Leon had returned to Stillwater four years ago. He had spent the first twelve months trying to drink his hometown dry. Damn near succeeded, too. The second year had been a desperate fight to get sober. Years three and four had been about attending AA meetings, getting his life back on track and remaining in recovery.
When he looked back on what had helped him reach the point he was at now, there were two people without whom he wouldn’t have made it. One was Bryce Delaney, Laurie’s brother-in-law. Leon and Bryce were both veterans of the war in Afghanistan. Bryce had been an explosive ordnance disposal specialist, while Leon had been an army doctor. Bryce’s career had been brought to an end by a roadside bomb. Leon had been given a medical discharge for mental health reasons. He had retained his medical license to practice because his issues had never placed his patients at risk. Although they had manifested themselves in a search for oblivion at the bottom of a bottle, his mental health problems had been triggered by the death of his wife in a car crash.
Bryce had been there whenever Leon needed him. Still was. Recognizing post-traumatic stress disorder through his own problems, Bryce had been the person to get Leon into rehab and counseling. For a long time, he had also been the only person in Stillwater who had believed Leon could get sober. Back then, even Leon himself hadn’t been convinced, which made Bryce’s faith in him even more remarkable.
The other person who had gotten him here—and kept him here—was Alan Grayson.
Initially, Leon had owed his job at the Main Street Clinic to the fact that his return to sobriety had coincided with a series of misfortunes, or life changes, for other doctors at the practice. Faced with a recruitment crisis, Alan had taken a brave decision and approached Leon with a job offer. It had started out as a short-term position. To everyone’s surprise, Leon had repaid Alan’s faith in him. He was good at his job and popular with his patients and maintained his sobriety. He had quickly become an indispensable member of the team.
Even at the start of his employment at the Main Street Clinic, Leon could tell Alan was struggling with personal problems. A man of enormous charisma, he was getting by on a professional reputation that was outdated. The once-thriving clinic was barely surviving. Out of loyalty to the man who had picked him up from rock bottom and given him a chance when no one else would, Leon did everything he could to keep things going. It was a thankless task when the person in charge seemed to be sinking deeper into his own mountain of cares with each passing day. His impression was that the problems were financial and he wished Alan would confide in him, but they didn’t have that sort of relationship.
Yesterday, when Flora had dropped the bombshell news that Alan had been offered a way out, Leon hadn’t known how to react. At first glance, it had sounded like the ideal way to solve their problems, yet she’d said Alan had turned it down. No matter how hard he had tried, Leon hadn’t been able to come up with a good reason for the decision. Setting aside the gratitude and respect he felt for Alan, he and his colleagues were entitled to some answers about why their boss hadn’t at least discussed an option that impacted their future.
As for the rumor he had just heard Tegan discussing... Leon knew what small towns were like. He had grown up in Stillwater and had been the subject of scandal-mongers more than once. While he hadn’t welcomed the Ryerson Center, the thought of Flora being the receiving end of that sort of vicious lie made him burn with anger. The image of her face rose before him and he fought the instinct to charge down Main Street giving the true version of events about Joy’s death to anyone who would listen.
The idea that Alan would promote such a story had him even more concerned. It couldn’t be true. Tegan must have gotten it wrong. Their boss was going through a tough time lately, but Leon had always thought of him as an honorable man. Holding on to that thought, he knocked on Alan’s door.
When he didn’t get the customary response to enter, he waited a few moments before trying again. Deciding Alan must be taking a call, he went back to Tegan’s desk.
“Can you ask Alan to let me know when he’s free to see me?”
She fiddled with some papers. “Dr. Grayson isn’t here.”
“Pardon?”
“He’s gone.” Her lip wobbled. “He cleared out his office on Tuesday. He came in early and left before you got here.”
Leon ran a hand through his hair as he tried to process what she was saying. Gone? As in...gone? “And it didn’t occur to you to share this with me until now?”
She hung her head. “Dr. Grayson told me not to say anything until you asked where he was. He told me to reassure you that he still owns the practice, but he won’t be coming back to Stillwater anytime soon.”
Leon was trying to process that information. Alongside picturing his already bulging workload expanding even further, he was trying to work out how Alan had managed to spread any information about Flora’s alleged role in Joy’s death. Leon and Flora had found her body on Monday evening and,
