Page 12
Story: Trey (The K9 Files #28)
M issy looked up from her cot to see two high-school friends standing in the doorway, whispering. “Hey,” she greeted them, as she sat up. She’d talked to them a couple times on the phone, but this was the first time they’d come to the hospital. They ran over and gave her a big hug. She wrapped her arms around them and just hung on. When she’d left for college, they had drifted apart. So a slow and very gradual rebuilding of their friendship had been in the works since she’d returned. They still weren’t as close as Missy would like, but she had every hope that they would get there at some point.
“How are you doing?” Sammy asked, glancing over at Missy’s father, then quickly glancing away with a wince.
“I’m doing okay, and he’s doing okay. So that’s all that counts,” she said.
“Is he though?” Sammy looked back and shook her head. “He’s so still.”
“That’s what happens when you’re in a coma, silly,” Becky stated with a smile. “We just wanted to stop in to see if you’re okay and if you need anything.”
“I’m fine,” Missy replied. “I’m doing okay.”
“And,” Sammy piped up, “we also wanted to check out who the hunk is who’s apparently hanging around you all the time now.”
Missy frowned at her and blinked. “What hunk?”
“Don’t be dense.… The guy who rescued you.”
“Oh.” She laughed. “That’s Trey, and he went to high school here too. He’s Jackson’s brother.”
The two looked at each other, then back at her. “Seriously?” Becky stared at her with an incredulous expression.
Missy nodded. “He came back, and I was lucky enough to be the recipient of his wonderful skills and was rescued by him.”
“Wow.” They both gasped. “We haven’t officially seen him, but we’ve been hearing rumors and didn’t realize that’s who he was.”
“That is who he is, and I, for one, am very grateful that he came home when he did.”
“Yeah, talk about good timing. Everybody’s amazed that, after weeks of searching, nobody found you. Then he goes out, and there you are.”
Missy nodded. “Yeah, he didn’t know we were lost until a few days ago. So he got here as soon as he could. And I’m so grateful that he came back when he did.”
“Of course,” Sammy agreed. “There are rumors that the two of you are an item already.”
Missy frowned at her friend. “I’m not sure where that’s coming from, since we’ve barely had time to do anything, considering the condition I was in when we got here, not to mention my father, who was in critical condition,” she explained. “But if you’re asking if I see him a fair bit, then yes. He’s been hugely helpful and considerate.”
“I’m sure he has,” Becky quipped, winking.
Missy groaned. “You guys see romance everywhere. You should be finding somebody to hook up with yourselves.”
“We’re trying,” Sammy admitted, “but part of my question was to see if he’s available or if you’ve already snagged him up.”
The instant pang of jealousy surprised her. “I don’t have any claim on him,” she said. “I don’t think he would take kindly to anybody thinking they had some claim on him either.”
“Not that anybody has a claim,” Sammy clarified, “but that doesn’t mean the folks around town aren’t talking about who may or may not be the one to snag him.”
“Snag him?” Missy shook her head. “Man, I’ve been gone way too long if that’s still the talk of the town at our age.”
“It is still the talk of the town,” Sammy stated, and Becky nodded in confirmation. “Remember that it’s all about who you’re dating.”
Missy groaned. “I’ve been in school for a long time and didn’t have time for dating or any of that nonsense.”
“It’s hardly nonsense now, after being missing for so long that everybody thought it was a lost cause, then suddenly you pop up out of nowhere.”
“I hardly popped out of nowhere,” she protested. “This is my hometown. Then I went away to college. Now I’m here for my practicum with my dad. For the last couple weeks, I was quite busy doing my best to keep us alive. So any suggestion otherwise is insulting.” Both women just looked at her and shrugged. “It doesn’t matter,” Missy muttered, as she smiled at them. “It is good to see you though.”
“Is there anything you need? Can we bring you anything?”
