Free Wild by Tina Folsom Page A

It was strange to see him like that. He was maybe five years younger then and his face looked carefree and happy. Was this really the face of a maniac?
    I looked through more of the photos. It appeared they had taken lots of photos at that party, or maybe it was more than one seventies theme party. I knew that for a while after the movie Boogie Nights had hit the cinemas, theme parties were quite the rage.
    I pushed the drawer shut again. I had to go. After I finally found a tie, I used it to tie the jeans tight so that they wouldn’t drop down. I found my sweater in the bedroom area and remembered Vince had left my sneakers by the door. I put them on.
    As I stuffed my money into the jeans pocket I realized I didn’t know where my handbag was. I remembered I had slung it over my shoulder like a messenger bag, the way bike messengers did, so I knew the attacker couldn’t have grabbed it. And it couldn’t have easily fallen off me either.
    This meant most likely my bag was in the lab where he had treated me. I couldn’t leave without it. I needed my ID and my ticket to Des Moines. With a bit of luck I could exchange it for a ticket for another day.
    It wasn’t easy to navigate the stairs and consequently it took me longer than I thought to get to the lab. The door was unlocked. For the fact that Vince was a psycho, he was surprisingly trusting. Or had he thought I wouldn’t be able to make my way down the stairs due to my injury? Or maybe the pills he had left me were meant to knock me out while he was gone. Had he counted on me being in too much pain and therefore taking his pain killers sooner or later?
    Whatever the reason, I had no trouble entering the lab. There was a lab stool close to the door and I made use of it. I was able to roll myself around without difficulty. I saw the surgery table and realized this had been the place where I had woken up after the attack and first looked into Vince’s eyes.
    I spotted my bag. It lay next to the computer. I took it quickly, but the strap got caught with the computer mouse which moved. The screensaver which had displayed on the computer screen suddenly disappeared and a document became visible.
    I glanced at the screen briefly and was about to turn around when my name jumped out at me. I looked at the sentence which contained my name.  The blood test confirms Annette’s blood was infected with the serum. I couldn’t stop reading. I have not yet been able to confirm its molecular structure. There was more medical jargon which I didn’t understand. Dr. Entwhistle’s research turns more dangerous daily and if he is indeed doing what I suspect him of I have no choice but to stop him before he endangers more lives. Dr. Entwhistle was the doctor whose clinical trial I had participated in. I remembered his name now from the card I had given to Vince. I continued reading until I got to the last sentences. I can’t allow anything bad to happen to her. I have to protect her until it is safe for her to leave. I am still concerned about the irregular heart beat she presents with and am unsure as to the cause of it. I hope my antidote was not too late. The analysis of her blood should give me certainty in a few hours. I blame myself for not having caught Entwhistle’s serum earlier.
    I understood now. He was protecting me. Whatever he had found in my blood, he thought it was a danger to me. He had every intention of letting me go. He hadn’t kidnapped me, not in the true sense of the word, and he wasn’t holding me against my will.
    He was a concerned doctor who had discovered that another doctor was doing dangerous things, and he was prepared to stop it. I felt ashamed now for the thoughts I had harbored. In my mind I had called him a psycho, a maniac, a serial killer. What was I thinking?
    Was it the fact that I hadn’t eaten anything and my blood sugar was so low I had started hallucinating?
    He deserved my trust, not my suspicion. Had it been too long since I had met a