Collateral

Rose takes out her phone and calls Mrs Smith.

Mrs Smith answers. “Hello? Who is this?”

“It’s Rose. I am here with Stephany.”

“Ok, can you come upstairs?” Mrs Smith asks.

“No, I am in waiting room A103. Can you come downstairs instead?”

“What is going on Rose?”

“I’ll explain everything when you get here.” Rose replies.

“I’ll be there in a minute.”

“Thank you,” Rose says.

A doctor walks to both of them. “Hi, I’m Doctor Jones. You must be Mrs Griffith.”

“Hello, doctor. It’s Miss Griffith. Never married.”

“Is this your daughter?”

“No, she isn’t. But her Mom will be right here.”

“If you don’t mind, I already take her to be prepped for the scan. I do need a parent to sign off before we start the scan.”

“That’s all right.”

Stephany takes off her coat and places it on the chair. She then follows the doctor into the other room.

“Is she going to be ok?” asks Ellie.

“Yes,” Rose tells her. “Stephany is going to be all right. Don’t worry.”

“Mom?” Ellie asks.

“Yes, Ellie.”

“How did you know her dad was abusing her?” Ellie asks.

“I don’t know, But I knew something was wrong.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s hard to explain. It’s just that I had this feeling that something wasn’t right. But I couldn’t figure out what it was.”

Ellie stared at her mother. “Mom?” she asked.

“Yes, little angel?”

“Why don’t I have a dad? Why do other children have a dad and I don’t?”

Rose looks away. “He died in a car accident when you were very small.”

Ellie looks down. “Is that why I never remember him?” she asks.

Mrs Smith enters the room. “Rose, what is going on.”

“Stephany is with the doctor now. She had quite the black eye, I was worried she might have a head injury.”

Mrs Smith shakes her head. Rose notices she has more bruises than she spotted this morning. Some are fresh, but others were older.

“I am sure she was fine, you shouldn’t have had her checked out.”

Rose sighs. “Better safe than sorry. Is your husband going to be ok?”

“Yes, he will be,” she spits out the words, as it hurts her to speak them.

“I know he hurt you. And your daughter.”

Mrs Smith bursts out crying.

“I tried to get away from him for years. But he told me he would kill Stephany if I ever tried to leave him. I made plans to leave him and tried to hide it, but he found out yesterday night. He hurt my little girl, right before my eyes. It is all my fault. I couldn’t protect her.”

Rose doesn’t know what to say. Ellie walks over to her and hugs her.

“I’m so sorry,” Rose says.

Mrs Smith continues to cry. “I thought I finally was rid of him. But the explosion today. But he is going to be fine,” She sobs. “He’s still alive.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t let him want her again,” Rose says.

Mrs Smith wipes her tears. “I am sorry, Rose. I don’t know what came over me. This isn’t your job to deal with.”

Rose looks her in the eyes. “I know you paid a fixer to kill your husband.”

“No!” Mrs Smith said. “You’re mistaken. I didn’t pay anyone anything. I was planning to sneak out in the middle of the night with Stephany and stay with a friend. You don’t understand, Rose. Just forget about it.”

“It’s ok,” Rose consoled her. “Your secret is safe with me. Can you watch Ellie for ten minutes? I have an urgent thing to take care of.”

“Right now?”

“Yes. I am right back.”

“Ok, I’ll watch Ellie.”

Rose walks to the hospital room where Mr Smith is. Mr Smith is lying peacefully in his bed. His head is bandaged up, and there is an oxygen tube plugged into his nose, but he looks at Rose with his eyes. He reaches out for Rose, and some noise comes out of his mouth.

Rose sits down next to Mr Smith.

“You know, I am very grateful to you, Mr Smith. Or can I call you Nathan? We have known each other for so long, I feel like we should be on a first-name basis.”

Mr Smith replies with a little smile.

“You gave me a job when nobody else wanted to give me one. So I could keep a roof above our heads and buy food for Ellie and me. And you taught me to rig a car. Or to rig any device”

Mr Smith stays silent. Rose figures he can’t speak.

“But you also learned me the most important lesson. Nothing goes too far to keep the people I love safe. It is totally fine to murder innocent people even.”

Mr Smith’s expression changes.

Rose takes out her rigging deck. “Isn’t it funny? Most devices in the world run the same software. Cybertech was a mistake.”

Rose presses some keys on the screen of her rigging deck. “Let’s see. We can turn off your oxygen. That’s fun. And let’s turn off the alerts. Oh, and make sure after ten minutes everything resets. And I’ll delete the camera feed.”

Mr Smith gasps for air. Rose just sits next to his bed, holds his hand, and watches him. A slight smile appears across her lips.

After a couple of minutes, his breathing completely stops. Rose checks the monitor. The alarm is still blocked, but there is no heart rate and brain wave anymore. He is dead.

Rose smiles and lets go of his hand.

“I would love to stay, but I am afraid I must leave now. I don’t want to call any suspicion.”

Rose walks out, whistling.