A teenager emerged from the back of the sedan and stood at her side. Danny recognized the sullen slouch and moody eyes of an angry adolescent. It was like looking in a mirror during his own youth. “Come on, Dad. Dr. Chandler needs to look at your head. You fell, remember?”

Danny had been better at covering the pain in his voice with insolence. Practice makes perfect and all that.

The old man sawed his jaw back and forth. His eyes were wide and had a confused sheen. He turned his head to look at Danny. Stubbornness and hostility lingered behind the fear, much like his son’s expression. Blood was dripping from a long cut on his forehead, but he seemed oblivious to the injury.

Keys in hand, Danny hesitated. Carolyn didn’t seem to want assistance, but he hated to just leave her in obvious distress. “Are you sure I can’t help?”

Carolyn moved closer to Danny and lowered her voice. “I don’t know. He gets confused. Sometimes strangers are good. Sometimes not. My husband is hard to predict. It’s so hard to see him like this. He used to be a colonel in the army.”

Danny looked over at her husband. A vague, opaque film clouded his eyes. The colonel squinted, as if he knew the truth was in front of him but he couldn’t focus on it. Frustration tightened the age-slackened muscles of his face. Alzheimer’s? If not, something similar.

“Let me try.” Danny pocketed his keys and strode to the car. “Colonel.” Danny snapped a salute. “Sergeant Daniel Sullivan. We’re ready for you, sir.”

The colonel blinked and straightened in what appeared to be a reflex to Danny’s formal address. Purpose filled his movements as he reached for the door handle. Danny itched to help him but restrained himself. Carolyn stepped forward. Danny shook his head, and she backed off. With great effort, her husband climbed out of the car. Danny hustled to the doctor’s office door and opened it wide. He stood tall, gaze straight ahead, and saluted again as the frail old man shuffled through.

Carolyn wiped a teardrop from her cheek. “Thank you. Sometimes I forget he still needs respect.”

“Anytime.” Danny closed the door behind the family. Now that he knew the extent of the old man’s illness, Danny agreed with Mandy. The relationship between Carolyn and Dr. Chandler was normal.

He considered the parallels between Nathan’s disease and Alzheimer’s. Danny imagined the heart-wrench of watching a loved one succumb to dementia. Had seeing his uncle descend into darkness pushed Nathan into madness? The colonel’s son looked to be about fifteen. How would watching his father’s decline into dementia and death affect him? And what had become of Nathan’s son?