Page 388 of A Matter of Time

“Thanks,” I said, letting out a deep breath, shivering hard. “I really wanna see Sam.”

“Okay, buddy…okay. Jory, look at me. Jory…”

And I tried really hard to focus on him right before I saw spots and the room went dark.

It was bright, so I squinted when I opened my eyes. My groan was loud.

“Nice,” Dane growled at me.

I looked around. “I’m back in the hospital?”

“Yes.”

“How come?” I whined.

“Because you’re dehydrated, you still have a concussion—the same one, I might add—and your blood sugar is critically low.”

“I don’t have a concussion. I didn’t hit my⁠—”

“Again, it’s the same one you had. You never gave yourself a second to heal, and then you got hit by whoever that guy was when you got between him and that woman, and you⁠—”

“I still have a concussion?”

“It’s hysterical that you’re surprised.”

“Dane, I⁠—”

“They gave you some glucose to help with your blood sugar and more fluid than I thought was possible—two IVs full of fluid—and…you know you always drink, like, a gallon of water a day, so your body is used to taking in that much. When you stop… That was really stupid.”

“Yeah, I know. I just haven’t had time.”

“What possessed you to go to that woman’s house?”

“It made sense, right? I mean, if I had gotten to talk to her, I would have asked her who her son hung out with. Maybe we could have put a face to Greg Fain’s buddy.”

He shook his head. “Well, apparently you and Caleb did a great job destroying evidence and just completely ruining the crime scene.”

“Yeah, but no one would have even known about the crime scene without me and Caleb.”

“Don’t kid yourself, Jory, someone else would have found that woman’s body, and when they did, they would have tied her murder to her son’s. As it stands now, Caleb’s prints are on the murder weapon, yours are on the door, and both of your footprints are on the carpet. If they find anything after they pull you two out of the mix, it will be a miracle.”

I took a breath and stared at him.

“What were you looking for?”

“We were hoping to talk to her about⁠—”

“No, I mean when you went through her stuff?”

“What’re you talking about?”

“Why did you go through her things? What was the point of that?”

“We didn’t.”

“Well, apparently you did. They found Caleb’s prints everywhere.”

I scoffed at him. “Everywhere, my ass. I touched the door, like you said, same as Caleb, and stupidly, he touched the knife as well. But that’s it. That was all we did.”