“I’ve got a shoot to do this afternoon,” Felicity told me groggily.
“No you don’t. I’ll call them and re-schedule for you.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure.”
“I love you” was the last thing she whispered before drifting into the arms of sleep.
“I love you, too,” I returned and kissed her lightly on the forehead.
I waited a few more minutes before deciding to go in search of Ben. I attempted to retrace our steps in coming to this room and as I had not paid attention, quickly became lost. As I rounded a corner, I came upon what resembled a small break room and was almost immediately bowled over as a red-faced Allison Storm rushed angrily past me. I looked after her then peered into the open doorway, only to find Ben, hands in his pockets and hangdog expression creasing his face. Something was definitely wrong between the two of them. I assumed it was the amount of time he was spending on this case and that I had just witnessed the tail end of an argument it had caused.
“You okay?” I queried as I stepped through the doorway.
“What? Yeah.” He looked up and noticed me. “Yeah, I’m fine. How’s the squaw?”
“She woke up for a minute or two,” I replied. “She’s doing okay, considering. Oh, and I guessed right. She went over there because she wanted to help Cally.”
“Sounds like her.”
“You sure you’re okay?” I asked again and hooked my thumb over my shoulder. “You seem a little preoccupied, and Allison looked kind of irritated…”
“Yeah, I’m good.” He pulled his hands from his pockets and straightened from where he had been leaning against the wall. “She’s okay. It’s just been a rough day for ‘er. Hell, for all of us.”
I decided not to push any further out of respect for my friend. If he and his wife were having problems, it was none of my business unless he chose to tell me. If he made that choice, I would be there to listen, no questions asked.
“So,” I changed the subject, “that phone call get you anywhere? Did you find anything out?”
“Oh yeah.” He brightened noticeably. “They were in the lobby. Seems the son-of-a-bitch is in surgery right this minute, in this very hospital.”
“Surgery?” I puzzled. “What happened, did they shoot him?”
“Nope.” Ben explained, “Seems the idiot went over a fence when they were chasin’ ‘im and landed smack in the middle of a dog pen. Apparently, the pit bull livin’ in it at the time was not pleased.”
“How bad?” I grimaced.
“Sounds REAL bad,” he answered. “It took ‘em awhile ta’ get the dog off ‘im. Unfortunately, they ended up havin’ ta’ drop the hammer on it.”
“Is he going to live?”
“Don’t know. Benson-that’s the copper that I talked to-told me the doc said he’d lost a lot of blood. It’s pretty much touch and go right now.”
“The threefold return,” I muttered under my breath.
“What was that?” Ben asked.
“The threefold return,” I pronounced more clearly. “It’s a belief we Witches have, that everything we do will return to us threefold. Good or Bad.”
“Yeah. What goes around comes around. You’ve said that before. So?”
“So Devon sacrificed a dog,” I explained.
Ben looked at me, and his eyes widened as the irony behind what I had just said sunk in. When he finally opened his mouth, all he could say was “Oh.”
CHAPTER 15
While Felicity slept, Ben and I executed a roughly choreographed shuffle of vehicles: first, driving my wife’s Jeep from Cally’s house back to where it belonged then retrieving my truck from behind the police station. He remained silent and distant as we drove about, completing the tasks, keeping his eyes glued to the road before him and saying only as much as necessary. I didn’t like seeing him like this, but I knew I could only wait until he was ready to talk, for anything else would only drive him further into his world of introspection. I mutely reassured myself that everything would work out between Ben and Allison and that all would return to normalcy soon. Besides, I had my own pain to contend with.
“So, what’s the plan?” I asked him.
We were standing next to my vehicle on the parking lot of the police station. It was still early afternoon, and the bright sun had only recently begun the downward portion of its arc through the sky. A light breeze blew in, tousling Ben’s already disheveled hair as he looked back at me wearily.
“I’ll see if the search warrant has been issued for R.J.’s place,” he sighed. “And we’ll be waitin’ to hear from the hospital about Devon. Other than that, it’s business as usual.”
“I know we’ve been down this road before, Ben,” I ventured, “but I really believe R.J. is innocent. You aren’t going to find anything at his place.”
“For his sake, I hope you’re right,” he acknowledged. “But, I still have a job to do, and I wouldn’t be much of a cop if I didn’t follow all the leads. Look, Row, I’d like ta’ agree with you, but even you hafta admit the fingerprint on the bottom of that candle is pretty incriminatin’.”
“Yeah. It is,” I agreed, “but I’m sure there’s an explanation for it.”
“Lemme know if ya’ think of a reasonable one,” Ben returned.
We stood a little longer, silently staring at one another. Tension still radiated from my friend, and I felt there was something he wished to say but couldn’t find the words. The sounds of sirens being tested filled the wordless void around us as shifts changed and squad cars entered and left the lot.
Finally, I broke the speechless interlude. “So, you’ll call me if anything turns up?”
“Yeah, I’ll let ya’ know,” he told me with a nod then added, “Give Felicity my best and… Tell ‘er… Tell ‘er I’m sorry.”
“I’ll do that.”
Ben had already disappeared into the door of the police station by the time I backed out of my parking space and shifted into forward motion. I reached over and turned up the radio as I pulled out of the lot. I hung a quick right and melded with the traffic then pointed myself in the direction of home. Before returning to the hospital, I still needed to call Felicity’s client to re-schedule as well as put together an overnight bag for her, just in case.
The last few nondescript chords of a song I didn’t recognize filtered to my ears, and a DJ’s voice blended in behind them. Before she had a chance to tell me the name of the song I had just ignored, I punched a preset and switched to the local National Public Radio affiliate. I was looking for something other than the events of this day to occupy my mind-even if only for a few moments.
The afternoon faded slowly into evening, and the end of visiting hours approached at an ever-quickening pace. Once Felicity had returned to wakefulness, I spent the evening filling her in on the events that had occurred with R.J. This did little to improve her demeanor, so I elected to leave out the incident with Ben and Allison for the time being. As if my news weren’t enough, the doctor assigned to her case chose to keep her overnight for observation despite her vehement and very animated protestations. The rest of my evening was spent listening to her grumble.
When the nurse finally decided to eject me from the room, I kissed my still fuming wife goodbye and promised to return bright and early the next morning.
I arrived home to a sedate household-the dogs moping about listlessly, and the wide-eyed cats lined up along the windowsill, ears twisting like radar dishes searching for even the most remote sign of Felicity. Anyone who tells you that animals don’t sense when something is wrong, or that they can’t show concern, has definitely never owned a pet.
I tended to their various needs of being let out and in, food, water, and generous amounts of attention before locking up for the night. The house felt empty and hollow without Felicity. We had been separated before but never under circumstances such as these. Never, at a time when among my greatest fears was that of going to sleep-going to sleep and facing another nightmare.