Page 9

M issy was surprised to see Trey, as the end of the day rolled around. She welcomed the immediate greeting she got from Schooner, then looked over at Trey intently. He seemed tired and worn out. “Did you get approval to bring him in?”

He shrugged. “Had a talk with the doctor about how Schooner and Silas were best buddies, and I suggested that Schooner might be a really good option to help bring Silas back around and pull him out of this.”

She smiled, agreeing it would be a good option.

When they walked over to the bedside, he saw that her father had curled up on the far side of the bed. At that, Trey looked at her. “He’s moved.”

“He has moved,” she confirmed, with a beaming smile, “I’ll take it as a good sign.”

“I would. I would definitely take that as a huge good sign.”

With Silas curled on the far side of his hospital bed, there was room for Schooner, who immediately jumped up and curled up with his back along Silas’s. It brought tears to Missy’s eyes to see the two of them together. “It’s so nice to see how much Schooner cares.”

“They bonded in a way that not everybody understands,” Trey pointed out. “Hopefully Schooner can help, because, even when Silas gets out of this, he’ll need a lot of recovery time.”

Missy nodded. “We have the same issues with animals, yet animals tend to do better than humans in many ways.” She sat down on the edge of the bed, rubbing Schooner’s head. “And this guy, I don’t know what’ll happen with him.”

“Nothing,” Trey claimed, “because you need him. You need him for Silas to come back to.”

After a few minutes, she looked over at him and asked, “And?”

“And what?” he muttered, not taking his gaze off Silas and Schooner.

“Did you find anything?”

“We found a bunch of things,” he shared, “but we can’t yet tell for certain how much of it may have been sabotage and how much was Mother Nature.”

“ Right ,” she grumbled.

“Think back to the beginning of your trip. Was he surprised about the radio?”

She looked over at him and nodded. “He was and mentioned that one of his parts must have broken down, but it didn’t seem to be too bad. He told me, when we got out a little way, he would go down and fix it. Plus, we always had the extra shortwave radio, so he wasn’t too bothered.”

Trey just nodded at that.

“So, I gather you’re wondering about sabotage, but did you find anything?”

“It’s definitely possible. Your fuel gauge was broken, and the tank was empty.”

“When you say empty,” she asked cautiously, “what do you mean?”

“You mentioned that the tank was half full, and that’s definitely what the gauge says, but the tank was completely empty.”

“So, we ran out of fuel too,” she muttered, “but we still had the sail.”

“Exactly, so not the end of the world,” he noted.

She nodded slowly. “I know he was starting to get very concerned at that point in time, and we were trying to head back home again, but nothing seemed to be working. We started taking on water, and she just wasn’t cooperating. She wasn’t handling right. She was sitting too low in the water,” Missy explained.

“Right, and that may have been due to someone potentially replacing the plug with some material that would dissolve over time.”

“What?”

“So, in that case, the next thing would be to radio for help, while emptying out the water yourself, limping it back home again.”

“Right,” she agreed, “which in this case we couldn’t do because we didn’t have the fuel.”

He smiled at her. “Exactly.”

She grimaced and stared at him. “So, we’re really thinking that somebody did this?”

He shrugged. “Let’s just say it’s a major concern right now. Too many things went wrong, and I don’t believe in coincidence.”

“No, especially for someone as careful as my dad,” she pointed out, as she sank onto the cot, wrapping the knit blanket around her shoulders, now curling up against the wall. “Never in my wildest days did I think something like that could ever happen here.”

“I don’t think it’s so much that it happened here. I think it’s more that it could happen anywhere, and, if you hadn’t been found, nobody would ever have been the wiser.”

“But you did find us,” she declared.

“Yeah, which may have made me a target too,” he suggested, with half a smile, “but I would like to think not.”

She stared at him. “What do you think the chances are of somebody wanting to complete the job?”

“I think the trick at this point is to ensure nobody knows how your father is doing, and, if he does improve,… you need to keep that news to yourself.”

She stared at him in shock as the meaning settled in. “You think somebody might come back and try to finish the job, don’t you?”

“I think the problem is that somebody is likely to be afraid that, since you’ve been rescued, either your father will say something about it, opening an investigation, or he already knows exactly who did this. You’re sure he didn’t mention any names?”

She shook her head. “He was swearing a blue streak, and I didn’t necessarily understand everything he was swearing about,” she admitted, “but he was obviously very perturbed about a lot of what was going on.”

“Of course. That’s to be expected, but you didn’t hear him name any names?”

“No, of course not,” she muttered, raising both hands.

