10 – Doctor’s Orders
Series: Roy Kaplan
Season: Out of Sight
Release Date: May 3, 2025
Episode Summary: Kaplan bites off a little more than he can chew on a missing persons case and ends up hospitalized. Wes takes it upon themself to finish the case instead.
PRODUCTION CREDITS:
ORIGINAL SCRIPT: Jesse Peng
EDITING and PRODUCTION: Jesse Peng
COVER ART: Jesse Peng
MUSIC: Beacon
VOICE CAST:
WES: Caleb Jensen
KAPLAN: Jesse Peng
KOWALCZYK: Megan Scharlau
KWON: Wyatt West
PIERS: Melissa Bowens
SALESPERSON: Steven Jobson
SALUCCI: Mike Castoro
TRAIN: Rebecca Clifford
NURSE: Jesse Peng
SURGEON: Melissa Bowens
A special thanks to our $10/month Patreon subscriber, Jennifer Ford :)
09 – Calling Card | Roy Kaplan Home | Out of Sight Home | 11 – How to Date Your Dragon
OUT OF SIGHT: DOCTOR’S ORDERS
INTRO: There’s always new mysteries to be solved, even from beyond the grave–it’s Roy Kaplan, Private Investigator!
(INTRO THEME.)
(HOSPITAL HEART MONITOR. FOOTSTEPS.)
WES: Isn’t this swell. What a right mess you’ve made of yourself, Roy.
KAPLAN: Wes? Is that you?
WES: Did you get socked so hard you went blind? Yeah, it’s me. Sorry I didn’t get here sooner. It took me a while to find you.
KAPLAN: It’s okay. I’m not going anywhere anytime soon.
WES: What happened to you?
KAPLAN: Can’t you guess? I did a little poking around and some people didn’t like that very much.
WES: Your leg’s all wrapped up.
KAPLAN: Yeah, it was rough. The doctor says I need to stay off of it for a week or two.
WES: What are you going to do if you can’t walk?
KAPLAN: Stay at home, I guess. It’s not like I can do a lot of work with this. Which reminds me, I’ve got a call to make…
(PHONE DIAL CLICKS. DIALING TONE. PICKS UP.)
KAPLAN: Hey, Mr. Kwon, it’s Kaplan. It’s about your case. (Pause) Unfortunately, no. I’ve had a little bit of a medical emergency, I won’t be able to find your friend. (Pause) No, no, no, I’ll be fine. I just wanted you to know. I can return the retainer, and you can try a different investigator. I’m really sorry.
WES: Is that your client?
KAPLAN: Huh? Yeah, his name is Seung-Jin Kwon. He hired me this morning. (Pause) No, Mr. Kwon, I was talking to my friend here.
WES: What kind of a case was it?
KAPLAN: A missing persons case. Kwon hasn’t heard from his friend in while and he can’t get in touch with her at all. He was really torn up about the whole thing.
WES: A missing person? You just need to know where she’s gone to, right?
KAPLAN: Yeah, that’s what a missing persons case is. But in case you haven’t noticed, I’m a little incapacitated right now.
WES: Tell your client to wait a couple of days before trying a different shamus.
KAPLAN: Huh?
WES: Get some rest, Roy. I’ll find this girl for you.
(MUSIC TRANSITION.)
(OUTSIDE, LIGHT RAIN.)
WES: (V.O.) The place where Roy had gotten his legs bashed wasn’t far from the hospital, and I found it easy enough. It was a small pub on the first floor of a residential building that had an imitation wood facade and warm lights meant to capture a little of that old Irish charm. It wasn’t busy this early in the evening, with only a handful of people talking and eating. It didn’t look to me like a place where folks got their kneecaps busted. The rain was starting to come down, so I went inside.
(WES ENTERS PUB. CROWD NOISE.)
