AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Her sprint to the Floyds’ house had aggravated her stress fracture. She explained it as an unfortunate outcome of her strenuous run on Saturday. An ice pack had been strapped to the foot and it was now elevated on a pillow.
She was getting fluids through an IV. That precaution was entirely unnecessary, but she couldn’t refuse it without assuring them that she’d been adequately hydrated for the past four days.
She didn’t have to fake her headache. She wasn’t suffering the stabbing pain of her recent concussion, but the dull throb of a classic tension headache, one exacerbated by intense and contradictory emotions. At her request the window blinds had been closed. She’d said that blocking out the light helped relieve the headache, when actually she feared the sunlight beaming in would spotlight her lies.
Lying went against her nature. Being untruthful to her colleagues and to the detectives shamed her. It was even harder to lie to Jeff. From the moment he’d entered the service station and taken her into his arms, he’d been reluctant to let her out of his sight even long enough for her to receive medical treatment.
He reached down now and stroked her cheek with the back of his hand, not knowing that it evoked a memory of another man’s touch.
Doc? Are you going to wake up or sleep through?
Unable to handle both that recollection and her husband’s adoring smile, she looked toward the foot of the bed where her associates stood shoulder to shoulder. “Jeff told me about the award you offered.”
They believed it to be news to her. It wasn’t, but having known about it since yesterday didn’t diminish her gratitude. “I can’t…” Her throat grew so thick she could barely speak. “I don’t know how to thank you for your willingness to do that.”
Dr. James said, “We would have doubled the amount in order to get you back. As it is, in celebration of your safe return, we’re donating the original twenty-five thousand to Doctors Without Borders.”
Completely overcome with emotion, she sniffed. “I need a tissue.” Jeff grabbed the box off the side table and extended it to her, then kept his hand on her shoulder while she blotted her leaky eyes. After a moment, she gave an embarrassed laugh. “I’m not usually such a waterworks.”
“The emotions you’ve kept pent up over the last four days are just now surfacing.”
How wrong he was. Over the past four days, she’d had numerous outbursts of widely varied emotions, all of them passionately felt. But she gave him a weak smile. “I’m sure you’re right.”
Knight waited for her to compose herself, then said, “Would y’all please give us a few minutes alone with Dr. Charbonneau?”
“What for?” Jeff asked.
“We just need to clear up a few details for the paperwork we’ve gotta file. Also, the department’s PIO is waiting for clearance from us on the statement he’ll give to the media, and we need her input on that. Don’t want to say anything that’s incorrect. Shouldn’t take long.”
His rambling was a non-answer, but short of challenging the officer, Jeff had little choice except to comply. He leaned down and kissed her forehead. “I’ll be in the hallway if you need me. I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
He shot the two law officers his frostiest and most disparaging look, then joined her two associates as they filed out.
Knight remarked on Jeff’s disdain. “He doesn’t regard us too kindly.”
“Can you blame him? You suspected him of God knows what.”
“Were we that obvious?”
“Apparently so. He told me you treated everything he said and did with suspicion.” During a private moment in a curtained-off area of the ER, while waiting for her CT scan to be assessed, Jeff had told her about the detectives’ preoccupation with him while she remained missing in a frozen wilderness.
“Well,” the older detective said now, “I’ll admit that Grange and me bounced around some theories. In situations like this, it’s often the significant other that’s the culprit. My apologies to both y’all.”
He pulled a chair nearer her bedside and sat down. Grange remained standing at the foot of the bed. He wasn’t as gregarious as his partner, but he made up for it by being extremely observant, which put Emory on guard.
Knight began. “We don’t know much more than we did while you were missing, Dr. Charbonneau.”
“I realize how frustrating that must be for you.”
“Let’s start with the man you can’t name.”
The mention of him filled her with such despair, she feared it would be detectable.
Knight said, “He told you he came across you laying on the trail, out cold.”
“While he was hiking.”