At that, Schooner hopped off the bed and walked over, jumping up on the cot and curling up beside her. She groaned, wrapped her arms around him, holding him close. “He’s very intuitive, isn’t he?” she muttered, as she scratched the top of his head.

“Of course. You’re his family, and he knows that one is injured and that the other one is suffering. Schooner will be there for you as much as he can be. And, if I thought that I could leave him here with you every day, all day, I would.”

“Why?” she asked. “It’s hardly a place for a dog.”

“Yet… he would be a great watchdog.”

She sucked in her breath at that. “Good God.” She stared down at Schooner. “I really don’t like the idea that I need a watchdog.”

“You may not.… However, if we’re correct, and somebody is trying to kill your father, and you are an incidental addition along the way,” he pointed out in a calm, flat tone that put a certain sting of reality to his words, “then you have to be prepared for the reality that there could be a second attempt.”

She shivered, wrapping her arms tightly around her chest. “Is it a good thing for me to even stay here? Although I don’t know where else I would go.”

“Presumably you’re living at your dad’s house, right?”

She nodded. “Yes, I was away at school and home for summers,” she explained, “and being in vet school doesn’t exactly give you much chance for a personal life.”

“No, of course not”—he smiled—“but you’re doing something that you’ve always wanted to do, and I’m sure your father was more than excited that you were coming home to work with him.”

“He really was,” she agreed, looking over at him, tears in her eyes again.

“Ah, don’t even go there,” Trey stated. “Your father is a tough cookie. Let’s give him a chance to get back out into the world that he loves so much.”

“He really does love life. After my mom died, he and my grandfather would take the Forget Me Not out for a sail; and it completely changed him. He was so depressed when we lost her, and then again when we lost my grandfather, but somehow the boat just seemed to change everything for Dad.”

Trey nodded. “Sometimes it’s just a new lease on life. He’d always been an avid fisherman but never felt he had enough time, and the loss of your mom may have been one of those wake-up calls that he needed to push him to get out and to do more.”

“I think so,” she agreed, “and it was a rough time for all of us. I was young and wasn’t doing very well myself. Yet, even as I got older, I felt the same. I really thought long and hard before leaving him alone to attend university.”

“He wouldn’t have blamed you. Besides, you were doing exactly what you needed to do.”

She laughed. “I think you just like giving everybody a pass.”

“No, that’s not me at all,” he corrected, with a smile, “but I do understand that, when life hits you hard, you gotta do what you gotta do.”

“Right, and your family wasn’t exactly supportive about your decision to join the military or even how to handle your injury, were they?”

“Nope, they sure weren’t,” he replied, with a smile. “Now that I’m back, one of the first questions that I got from Elizabeth was whether I’m staying.”

“It’s a good question.” Missy focused on him intently. “I’ve been wondering about that myself.”

He stared back at her and shrugged. “I don’t know the answer to that. I’m not sure, and I have to figure out a few things for myself. I would like to think that there’s more out there for me, but I’m not sure what form it’ll take.”

“You can always do search and rescue, since apparently you have a real knack for it,” she suggested, with a gentle smile.

“Maybe not so much of a knack for it, as an understanding of the person I was coming to help.” He looked over at the dog. “It’s really Schooner that I was asked to come out here for.”

She frowned at him. “What?”

He nodded. “I didn’t even know that Schooner was with Silas, and that was a hell of a surprise.”

“You’re not kidding,” she muttered. “I can’t believe that you came out or were sent out for Schooner. Yet, now that you’re here, everything might change for you. I know your brother would like to see you living here again.”

“Maybe, and that might be nice, particularly now that he’s having a family. I think family matters even more when the new generations come along.”

“I wouldn’t know,” she muttered. “We’ve not had any youngsters in our family yet.”

“No, not with your dad waiting for you,” he teased, as he turned to look back at Silas. He stepped forward and leaned over. “You hear that, Silas? It’s definitely time to get back here. So come back to the land of the living and help us solve this thing. If somebody did something to you or to the boat, believe me that people are here to help you.” And, with that, he turned to her. “Did you get anything to eat?”

She grimaced. “You know, hospital food, a little at a time.”

“I know you don’t want to leave your dad, but can I take you out for a meal or two and get you in a little bit better shape yourself? What do you think?”

“I did run home, grabbed a change of clothes, had a quick shower, and came back,” she shared, “but I still feel rough, you know?”

“Yeah, and you will for a while.” He shrugged. “I could also pick you up some food.” When she hesitated, he shook his head. “Look. You have to eat. You have to look after yourself, because when your dad wakes up, he’ll need somebody to look after him.”

She smiled. “I like that positive attitude.”

“Yeah, and it’s more than just a positive attitude,” he added. “It’s also the truth.”