“No, I’m fine,” she murmured. She really just wanted them to go. It was hard enough to conjure up any enthusiasm for ever seeing them again, after how everything in their world seemed so shallow and immature. Missy felt as if she didn’t even know how to relate to them anymore. She suspected it had probably been that way since she got back from vet school, but she didn’t really notice, just happy to have the beginnings of friendships again. But now, after what she had been through? Their adolescent behavior stood out—and not in a good way.
When they left, Missy sagged back onto her cot and groaned out loud. When one of the nurses popped her head around the corner of the door frame, Missy waved her off and muttered, “I’m fine, honest.”
The nurse laughed. “As long as you’re doing fine, that’s what counts.… Yet it sounded as if you were about ready for them to disappear. So I planned to come in and interrupt in a few minutes.”
“Did it sound that bad? I thought it might just be me, but everything else seems so meaningless after you’ve been through something like this.”
“And that’s something to understand as well. Very few people have been through your ordeal, so it’ll be hard for them to relate. Better for you to adjust and to move on.”
“Right, but I still have nightmares when I close my eyes and fall to sleep.”
“And you probably will for quite a while,” she stated calmly. “This kind of trauma does not go away just because you want it to.”
“Are you sure?” Missy asked, with half a laugh. “That doesn’t sound fair to me.”
“You mean, now that you’re rescued, it should all go away?”
“Wouldn’t that be nice?” she murmured.
“You can get PTSD from the events you’ve just experienced, you know?”
“I don’t even want to think about that,” she muttered. “That sounds pretty rough.”
“It’s all about your point of view, but you must be willing to work through the trauma, and getting help when you need to.”
“Maybe,” she muttered, “we’ll see.”
“Don’t leave it too long because dealing with trauma is best done while it’s still warm. After it goes cold, it’s like grease. It gets thick and congealed and harder to plow through.” And, with that, she was gone.
What an unexpected image, and yet it worked for Missy. She wondered if she should be talking to somebody, but had no real clue who that would be. What would she say now versus if her father didn’t make it? That was something she couldn’t even bear to think about. Yet obviously it loomed right here in front of her, and she might not get the choice to think about it at all.
She collapsed back on the cot, and then, warning herself to not get too moody, she hopped back up again and walked over to sit beside her father.
“Dad, is there some way I can coerce you to come back? If so, please let me know what to do. Can you hear me? I hope so. It would be so very nice to know that you will pull through this. Sitting here, hour after hour, waiting for you and not knowing whether you’ll come back to me or not is deadly, and it hurts in a big way. You’ve always been my best friend, and the thought of losing you just isn’t something I even want to consider.”
She stayed here at his bedside, talking with him for a few more minutes, and then got up, went to the bathroom, and wondered if she should get some food. Just then the door opened again, and there was Trey. Instead of thinking, Oh God, more people , her immediate reaction was Thank God, he’s here . Not overthinking it, she walked over, and he just opened his arms. She burrowed deep inside, hugging him back and just letting herself relax.
He whispered against her hair, “Tough day?”
She leaned back, looked up at him, and nodded. “I don’t know that I would even call it a tough day,” she explained, “but one of those increased awareness things.” She explained about her girlfriends having been here and how hard it was to deal with their immaturity, as if Missy had changed somehow and had grown in a way that she couldn’t explain.
He nodded. “I do get that. You had a different experience than they did, by leaving your hometown and going to college elsewhere, not to mention your latest adventure.”
She smiled and nodded. “See? That’s one of the things I like about you. You get me. You do understand. Everything that’s happened in your world has helped you get to the point where you can understand what I’m talking about, and that is,… well, huge,” she shared. “I don’t want to depend on you, but it is really nice to know that you’re there ahead of me on this journey.”
He smiled. “You’ll do just fine,” he murmured. “Remember that all of this will change. It may take some time, but it will get better.”
“I hope so,” she said. “Where is Schooner?”