WES: (V.O.) It’s not in my nature to step in on Roy’s business. He’s got stupid moments like anyone’s got stupid moments, but he’s got a sharp eye and a quick mind all the same and he doesn’t need me to nanny him all hours of the day. It was probably just bad luck that put him out of commission, but still…when a good friend gets put in the hospital, I can’t just let that alone.
(FOOTSTEPS.)
WES: (V.O.) The number who’d knocked Roy’s lights out was an alleged courier named Tori Piers. Roy described her as a reasonably fit thirty-something year old with bleached hair tied back, nice clothes, and a shiny black wristwatch. I had no idea if she would show her face, and there were no ghosts around who I could ask about it, but Roy said this was a regular haunt, so I got comfortable and waited.
(DOOR OPENS. OUTSIDE RAIN IS HEAVIER NOW. A FEW PEOPLE ENTER, SHAKE OUT UMBRELLAS.)
PIERS: This damn rain, man. Why’s it gotta be pouring on my night off?
SALESPERSON: Quit complaining, Tori. You should be happy you’ve got the night off at all. We’ve been slammed the entire month.
PIERS: That sounds like a you problem. Come on, let’s grab a table. I’m starving.
(PIERS AND CO SIT DOWN.)
WES: (V.O.) Tori Piers. Her hair wasn’t tied up, but the rest of the description fit. She looked respectable, a twist who wouldn’t be out of place in a shiny new office building. She didn’t at all look like a thug.
PIERS: Don’t bother with the specials menu, they’re all garbage. (Calling out) Hey! We’re ready to order.
WES: (V.O.) I sat next to them and listened to Piers and her friend yammer on about a lot of things I didn’t care about. Things like sales and coworkers, the kind of thing I was bored of even back when I was alive.
SALESPERSON: Tori, what happened to your hand? Did you get into an accident or something?
PIERS: This? Oh, no, there was this guy earlier. He called me up out of nowhere and started asking me questions about this girl.
SALESPERSON: What? Oh, that’s so creepy.
PIERS: I know, right? I didn’t even know the girl he was asking about.
SALESPERSON: And he hit you?
PIERS: I hit him. For a tall guy he went down really easy. It was honestly super pathetic.
(PHONE VIBRATE.)
PIERS: One second, let me check this.
(PICK UP PHONE.)
PIERS: Hey, boss man. Why are you calling me? (Pause) You want me to pick up someone else? Are you kidding? I just picked up that Kowalczyk girl for you last week. (Pause) No. It’s my day off. I don’t care if you’re paying me, my day off is my day off. I’m already in a bad mood, so call someone else or try asking tomorrow.
(END CALL. PHONE PUT DOWN.)
SALESPERSON: Who was that?
PIERS: One of my clients. This is why freelance sucks. Some people really think they can call you whenever they want. But forget him. How are things going at your place?
(WES WALKS AWAY FROM TABLE.)
WES: (V.O.) I had heard enough. Roy had the right idea after all, trying to learn something from Piers. She’d had contact with the missing girl and I’d seen the name of her employer on her telephone. I couldn’t use a city directory to track the man down, but Roy had his portable library device. He could probably find something out.
(WES EXITS. HEAVY RAIN.)
WES: (V.O.) It was dark and raining hard when I went out of the pub. I don’t like the rain. No matter how long you’re a ghost, the feeling of the rain through your flesh never feels any better. I went back to the hospital.
(WHOOSH. WES ENTERS HOSPITAL ROOM.)
KAPLAN: –and I never heard anything else about her, either. The Bomber Blackout case went quiet, but I never forgot.
WES: Roy. What are you doing?
KAPLAN: Hey, Wes. I’m recording an account of the Bomber Blackout case. Do you remember that one? I wonder how she’s doing now.
WES: Why are you recording that?
KAPLAN: Oh, Rem suggested it. They wanted to hear about some of the weird cases I get, so I figured since I had the down time now I could give it a try.
WES: Who’s Rem?
KAPLAN: Rem. They do journalism sometimes, remember?
