“You know, it’s been so long,” Betsy sniffle, “I’ll be sad to see her go.”

“Yes,” Doreen said, wishing she had some saliva in her mouth. Why was her mouth so dry?

“Well, honey, you take care.” Betsy threw her arms around Doreen and hugged her tightly before the older woman could protest.

“Uh...thank you,” Doreen said, slightly appalled. She pulled away and patted her new, absurdly large black handbag for reassurance.

“You got everything?”

“I hope so,” Doreen said, and truly meant it. She didn’t want to come back here ever if possible. She would notify them via fax of Desiree's death en route. Now what she wanted was for this phony transfer to be over with. She tried again fruitlessly to lick her lips with her dry tongue. She abandoned that effort, watching as her daughter’s body was lifted onto the ambulance gurney. Burke was working Doreen’s head, and trying his best not to attract any attention. Doreen couldn’t help but give him a small smile when he glanced at her.

“Okay, we’re all ready here, ma’am,” he said formally. She nodded instructively and they began wheeling Desiree to the elevator bay. This time they were taking the service elevator, and Doreen was thankful for it. Downstairs, the hired ambulance was waiting with the unsuspecting driver. If everything went according to plan, her daughter would be free in a matter of hours.

She patted the bag containing all the necessary falsified documents her daughter would need to start her new life. She prayed again that this plan would work. With a sigh she stepped into the elevator car with Burke and the other orderly. They rode down to the ground level where the spare ambulance was parked in the temporary dock for loading and unloading.

“Tom, give us a hand!” Burke called as they wheeled the stretcher over the cement landing. The driver jumped out and helped Burke bring the bed up into the back of the ambulance. The orderly bid them goodbye and Burke gave Doreen a hand up into the back alongside him. Once they were ready to roll, Tom closed the doors and fired up the engine.

Everyone had been such a close call today, Doreen thought. She’d hired this particular ambulance company because she knew Burke would be working today; it had been up to him to get himself on this particular ride. She didn’t know if he’d had trouble managing it, but she could tell this was stressing him out a little. The beads of sweat on his upper lip gave him away.

Once the ambulance was rolling, Burke held out his hand to Doreen. She pulled the prepared syringe full of sleeping medicine from the bag and passed it to him slyly.

“Hey, buddy, it’s really hot back here,” Burke said to Tom. “Could you crank the A/C?”

“Yeah, sure,” Tom replied, reaching for the air conditioning controls.

Burke leaned forward through the narrow opening and grabbed Tom’s to go cup from the cup holder. “Mind if I have a sip?”

He pulled back and quickly shoved the syringe through the straw hole, emptying its dose into the cup. He concealed the syringe in his palm and swirled the cup to mix the contents.

“Hey, don’t drink it all,” Tom joked.

“Thanks, man,” Burke said, handing the drink back to his friend. Tom grinned and took a swallow before setting it back in the cup holder.

Burke exchanged sidelong glances with Doreen as he shifted in his seat and dropped the emptied syringe into the sharps receptacle. He sat back and waited then. The scheduled drive was two hours away, and Tom would have to drink a lot more of his soda before they arrived at their destination, otherwise he would know the truth—that this patient was not scheduled to be transferred there at all.

Burke realized he’d have to change tactics. “Brr, it’s cold back here now. What’d do you do, set it to arctic?”

Tom laughed as he leaned over and lowered the a/c.

“That’s not enough!” Burke hounded. “It’s really cold, I’m telling you.”

“What do you want me to do? Turn on the heater?”

“Yes,” Doreen intervened.

“What?”

“I want the heater on,” Doreen said stubbornly.

“But, I mean... it’s like, ninety degrees outside.”

“I’m cold,” Doreen insisted.

“Uh...” Tom seemed baffled, but he shook his head and said, “All right.”

He reached out again for the controls, this time switching the lever to heat. Burke gave Doreen the tiniest nod of approval and together they sat back, waiting for the inevitable to happen.

Slowly the temperature in the vehicle began to rise. First it was pleasant, tropical even. Then that morphed into balmy, which bled into warm, followed by Arizona, and eventually hotter than hell.

“How you doing back there?” Tom called over his shoulder, reaching for his soda. He took a long drink while he awaited the answer.

“I’m still cold,” Doreen said, although she was beginning to sweat under her blazer.

“Okay,” Tom said, and took another swallow. Six more like it and he was tapping the bottom of the cup.

Burke looked at Doreen with a countenance of relief.

“Okay,” she said with her extremely dry mouth, “I’m not cold anymore. In fact, I’m a little warm.”

“Phew,” Tom said, wiping his forehead with his sleeve. “Thank God!”

He switched on the a/c again and the temperature crawled back to normal. By now they were only an hour outside of the private care facility. Plenty of time for the sleeping medication to kick in; all they had to do was wait it out for the next half hour or so.

As the minutes ticked by Burke watched Tom carefully for signs of fatigue. The first half hour melted away like a stick of butter in the desert sun, and still Tom seemed fine. Then three quarters of an hour passed and still they hadn’t witnessed so much as a yawn from Tom. Burke was starting to sweat again despite the cool atmosphere in the ambulance. He really began to worry when their exit popped up on the freeway signs. Ten more minutes and they were going to be at the private care facility. They couldn’t arrive there; they were going to have to stall.

“Uh... Tom, pull over,” Burke said.

“What?” Tom asked.

“Pull over,” Burke said urgently. “At that gas station. Now. Come on!”

“But we’re almost there!”

“I can’t wait!” Doreen butted in again. “I want to go to the bathroom. Pull over!”

“Jeez, all right, I’m sorry,” Tom said, turning off the exit ramp and into the nearest gas station. It was a beyond filthy truck stop, and Doreen was sorry she was going to have to go in there at all, but for her daughter, she would do anything. Picking up her handbag, she left the ambulance and made a beeline for the main entrance.

She hid behind a candy rack, pretending to browse through the nougat selection while she spied on the ambulance. She paced a little, picking up random snack foods and flittering around like a hummingbird as she waited. She stole little glances at the neon clock mounted over the cashier’s cage, watching the minutes go by slowly. How long could she possibly stall? And what was wrong with that guy that he hadn’t conked out by now? A peek at the door showed her Burke’s figure striding into the convenience mart. He spotted her and made his way over to where she stood.

“He’s out,” Burke said in a low voice.

Relief washed over Doreen and she suddenly felt weak in the knees. “Oh, thank God.”

She looked up at Burke and smiled.

“Hey, lady,” the cashier interrupted, “you gonna pay for that stuff or what?”