"I kind of figured it was you," Jason White said as he woke up and found Carl Long sitting in the chair next to his hospital bed.
"None other," Carl replied with a grin as he crossed his long legs and leaned back. "Problem is, you were not supposed to live through the car crash."
"You did a sloppy job of sabotaging the front brakes. You should have done the rears. That way the emergency brake would not have worked. That way I would have hit that intersection and all that traffic at full speed."
"I though of that later on after I read the report and you weren't dead."
"For some reason, I always figured it would be Walter, not you," Jason said thoughtfully.
"He has the brains but not the balls. I'm the one with the whole package."
"So what do you expect to gain from all this?"
Carl rolled his head to the side in a half shrug and smiled. "I get your job and your wife. Your daughter will be a bonus. Not a bad deal, if I have to say so myself."
Jason chuckled. After a moment, he took a deep breath and shook his head. "You ain't got the brains to do my job, my wife would break you in half, if she even thought you were making a run at our daughter, and last but not least, I'm not dead yet."
"Your old lady won't be any problem at all. Where do you think I got the spare key to your car and the alarm codes for your office? She'll give me the combination to your safe where you store all the information that makes your job so easy."
Jason nodded. "Yeah, you told her about the hooker in Japan and the stewardess in Australia. I've figured that much out. The thing about that is, she doesn't really care if I fool around while I'm away. She has the same options."
"That wasn't the way I heard it from her but she was more than busy sucking on my dick and getting fucked in that tight little ass of hers. Later was when she got all pissy about you doing her wrong. She said it was time to get even."
With a laugh, Jason whispered, "Her being the brains, now that makes more sense. That you muffed the job is also par for the course. Like I said, you're screwed three ways from Sunday."
"You don't know shit," Carl said with a sneer as he leaned forward in the chair. "All I've got to do is shut off a couple of those little boxes over there and you are worm food. No one even knows I'm in your room."
"Do you still have my spare key? I'm betting you don't."
Carl's eyes narrowed for a second and then he grinned. "No I don't have it. I gave it back to your old lady last night after I screwed her brains out in the motel next door. That woman sure can suck a dick but you already know that."
"Yeah, that is one of her many talents. Only in your case, it's merely a distraction so she can get what she wants. Like now, you have no physical evidence linking you to her. Moreover, I'll bet you got the motel room and waited for her to get there. Again, no link to her but there is a link now to the hospital. Her idea to meet there, I figure."
"You're trying to turn us against each other. It ain't going to work. I've got her eating out of my hand. Just like, I'm going to have that beautiful daughter of yours doing before the end of the year."
"What is with you and my daughter? She won't give you the time of day much less anything personal."
Carl grinned and then laughed. "You underestimate my charisma and charm. Your old lady fell for it hook, line, and sinker and so will little Miss Sweetness and Sunshine. I've spent the last three years watching her in those pictures you keep on your desk. She's grown into a beautiful young lady. I've even been over to the college to check her out in person. Sweet is the only word for her."
Jason shook his head and smiled at Carl. "My wife is using you to get rid of me so she can have my insurance, stocks, and retirement. Then she will drop a dime on you as soon as I'm officially dead. You go to prison and she gets away Scot-free. Sounds like she wins all the way."
"That's not going to happen, I can guarantee that. I can also guarantee you won't be around to know about it, one way or the other," Carl said, standing up and brushing off his slacks.
As he started around the end of the bed, Jason sat up suddenly, a small gun in his right hand. "Not so fast. I might have something to say about you killing me."
Carl laughed and said, "You wouldn't shoot me here in the hospital. Too much noise and too many people around. Not to mention medical helps so close at hand." Nevertheless, even as confident as he sounded, he did stop. Something about the small gun looked funny.
Jason smiled tightly and shook his head. "You are so dumb sometimes that it's scary."
The gun made a soft popping sound and there was a stinging sensation in Carl's neck for a second. Then he went nub all over even as he tried to raise his arm and remove the small dart. A moment later, he was sprawled on the floor.