WES: I don’t recall, but that’s not important right now. I looked into Tori Piers. She says she picked up Kowalczyk last week for a man named Mario Salucci.
KAPLAN: Mario Salucci? The name doesn’t ring a bell. Let’s ask Kwon if he knows anything about that.
(PHONE NOISES. DIALING TONE. PHONE PICKS UP.)
KAPLAN: Hey, Mr. Kwon. Sorry to bother you, it’s Kaplan again.
KWON: (FILTER) Mr. Kaplan? Did you find anything?
KAPLAN: Maybe. Do you know a man named Mario Salucci?
KWON: (FILTER) I’m not sure. I think Lyra might have mentioned him before. I think she was getting help from him or something.
KAPLAN: I see. Let me look him up.
(DIGITAL NOISES.)
KAPLAN: Okay, I found him. Looks like he was a licensed doctor operating a small private practice on the north side.
KWON: (FILTER) Oh, that’s right! Lyra was seeing Dr. Salucci monthly for her wasting syndrome. She started going there about a year ago.
KAPLAN: What? She was seeing a private doctor for wasting syndrome? The city treatment centers are free.
KWON: (FILTER) Yeah, but the treatments are really rough–it needs a lot of equipment and Lyra was tired all the time. She wanted to try something else, and Dr. Salucci has an experimental treatment for it. It really works, too. Lyra felt a lot better really fast, but she’s been getting worse again recently.
KAPLAN: I see. You said Lyra lives on the north side in the outer city, right?
KWON: (FILTER) That’s right.
KAPLAN: Okay, sounds good, thanks for the help. We’ll work some more on this case, and I’ll call you tomorrow with what we find. Is that all right?
KWON: (FILTER) Yes, thank you. I’m sorry you got hurt, Mr. Kaplan.
KAPLAN: I’ll be fine. Just go and take care of yourself, all right, Mr. Kwon?
KWON: (FILTER) I will. Thank you.
(CALL ENDS.)
WES: You don’t look very happy.
KAPLAN: I’m not happy. You know how I said Salucci was a doctor on the north side?
WES: Yes. What happened, did he die?
KAPLAN: No. He lost his license for unethical research practices four years ago. Wes, what do you know about wasting syndrome?
WES: Plenty. It was a disease that showed up around the long winter. Called it Doomsday Fever back then. It didn’t matter if you were rich or poor or in the bomb shelters or getting plenty of food to eat, you got sick and died. I never saw a single survivor before I finally left America.
KAPLAN: Right. A lot of old era countries went that way. Sometimes I forget you were actually around for that part.
WES: The long winter was a bad decade. I’m just glad it didn’t wipe out everyone.
KAPLAN: Yeah. These days, wasting syndrome is pretty rare since we know the cities and oceans are safe, but people who go into the hazard zones without protection or even some people living in the outer city can get it. We still can’t cure it, but we can manage it for a while. With early diagnosis and treatment, they can extend your life expectancy about twenty years. If it’s caught later on, maybe ten.
WES: That’s not bad. And treatment is free?
KAPLAN: Right. There are wasting syndrome treatment centers not too far from here, with live-in facilities for patients with advanced disease. They’re pretty good. I spent most of my childhood in one.
WES: You? You’re not sick.
KAPLAN: My parents were.
WES: Oh. I’m sorry.
KAPLAN: Eh, it’s fine. They stayed with me a while after they died and we did a lot of the things that we couldn’t when they were alive. They were happy when they finally passed on.
WES: Roy…
KAPLAN: My point is, I don’t trust any kind of miracle cure for wasting syndrome. I get why someone would want it. I even get why you’d believe it, if it makes you feel better, but people have been trying to figure out wasting syndrome ever since it appeared. It’s not going to be one guy in his illegal private practice who solves it.
WES: So you think Kowalczyk is getting chiseled?
KAPLAN: It would be nice if that were the case, because then we could stop it and help her, but I’ve got a bad feeling that is is now was.
