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“Danny’s leg is itching and he’s lying in bed crying, saying it hurts,” Marie said, after apologizing for making the call. “I gave him the acetaminophen you said I could, but it doesn’t seem to be helping. Are we absolutely sure there’s nothing wrong there? Some infection we can’t see?”
“What did Dr. Bennet tell you on Monday?”
“That everything was fine, but that was four days ago.”
“Is he running a fever?”
“No.”
She went down the list of other possible symptoms that would indicate a problem, all with no signs of any concern. When they got to the end of the list, she suggested that Marie have Danny soak in a warm bath for a while and eat a healthy snack before going back to bed.
“Devon’s been watching us,” Marie said then. “The police caught him just far enough away so they couldn’t arrest him yesterday.”
As a member of Danny’s medical team, she wouldn’t have received the alert, just an update at their High Risk Team meeting on Tuesday, but Tad would have known.
Which was why he’d been out in the open, making it easy for Danny to find him during recess the day before.
“Have you seen or heard from him?”
“No.”
“And your sister and brother-in-law are there with you?”
“Yes.”
“So...our plan is working then,” Miranda said, wishing she could climb into the other woman’s psyche and help her with her battle, knowing that only Marie could do this part. “The police, they saw him, warned him, and he’s staying away.”
“I guess.”
Marie was scared. She had reason to be. And she had to fight that fear, or it would consume her and the rest of her life, too.
“If the bath doesn’t do the trick, it’s okay to give him a little more acetaminophen,” she said, in her most medical-professional-nurturing-a-patient voice. And then, speaking as a woman, she added, “If you get worried, call me back. I mean it, Marie. You’re in the middle of the toughest part of this and I agreed to be a member of the team helping you because it’s what I want to do. Your job is not to give in to feeling guilty, or apologetic. Just pick up the phone and call me. Or someone else who can help. You’re not alone. I can’t stress that enough.”
Marie thanked her. A couple of times. Sounding more in control than she had at the beginning of their conversation. Miranda hung up, not sure she’d been able to do enough.
Five minutes later, when the phone rang again, she expected it to be Marie calling back. It was Tad.
Curling up on her couch next to the book she’d been intending to read, a feel-good paperback novel about two female best friends and how the friendship survived the different paths their lives took, she told him about Marie’s call.
And received his assurance that there’d been no further notice of Devon’s activity since the day before.
“I was wondering how you’d feel about me taking Ethan to the gym tomorrow?” he asked. “I offered to take Danny last week when I was in your office, and while Marie hasn’t set anything up yet, she might. It would be good for me to do a test run with Ethan. And...good for Ethan to go there, too. The boys attend the same school. Ethan knows who Danny is now. They might talk at some point.”
She didn’t think so. More likely, Ethan would steer clear of the other boy.
That wasn’t the reason for her hesitation.
“I take him to basketball camp when I work on Saturday mornings.” Since January. Prior to that, she’d had him at the office with her, during the first year she’d been Dr. Bennet’s PA. And before that, at a day care in the building where Dr. Bennet had his practice.
Ethan had declared, when he’d started first grade, that he was too old for the after-school day care, although it accepted kids up to the age of eight. She let him make the decision, because it was one she could allow.
“I can go anytime,” Tad said.
Basketball camp hadn’t been the cause of her hesitation, either.
“I’m worried about him spending too much time with you.” She finally just came out with it. “I’ve told him you’re only here for a while, that you have your life in Michigan, a police force that needs you. He says he gets it, but after the way he was when he saw you with Danny, like he’s taking ownership of you—I don’t want him to get hurt...”
“My life in Michigan?”
