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Melbourne kept a running update on Tommy and his surgery.Once it was determined that he’d not need to have a colostomy bag for him to live, they decided that he was going to have to follow a diet that would help him retain his weight at a good level as well as keep him alive.Any more surgeries to his belly would be dangerous.Melbourne thought that Tommy would abuse his health as he had done all along, and he’d be dead within a couple of years because of it.

Mr.Walsh, there’s a phone call for you.It’s at the nurse’s station.”He thanked the young woman and made his way there.He didn’t know who it would be as he had a cell phone, and his family wouldhave reached out to him through their link.Saying his name, he was no closer to figuring out who it was than he’d been before.

“You probably don’t remember me, but my name is Clara Winter.We went to college together back in the fifties.”He told her he was sorry, but he’d not gone to college in the fifties, but maybe she had mistaken him for one of his brothers.“No, I’m sure that it’s you.We had chemistry together with Mrs.Banton.Please say that you remember me.”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t.What can I do for you?”She told him nothing much, but she wanted him to find her granddaughter for her.“I don’t know what you think it is that I can do for you, Ms.Winter, but I don’t find missing people.I work with my family in businesses across the country.”

Reaching out to his family, he asked them if they might know who she was.It was Sidney who got back to him and then reminded him that they had helped when one of the students had gone missing, and they’d found her body not far from campus.Ms.Winter was talking about the girl’s body when he tuned into her conversation with him.

“Ms.Winter, my brother reminded me that it was another student who had gone missing at the campus in the state we live in, but none of them were students at the time.”She said she must have been mistaken and told him she was sorry.“Don’t be.I can try and help you find her.How long has she been missing.”

“Five years.I know that it’s a long time to hold out hope that she’s still alive, but I don’t believe that she’s gone.No one will help me find her when I’ve been raising her little boy since the last time I saw her.”He asked her if she had any proof that she was still alive.“She keeps using my credit card that I gave her that day to buy her son some milk and baby food.It’s never a lot, and I wouldn’t even realize it, but there is a charge on there for some gasoline, and I don’t own a car.Nor do I know how to drive.”He asked her when that was.“Last month.I only get my statements once a month or so, and I noticed it after the first time that it had been used.I think that she’s out there and afraid to come home.”

“What would be her reason for not coming home?”The nurses were listening intently, and he decided to get Ms.Winter to call him on his cell phone.Then, he wouldn’t be tying up their lines at the desk.After making sure that she had the right number, he cut off the call and went back to his seat in the waiting room.“I asked what reason she’d be afraid to come home.”

“Her husband.He’s not filed for divorce because he said that he doesn’t believe in it.He doesn’t have a thing to do with Caleb, but he does come around asking me if I’ve heard from her.I never tell him that I do and that I think she’s hiding out from him.”He asked if it was an abusive relationship.“Yes, very bad one.He beat her nearly to death on their honeymoon when he realized that she wasn’t a virgin.She swore to him that she was that she’d never had sex before him, but he wanted her to be hurting after sex—I’m sorry, I don’t know why I’m telling you all this.I could have just said that he beat her a great deal.”

“That’s all right, Ms.Winter.”She asked him to call her Clara as she thought that they might be around the same age.“I’m busy at the moment, but I’ll come and see you as soon as I’m able.Give me your address and phone number, and when I have some time, I’ll come and see you at your house.Will that be all right?”

“Perfect.Daniel is in jail right now, so he’ll not know that I’m seeking help.I had hopes that Rachel would come to see me while he was away, but so far, nothing.The police told me that if she wanted to be found, she would be.They think that she’s dead and that I’m a crazy old woman who doesn’t have anything else to do but to call them up on occasion.I’ve given up on them finding her for any reason.”After he got her address and phone number, he asked her to keep track of when she used the card, and that might lead them to find her.“I told the police that, but they said I could have done it on my own.I don’t have a stupid car, I told the idiots.That was six months ago, and I’ve been keeping track since then.She’s used it for other things too.I get a running description from my card company on what it’s been used for.”

She didn’t live that far from the hospital and figured that he’d go there and find out what he could do.Perhaps he’d find that it was all just a scam to get him to come to her house, but he wasn’tworried.He was a large dragon, after all.Closing the call, he told his brothers where he was headed in the event he might need them and left the hospital.

The house was a neat little row house with a nice front yard that needed a bit of mowing and some weeding.It was not too bad, but it looked like it had needed it for a few days.There were flowers planted along the sidewalk, with more flowers in hanging baskets hanging from the porch roof.The color of the house, not at all like the white of her neighbors, was bright blue and stood out like it was supposed to.He’d bet anything that she’d have no difficulties getting things delivered to her if she just said what color her house was.There wasn’t another one on the street with any color at all.He knocked on the door and was greeted by a young boy of about six, and his smile was as bright as the house and flowers around them.

