Eskel’s face paled, and his lip quivered. Dr. Silva moved towards him. Eskel held up a shaking hand. Dr. Silva waited.
Eskel took a deep breath and said, “That’s when I felt the hands pulling me upwards into the ceiling. I screamed and fought as the grip tightened and my fingers were beginning to snap. I don’t know if it was the pain combined with my overactive imagination, but I felt a second set of hands on my arms, and they began to twist and pull with enough force to pull my arms out of the socket. I must have been thrashing around because the ladder fell out from under me. I felt something cold move around my neck. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was a length of old electrical wire from the wall. The hands let go, and I fell. Harry caught me. Had he not stuck around to finish his cigarette, I would have died. Even if my hands and arms weren’t broken, the quickness of the drop would have broken my neck before I could grab hold of a beam or pipe to stop my fall.”
Dr. Silva got up and examined the plumber’s neck. “If you hadn’t told me, I would not have suspected your neck was wrapped in wire.”
“Harry’s a big guy, but he’s quick. He cut the wire and carried me upstairs.”
“You said Harry was an electrician. Could he have wrapped your neck?” Dr. Silva asked suspiciously.
“For what purpose? We really don’t know each other. No. The man saved my life. Cigarettes may eventually kill him, but that cigarette saved my life,” Eskel professed.
Dr. Silva stepped back. “Just to be sure, I’m going to have your neck scanned. Mr. Toov, it sounds like you’re lucky to be alive. Who knew that plumbing was such a hazardous profession? What will you do until you’re healed?”
“The union will take care of me, and then I’m going to look into new construction. Never again will I step voluntarily into a house older than a few years.”
“I’ll be back to check on you. If you need anything, alert the nurses.”
Dr. Silva walked out of the door and stood at the nurses’ station outside of Toov’s hospital room and typed in his notes.
Four suited individuals brushed by him and entered Toov’s room. Silva wasn’t positive but he doubted that they were family. Maybe from the union? He angled his head and peered into the room. There, he saw papers being pulled from a briefcase just before the door was closed by one of the suits.
Silva returned to his business but couldn’t shake the uneasiness that he had witnessed something he wasn’t supposed to see.
Chapter One
Cid handed another suitcase to Ted who was applying a Tetris method of stacking while trying to fit all the items in the back of Mia’s truck under the new cover.
“You don’t have to put it all here,” Cid said. “You can split it up between the SUV and truck.”
“If I separate the luggage into two vehicles, the odds of leaving something behind grows,” Ted said, scratching his head. “Are you sure you don’t want to come with us? Europe in the winter? Snow bunnies on the slopes,” Ted tempted.
“You’re not going to be anywhere near a ski lodge,” Cid pointed out. “I would love to spend a few weeks with the Neyers in Alsace, but I have to make a living.”
“If money is a problem, I can loan you some until our new earcom patent goes up on the block in February. I hear we have three telecom companies interested.”
Cid looked at his generous friend. “You didn’t have to put me on that patent. All I did was suggest it. You worked out the bugs.”
“With your help. I’m not giving you charity, Cid,” Ted said offended.
“I know you’re not. How do I explain this…? I need to bring in a steady enough income if I’m ever going to be able to support a family.”
“Have you and Rand discussed marriage?” Ted asked, his face brightening.
“No. I’m not sure she sees me that way any longer.”
“I thought the two of you got back together.”
“Briefly. We just enjoyed a few dates when she was back visiting her folks. Rand’s being courted by a prestigious prep school on the east coast. She asked me if I’d move for her career.”
Ted’s face clouded. “Would you?”
“I don’t know. You moved to be with Mia.”
“I moved to court Mia. I was just lucky that PEEPs decided to move out here too. Burt told me that Mia told him that she would have moved to Kansas had PEEPs decided to use Wichita as a center of operations.”
Cid was gobsmacked. “How did I not know that?”
“I assume it never came up in conversation because it didn’t happen.”
Cid turned around, walked to the open garage door, and looked out at the farm. “Honestly, I can’t imagine living anywhere else.”
Ted smiled behind him. “Me neither. Where else could a man have a family, a farm with its own ghost, and his best friend living a stone’s throw away?”
Cid watched as Murphy set another piece of wood up to quarter. Ethan Aldridge collected the firewood and stacked it in the wheelbarrow to take to the