The only sound in the room as Jason got out of bed besides Carl's labored breathing was the sigh and ping of the machines he was hooked to in the corner. Jason had on pants and socks under the hospital gown. He groaned softly as he bent and attached the oxygen tubing to Carl's nose.
"It's not time for you to die yet, I have a lot of things to do before that happens."
Methodically, he undressed Carl. Once he had the other man in the hospital gown, he picked up his cell phone and punched a button.
A moment later, a female voice answered. "Yes daddy, is it time?"
"Yes dear, but don't get in too big a hurry. We don't want to draw any attention."
"I understand," came the reply.
Jason smiled down at Carl. "You see there are always surprises in everything and you are in for a big one."
Carl moaned as he tried to say something.
Jason sat on the side of the bed. His breathing was more normal than it had been with the oxygen tube under his nose. "You didn't do your homework on my family well enough. You missed one important fact. My daughter isn't my daughter, she's my wife's daughter from her first marriage."
Carl's eyes narrowed as he made a soft choking, moaning sound.
Jason stood up and walked over to the closet. He removed a shirt and a small duffle bag. He sat the bag on the floor by Carl and took his time putting on the shirt. Carl's eyes went from the bag to Jason's face slowly.
"Yeah, that bag is for you," Jason said as he buttoned up the shirt.
Carl's eyes got big and he tried desperately to shake his head. It barely rocked back and forth.
Jason knelt and opened the bag. He laid some pictures of his injuries out on the floor and then a knife, a hammer, and some sandpaper. "I've got to make this look real. It only has to fool the hospital staff. My body is to be cremated. No services or viewing before hand, just a small private party afterwards."
Picking up the knife, Jason smiled down a Carl and whispered, "One good thing is that snake venom you have in your system will dissipate in an hour or so. Another is it will dull the pain while I make you into me medical wise."
*****
Jason was finished with transferring his wounds, scrapes, and bruises to Carl when his daughter walked in. "Hi darling," Jason said and then added, "I've got the major blood flow sealed off but you need to hurry and get the bandages on right."
"Yes, Daddy," the pretty young woman in the nurses uniform said as she came around the bed.
"He does look a lot like you," she said as she knelt down and removed bandages and tape from the bag. She spent a moment looking at the photos of her dad's bandages she had taken earlier so they would match up.
While his stepdaughter was working on the bandages, Jason went to work on the medical equipment in the corner. In a few minutes, he had it in a test state so he could transfer the wires to Carl. Once he had Carl on the bed, he would set it back to normal.
The oxygen bottle he was on now was pure. The bag contained another airline with just a trace of the snake venom in it. Over several hours, Carl would pass into unconsciousness and then crash with a heart attack of massive proportions. By then, he and Mattie would be miles away.
In a few months, the insurance would pay off and then the money in the checking and savings would simple vanish in a wire transfer when it reached a certain point. There was no need to be greedy; a half a million would be plenty. Anyone checking the routing would find it went to Carl's account first and then went overseas.
Jason and Mattie got Carl off the floor and into bed. Mattie injected a light sedative into the IV bottle and hooked it up to Carl's arm as Jason switched the machines back to monitor. With one last smile for Carl, he dropped his cell phone in the bed next to him. "I won't be needing this," Jason said as he turned and walked over to a wheel chair in the corner.
The bag and Carl's clothing went in the storage under the seat and Mattie pushed him out the door and down the hall.
*****
An hour later, Mattie pulled into an alley behind a connivance store that had an outside restroom. Inside, she swapped the nurses uniform for a silk blouse and tailored pants. Back in the car, she grinned at her step dad and asked, "Motel here in town or the cabin by the lake?"
"The motel tonight, I want to be able to monitor the police bands on the radio. I'd hate having to miss my own death," Jason replied with a grin.
"Oh, Daddy, I will do my best to console you," Mattie said with a big grin of her own.
"Yeah, I bet you will," Jason replied with a chuckle. "Speaking of Will's, make damned sure you move your money to your own account before the deadline. That whole deal is automated and can't be stopped once the insurance money is deposited."