“I left him in the truck but told him that we would be out soon to get him.” He cheekily grinned at her. Then getting serious, he asked, “Have you had any other visitors?”
She nodded. “There’s been a steady stream of them today.” She named off a few, who he half remembered, and then she got stuck for moment, before she relented. “Charles showed up. He was polite, friendly even. I appreciated that he was checking in on me.”
“The doctor ex-boyfriend?”
She nodded. “Yes, the doctor.”
“How did your dad feel about that relationship?”
“I already told you that he wasn’t exactly thrilled.”
“But would he have been unimpressed enough to have maybe done something that would have hurt the doctor’s feelings, enough to make him want to do something like this?”
She stared up at him and winced. “God, I hope not because, if this has anything to do with me, it’ll just make me feel even worse.”
“We’re not dealing with levels of guilt here,” Trey pointed out. “We’re just trying to get to the truth.”
“Maybe, but that’s a truth that would be pretty rough. I don’t want to think of anybody having done something to my dad because of something I did.”
“It’s not even something that you did,” he clarified. “It would be more about something your father had done, maybe to stop a relationship.”
“I don’t think he would do that,” she replied. “My dad and I were good friends, and he was generally content to let me learn whatever lessons I needed to learn when it came to relationships. Sometimes they weren’t easy lessons. How does anybody get through their teenage years without getting a few scars and some hurt feelings?”
“I don’t think anybody does,” Trey agreed with a smile, “I just want to ensure that your dad wouldn’t have stopped somebody from coming into your life, only to have that person be angry—angry enough to hold a serious grudge.”
“I don’t think so,” she muttered. “I don’t even like the concept.”
“I’m just checking,” he said, giving her a reassuring smile, “because we do need to find out who could have done this.… As far as access to his boat, I gather that could have been anybody.”
She nodded. “Especially the way the marinas are set up, and the way this town is. Everybody knows whose boat is whose, and everybody is open to sharing. They use each other’s boats a lot of the time. Obviously they ask ahead of time, and safety measures must be followed, but, in most instances, everybody is quite happy to take people out on their boat when they want to go,” she explained. “So I can’t even imagine that being part of the issue.”
“Okay,” Trey muttered, frowning. “So what could possibly have gone on that would bring so much—I don’t want to say, hate , but I guess in a way it has to be hate—to have done something like sabotaging Silas’s boat?”
“I’ve been racking my brains over that too,” she said, staring up at him. She stepped back and wrapped her arms around her chest, not so much because she was cold but was shivering inside at the thought of somebody willfully doing this to them. “All I could think about was that it might be because of me, or maybe it was against me, not because of me,” she corrected. “Maybe somebody wanted me dead.”
“I’ve been considering that too,” he noted, staring at her. “The question really is tough though, and I want you to think hard.”
“Is there somebody in my world who would have done this?… I have no idea.”
“I know you don’t want to think that there could be someone, but we’re not children anymore,” he added, making her question everything she knew. “The reality is, sometimes people are shitty.”
She snorted at that, giving him an eye roll. “Sometimes I feel as if I’ve had more than my fair share of people who fit that category.”
“Okay, and that’s maybe a good place to start. Where and what would require somebody to do this to you? Obviously it’s not an ideal scenario to contemplate, but…”
She nodded. “I hear you. If somebody did this, the question really becomes why and who were they hoping to hurt?” She sat back down on the cot and went silent.
He faced her and added, “Look. Why don’t we get out, go for a walk, shake up your brain a little bit, and see if something comes to mind? We’ll talk about some possibilities and just try to get you out of your head a little bit. Maybe we’ll pick up a coffee and walk around the water a bit.”
She smiled up at him. “You do realize that one of the reasons my girlfriends were here was to find out more about you?”
“Why?” he asked, his brows furrowing together.
She laughed. “They wanted to know if you are on the market.”
He started to laugh. “I’m not too interested in being considered on the market or off,” he declared, with a shudder, “particularly if they are as immature as you say. I’m still not even sure what my own plans are.”