She winced. “You won’t let me off the hook, will you?”

“Nope, I won’t. So what is it, eat-in food or takeout? It would do you some good to be out of here for a while. I know that Schooner would like to spend some time with you too.”

“Oh, that’s not fair,” she said, as Schooner lifted his head and just blinked at her, then whined.

“We could pick up fish and chips and take it to the docks.”

She looked back at her father and frowned. “I just don’t want to leave him.”

“Do you think something’ll happen to him in the meantime?”

“After our discussion on second attempts, yeah. Still, what if he wakes up? I don’t want him to wake up alone.”

“I’m pretty sure he would be happy to wake up and to know that you’re safe, even if you’re not right there beside him. You also know that, when he wakes up, he’ll get after you for sitting here, waiting for him all this time.”

She smiled. “Now that he will do,” she agreed, “but it doesn’t change what I think and feel.”

“In that case, I’ll go pick up fish and chips and bring it back for you.”

She hesitated and then asked, “Can I ride along? As long as you bring me back fairly quickly, but I really could use a few minutes out of here.”

“Good. Do you need to pick up anything or to just get out?”

“Out. Just out , out.”

“In that case, let me just see if Jackson can fill in for us here. Then let’s grab some fish and chips and take them to the docks.” He already had his phone out, sending a text.

“You’re really after fish and chips,” she noted, with a laugh.

“I don’t know about that, but it’s pretty portable and fast.” His phone got a text. “Jackson’s on his way. Let’s go.” And, with that, he motioned at Schooner. “Come on, buddy. Let’s get some lunch.” Maybe it was the word lunch . Maybe it was the word buddy , but Schooner whined and rolled over and looked up at her. “See? He wants you to come too.”

She got up and immediately Schooner attached himself to her leg. She reached down and grabbed the leash on him. “But you promise to bring me right back?”

“I promise to bring you right back,” he stated.

She smiled. “Okay, let’s go then.”

And, with that, he led her out to the parking lot, even as she kept turning to look back at the hospital. “Thirty minutes,” he vowed. “Thirty minutes for you to refresh your brain and to get a chance to smile and to get some fresh air.”

“It’ll take at least thirty minutes to get the fish and chips,” she protested.

“It shouldn’t. I phoned ahead.”

At the shocked look on her face, he laughed as he took her to his vehicle, helped her inside. He waved at his brother, as Jackson honked as he drove by, looking for a parking spot. Then Trey took off, hitting the drive-through on the way, where their order was ready and waiting. “See?”

And, with that, he carried on down to the docks and out to one of the big benches, where they could enjoy the fresh air.

She immediately dug into her fish and chips and took several deep breaths of fresh air. “You don’t realize just how much your life changes when you come close to losing it,” she murmured.

“Oh, I think I do,” he quipped, with a gentle smile.

She looked back at him and nodded. “I never realized just what it would mean.”

“Of course you didn’t. How could you? I don’t think anybody realizes it until it happens to them, until they experience it firsthand. Then everything changes. And even though you know that it’ll change something, you don’t know exactly what it’ll change. Still, you will be different forever after.”

“Maybe that’s a good thing,” she noted. “It gives you a better appreciation of what’s important in life.” She calmly worked on finishing her food. When she couldn’t eat the last of her fish, she caught Schooner staring at her with that hopeful look. She sighed. “Okay, buddy. I know it’s not the best thing for you, but I won’t tell if you don’t.” He scarfed down the last few bites of fish, then immediately shifted his gaze to Trey.

He laughed. “You think I’m as much of a sucker as she is?”

“Yes,” she declared, as he handed off his last bite to the War Dog. “I think you are.”

Trey chuckled. “Come on. I promised to get you right back.” He sent a quick text to Jackson on the walk back to the truck. As they drove back to the hospital, he asked her, “Has anybody else popped in to say hi? Has anybody checked in on you and Silas?”

She shook her head. “No, and I was half expecting a reporter or somebody to come, but, so far, it’s been peaceful and quiet. I suspect that could be due more to the nurses than anything, if they are restricting visitors for him, just because my father’s life is still very much hanging in the balance.”

“Absolutely, and that’s a good thing. The longer we can keep people away, the better.”

She smiled. “They’re not all bad, you know.”

“No, they aren’t,” he conceded, “but I’m not sure they’re all good either.” He saw Jackson leaving the hospital, and they exchanged nods, right as Trey pulled up to the main entrance to let her off there. She reached through the window, gave Schooner a big scratch, and then told Trey, “Thanks for dragging me out.”

“Go back to your father,” he said, with a smile. “I’ll check in on you in a bit.” With that, he was gone.