WES: You think she’s been rubbed.
KAPLAN: Yeah. I do. I don’t think you’ll be able to find anything about Salucci until the morning, so it might be worth checking Kowalczyk’s home. Here’s her address. The northeast monorail to Northshore will get you pretty close if you want to stay out of the rain.
WES: You think she’ll be there?
KAPLAN: If she’s not with her corpse, then yeah. From what Kwon’s told me, she spent most of her time at home, so her ghost would naturally gravitate there. Here’s a picture of her, if that helps.
WES: (V.O.) I peeped the snapshot. Lyra Kowalczyk had a strong brow and chin and a nice smile. Her brown hair was cut short and curly, and she had big green eyes and freckles. She looked about Roy’s age. Too young to die. I memorized her face, though it wouldn’t do much good. Even after this many years, I can’t see other ghosts’ faces clearly. I’ve never known anyone, living or dead, who can. Nobody except for Roy.
WES: All right. I’ll pay her a visit. Good night, Roy.
KAPLAN: Good night, Wes. And thanks, I appreciate this.
(MUSIC TRANSITION.)
(MONORAIL STATION AMBIANCE.)
WES: (V.O.) One good thing about being dead is that I don’t always have to walk everywhere. I can jump to anyplace I spend enough time in, like home or certain places around the city. I can even jump to wherever Roy is, if he’s calling for me. But I hardly ever spend time in the outer city, so to get to Kowalczyk, the best I could do was jump to the central monorail station and go the slow way. It was a quarter past ten, and the platform still had a decent crowd. Back in my day, I wouldn’t ever see so many people out this late, but in this city hardly anyone works a 9-to-5. Times have changed.
(TRAIN PULLS INTO THE STATION.)
TRAIN: (FILTER) This is North Central Station. Transfers to Blue and Orange Line trains at North Central Station. This is a Red Line train to Constance Park.
(WES AND OTHERS BOARD.)
TRAIN: (FILTER) Doors closing.
(DOORS CLOSE.)
(MUSIC FADE IN.)
WES: (V.O.) The train departed with little more than a soft whoosh. We flew over the rail that wound between the business towers and apartments buildings, then left them all behind. The further out from the inner city you go, the larger and more expensive the houses get, until you get to the mansions and the big open estates smack up against the city limits. Kowalczyk didn’t live far into the outer city–practically on the border of inner and outer, really–but even that meant she had a decent amount of money to spend. I wondered where it came from.
TRAIN: (FILTER) This is Northshore. This is a Red Line train to Constance Park.
(WES EXITS. HEAVY RAIN CONTINUES.)
WES: (V.O.) The rain was still coming down hard with no end in sight, but there was nothing to be done for that. I went out to find Kowalczyk’s home.
(WALKING.)
WES: (V.O.) I didn’t know what I wanted to find. I knew Roy hoped I wouldn’t find anything. As glib as he was about corpses and ghosts, he didn’t like it when people died around him. He probably didn’t want to send me out this way at all, but the possibility that Kowalczyk had been squibbed was something he just couldn’t ignore. If I was honest, it would make things easier if she were dead. That way, we could talk and maybe she could even tell me what had happened to her and where her body was. This whole case could be wrapped before morning, nice and simple. Kowalczyk probably wouldn’t like that, though, and neither would that Kwon fellow. As I came up to Kowalczyk’s red brick flat, I decided it didn’t matter much how I felt. Whatever was in there was in there.
(FOOTSTEPS.)
WES: Hello? Miss Kowalczyk? Anyone home? (Pause) I’m going to come in now.
WES: (V.O.) It’s not proper to enter someone’s home without knocking, but making physical noise is hard, even for me. I stepped through the front door.
(WHOOSH. RAIN MUFFLED. TICKING CLOCK.)