“I’m to meet your grandmother.She called to ask me to help her.”He backed up and allowed him entrance, but he couldn’t enter without the grandmother allowing him to.He was part vampire, and that was one of the things that he got from his dad.

“You’re a vampire.”She’d not asked, but he told her that he was part of one, and the other half of him was a shifter.“I didn’t know that.Are we gonna be safe with you around?”

“As safe as I can make you, my lady.”She nodded and invited him in, and he felt the warmth of the house and the love there immediately.“This house is full of love and good vibes.There is a little bit of violence by the door, but nothing much that I can tell.”

“That’ll be because of Daniel.He likes to come over and make his point by beating on my door and yelling things at us.We don’t much care for it, but I don’t let him in either.My daughter was part wolf from her daddy’s side of the family.My daughter and him passed away a few years ago, about ten, I guess now, and I’ve been keeping an eye on the family since.”She eyed him.“You’re not nearly as old-looking as I thought you’d be either.Must be the vampire in you.”

“Some of it, yes.”He was invited to have some tea and cookies with young Caleb.“I’d enjoy that a great deal.”

After tossing the little boy’s hair around, he not only knew where the daughter was but that she was indeed hiding from her husband.She, even after all these years, carried some of the wounds that he’d given her just before she’d run away.This was a little more of the magic that he got from his parents in that he could touch an object that was well-loved by someone and find them without any trouble.But his debate now was to figure out how much he should tell the woman about the girl.

He decided to read her mind to figure out what kind of scam this might be or if she was telling the truth about trying to find her.He found her mind to be clear of anything but the idea of finding her granddaughter because she was dying and couldn’t take care of the little boy much longer.It was sad, really.She’d given most of her life to taking care of her family, and when she’s needed the most, she couldn’t do it.All Clara wanted was for her babies to be safe, and they wouldn’t be with Daniel around.

“I have this ability that I don’t tell many people about and that I can find people when they’re missing.I know not only is she alive but where she is too.You’re right, she’s not far away.”Clara sat down hard in the chair across from him.“Don’t faint on me.I know that she’s at the neighbor’s and has been all this time.She figured that Daniel would think she’d left for good at some long-distance place.She was using the card so you’d know that she was still alive and well.”

“My poor baby.I don’t know what to do about this sort of information.Should I contact her or just let her be?”He said he didn’t know, but she was all right and missing the two of them a great deal.“I guess she might well have been keeping tabs on us…Mr.Grander, that’s who she’s staying with, always takes pictures of my grandson.He said that he takes them to show his wife at the cemetery.I never thought a thing about it.What a good friend he’s been, and I didn’t know it.”

After a little bit, he reached out to Mr.Grander, finding out that he was a wolf, too.He didn’t know if the connection would be one he could get, but he did try.He couldn’t believe it when he not only spoke to the older man, but he was coming over with Rachel right then.With Daniel in jail right now, they could have a nice visit without him ever knowing.Taking full advantage of his vampire blood, he made it so there were shadows all around the young woman when she got out of the car andinto the house.

“I don’t know if he has the neighbors in his pocket, and I figured this was the safest way to get her in and out.”That got him a hug from both women.“Thank you so much.I’m going to go to the police station and try to figure out how long Daniel is going to be in jail for and see what he’s done to get himself there.”

He left, and the neighbor on the left was out on her porch watering her plants, but she seemed to be keeping a keen eye on the house, too.When he said hello to her, she asked him what he was doing at the house, and he told her that he and Clara had been friends a long time ago.

“She ain’t got no friends.Nobody visits her either.”He said that she was wrong and he was proof that they were indeed friends.“No, you’re sneaking around that woman.Helping her find her long-lost granddaughter.I see how you are.You should be helping that husband of hers find her.She’s got a kid to raise with him, and they’re not together.”

“You seem to know a lot about her and her granddaughter.Did it ever occur to you that you could have been helping her around the house some?That she could have used your help with that little boy?Perhaps she’s finally asking for help from Mr.Grander with her yard.It sure could use a good mowing around it.”She huffed at him and went into her house.But that didn’t stop her from sneaking peeks out of her curtain.“Old bitty.”

Making his way to the jail, he did reach out to Mr.Grander and told him about the neighbor.He said he’d go out and mow the lawn now so she’d not have anything to report.Didn’t cost him a dime, he told him to mow and to do a little weeding.And he was thinking about getting with the pack to have them do some things around the house, too.

Melbourne thought when he got back to the house that there would be others around making repairs to the front porch swing as well, and the weeds would be gone from her pretty posies.

Daniel was in jail for knocking over a mailbox.A serious crime in and of itself, but he had also peed on the mail that had been scattered around when he’d knocked it down.Those were serious crimes, and they were waiting for the judge to come through town and have his sentencing.Melbourne reached for his dad and told him what was going on.Dad, he knew, had friends in high places, and it might just work out for the little town and Clara, too.