She wasn’t exactly sure why he was checking in on her all the time, wondering whether it had anything to do with her father’s accident or not. Yet it was nice. It had been a very long time since she’d had anybody other than her father give a damn about her. There was something special about that.

She’d been away from town long enough that she’d lost touch with all the friends she had once had. Years of living away would do that, and, now that she was here, she was enjoying maybe finding a friend.

Trey waited in the parking lot until she disappeared, then turned and looked at Schooner. “You ready, buddy?” With that, he headed toward Silas’s home and soon stood at the front door. He hadn’t really asked permission but realized that he probably should. He quickly texted her, asking permission to go into the house to check for signs of anything suspicious.

She immediately called him. “Do you really think that’s necessary?” she asked cautiously.

“Yes, I do.”

“Fine, but I was in there yesterday, and I didn’t see anything.”

“Okay, but I still want to go through your dad’s stuff. I know you haven’t contacted the sheriff, but—”

“I know. I know,” she muttered. “That’s not exactly something I want to take on right now.”

“Of course not, yet, if something is going on, then we need to get it straightened out right away.”

“Right,” she grumbled. “Go ahead then.”

He smiled, and, with Schooner at his side, he opened the front door and stepped inside. Typical small town where no one locked the doors. It was silent inside and should be, since nobody was home, and nobody would be home for a while.

As he stood here in the silence, he looked around the house that he had been in many times, but not recently. It still looked the same. Pictures of Silas’s wife were still over the fireplace in the living room. Trey noted even more pictures now of Missy, and some of them made him smile. Schooner immediately headed for his dog food bowl, which reminded Trey that he needed to pick up more for him. He was using everything they had at home, though he had only picked up the one bag of dog food, which was going fast. Trey needed to get more.

When he walked into the kitchen, he added dog food to his bowl, so he could have a decent meal. “Take your time, buddy. We’ll be here for a little bit.”

And, with that, Trey headed upstairs to where the master bedroom was. As he walked in, he did a quick search through it, not expecting to find anything but knowing it had to be checked regardless. As he walked through the home, he texted Missy, asking if she needed him to pick up anything while he was here.

She immediately replied. No, I’ll go back home again tonight and pick up more clothes.

He gave her a thumbs-up and sent her a message. Everything looks fine here. She gave him a thumbs-up in return, but he knew that she was really curious as to why he felt the need to come. He then headed in to do a quick search of her bedroom to ensure all was well, then went downstairs to look around each room.

He didn’t really understand his need to search their home either. It was just that sense of missing something. It wasn’t that they were missing a piece of the puzzle. They were missing everything. So far, none of this mess made any sense, and maybe it wasn’t intended to. That’s the thing that got him. Just because you wanted answers didn’t mean there were any, at least not clear-cut and ready for you.

He headed through the living room again, the dining area, then onto the kitchen. On his way to Silas’s home office, Trey knew Silas kept his business office at the vet clinic. As Trey considered that, he wondered what had happened to the vet clinic all this time. Picking up his phone, he called Missy, as he walked to the home office. “What has happened to the vet clinic?”

“Bill has been running it. He is my dad’s assistant.”

“And he’s a full-fledged vet?”

“Yeah, he is. He’s been there for quite a while.”

“Any reason to suspect that he would be behind this?”

“I can’t imagine it. He’s terrified of water for starters,” she added, with a note of humor. “He was horrified that both of us would go out on the boat together.”

“Maybe there was good reason for that.”

“I’ve been thinking about that too, but, no, that’s not possible. I don’t think Bill would have anything to do with something like that.”

“Good enough,” he murmured, “at least for now. Did your father keep any important documents or anything in the house?” He had reached the open doorway to Silas’s home office now.

“Not as far as I know. He has a safe deposit box, but I don’t know that he has anything else under lock and key. The lawyer keeps track of the legal documents and all, so I don’t know what Dad would have there at home.”

“So, there’s no reason why anybody would be in the home office here?” he asked her.

“No, I don’t think so. Why?”

He stepped in through the office door and shared, “Because your dad’s desk has been dumped.”

“What?” she cried out.

He quickly sent her a photo. “This is not how you left it?”

“No, of course not.”

“Now, think carefully,” he began cautiously. “When were you last in here? In your dad’s home office?”

“Oh my. I…”

He could almost hear the wheels spinning in her head. “You must be sure that whenever you were in here that it was normal.”

“I can’t be sure,” she replied. “Yesterday I raced home, showered, grabbed some clothes, then carried on. You’re right. I’m not sure I was in his office yesterday. Damn,” she muttered.