WES: (V.O.) It was dark. No surprise there. Kowalczyk’s flat was busy. She had paintings on the wall and little clay figurines on the shelves and clothes piled up on the chairs and floor. One of the bedrooms had been turned into some kind of art studio, with stacks of pigments and brushes and canvases. Most of it was gathering dust. The second bedroom looked like Kowalczyk’s room. There were a lot of devices with little green lights and the desk had one of those computing machines people use for everything these days. Roy would know how to get information out of it, but to me it was just a hunk of plastic.
(FOOTSTEPS.)
KOWALCZYK: W-Who are you? How did you get in my house?
WES: Ah. So you are here after all. You must be Miss Lyra Kowalczyk.
KOWALCZYK: What? How do you know my name? Answer me before I call the garda!
WES: There won’t be any need for that. My name is Wes. I’m here to talk to you about your recent death.
(MUSIC TRANSITION.)
WES: That’s the long and short of it.
KOWALCZYK: So this is real, then? I died and I’m a ghost now? I’m not dreaming or anything?
WES: I realize it’s a bit of a shock.
KOWALCZYK: (Nervous laughter) It’s just…everything was going so well. How could this happen?
WES: That’s what I’d like to find out.
KOWALCZYK: Mister…
WES: I’m not a mister.
KOWALCZYK: You said Seung-Jin hired you?
WES: He hired my friend, Roy. Roy’s a private investigator and, more to the point, not dead.
KOWALCZYK: Have I really been dead so long that people are looking for me?
WES: Seung-Jin said he hasn’t heard from you in over a week. As for how long you’ve been dead…I was hoping you could tell me a bit more about that. Seung-Jin said the last he heard of you was when you made contact with a woman named Tori Piers. Do you remember what happened?
KOWALCZYK: I think so. I messaged Seung-Jin before Tori took me to see my doctor.
WES: She takes you? Is this a regular thing?
KOWALCZYK: No, I can usually walk to the clinic because it’s close to the monorail, but I had to go to a different center this time that was too far to walk, so Tori sent me.
WES: Why’s that?
KOWALCZYK: Well, I’m–I was sick. My treatments were working really well for a while, but a month or two ago I started having weird symptoms, like my hands were shaking a lot and I was feeling dizzy all the time, so we scheduled a surgery that could help.
WES: So this different center was a surgery center.
KOWALCZYK: That’s right.
WES: Did anything happen then?
KOWALCZYK: I mean, I talked to my doctor, he told me what I should expect, and then I went in for surgery.
WES: And then what?
KOWALCZYK: That’s it. I don’t remember anything else after that. The next thing I knew, I was floating around the bay and I was like this. Do you think there was some kind of complication with the surgery?
WES: I think that kind of depends on your point of view.
KOWALCZYK: What’s that supposed to mean? I died in the surgery, didn’t I? How’s that not a complication?
WES: Well, it’s not a complication if the doctor kills you on purpose.
(MUSIC TRANSITION.)
WES: (V.O.) I explained what I could. I told Kowalczyk about Dr. Salucci losing his license from ethics violations and how if she had died accidentally, she ought to have woken up in a morgue, not out in the bay where her body had been dumped. She took it hard, and I was sorry about it. There’s no gentle way to get news like that.
(WES AND KOWALCZYK WALKING. IT IS NO LONGER RAINING.)
KOWALCZYK: The sunrise is really beautiful. I’m not usually awake this early.
WES: Lyra, you don’t have to stick with me. It’s going to be a long wait.
KOWALCZYK: But I want to. He killed me, right? So I deserve to haunt him or something. Do I get spooky powers for being a ghost?
WES: No. You’re just dead.
KOWALCZYK: I can’t throw things at people?
WES: Most ghosts can’t interact with the living.
KOWALCZYK: Most? Does that mean you can?
WES: Sometimes. It depends on how I’m feeling.
KOWALCZYK: Oh, is it one of those feelings-based things? If I got really angry, could I touch things then?
WES: Lyra, most ghosts who can touch things are murderers.
