Chapter 15 #2
“And yet, at the heart of it, it’s very simple. We presume that the drug lords who are Tim’s bosses want something from Talia, but we don’t know what.”
“You sure it isn’t that USB drive? Or the book of names?”
“Maybe, and we need to know what the hell those things are all about too. Plus, the local authorities already have the USB and the code book, so what else is it that Tim’s bosses are looking for?”
Burton stayed close by, helping with the babies through bathtime, then got them into bed all nice and clean. Afterward, he read a bedtime story to the toddlers. By the time he was done, and they were sound asleep in the nursery upstairs, he heard a snicker from the door.
He stood, put his hand to his lips, then pointed toward the stairs. She was softly laughing about it. “Sorry, but it was so funny I couldn’t help it,” she whispered.
“Here I am reading a bedtime story, and yet the reality is, the bedtime story that they’re dealing with is likely to be very unhappy,” he shared. “So, it just seems like a mockery that I’m the one sitting here exposing that to them.”
She stared at him and frowned. “I hadn’t really considered that.”
“It’s okay that you didn’t, and just remember that dealing with bad things is something that I do in my world, so it did come to mind,” he explained.
“Plus the situation we find ourselves in right now,” she murmured. With the babies asleep, they sat down on the sofa in the living room. “You haven’t heard from anybody, have you?” she asked him.
He looked down at his phone and winced. “I had it turned off. Let me get it back on again.” As soon as he turned it on, messages came through, and he swore. He stood up and started making phone calls. The first was to Anderson. “What’s up?”
Anderson was distracted. “Hey, I was trying to get a hold of you.”
“I know. I had it off while I was dealing with the babies.”
“Oh. That’s probably a good thing, but I never seem to think of doing it.”
“Honestly, I did it absentmindedly while I was trying to get them to sleep, but then I forgot to turn it back on again. Sorry. What’s up?”
“Leland stopped in at the sheriff’s department.”
“Right, I knew he was going to.”
“As far as anybody there is concerned, their prisoner has not left the station at all.”
“Of course not,” he said, with a snort. “But then are they likely to admit it if they have somebody who has taken off and left?”
“I don’t know.”
“You sound troubled. What else is going on?”
“Apparently the mayor stopped in. Leland did talk to him about it, but the mayor declares there’s no way and that it wouldn’t happen.
Multiple checks are required for any prisoner to get out of the jail itself.
So, short of accusing them of not doing their job, Leland didn’t really have a whole lot of options.
He did, however, see Tim briefly, still in his cell, and managed to get a look at their security system and has given that to Levi to continue looking into it. ”
“So, you’re still thinking that it could be Tim, getting out of jail somehow, coming to the hospital to see Talia?”
“No, we’re just saying that needs to be ruled out. As Sammy pointed out, it’s a small office, so all kinds of shenanigans could be going on. We just hope they aren’t.”
“Yeah, I really hope they aren’t,” Burton stated. He walked over to join Sammy. When he reached out his free hand, she immediately put hers into it, and he squeezed it gently and tugged her closer. He asked, “So, where are you guys at now?”
“I’m still at the hospital, and Leland is now outside the hospital, checking in with Levi.
I guess Levi has somebody pretty computer savvy, so they’ll take a quick look just to make sure that everything’s on the up-and-up.
So far, I haven’t had any visitors here, which would put some of that rumor down to it not being possible for Tim to be the one coming in and out of jail to see Talia in the hospital.
But, according to what Leland mentioned earlier, this guy who was here more recently didn’t necessarily appear to be aggressive. ”
“Right. Leland only saw him for a few moments. He ducked out right away and took off. Thus I’m trying to figure out if he has siblings because that resemblance has to come from somewhere.”
“And we still haven’t gotten through to the adoption agency?” Anderson asked.
“No, they aren’t being cooperative. We’ll probably need some sort of official clearance to get in there.”
Anderson asked, “And did you ask the sheriff?”
“I did. He told me that he would consider the request, but he was already a little pissy because I was asking if they were letting Tim out. Then, by the time Leland went down there with even more questions about their policies, we were probably getting on the sheriff’s case to the extent that we may now get warnings to stay out of their business.
” Then he laughed. “Yet we’ve never listened to warnings like that before, so it sure as hell isn’t something we’ll listen to now. ”
“No, of course not,” Anderson stated. “If they know something, and they aren’t sharing, then we need to find it out ourselves. Anyway, I just wanted to fill you in. Leland’s coming back to the ward in a little bit, and then I’ll come home.”
“Did she wake up?” Sammy asked, leaning closer to the phone.
“She woke up briefly, saw me, smiled, and went back under again,” he shared quietly.
“So, it’s a yes, but it’s also a no. And it’s so frustrating because I’m just sitting here, hoping she wakes up, and, every time she does, it seems like there’s just not enough of her awake yet. I don’t want to push it—”
“Yet you want to push it really badly,” Sammy interjected. “I get that, but it’s all about her healing first.”
“I know that,” he muttered, his frustration evident in his tone. “Which is why I’m sitting here, just waiting.”
When Burton hung up the phone, he turned to her and smiled. “Anderson’s doing everything he can to hold back.”
“I know that,” she said, then patted his hand. “And it’s hard. I get it. It’s very hard. He’s got his sister right there, in touching distance, yet he can’t quite access her. I’m surprised at how close they are.”
“Meaning you aren’t close to your family?”
“No, never was,” she admitted. “Not like that. I don’t know what it would have been like if I’d had a sister. I could hope for something like what he has, yet I’m not at all sure that something like that is even possible,” she shared, laughing.
He looked at her and nodded. “It’s very possible.”
“But you don’t have it.”
He shook his head and chuckled. “Nope, I sure don’t. My immediate family was not impressed when I chose the military, but I think they’ve come around, … more or less.”
She shook her head. “The more or less part is what bothers me because that’s not quite enough to really make me change my mind about them.” When he looked at her in surprise, she shrugged. “They should have accepted what you wanted, when you wanted, and just … been there for you.”
One of the gentlest smiles she’d ever seen slipped across his face, and he nodded. “You know, it’s almost like you’re being protective.”
She frowned. “I’m not saying that I’m upset at them,” she clarified, “but it would be hard for me not to tell them how I feel about not supporting you in the decision that you made.”
“Yet I did make that decision,” he noted, “and now they are supportive, so it’s all good. People have to come around to who they are in their own time.”
“Absolutely,” she agreed, then groaned. “Besides, it has nothing to do with me anyway.”
He chuckled. “Seems maybe it does have something to do with you.” He looked around the room, with just the two of them here, the babies asleep. “You know …”
“No,” she declared immediately.
He waggled his eyebrows.
She shook her head.
“Nobody would know,” he said.
“They would know,” she snapped, frowning. “At least I would know.”
“Of course you would know,” he teased playfully. “You would be an active participant.” And then he grinned and said, “We still have time.”
“What? A quick roll in the hay, and then what?” she scoffed.
“And then we can sit and cuddle on the couch?” he offered.
“They’ll still know.”
“Does that bother you?” he asked, after a moment.
She frowned, thought about it, and then shook her head. “No, it doesn’t bother me, but, if anything were to happen to the babies, I couldn’t bear it.”
“You think we’re not going to hear them with the monitors and with the lungs on those three? Besides, they’re asleep.”
She stared at him. “You sound like every father trying to coax the mother back into the bedroom.”
He burst out laughing. “All those fathers now have my sympathy.”
She stared at him, then suddenly a twinkle appeared, and she whispered, “Race ya!” With that, she took off up to her bedroom as fast as she could, with a soft shout from him as he raced behind.