AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She smiled sweetly as she reached for his hand and squeezed it. “I have my moments, too. Sometimes I’m overtaken by what could have been, and I get weepy. I shudder when I think of how close I came to losing you.”
“So do I.” He squeezed her hand in return, then released it. “I know you’re disappointed, but I’m not going to apologize for turning down the interview. It just wouldn’t feel right. Maybe one of the other survivors would be comfortable doing it. I’m not.”
“I’ve already recorded one with a young woman who was at the fair with her mom. After the first shots, they got separated in the stampede. The mom got out okay. The police think the daughter was the last one who caught fire before the gunman killed himself. She was in the vicinity of the tent and got shot in the calf. Rotten luck for her.”
“Rotten? She’s lucky to be alive.”
“Of course,” she said with a trace of exasperation. “I only meant—Never mind. The interview with her will be on the six o’clock news tonight if you want to watch it.” She motioned toward the television mounted on the wall just under the ceiling. “Have you even turned the TV on since you got moved into this room?”
“I haven’t felt like watching.”
“Even my reports?”
“I saw it as it happened, Shauna. I don’t need to see snippets of it on TV. The images remain very clear inside my head.” He didn’t want to argue with her about it, so he followed up with a question. “What are they saying about him? The shooter.”
“Very little. We’re getting the basic runaround. ‘It’s an ongoing investigation. No comment.’ I have sources in every branch of law enforcement. They’ve all gone mute. They won’t even release his name until they locate and notify his next of kin.”
Since that was the line he’d gotten from Perkins and Compton during his meeting with them, he didn’t pursue it.
Shauna gazed around the room as though looking for something else to talk about. “Who sent the flowers?”
It was a lavish bouquet. At his request, an orderly had removed the most fragrant blossoms, which were intensifying his headache and making him queasy.
“JZI. The CEO has left two voice mails, expressing shock and concern for what happened to me less than an hour after I left their offices.”
“Have you called him back?”
“I texted a thank-you for the flowers.”
“Have you talked to anyone, Calder? What about your folks?”
“We’ve talked twice, and we text throughout the day. Dad feels guilty. As if his cancer treatments aren’t a good enough reason not to come. Mom’s a basket case. She’s stretched so thin that I’m as worried about her as I am about him. I emphasized that she’s where she needs to be and that I’m fine.”
His parents lived in La Jolla, California, where his dad’s ideal and well-earned retirement had been cruelly interrupted by a diagnosis of leukemia. It was a curable type but required daily infusions for several months. Calder didn’t expect or want them to travel halfway across the country to sit by his bedside. It would be a grueling trip for them, and when they got here, what could they do except fret? They could do that in California.
“Would you like for me to call them?” Shauna offered. “Reassure them that you’re all right?”
“No. Mom would just suspect that you’re hiding a terrible truth about my condition.”
“You’re probably right,” Shauna said, giving him a wan smile. “Your voice mail must be at capacity. Do you want me to return some of the calls for you?”
“No thanks. I’ll get to them.”
She looked doubtful of that. Rightfully so. He didn’t intend to return calls any time soon. Even the best of friends would press him to give them a down-and-dirty account of the shooting, and he wasn’t ready for that.
Shauna said, “Maybe talking to some of your baseball teammates would cheer you up.”
They were a group of successful professionals who played in a ragtag league that was more about talking trash and drinking beer than batting and catching. “They’re a rowdy pack,” he said. “I’ll get with them when I feel better and regain some strength.”
She looked disappointed in his lack of enthusiasm but didn’t comment on it. “Has anyone told you when you’ll be released?”
“Tomorrow, possibly. If not, then the day after.”
“Be sure to give me plenty of notice. I’ll be here to drive you home. Your precious Jag is already safe in the garage. I handled that for you.”
He hadn’t even thought about the retrieval of his car from the dusty fairground parking lot.
Shauna was telling him that their housekeeper had stocked the kitchen with his favorite foods. Shauna had canceled his upcoming dental cleaning and an appointment with his tailor. When she wound down, he said, “Thanks for seeing to all that.”
