meant to her, even if he couldn’t verbalize it yet.
Hannah started to turn the wheelchair back down the hall when Ryan held up his hand.
“Me,” he insisted. “Need to…practice.”
Hannah lifted her hands in the air. Ryan nodded his approval, then grabbed the wheels and tried to turn the chair around. But it was a tight fit for the hall, with little room for error. Twice he banged into a wall before attempting to turn it in the other direction. That was even less successful. After three failed attempts, he got frustrated and slammed the chair against the wall.
“Dammit,” he yelled, loud and clear.
“Let me help,” Jessie said, reaching for the handles on the back of the chair.
“Don’t…touch!” he barked.
She yanked her hands back, startled at his anger. Unsure what to do, she looked over at Patty. The nurse, just out of Ryan’s line of sight, put her hands in front of her, palms down, and mimed pushing them down, as if to say “let’s lower the temperature a bit.” Before Jessie could try, Ryan sighed heavily.
“I’m…sorry,” he said. “Tired…ornery.”
“That okay,” she said quickly. “It’s already been a huge day. Why don’t we take you to the bedroom so you can rest a bit?”
She pushed him down to the master bedroom and, with Patty’s assistance, helped him lie down in the new hospital bed. He looked at Jessie.
“You?” he asked. She knew what he meant.
“Dr. Badalia thinks you’ll get better sleep if you’re in this type of bed, so I’m going to stay in the guest room for a little while, but only until we get back into a normal routine. And I’ll still hang out in here to make you watch home renovation shows. Now that I’m stronger than you, I control the remote.”
He smiled but she could tell he wasn’t happy. She realized that he’d been looking forward to sharing a bed again as much as she had. Unfortunately, no one had thought to tell him that bit of normalcy would be delayed a while longer. Still, he put on a brave face.
“Good,” he said. “You…snore.”
Once they’d closed the door, the three women retreated to the breakfast table. Jessie tried to ignore the ache she felt in her chest at having Ryan here, but still not truly with her.
“Patty, are you sure you’re cool sticking around for a while longer?” she asked.
“Not a problem. I’m contracted through the afternoon. Besides, for the first day, it’s always helpful to have a pro around to navigate personal care issues.”
“Awesome,” Hannah said, “because I was thinking of going over to Melrose to liven up my wardrobe.”
Jessie looked at her sternly.
“Did you mean ‘may I please go to Melrose to look for clothes’?” she asked.
“Yeah, that.”
“You may go for two hours,” Jessie said. “I need to do some research on this case and it might require some driving around. I don’t want to leave Patty alone to handle everything on Ryan’s first day back. Got it?”
“Got it,” Hannah snapped.
“I mean it,” Jessie reiterated. “You need to be back inside the house by two p.m. or future wardrobe-livening sessions will be put in jeopardy.”
“Don’t worry,” Hannah said, hopping up and grabbing her purse. “I’m very responsible for my age.”
She was out the door before Jessie could come up with the response she wanted, which would have involved reminding her sister of the myriad times she’d proven that claim wasn’t true. It was probably for the best.
Once Hannah was gone, Jessie retreated to her office. She settled in to try to wrap her head around the case, as she imagined Garland had done so often in this very spot. She glanced at the painting on the wall that hid Garland’s safe. She already knew that it only held one thing. Inside was a fireproof lockbox that contained all the material, both paper and digital, on just one case: The Night Hunter.
That was the serial killer who had apparently haunted Garland until his death. Even though the man was believed to have died decades ago in an altercation that almost killed Garland, it was clear that her mentor still had his doubts. Otherwise, why would he have saved every scrap of information on the man and his crimes?
Jessie shook her head in frustration. It served no purpose to think about a serial killer last seen in the prior century. There was a murder just hours ago that she’d been tasked to solve. That’s where she needed to keep her focus, so that’s where she fixed it.