“Yeah, I know,” she agreed, with half a frown in his direction, “but you should stick around. My dad would really appreciate it.”
“I know he would,” he replied, his gaze going over to the hospital bed. “Honestly, I would like nothing more than to take him out fishing, or, better yet, go against him in a derby,” he noted, with a chuckle.
“Oh my gosh, you’ve got to be careful there. Those fishing derbies are pretty rough.”
“Are they rough enough?” he asked, turning to look at her.
“Meaning?”
“Meaning, are they rough enough that we have to consider that as a potential motive?”
She frowned at him. “God, I hope not.… I haven’t been back here all that long myself, but that’s a horrific thought.”
“I know, and maybe I’m barking up the wrong tree on that idea.”
“I hear you,” she muttered. “My dad would probably say it definitely was enough of a motive, and that’s a little disturbing in itself.”
He smiled. “Your dad is very special in so many ways, and, if he would say it’s enough, then I’m half inclined to agree with him.”
“Maybe,” she replied cautiously, “but that’s still a long way away from understanding who it could be. We get people in here from hundreds of miles away, you know?” When he frowned at her, she nodded. “These derbies can be pretty big, really feisty, and definitely something that people would complain and argue about all the time,” she shared. “Enough to kill over it? I don’t know, but you’ll not likely get any argument about how fierce the competition can get.”
“The influx of people from out of town wasn’t something I considered,” he murmured.
“Yep, now that you know, you need to consider that. Dear God, I hope my dad’s secret fishing spots aren’t the reason for all this.”
“So, how does that work? If he headed out,… can’t somebody just follow him?”
“Sure, but you would also have to find him, and he’s pretty good at hiding, when it comes to things like that.”
“You’re kidding. That’s a part of it too?”
She nodded. “I haven’t been here for the last several derbies because I’ve been in school,” she reminded him, with a shrug, “but they are definitely really competitive, and people can get pretty feisty.”
“Right.” Trey smiled. “I hadn’t really considered that, since fishing poles aren’t typically the dueling weapon of choice.”
“Twenty paces, right?” she said, with a laugh. “Okay, so we’ll have to consider competitive fishing as a motive, but then again, in a practical sense, it would still need to be somebody local who had access to the boat and who knows their way around it, somebody who understands my dad’s system.”
“Yes, but not enough to realize that he also takes an extra radio with him.”
She frowned at that and then slowly nodded. “That’s true,” she muttered, “and there are a lot more fishermen than radio buffs in town.”
“Right, so, in a sense, we’re back to ground zero again.”
“Which isn’t where I want to be,” she grumbled, with a sigh.
“Come on. Coffee will help.”
“Yeah, you keep saying that, yet we’re still standing here. Are we waiting for Jackson?”
Trey shook his head. “Nope, he and Elizabeth are at a doctor’s appointment, but don’t worry. We won’t be gone long.” He grinned and led her to the elevator.
She asked, “What if I want to take the stairs?”
He stopped to look at her.
“I’m fine,” she replied, but he watched her closely. She glared at him and snapped, “Quit doing that.”
He shrugged. “I just don’t want to wear you out by taking the stairs.”
She moaned and said in exasperation, “Stop it. I’m not wearing myself out by sitting on a cot all day long.”
“Fine,” he said, as he pushed the elevator button and stepped inside with her. “Let’s go get a coffee. Obviously you need some.”
She glared at him. When she saw the corner of his mouth turn up into a smile, she groaned. “You’re right. I do need some, and I didn’t realize how bitchy I was being. I’m so sorry.”
He laughed. “It’s all good.”
“You’re just too nice for your own good, you know that?” He stopped to look at her in horror. She rolled her eyes. “It’s true. You’re one of the good guys.”
“Don’t tell anybody that,” he warned her. “I’ll never hear the end of it.”
