Before anyone could say anything else, the door to the left of the reception counter opened, and a woman wearing a white doctor’s coat exited. She was short, with blonde hair and tired-looking eyes that Logan guessed meant she was closer to the end of her shift than the beginning. When she glanced at the receptionist, the older woman nodded toward Logan and the others.
“I understand you’re friends of Mr. Pepper’s, is that correct?” she asked as soon as she drew near.
All three stood.
“Yes,” Logan said.
She held out her hand. “I’m Dr. Ramey.”
“Logan Harper.” They shook. “This is my dad, Harp, and our friend, Barney Needham.”
“Barney’s a doctor, so don’t hold back,” Harp told her.
“Harp!” Barney said.
“Dad!” Logan chimed in at the same time.
“What?” Harp asked.
Logan took a breath, then said to the doctor, “How is he?”
“Better than when he came in. He’s got two broken ribs, a fractured cheek, numerous cuts and bruises. He definitely didn’t come out the winner.”
“What about the other guy?” Logan asked.
“As far as I know, the police are still looking for him.”
“Was he drunk?” Harp asked, his eyes flicking toward the receptionist.
She hesitated. “Typically, that would be confidential, but I don’t think it would be a problem to tell you he had no trace of alcohol or drugs in his blood.”
“So he
“No. He wasn’t.”
Harp looked at the receptionist again, his eyes hard and narrow. “You should tell your staff that so they’ll stop making false accusations.”
The doctor looked back at the woman, sighed, and turned to Harp. “I’ll have someone talk to her.” Her tone made it sound like this wouldn’t be the first time.
“I know visiting hours aren’t for a while yet,” Logan said, “but is there any chance we can see him now? We came straight here the moment we arrived in town.”
Dr. Ramey considered it, then nodded. “Sure. For a few minutes.”
“Thank you,” Logan said.
“This way.”
As she led them to the door, the receptionist looked over with both surprise and disapproval. Harp stared back at her, then said in a whisper loud enough for everyone to hear, “He wasn’t drunk.”
They passed examining rooms, a nurses’ station, and a lunchroom before turning down the hallway that served as the ICU. Dr. Ramey explained that while Pep’s life wasn’t in danger, it was still important to keep an eye on him in case there was any internal damage they hadn’t been able to diagnose. She asked them to wait a moment then went off to talk to one of the nurses.
When she returned, she said, “All right, he’s awake. Remember, not long.”
“We’ll remember,” Logan promised.
“On the other side of that curtain,” she said, pointing at one of the patient stalls lining the right side of the corridor.
Pep’s bed had been raised so that he wasn’t completely flat on his back. One of his eyes was swollen shut, and the other looked like it wanted to be. There was a bandage across his chin and another on his forehead above his left eyebrow. But even then, the look on his face was stoic, as if nothing had happened.
“Pep? I’m Logan Harper, Dev’s friend. How you feeling?”
“Mr. Harper. Kind of you to come by.” There was a dreamy, drug-induced quality to the man’s voice.
“I’m Harp.”
“And I’m Barney.”
The corners of Pep’s mouth turned up a fraction of an inch. “Hey.”
“Can you tell us what happened?” Harp asked.
“What happened when?”
Logan gave him a smile. “We hear you were in a fight.”
“Fight? Oh, yeah. You mean last night. Not sure you could call it that. A fight takes two people. As far as I can remember, I was only a spectator. Or the punching bag. I guess that would be more accurate, huh?”
“Did you see him?”
“If I did, I don’t remember.”
“Did he take anything?” Logan asked. “Was it a robbery?”
“Don’t know. Haven’t checked. The nurse says I still have a wallet, but my phone…” He seemed to lose focus.
“What about your phone?”
“It, uh, got broken in the fight.”
“Did he say anything to you?”
Pep concentrated for a moment. “Just that he knew where Sara was.”
“That’s it?”
Pep was quiet for a moment. “I…I’m not sure.”
Whatever drugs Pep had been given were clearly starting to affect him. “Can you tell us why you were there?”
“Getting my car.”
“Why was your car there?”
“Oh…uh…was showing the girl’s picture…around…at bars.”
“Any luck?” Harp asked.
Pep looked like he was going to say something, then his eyes fluttered, and he slipped out of consciousness.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
After weeks of silence, there were nights Sara would forget to bring the phone into the bedroom with her when she went to sleep. That’s why she didn’t hear it the first time it rang several hours before she woke.
When it rang the sixth time, she was still in bed but awake, feeling the weight of another day ahead of her. The sound had been faint, almost imperceptible, but after so long in the cabin, hearing all the noises the walls and the surrounding woods made, the ring was like a fire alarm.
She jumped out of bed, raced into the other room, and grabbed the phone off the couch, afraid she’d arrived too late.
“Hello?” she huffed. “Hello? Hello?”
“Where the hell have you been?”
“What do you mean? Here. Where else would I be?”
“I’ve been calling you for hours.”
“I…I didn’t hear the phone ring.”
“Sara, you
“I’m sorry. I’ll turn the volume up.”
There was a pause, then her caller said, “Things are happening.”
Sara tensed.
“You need to be ready in case you need to move in a hurry. You remember the escape route?”
Sara closed her eyes, her shoulders sagging at the inevitability of it all. She had hoped they’d succeeded, that she had made a clean disappearance. But…
“I remember,” she said.
