Crazy but Sweet, Sweet but Crazy

33: Just a job

The hospital security guard with a bread crumb on his mustache took up his mouse and started clicking away on the monitor at a speed perfectly apt for a meditation in the mountains.

The bed in Elliot's ward was empty, the sheets thrown onto the floor. Landon's room, too, was in a similar state.

Having Gerald stationed in front of Landon's ward had been as useful as having a church mice guard a cat.

He was knocked out for a few seconds by Landon, who immediately forced himself into Elliot's room.

According to a patient who was strolling along the corridor of the floor at the time, he saw the man taking the boy somewhere. That was all he saw.

It didn't take long for us to figure out that the two weren't in the hospital anymore.

Bianca, Ester and Noah who'd been hanging out at the cafeteria of the hospital, had also helped combed through all levels of the hospital.

And now, along with the doctor, Gerald and myself, the three of them circled around the CCTV screens in the security office with bated breath.

I bit my lower lip, a giddy rush of bewildering anger rushing up to my face, as the security guard took another pause to yawn.

But before I could say anything, Bianca warmly voiced, "Could you please hurry?"

The doctor with the blue stethoscope around his neck pursed his lips. "Would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Mr. White."

"Goodness. This is a regular hospital, and patients can just walk out when they want to..." The security guard mumbled, and then, clicked on the keyboard.

"There!" Noah shouted, pointing to the screen. "That's the two of them."

The resolution of the footage wasn't clear, but it was clearly Landon, all right.

With his large, bold steps, he was walking across the first-floor lobby of the hospital, and out through the glass doors. And walking behind him with a slight limp, barely catching up, was Elliot.

After scanning the surroundings of the hospital, Landon stopped short in front of the cab queue.

When a cab pulled in and the passenger stepped out, cutting the queue and barely sparing the people in queue a glance, he got in, and Elliot followed.

The cab drove off, with the several in the queue plainly showing in body language involving their fingers and arms, that they weren't exactly happy.

"That's all we have." The security guard switched off the recorded footage, and looked at the waiting piece of bread and cream cheese by his keyboard. "Can I have my meal now?"

Gerald, the doctor and I stepped out, Gerald with the ice pack a nurse had given him to rub against the bruise on his jaw. Judging from how it was only red, it seemed Landon had chosen to take a light punch. A shame.

"You know where they went, don't you?" I glanced at the watch, and leveled Gerald with a steady gaze. "It's only been about six, seven minutes since they left. Enough time to catch up."

Stoically, Gerald pulled out a blue handkerchief from his pocket, and wrapped it around the ice pack.

His hand was wet from the condensation droplets of the pack.  "I don't," he said, without even looking at me.

"There's something called traffic. It shouldn't be easy to trail someone all the time so easily just by following them on car. You probably have something tracking Elliot. Maybe something in his phone, his wallet. Anything. Something under or on his car, even?"