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“And still, you called a complete stranger to ask her how she’s feeling? What do you say about that?”
It was easy to see how she used her skills to switch the focus of the conversation back to him. A tidbit Sam stored for later use.
“I don’t know what to say. I’ve never done it before, and I know I won’t do it after you.”
Another pause. Sam found it difficult to understand what was going on in the head of the woman on the other end of the line.
“What’s your name.”
Sam had already decided what to say, had a fake name ready for her, but it was impossible to lie to her. “My name is Sam.” Stunned by what he’d just done, he almost didn’t ask the question back. “And you are?”
One small hesitation this time. “Ellie. So tell me, Sam, why won’t you reach out to anyone else?”
What could he tell her? That calling her by mistake had only delayed a decision he’d already made and he wouldn’t be around to care for anybody else? Body tense and itchy, Sam didn’t want to go down that path. “Is it really that extraordinary for someone to care, especially since they feel something is wrong?”
“Wrong?”
“I remember how your voice sounded the other night. The longing when I mentioned my brother. However, it’s the catch I heard in your words, when you said that you’d lost another one. That you couldn’t save him. Who couldn’t you save?” The small woman who’d started walking again stopped for a moment. With her back to him, he was unable to see her face. “Ellie?”
Apart from the wind whistling at the other end of the line, Sam had no clue what was going on.
“I need to go.”
Those were her last words before she hung up. Cursing under his breath, Sam saw her slim form waver while she pocketed her phone. One step, then another, before she turned, and even from a distance, he could see how the light flickered on her cheeks, an admission of her tears.
Sam took two steps before restraining himself. This act of caring wasn’t supposed to involve him more than was necessary. Ellie was clearly battling her own nightmares, and they were the kind of monsters he knew well, although he had no idea how to slay them. It was one war he’d lost, but even if darkness had swallowed him, it didn’t mean he couldn’t see how precious the light was inside Ellie, even though it was currently dimmed.
The soldier he’d been, and still was deep down, surged inside him. There was no way he’d back down now. As he looked at the beautiful woman with the wild strands of hair dancing around the pale oval of her face, Sam vowed he would help Ellie find herself as his last good deed to this world.
* * *
It took some work,but Sam finally got his hands on a decent enough laptop for some research. Lazarus still was his go-to man, and as per usual, didn’t ask questions. Instead, in record time, a delivery man arrived at his new home with all he needed. One question he needed to ask was how his brother knew his address, and as the delivery included food. He wondered if Lazarus had a camera on his empty fridge.
As he sat on the couch, a bag of chocolate chips cookies by his side, Sam booted up his new machine while keeping an ear on any noise coming from the neighboring wall.
His first point of order was to get hold of Ms. Ellie McLaren’s phone signal. It took some time until the reassuring red dot started blinking on the screen’s map.
The day before, after they’d spoken on the phone by the bridge, Sam had followed her from a distance, both for her safety and his own peace of mind. The woman had wandered in the cold for a long time, slowing down in front of shops and bakeries, as if admiring what was behind the glass, but not daring to get anything for herself.
He hadn’t been there long, but when she was inside her apartment, he barely heard any noise. Water, feet shuffling, and silence. No sound from the television or radio, no music, no ringtone, no smell of food, and definitely no company.
Loud silence as it was now. The red dot told him that Ellie was indeed inside her home.
It was easy to access her latest purchase, and apart from coffee, there weren’t any grocery or restaurant bills, unless she’d paid cash.
Not convinced, he continued his search and accessed her file from the office, and what he read worried him. Ellie had been put on temporary leave. The details weren’t precise, her boss obviously trying to shield her, but reading between the lines, it was clear she wasn’t well.
Clues were adding up, or at least he could follow some sort of pattern, but the origin of it all remained fuzzy, and most importantly, it left her still balancing on the edge.
Fingers still over the keyboard, Sam pondered what he could do, short of knocking on her door.
What was she doing in her apartment right now? Did she have any decent food in there?
The wheels of his mind turning, Sam analyzed possibilities until an idea popped into his head, one silly enough that it could work.
Lazarus wasn’t the only one capable of ordering online. In only a few clicks, he did a basic grocery shop and had it sent to her apartment. To avoid any suspicion, he made sure to add a note from her boss Madge, something general about wanting to help her out and accepting this gift. He wasn’t too worried about raising her suspicions. He could divert her boss’ incoming emails and that would warn him before it could get out of hand.
As he was lost in an inner debate whether or not he should install cameras in her apartment, Sam heard footsteps coming up the staircase. He could hear someone panting, and he didn’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to guess that the delivery man had arrived.
