I wanted to tell her not to be scared, not to worry, that everything was going to be okay, but all that came out was, “We’ll work through this, okay? We’ll do it together.”

“Yes.”

I took her hand. “And that’s why you went to the monastery?”

She nodded. “I needed a chance to think things through.” She touched away a tear. “I wasn’t sure if I should tell you.”

“Why wouldn’t you have told me?”

“To protect you. But then Dr. Werjonic mentioned that truth is always a gift, no matter how hard it is to hear or to bear.”

Yeah, that sounded like him.

And, at least in this case, I believed he was right.

Then I drew my wife close and I hugged her. And neither of us said a word.

83

It took me longer than I’d anticipated when I first told Marcus and the senator that I’d meet them in an hour, but when I informed them that I was in the emergency room, they both agreed to wait as long as necessary at the Field Office.

While I got my leg taken care of, Christie and I spoke more in-depth about what she knew and what we could do regarding her treatment options. Tessa kept coming back into the room, and Christie kept telling her it would be just a few more minutes.

Earlier, when I’d heard that Greer was dead, I’d realized that the deeper shock of what’d happened would hit me later, and I felt the same way now with Christie’s news—the facts were there, out in the open, but all of the implications hadn’t hit me yet.

But they would soon enough.

Finally, Christie told her daughter.

Tessa listened in silence, then said, “Well, we’ll fight it, right? I mean, chemo or whatever? You’ll be okay. I know you’ll be okay.”

“Yes,” Christie said. “We’ll fight it.”

“And you’ll be okay.”

“And we’ll be okay. We all will.”

Honestly, I didn’t want to think about the investigation. I just wanted to think about my wife, just wanted to be there for her now. But she told me that she needed to spend some time with Tessa, and I arranged for a car to take them back to our apartment while I prepared to tie up the loose ends of the case.

I checked in on Calvin before leaving the hospital. He was sleeping, and I didn’t wake him but trusted the doctors when they told me that he was going to be alright.

Thank God.

At least there was one bit of good news.

On my drive to the Field Office, I heard from Ralph that the team had been able to corral Mannie into one of the police cars, and they were transferring him to the nearest precinct.