Henry shook his head, his face shining with amazement. “She did,” he said. “She told me you were on the island, that Karim murdered Lisa Watson, among others, and that both you and Susan were in mortal danger. She even sounded a little concerned.”

A sharp knock on the hospital room door made both men turn.

“You guys decent?” Claire’s voice called.

Henry looked back at Archie and the gravity of his gaze made Archie’s spine hurt. Then Henry crumpled the Post-it note in his hand and rolled the balled-up paper between his palms until it was the size of a marble. “Come in,” he called at the door.

Claire walked in, gnawing at the side of a caramel apple.

“We’re done,” Henry said to her, standing up. “You ready to go home?”

“I have never been more ready to go home,” Claire said, coming around Archie’s bed and kissing Henry on the mouth. She gave Archie a supportive smile. “You look better. You should have seen yourself when we first found you two. You looked like you’d been dead for hours.”

Archie didn’t like to think of Susan having to see him like that. “She must have been terrified,” he said.

“No,” Claire said. “She was focused. She was holding you, to keep your body temp from tanking. She probably saved your life.”

Archie tried to remember, but the last image he saw in his mind was Karim threatening Susan, Archie firing the gun. “I don’t remember that,” he said.

Claire frowned. “You always miss the good stuff, don’t you?”

“Do I?” Archie asked.

Claire sighed and bent down and kissed Archie on the forehead. “Get some sleep,” she said. “We’ll come back in the morning once my ankles have returned to a semblance of their normal shape.”

“I look forward to it,” Archie said. “And remember, Ginger needs to sleep in the bed. It’s what she’s used to.”

Henry hesitated. “You want me to stay?” he asked Archie. “I can sleep on the couch. So you have someone around. Between the cats and the corgi, it doesn’t sound like there will be room for me in bed anyway.”

Archie considered the offer—the truth was he wouldn’t have minded the company and he still had a lot of questions. But Claire was giving him the evil eye. She needed Henry more than he did anyway. “You two go home together,” Archie said. “I’ll be okay.”

Claire grinned widely, and tightened her arm around Henry’s waist.

“Catch,” Henry said, tossing Archie the balled-up Post-it note from his hand.

Archie caught it. “I never called the number,” he said to Henry, his fist tightening around the small paper ball. “I didn’t even know it worked. It was something she gave me a long time ago.”