KOWALCZYK: What, seriously? Does that mean you kill people? Are you a vengeful ghost?
WES: I think that’s your doctor’s office up ahead.
(WES AND KOWALCZYK STOP WALKING.)
WES: Dr. Mario Salucci. It looks surprisingly respectable. I suppose the grift doesn’t work otherwise.
KOWALCZYK: So we’re here now. What’s the point if we can’t haunt the shit out of him?
WES: I need proof of what he’s doing, which means I need to find out wherever he’s doing his surgeries. You said you don’t remember where that is.
KOWALCZYK: Sorry.
WES: So I’m going to shadow Salucci. He called Piers yesterday saying there was someone else to pick up. That probably means he’ll do another surgery today. As long as he stops here first, I can follow him back to wherever he’s committing his murders.
KOWALCZYK: So we’re going to follow him all day?
WES: I told you, it’ll be a long wait. You don’t have to tag along.
KOWALCZYK: No, I’m staying. This is important.
WES: Suit yourself.
WES: (V.O.) We waited. Kowalczyk told me more about herself and her art and some of her friends. When she got bored of that, she asked me about ghosts and where I came from and the end of the old era. She talked a lot. Maybe she was a chatterbox all the time or maybe she was still shocked over her death, but I didn’t mind the conversation. This kind of tail job is boring, and it was better to talk to her than listen to the doctor pitch his snake oil. Eventually, early in the afternoon, the doctor closed up shop and headed out to the surgery. Kowalczyk and I hitched a ride in the back of his coupe.
(DRIVING.)
KOWALCZYK: Wow. This tailing thing would be way harder if we weren’t invisible.
WES: Being a ghost has its uses.
KOWALCZYK: Crazy to think that everywhere you go, there might be a ghost sitting next to you. Where are we going? I don’t recognize this place.
WES: It looks like we’re heading further into the outer city. There’s fewer eyes out there. It’s probably how he kept these murders hushed up for so long.
WES: (V.O.) Salucci drove out to a squat white building not far from the coast, set up in a neighborhood of large houses and winding streets, the sort of place where everyone had a bike or car because the trains were too far away to be any help. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it isolated, but it wasn’t a place anyone would visit except if they meant to be there.
(CAR STOPS. CAR DOOR OPENS, CLOSES. FOOTSTEPS. DOOR OPENS.)
NURSE: Dr. Salucci, you’re here! Dr. Gambols was just finishing up with the patient. Will you see him right now?
SALUCCI: Has everything been documented properly?
NURSE: Yes, Doctor.
SALUCCI: Good. Tell Dr. Gambols to take the patient downstairs. I’ll be down to perform the autopsy shortly.
KOWALCZYK: Wait, a second doctor? An autopsy? Does that mean we’re too late?
WES: It means we need to move. Come on.
RUNNING.
WES: (Urgent) Where is the operating room?
KOWALCZYK: It’s down this way, through these doors!
WES: It looks like there’s people in this room here. Let’s see–
(WES AND KOWALCZYK ENTER OPERATING ROOM.)
KOWALCZYK: (Horror) Oh, god, what did they do to him? This is–I think I’m gonna be sick.
WES: Lyra, you need to keep it together. He’s…he’s still alive.
KOWALCZYK: What? How is he alive? They’ve opened up his head, and his chest is–
WES: He’s alive, but I don’t know how long. Lyra, go find Roy. He’s at the university hospital, the big blue building, room 433. He should recognize you. Tell him the address and to call emergency services here straightaway.
KOWALCZYK: How am I supposed to get there? It’ll take too long!
WES: Jump to the inner city. You ought to make it in time if you do that.
KOWALCZYK: Jump? Wes, I don’t know how to do that!
WES: Picture yourself in a place you’ve been, someplace you know better than anywhere else.
KOWALCZYK: I can’t–I can’t think of any place like that.
WES: There’s got to be someplace.