“What? That you’re a nice guy?” She snickered. “Pretty sure everybody already knows that.”
“They shouldn’t,” he declared, mock-glaring at her, “unless you told them.”
“I might have,” she quipped, enjoying the banter. “There’s absolutely no reason not to. After all, you’re apparently part of the famous commodity market around here. So I can tell any interested party whatever pleases me in the moment. Just a little firsthand knowledge to sweeten the pot.”
“Oh God,” he groaned as they exited the elevator and headed outside. “None of that, please.”
“Too late,” she said. “I already heard how you’re at the top of the eligible bachelor list right now.”
“Yeah? Did they also ask if you had any interest in that little game?”
“They did,” she admitted, still laughing.
“Next time you just tell them that you’ve got it all sewn up.”
“Really?” she asked, her lips twitching.
“Yeah. That might keep them off my case.”
“Oh, but you won’t know what you like until you try it.”
He gave her a suggestive smile and said, “I’m all for trying it, honey.”
Her cheeks flared bright pink, but she laughed out loud in spite of herself. “Oh my gosh, I hadn’t realized how little there’s been to laugh about lately.”
“That’s another reason to get you outside, where you can get a little bit of fresh air and a fresh perspective,” he murmured. “Plus, we need to grab Schooner.” And that’s what they did. The War Dog was so happy to see them both. After jumping around and getting licks in and hugs shared, Schooner settled down and quietly walked beside them.
They walked toward town, where the main coffee shops were gathered. The hospital area always had coffee shops, but he seemed hell-bent on getting Missy farther away than that. They stopped at the first one and ordered their coffee to-go. Soon they were back outside, and she realized just how fast she was walking, yet heading nowhere in particular. Trey was just letting her churn up the pavement. When she slowed down, he was right there beside her. When she came to stop, she looked at him and asked, “Are you always right?”
“Nope.” When she glared at him, he smiled. “It was pretty obvious you needed to get out, to let off some steam, and to just feel better about life. Don’t hold it against me that I could see it.”
“I can’t hold anything against you,” she muttered. “You’ve been nothing but kind to me.”
He rolled his eyes again, and she glared at him. Yet he smiled back at her. “I know, and I’m happy that we have these few moments amid all the chaos around your father. Your dad is one of the good guys, and I am very grateful for the opportunity to help in some way.”
“I can’t believe rescuing us took as long as it did,” she muttered. “We were out there for so long.” He nodded but didn’t say anything. She halted abruptly. “I just had a horrible thought.” When he remained silent, she frowned at him and saw it all over his face. “Oh my God, you’ve had that thought too.”
He winced and nodded.
Trey stared down at her. “I was hoping it wouldn’t occur to you.”
“It’s horrifying if that’s what happened.”
Nobody had come right out and said anything about it yet, but she was looking at him with that glint in her gaze that said they were on the same track. Still, he needed her to be careful. “The thing about assumptions,” he began, “is that all kinds of issues come up. We don’t know which way to go in this investigation yet. So I don’t necessarily want you to think that this happened, but I don’t want there to be any misunderstandings either.”
“Oh my God, the search was deliberately waylaid,” she muttered. “The search was waylaid because… someone really didn’t like the idea of us surviving. They wanted it delayed,… so we wouldn’t be rescued. The longer it took, there was a much better chance for us to die out there.”
Trey nodded. “Yeah, that thought crossed my mind. I don’t have any solid reason to believe it though, and we need to keep that in mind.”
“But every day that passed, where we couldn’t be rescued,” she explained, “was another day in favor of whoever sabotaged the boat.”
“I agree with that,” he said, “but it also could have nothing to do with any of it. Maybe it was just lucky timing on their part.”
She snorted at that. “Lucky timing, my ass.”
He hooked an arm around her shoulders, careful not to spill the coffee they each carried, and he tucked her up closer. “Promise me that you won’t say anything about that to anyone.”
