to think positively." Roy grunted. "Now, let's start shedding some light here. Literally." DeSoto jogged back to the door they entered and found a long velvet pull cord set into the ceiling. He pulled it and electric lights in Victorian glass lamps brightly illuminated the room. "Let's assume Johnny didn't climb that book ladder to find it, and that he only looked at something at eye level. He was looking for his helmet that he had set down. So it makes sense he wouldn't have been looking anywhere over our heads." he sighed. Then he paused, thinking... "Chet, where exactly did we find Margaret on the floor, I don't remember. I was too focused on making sure she was still breathing to recall." Chet shrugged and paced to the place. "Right about here.." he gestured. "Next to the desk, like this.." and he laid down on the floor to show Roy how she had been positioned. Roy place his feet next to where Chet's shoes lay and turned, looking at the desk. He found hand prints on the mirror and a blood stain where Margaret's head had impacted its edging. "Her lump was on the left occipitally, so she had to be facing this way.." Roy turned to his right, "...when she fell against the desk." Chet got to his feet. "Look!" he shouted, aiming his flashlight's beam. "A larger hand print!" he said pointing it out on a dusty tome immediately next to the mirror. "That's got to be Johnny's. It still looks fresh." Roy "It is..There's the title we've been looking for." Roy's hand was just about to pull it when 51's engine crew and Paramedic Craig Brice rushed into the room loaded with wall cracking equipment. Cap rushed to their sides. "Any luck yet?" "Right here, Cap." Roy said. "We found the triggering mechanism. Johnny said it was disguised as this fake book here." "All right, stand back." Captain Stanley ordered. "If that bookshelf's opening mechanism malfunctioned enough to shove Johnny down a flight of stairs, it'll still be malfunctioning. Be careful. Things like this usually rotate on a counter weight balance." |
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Click the Defibrillator to Goto Page Eighteen :) |
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