“Then blow it. I need you to find out if that’s my stepdaughter.”

A pause. “Your stepdaughter? Are you serious?”

“Get moving. Her name is Tessa Ellis. Find out if it’s her.”

++++

“Are you a member of his family?” the doctor asked Christie.

“I’m a friend.”

“We had to take Mr. Werjonic into surgery. Will you be here?”

“Is he going to be okay?”

“An injury like this is difficult to assess without doing so visually.”

“I realize that, but . . . what are his chances?”

“I’m not able to answer that right now, I’m afraid. We’ll know more once he’s in surgery. We’ll need to do an exploratory laparotomy and see what it tells us.”

“Yes, I should be here. Let me know what you find.”

++++

As Tessa pressed the doorbell, out of the corner of her eye she saw two men approaching her. They were dressed in suits, and one of them called to her by name, shouting for her to stop.

Timothy opened the door, saw them, and immediately whisked her into the house.

When she glanced back, she noticed one of the men tug out his phone while the other started hurrying toward the porch, reaching toward his waist.

A gun?

Maybe.

“Who are they?” she gasped.

Timothy pointed. “Go hide in the garage. Hurry.”

But she was curious who the men were and what they wanted, and she didn’t think she’d be able to hear from the garage, so she hid behind the corner of the hallway and listened.

“Hello,” Timothy said to them. “How can I help you men?”

“Who was that girl?”

“My niece,” he replied. “Why were you chasing her?”

“We were told to find out if she . . .”

There was a long unexpected pause, as if he’d suddenly lost his train of thought, but then Tessa heard him talking to someone on the phone.

“Are you sure, sir? . . . Yes, but he said we should see if . . . Alright. But what about the girl? . . . I understand . . . Yes, sir.”

Then the guy apologized to Timothy for troubling him, and Timothy closed the door.

Tessa returned to the living room. “What was all that about?”

“I don’t know. But I don’t think it’s safe for you out there.”

“Why wouldn’t it be safe?”

“Without knowing what they want, I don’t feel right about sending you back outside.”

“So, what? I just stay in here?”

“Until I can sort this out.”

She was about to argue but realized that she felt safer here, right now, than she did when she thought about going outside.

He scratched repeatedly at one arm and then the other.

Unsure what else to do, Tessa said, “Um . . . I brought the journal for you.” She dug it out of her backpack and handed it to him.

“Thank you.”

A weird silence stretched between them, but maybe it wasn’t as weird as it could have been.