Chương 2
“I wasn’t going to.”
She had the expression of a person who had heard that sentence before.
Dr. Shaw checked Lily’s pupils and asked Daniel to let her rest. Surgery would likely begin after sunrise. A maxillofacial specialist was on the way. There were consent forms, anesthesia risks, and insurance questions that sounded obscene beside the bed.
Daniel signed where they showed him.
At 1:06 a.m., two representatives from Bradley University arrived.
The first was a broad man in a campus security uniform. His nameplate read WADE RUSK. He was in his late forties, with wet blond hair combed flat against his scalp and a deep crease between his eyebrows. The second was Dr. Elaine Voss, Bradley’s vice president for research and institutional integrity. She wore a charcoal raincoat over business clothes and carried a leather folder that never left her hand.
Daniel knew her name. Lily had mentioned her once after a student research reception.
“She called my project charming,” Lily had said.
“Was it?”
“It was about antibiotic resistance.”
“Maybe she meant the poster.”
“She meant I was nineteen.”
Now Voss approached the bed with the careful concern of someone entering a room where every word might later appear in a lawsuit.
“Colonel Mercer, I am so terribly sorry.”
Daniel rose but did not take her hand.
“Who found my daughter?”
Rusk answered. “A patrol officer located her near the eastern side of Carver Science Center.”
“What time?”
“Approximately eleven twenty-nine.”
“The hospital called me at eleven forty-seven.”
“That sounds right.”
“Who was the officer?”
Rusk glanced at Voss. It lasted less than a second.
“Officer Ben Dodd.”
“Where is he?”
“Finishing his report.”
“I’d like to speak to him.”
“The city police will coordinate interviews.”
Daniel looked at Lily. Her open eye had shifted toward the door. The monitor began beeping faster.
He moved close enough to block her view of Rusk.
“You’re okay,” he said. “I’m here.”
Her breathing sharpened. The tendons in her hand stood against the tape around her IV.
Voss stepped forward. “Should we call the nurse?”
“Stay there,” Daniel said.
Rusk stopped moving.
Lily’s fingers closed around Daniel’s with sudden force. A strained sound came from her throat. Pain tightened every visible part of her face.
Daniel had seen that response before—not in combat itself, but afterward, when a man heard the same dialect spoken by someone who had interrogated him. The body recognized danger before the mind could arrange an explanation.
Daniel turned.
“What did you say your name was?”
“Wade Rusk. I supervise overnight security operations.”
“Were you at the scene?”
“No.”
“Did you see Lily tonight?”
“No, sir.”
The monitor continued to climb.
Voss looked toward the hallway. “This is clearly distressing her.”
“You’re right,” Daniel said. “You should leave.”
“We came to offer support.”
“You offered it.”
Rusk’s gaze traveled to the evidence bin and stopped.
The movement was small. Daniel would have missed it before Iraq. He did not miss small things anymore.
“What happened in the east stairwell?” Daniel asked.
Rusk’s eyes returned to him. “Excuse me?”
“You said she was found near the building. What happened in the east stairwell?”
“I didn’t say she was found in the stairwell.”
“No, you didn’t.”
Silence pressed into the room.
Voss opened her folder. “Colonel, the university is reviewing security footage and access records. We are cooperating fully with the police. At this stage, speculation could harm the investigation and Lily’s privacy.”
“You came here after one in the morning to warn me against speculation?”
“We came because she is one of our students.”
“You know where every injured student’s father is at one in the morning?”
Voss’s expression changed, not into anger but into the effort of containing it. “The circumstances are unusual.”
“My daughter’s face is held together with a bandage.”
“I can see that.”
“Then don’t call it circumstances.”
Rusk adjusted the cuff of his uniform. “We didn’t find a weapon in the east stairwell.”
Daniel stared at him.
Voss turned sharply. “Wade.”
Rusk swallowed. “I reviewed the preliminary report before coming over.”
“You said she was found near the building.”
“The officer moved her out of the stairwell because of standing water.”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why move an unconscious assault victim before paramedics arrived?”
“We don’t know how long she’d been exposed. It was cold.”
“It’s fifty-eight degrees.”
“Cold rain.”
“Did Officer Dodd touch her phone?”
“We did not recover a phone.”
“You’re sure?”
“That’s what the report says.”
Daniel took one step toward him.
Rusk’s hand drifted near the radio clipped to his belt. It was not a threat. It was habit, maybe. Daniel still wanted to break his wrist.
Lily made another strangled sound.
That stopped him.
He returned to the bed and placed himself between her and the visitors.
“Get out.”
Voss closed the folder. “The university will cover emergency expenses not met by insurance. We also have victim-support services and counseling—”
“Out.”
Rusk left first. Voss followed, pausing at the door.
“Please do not speak publicly until we understand what happened,” she said. “For Lily’s sake.”
Daniel looked at her until she walked away.
The room settled slowly. Lily’s heart rate fell, though her fingers did not release him. Daniel waited until the monitor returned to its former rhythm.
“Lil,” he said, lowering his voice. “You don’t have to talk. Don’t try.”
Her eye remained fixed on him.
“I’m going to ask one question. Squeeze my hand once for yes.”
He waited.
“Do you know who did this?”
Her fingers closed once.
His breath left him through his nose.
“Was it the man who was just here?”
No movement.
“Did he see it happen?”
One squeeze.
Daniel sat very still.
The nurse returned before he could ask anything else. Lily’s blood pressure had risen, and the anesthesiologist wanted her calm. Daniel apologized, though the nurse had not accused him. She adjusted the medication and dimmed the lights.
Lily’s grip weakened.
May you like
“Sleep,” Daniel said.
A tear slid from the corner of her open eye and disappeared into the bruising near her ear.
