‘I’m fine, Becca. And thanks for coming down. I didn’t know who else to call… you can go now, if you want.’

I’ve only just arrived.

‘I can stay a while, Bert.’

‘No, I don’t want to keep you here late. I just thought you might want to see Edith before… before…’ He tries his best to hold back the tears but his best isn’t good enough. I lean in and give him a hug. He needs more, though. He needs a miracle but I don’t have any miracles. I tell him I’ll say a prayer for Edith. Praying isn’t something I usually do but hospitals have a way of making people reconsider their belief in the next world.

I stay with Bert until a nurse arrives to tell him they will be moving Edith to a private room as soon as possible. Bert nods a thank you. He is humble now, humble and broken.

Bending over the bed, I kiss Edith goodbye, wipe the tears from my eyes. I squeeze Bert’s hand, unable to look him in the eye, then shuffle through the curtains and out into the ER. More sick people. I am sick of looking at the sick.

Finally, I make my way to the reception area, where dozens of people sit waiting patiently to be called. Heading towards the exit, I notice everyone’s eyes are fixed on the wall behind me. I glance behind to see what’s going on, and I see her. Katie Collins.

Her face is full screen on the big TV bolted to the wall. There’s no sound, so I don’t know what is being said, but I can read the words scrolling across the bottom of the screen. The room goes into a tailspin. My body seems to be shutting down.

Katie Collins is dead.

Chapter Eighteen

‘Jeff!’ I yell, banging on his door, but there’s no answer. Jeff must be out. He isn’t answering his phone, either. Shacked up with some new date, probably. Walking back to my apartment, the empty corridor seems eerie somehow. All I want to do is scream.

Back in my own space, I flick from channel to channel. Katie Collins was discovered in Treehill Park, a public park not far from Dad’s. We used to go there for picnics when I was a kid. It has a playground surrounded by forest. A big, lonely forest. Danny went missing in that forest when he was a young boy. Or so we thought. After searching for what seemed like hours, but what Danny remembers to be just minutes, he poked his head out from behind a tree saying, ‘fooled ya’. Mom and Dad were happy to see him at first. I remember smiling at him from behind their backs when he got chastised for scaring them.