She twisted to look up at him and then groaned. “Does everything have to be on the down low?”
“Everything has to be on the down low for now,” he confirmed. “We don’t dare take a chance on anybody getting wind of this. The fact that you’re alive and survived with as few injuries as you did is absolutely amazing. We want to ensure your father gets the chance to survive too.”
“What do you mean?”
“It means we don’t dare give anybody an idea that we may be on to them. If so, that might prompt them to make a second attempt.”
She shuddered at that. They found themselves down in front of the marina. As she stared around at the ocean in front of them, she shook her head.
“It’s not Mother Nature’s fault,” he pointed out, “so don’t blame her.”
“I won’t,” she said, her voice thickening. “I’m not sure how interested I am in going back out there, though.”
“You don’t have to,” he noted. “Certainly not for any set time period and especially not in a rush to do it. Only when you are ready to get back on that proverbial horse. Other than that, don’t worry about it. Don’t let yourself be rushed by other people’s choices.” She nodded, and he could tell that she wasn’t convinced. “Maybe you have other friends who don’t boat all the time,” he suggested, “and, if not, maybe it’s time to cultivate those kind of friends.”
“I don’t even know what friends are anymore. Listening to Sammy and Becky today, I feel so out of it. I haven’t been back in town very long, and they were my childhood friends, but, wow, I’m just not where they’re at anymore.”
“And you don’t have to feel guilty about that either,” he stated, looking at her. “The last thing we want you to do is to take on more guilt.”
She groaned. “Here we go again. You’re always a nice guy.”
He sighed. “Nope, I’m so not, but I am a realist,” he declared, “and being a realist also means that I want very much for you to just give yourself a break, to not always have to be the one who does everything, to not always have to be the one who’s perfect.”
They continued to walk a little bit farther, as she looked out around at the harbor. When she waved at someone, Trey turned to see Rob out there.
Rob lifted a hand and walked over. “Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes,” he greeted Missy, smiling broadly.
She laughed. “It’s good to see you. For a while there I wasn’t sure I would see anybody anymore.”
“And yet here you are,” he said, with a beaming smile in her direction, “and all because of Sir Lancelot here.”
Trey jerked at the moniker. “Good God, where the hell are you getting all these terms and concepts from?” He rolled his eyes at them. “I was just doing search and rescue, nothing more.”
She laughed. “Nothing more? Maybe for you. I’ll have to think about how I feel about Sir Lancelot ,” she said, smacking him lightly. Turning to Rob, she added, “Good one.”
“But listen up, Trey.… For everybody else, you rode into town and immediately accomplished what they couldn’t, and that is something they won’t forget,” Rob noted carefully.
“As long as they don’t hold it against me,” Trey said, with a shrug, “it’s all good.”
“I don’t think they would,” she replied, looking at him. “Yet probably a few people are pissed off that they stopped a little too early, and then you come in, and there we were. For my part, I’m just so grateful that you did.”
He nodded, then looked over at Rob. “Any news?”
Rob shook his head. “Nope, not yet.” He looked over at Missy. “Have you got any clues?”
“No, I don’t. I keep hoping that it was just my imagination and that maybe Dad didn’t say anything about sabotage.”
Rob eyed her steadily with a gaze he didn’t use much these days. “Do you really think that’s possible, considering everything you now know?”
She winced. “You could allow me an illusion or two.”
“That ain’t keeping you safe in this world, gal,” he stated, with a long look, “and you know that.”
“I do know that,” she muttered. “I just don’t know what to say about this whole nightmare. I already lived through it, so I don’t really want to analyze it now.”
“No, maybe not, and I get that. However, until we know what’s going on,” Rob pointed out, “you aren’t safe.”
Hearing it stated so clearly, she half gasped.
Trey reached out and held her close. “He means well, but his delivery is a little rusty.”