KOWALCZYK: I was sick with wasting syndrome! I haven’t spent a lot of time in the inner city since I was a little kid!
WES: You had wasting syndrome. Lyra, did you use the treatment centers downtown?
KOWALCZYK: I–yeah? I was there twice a week for like six years, and…you don’t mean?
WES: Do you think you can jump to the treatment center? That should put you close enough to the hospital.
KOWALCZYK: I’ll try. I just have to imagine myself there?
WES: Imagine how it looks, how it sounds, how it felt. Remember the reasons why you were in that place, and all the things you did there.
KOWALCZYK: Okay.
WES: When you can remember it as clear as if it’s right in front of you and you feel like you need to be there, just…jump.
(KOWALCZYK VANISHES.)
WES: First try. Not bad. Now to take care of business.
WES: (V.O.) The man on the table was cut open like a fish and wired to a lot of machines that were probably keeping him alive, and on one side of the room was the surgeon in scrubs drawing something clear from a vial. I didn’t know what it was, but I didn’t think it was good.
(WES PICKS UP A GLASS BOTTLE)
WES: (V.O.) I reached a fist-sized bottle off the counter. It was glass and full of white liquid, and it was heavy, but I felt solid–solid enough to make it count.
(WHOOSH. BOTTLE SMASH.)
SURGEON: Agh!
(BODY FALLS.)
WES: Serves you right.
WES: (V.O.) Salucci said he’d be in the basement to perform the autopsy. Maybe they had some kind of morgue down there. I didn’t know, and I didn’t think it mattered. Salucci was there, so that’s where I would meet him.
(WES EXITS. FADE IN TO TYPING.)
SALUCCI: This should be subject…twenty-three. The imaging is good, but we’ll have to see the histology studies.
WES: (V.O.) Salucci’s little laboratory wasn’t any morgue I’d ever seen. There were cameras and lit-up screens and laboratory equipment of all kinds that I didn’t recognize. I could guess the purpose of it, though–it looked to me like Salucci never gave up his research after losing his license. He seemed to figure that if he was going to do illegal research, he may as well go all the whole nine yards.
SALUCCI: What’s taking them so long? The body should be ready by now.
(SALUCCI DIALS A THREE-DIGIT NUMBER ON THE PHONE. IT RINGS, DOES NOT PICK UP.)
SALUCCI: They’re not even answering the intercom? What are they doing up there?
(SALUCCI DIALS AGAIN.)
WES: (V.O.) Salucci must have figured himself a good and proper scientist. The screen had lots of detailed notes and observations, and somewhere buried in that plastic box was probably all the evidence to put Salucci away somewhere for the rest of his life where he wouldn’t ever hurt anyone like this again. Roy would probably be satisfied with that, but me? I didn’t want ‘enough to put him away.’ I wanted the whole story.
SALUCCI: Do I have to do everything myself around here?
(SALUCCI WALKS TO THE DOOR. DOOR SLAMS SHUT.)
SALUCCI: What the hell?
(STRUGGLING WITH DOOR. IT STAYS STUCK.)
SALUCCI: (Frustrated) Why won’t this open?
FOOTSTEPS.
WES: (V.O.) I didn’t know how to use a computing machine, and all Salucci’s notes probably wouldn’t make sense to me, either. I was only really good at getting information in one way, and that was a face-to-face talk. I couldn’t talk to Salucci when I was dead and he was alive, but there’s an easy fix for that.
(RUSTLING CLOTH. REVOLVER CYLINDER SPINS UP.)
WES: (V.O.) Don’t tell Roy.
(GUNSHOT.)
(FADE IN TO HOSPITAL ROOM.)
KAPLAN: So that’s how it is.
WES: Yes.
KAPLAN: That’s…That’s just a lot to deal with, Wes. What kind of person does that? Like a scam is one thing, but preying on desperate sick people and killing them in cold blood… How could you do that and not realize you’re a damn monster?
WES: I don’t know, Roy.