“So the break-in could have been even three weeks ago, when you first went missing,” Trey noted.

“But how could I have missed it?”

“You had no need to go into your father’s office. If it’s not a place where you keep anything, there would be no reason for you to go in there.”

“Right.”

Enough hesitation filled her tone that he had to ask, “Or is there a reason for you to come in here?”

“No, not really, but I’m accustomed to being in there. It’s not as if I would avoid it. It’s not as if it was a restricted private space that nobody was allowed into,” she explained. “It was definitely a room where I was welcome, but I wouldn’t have gone in there because I didn’t need anything.”

“Are there things you sometimes need in here?”

“The printer is there and the scanner,” she noted. “So, if I needed that equipment, sure. I certainly have used the printer and the scanner in the past because of school, but, other than that, I have no reason to go in there. Typically I would only have gone in there if Dad was there.”

“Okay, so who else has access to your house?” Dead silence came from the other end of the call.

“I have no idea,” she replied.

He heard the fatigue in her tone, as she worried about that question.

“I just don’t know who would have access.”

“The replacement at the vet clinic?”

“I don’t think so, no,… but Miranda would.”

“Who’s Miranda?”

She laughed. “Somebody Dad would tell me that he was not sweet on, yet I think a budding relationship was there.”

“Have you seen Miranda since you’ve been back?”

She stopped, then whispered, “No.”

“Okay, so would Miranda have had anything to do with this?”

“God, I hope not,” she muttered. “I don’t know why she would, but, even if she did, that’s too unbelievable.”

“Everything is unbelievable right now, but we have no choice but to consider all possibilities.”

“Of course,” she stated bitterly, “but it’s terrible even thinking about it.”

“Yes, it is,” he agreed, “but not thinking about it doesn’t make it go away.”

“Are you sure?” she quipped in a half laughing tone. “Because I would give a lot to have that happen. I just want Dad to wake up and to tell me that everything is fine, and that it was all his own error or something, that the boat wasn’t sabotaged.”

“And yet in your own heart you don’t believe that.”

“I don’t know what I believe,” she snapped, “so don’t go putting words in my mouth.”

He smiled, happy to see the return of some of that fighting spirit. “Got it. I’m sending you a series of photos, but I don’t suppose there’s any way for you to know if anything’s missing, is there?”

“No.… Will you call the sheriff?”

“I intend to,” he said. “I guess the other question I have is, if this was an intruder—”

“If it’s all torn apart, it would have to be,” she stated in a dry tone.

“Yes, but we don’t know what they were looking for or why they would have done this,” he pointed out. “Do you have any suspicion either way?”

“No, of course not, but I’m pretty sure that the sheriff will say, once it became known that we were missing, that would have been somebody’s opportunity to break in and to take advantage of the fact that nobody was there.”

“Honestly, that’s a damn good thought,” he noted, as he stared around the small room. “I don’t like it, but it is a reasonable assumption.”

“Exactly, and you know nobody’ll give a crap beyond that.”

“I don’t know that though,” he countered immediately, “and I don’t want to believe that.”

“Sure, but that doesn’t mean you’re correct.”

He smiled. “No, it sure doesn’t, but we’ll see what we can get for information. I’ll call him now.” He ended the call and immediately phoned Sheriff Woodley. When he answered, Trey said, “Hey, Sheriff. It’s Trey.”

“Hey, Trey. I hear you got the boat back.” Hesitating, he asked, “Anything suspicious?”

“Yeah, there sure is. I take it you haven’t made your way down to talk to Rob, have you?”

Apologetically he agreed. “No, I sure haven’t. Life’s gotten a little difficult here. I was thinking to head out there soon.”

“It’ll get a little more difficult now because Silas’s house, at least his home office, has been busted into and tossed. The contents of the drawers are everywhere, as if the intruder was looking for something. I know you’ll say it was just an opportunist, somebody who found out they were missing and knew that the house was empty.”

“It does happen,” the sheriff noted in that same tone as before.

“Sure, except the TV is still here and all the items I would expect to be stolen are here too. I can’t tell what might be missing because it’s such a mess, with only the office being tossed. So, you’ll have to think about another motive because, if they were just here to steal, they would have taken a hell of a lot more than whatever they were after.”

“But we don’t know that,” Woodley argued.

“No, we don’t. We don’t know who was behind this, and that is something we have to get to the bottom of.”

“Sure, and, as soon as I handle a drunk man and the domestic violence call on him, then I’ll get there.”

“This is an attempted murder, Sheriff, and it could end up being the murder of Silas, if not also Missy,” Trey snapped. “So you might want to keep that in mind too.”

And, with that, he ended the call.