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“I’d like you to know that I’m also checking all of your work emails, and I accepted a job for you.” I swallowed past the lump that wouldn’t go away. “This one is a case that is eerily similar to that girl, JonBenet Ramsey.” I pulled up the case file I’d already started for him. “Would you like to hear about it?”
I was about to start reading despite his nonanswer when a scratchy, barely audible voice said, “Go for it.”
And cue the waterworks.
Tears streaming down my cheeks, I started to explain why I took the case, forcing myself to stay exactly where I was with my eyes downcast on my computer that was sitting on my crisscrossed legs.
“The little girl, Natalia, was a beauty queen. She has competed in well over thirty pageants and almost won every single one of them. Though she always falls short with second place. Five years ago, Natalia went missing. The parents received a ransom note and nothing else since. They paid the money, and Natalia was never returned, though the money was taken. The parents have gone through almost every single private investigator in about twelve surrounding states,” I began explaining, chest heaving as I tried to read while also controlling my tears. It didn’t work, and soon I wasn’t able to say a word about the case because all I could do was think about how much hearing his voice had righted my world.
“I l-l-love y-y-you,” he stuttered.
I allowed my head to drop to my chest as the tears came in torrential bucketfuls.
“I love you, too,” I heaved, finally turning to him.
• • •
2 weeks later
“I want to go home,” he grumbled.
I looked at the ceiling.
My tears hadn’t altogether dried up.
What they had done was become more desperate.
Because over the last two weeks, we’d finally realized what all had been affected when that bullet had taken its own path through his brain.
He’d lost his sense of taste and smell, and though he hadn’t lost his eyesight, he’d found that it was definitely affected in some way. Though at this point, we weren’t sure whether it was because he’d lost his left eye and he had to relearn how to see with only his right or because his eyesight inside his brain was affected in some way.
At this point, we were told only time would tell.
“You have to go to rehab before you can go home,” I said.
His eyes narrowed. “I don’t need rehab.”
I scoffed. “You do, too. Unless you’ve suddenly changed your mind and will allow me to help you to the bathroom?”
I could see him start to shut down, so instead of pushing him further than he was ready to go at this point, I pulled out my computer and gave him an update on the case. “I think this is going to require some footwork on your end once you’re better. These people know something more, or they’d be much more worried about her disappearance. They’re just carrying on with life, acting as if their daughter hasn’t been missing for five years. I mean, I keep thinking about what I would do if JP went missing, and I don’t think I’d ever sleep. You know?”
Kobe’s hand touched my arm, and I looked at him.
“I’m going to be okay.”
His speech had evened out since the day he’d woken up. Those first few days of him being in and out of consciousness, everything he’d said had been stunted and stuttered. Now, though the rest of him was still learning, his voice sounded perfect.
Steady.
“I know.” I sighed.
He knew me so well.
I obsessed over things when I was nervous, so sue me.
“They’re gonna find them,” he promised next.
I felt my stomach lurch.