“Oh my God,” she whispered. “I hadn’t considered—as in really considered—that surviving the fight of my life was putting my life in danger all over again.” Her gaze went from one man to the other. “What kind of a world do we live in?”
“A sick one,” Rob noted darkly, “and don’t you forget it.” With that, he turned and walked toward his shop.
Trey wanted to call out to him, but it was not the conversation to have right now, not in public. He looked over at Missy, but she was stunned into silence. “Hey, it was a warning. Take it as a warning, and let the rest go.”
“He sounded quite adamant,” she whispered.
“Yes, and clearly he is adamant that you are in danger, and that is something you need to be aware of,” Trey murmured. “I just don’t think he needed to scare you to that extent.”
“No doubt he would disagree with you on that entirely,” she stated, her breath coming out shakily.
He frowned and held her close. “Look. I don’t want you so terrified that you’ll be looking at everybody sideways, wondering if they were the one behind this,” he said. “It’s bad enough that we have to suspect as many people as we do.”
“I know,” she agreed, “and that’s half the problem. It’s… I don’t really want to be in such a state that I spend every moment focused on people who might be out there, trying to hurt me,” she whispered. “Up until now, I had no reason to believe that I was anything other than a long-time member of the community, settling back in after years away at school. I don’t want to be a target in my own hometown.”
“You don’t have to be,” he replied. “You absolutely don’t. Rob gave you a warning, and he’s not wrong, but don’t let this change who you are and how you feel about being here. Just because there could be one bad apple in town doesn’t mean all the townspeople are bad,” he murmured. “That is something we have to remember.” She nodded, but he could tell she wasn’t convinced. “I guess bringing you out here wasn’t exactly a good idea, was it?”
“What, you mean terrifying me a whole lot more, then sending me back into my father’s hospital room again, ensuring nobody is looking at me sideways?” she muttered. She shook her head. “Sorry, it’s not your fault. I really did need to come out, and I was hopeful that maybe, with a little bit of time, somebody would have found something. I guess in my heart of hearts I’m not allowing any other alternative in my mind. So I feel as if this has to be a stranger, somebody who did this for God-only-knows what reason. Yet it just befuddles me to think that this is personal.”
“It could be.”
“And yet,” she added, nodding in his direction, “I get it, and I don’t know how it can be anything else, but I’m still hoping we come up with a reasonable explanation for all this.”
“I hope so too,” he agreed. “I really do. Until we find out what that is all about, you need to stay safe.”
“And staying safe means staying in the hospital, staying at my father’s side, protecting him.” She winced as she thought about it. “And yet we left him alone.”
“Do you want to go back?”
“Yes, I do,” she declared, turning to look back in the general direction of the hospital, where they just came from, “especially after what Rob just told me.”
“Right,” Trey replied. He moved her a little faster along the lane, feeling an odd little prick of concern himself. He grabbed his phone and quickly texted the doctor. Can we get a welfare check on Silas please? The doctor sent him a question mark back. And Trey replied, Please don’t ask, just move. When the phone rang a few minutes later, Trey answered it with a question. “What happened?”
“He’s fine,” the doctor replied, an odd tone to his voice. “Where are you?”
“We’re just walking back. I convinced Missy to come out and get a bit of fresh air, get a few minutes away from there, which she really needed, but now she’s worried.”
“I’m glad you did that. Looks like her father might have had a visitor.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because he was on the floor and not necessarily in good shape. We’ve got him back in bed, but it seems somebody may have tried to wake him up or otherwise disturbed him in some way. I don’t even know what to say,” he admitted. “We thought Missy was already in there with him. So, when I got your text and headed down there, I really didn’t expect any trouble or to find Silas on the floor.”
“We’re on the way back right now. So give us ten minutes. We’ll be there as soon as we can.”
“I’m standing here in his room, and I think you better hurry.”
Trey looked over at her and said, “Now we need to hustle.” Using every bit of energy that he could muster, he moved her quickly back into the hospital and up to her father’s room.