KAPLAN: It just makes you sick to hear it.
WES: Did Fletcher tell you how everything ended up over there?
KAPLAN: Yeah. They weren’t able to save the victim–it sounds like they’d taken out some of his organs, and he’d lost too much blood. They’ve contacted the victim’s family, who I imagine were extremely upset. They found body parts in the morgue as well as all of Dr. Mario Salucci’s research files–the password you gave them worked, so they’re working on that. It looks like he was using some sort of treatment that destroyed abnormal tissue. I guess he was trying some combination of growth factors or something else to offset the side effects of that, but obviously it doesn’t work because it doesn’t actually fix the wasting syndrome, it just masks the symptoms.
WES: So much for a miracle cure. Do they know what happened to the stiffs?
KAPLAN: Yeah. Dr. Andy Gambols and the other staff in the building were brought in for questioning and they gave up everything. Some of the corpses were buried. A few others were dumped in the bay. Coast guard hasn’t found anything yet, but I guess if a skull or something washes up, we’ll know where it came from.
WES: What about Salucci?
KAPLAN: He was dead when they found him. Fletcher wasn’t sure how, but the paramedics said it looked like some kind of heart attack. Did you see what happened to him?
WES: No, he was already like that when I checked on him.
KAPLAN: What timing. Is that what you call karma?
WES: It could be. How is Kowalczyk?
KAPLAN: She seems okay. She was pretty happy to hear Salucci and his accomplices were taken care of, and I talked with her and Kwon earlier. I don’t think Kwon believes me about the ghost thing, and he’s obviously not happy to find out his friend was horrifically murdered, but he knows what happened now and the people responsible will answer to justice. It’s the best situation, considering the circumstances.
WES: Well, even the best circumstances feel crummy sometimes. Did Kowalczyk pass on?
KAPLAN: No. She said she wanted to go walk by the river. She’s probably out there now.
WES: She doesn’t want to go?
KAPLAN: I wouldn’t say that. It’s just…disease takes a lot of time from you. If she can enjoy things now that she wasn’t able to before, why not? Maybe it’ll be a few weeks or a few months, but when she’s satisfied, she’ll move on. It’s not an all or nothing deal, Wes. Not everyone’s like you.
WES: That’s probably for the best. And how are you?
KAPLAN: Me? Well, I’m just dandy.
WES: Roy.
KAPLAN: I’m all right. My leg still hurts, obviously, and the physical therapy guys have been making sure I know how to use the crutches. I should be fine to go home tonight.
WES: That’s good.
KAPLAN: And what about you? It’s not every day you take over a case.
WES: Roy, in case you forgot, I’m the one who taught you how to investigate. This isn’t anything new for me.
KAPLAN: I know. You did a good job. I probably couldn’t do better on a case like this, even with my physical not-ghost hands. You could give me some tips.
WES: My first tip is not to get your legs bashed in.
KAPLAN: I set myself up for that one, didn’t I?
WES: You did.
KAPLAN: Well, thanks for the save, Wes. I knew I could count on you. I always can.
WES: Of course, Roy. Anytime.
(ENDING THEME.)
KAPLAN: You’ve just heard Doctor’s Orders, the tenth episode of Roy Kaplan: Out of Sight. Wes was played by Caleb Jensen, Kaplan by Jesse Peng. Our cast also includes: Megan Scharlau, Wyatt West, Melissa Bowens, Steven Jobson, Mike Castoro, and Rebecca Clifford.
Roy Kaplan is written, edited, and produced by Jesse Peng. Our music is composed by Beacon.
This show is brought to you by The Pinwheel Lab. If you like what you hear, you can find us over at roykaplanpod on Tumblr, or on thepinwheellab.com. If you really like what you hear, you can also support us on Patreon, where you can hear the next episode a little sooner than everyone else. All financial support goes to production and helps make season 2 more likely to happen.
What danger and deception awaits? Tune in next time to find out, and I’ll see you on the other side.
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