She looked confused. “I don’t… I’m not sure.”
“Will Ann know?”
“Yes.”
“Close your eyes. Just let the next hour or two pass. It’s going to get better.”
“Promise?”
He didn’t think it could get much worse. “I can promise that.”
Gabriel walked through the rather large ER in their small-town hospital. Carin County, with its major lake surrounded by state parks and private campgrounds, had an economy built mostly around vacationers and tourists, with family farms spread across the rest of the county, interspersed among a dozen more small towns and villages. This hospital was the center of the area’s medical care. Severe sunburns, bad sprains, broken bones, asthma attacks, beestings, poison ivy, the occasional heart attack, all kept this place hopping during the summer months, and farm accidents added intense adrenaline spikes year-round. The most serious injuries were airlifted to the regional trauma center in the state’s capital, Springfield, yet the majority of patients were treated right here.
He stepped around the ER curtain for number sixteen. Evie’s eyes opened, and she looked his direction, nearly focused this time. “You’re looking more awake,” Gabriel commented, pleased.
“What did they give me?” she asked.
“Tylenol with codeine. Your body just needed some rapid rest, and out you went as soon as it got an excuse.”
She lifted a hand briefly to the bandage. “How many…?” Her voice drifted off.
“Twelve stitches.” He’d answered that a couple of times already, but he thought this time she’d probably remember. “Getting hungry?”
“Want out of here.”
“Another hour after the doctor comes by, he’ll spring you,” he reassured.
“Hey, Evie” came from the other side of the bed.
She turned her head. “Ann… how long have you been sitting there?”
Ann simply smiled. “I saw a photo of the deer.”
“Yeah. A shame. What a way for him to go and for me to begin a vacation.” Her voice became more animated. “Pretty scenery, heavy trees, some sunlight filtering through, a glimpse, and then wham”-she struck the mattress to illustrate-“he comes right across the hood and smashes into the windshield. Huge buck. The car collided with some trees, and I about killed my dogs. Tossed them forward like tumbling socks in a dryer.” She looked at Gabriel. “How are they?”
Each of Evie’s reports was getting more detailed as her brain became clearer. She hadn’t mentioned the sunlight coming through the trees before or provided the sound effects. A few hours, the doctor assured them, and most of the impact symptoms would pass.
Gabriel pulled out his phone, scrolled to a picture, turned it toward Evie. “That would be my brother Will’s porch they are guarding so faithfully, along with two of his lambs. Maybe their sheepherding genes? He fed the dogs the steak I was supposed to be sharing with him for dinner, so they’re being nicely pampered.”
She smiled at the photo.
“Will says they’ve got some painful bruises,” he said more seriously. “They’ll need a few days’ rest, but they survived the crash fine.”
“Oh, I hope so. I totaled my car, didn’t I?”
Gabriel considered it possible, but he only said, “I haven’t heard the official answer yet. New radiator, new windshield, some bodywork-maybe you get it back.”
“Yeah…” She closed her eyes with a sigh. “You promised a shower.”
“It’s still coming.” The bloody shirt was gone, replaced with a clean one Ann had brought in from her luggage, but Evie’s hair was matted, and he knew she wasn’t going to feel normal again until she could get that hot shower, soak out the aches. They could cover the bandage with waterproof tape. He glanced at the woman also watching Evie. “Ann, you want to get some coffee?”
“Yes. Evie, rest for now. We’ll be just down the hall and back shortly.”
“I didn’t get to go flying with you today,” she murmured, eyes closed.
Ann covered Evie’s hand with hers, smiled. “Consider it rescheduled. The week will be filled with other gorgeous days.”
“Promise?”
“That’s an easy one. We’re going up as soon as Doc says yes.”
“I feel like a dropped ice cream cone-splat and busted.”
Ann chuckled. “Get some rest, Evie.”
Gabriel handed Ann a coffee, poured one for himself. “You don’t come this way often, but when you do, it tends to be memorable. Sorry I missed your arrival. There was a note at the office that you’d been by. And Josh said you were out to visit him this morning.”
“Evie wanted to introduce herself to you first, present the task-force mandate, ask about the cases. We were planning on treating you to dinner this evening to discuss the details.”
“I’ve filtered pieces of it together now. But for clarity’s sake, tell me what Evie would have said had she not met that deer.”
“Our governor-elect wants a task force to take another look at unsolved missing-persons cases across the state-not surprising given his family’s history. And Evie’s boss wants her on it next year when it officially begins work. Sharon Noble out of Riverside PD is going to lead it. Noble’s decided working county by county, looking at open cases five to fifteen years back, would be the place to begin.
“Carin County has two cases that fit that profile-the missing six-year-old Dayton girl who was the focus of an AMBER Alert, and the Florist family disappearance. Evie planned to use her vacation to do a trial run of sorts, dig into the files, see if this approach could work. She’s rented a house here in town to avoid a poor hotel housekeeper getting startled by a wall of crime-scene photos. Evie was going to ask you for assistance, copies of your case files. I brought down duplicates of the FBI files with me, and she’s arranged for the state files to be sent over.”
Gabriel nodded at the summary but with a frown. “I’m surprised she didn’t call weeks ago to get this request in the works.”
“She wasn’t certain when this vacation window would open up. She’s Lieutenant Evie Blackwell, Illinois State Police, Bureau of Investigations. Her job can be as disruptive to schedules as yours. Don’t let first impressions fool you, Gabriel. She’s very good. Paul figures she’ll head up the BOI one day.”
“I saw resolve today, courage, and stubbornness-trying to walk to town with her dogs after that kind of injury.”
Ann smiled. “Okay, that description would be on target. Add curious and it’s a decent sketch. Evie didn’t call you in advance because she didn’t want to get a no. You might have felt obliged to let family in the area know, and they might have convinced you to rescind your cooperation and give it a thumbs down. That’s a big downside for merely saving some hours of copying time.”
Gabriel considered that, tipped his cup slightly in Ann’s direction to acknowledge her point. “You know how significant the Florist family case is to this community, to my department. I don’t want to see the case reopened on a whim. I don’t want family members having to deal with the questions, have their hopes raised, if it doesn’t make sense-unless there’s something new to work.”
“That’s one of the reasons why I offered to bring the FBI files down myself,” Ann replied. “To reassure the Florist family this isn’t being done for form’s sake. To reassure you and your father that this isn’t going to be an exercise repeating what has been done before, where everyone says, ‘Good investigation, sorry it’s not solved,’ and it’s all boxed away again. We’re going to rethink the case, figure out why it hasn’t been solved, and solve it, Gabe. Evie’s the right person. I’ve seen her work.”
Gabriel sighed, sipped at the coffee. “You don’t often put yourself that far out on a limb, Ann. We seriously want this case solved, but it hasn’t cracked despite intense efforts. I don’t need expectations raised like that. I appreciate the sentiment, but I know the case.” He considered her. “You’re going to be around helping Evie if we do this?”