Lou could hear the unasked question in her voice, and knew that sooner or later, he might have to explain why he believed there was something terribly wrong in Kings Ridge and also at her beloved DeLand Regional. Lou pictured Joey Alderson twitching with anticipation as he timed his lunge beneath the huge chopping knife, going for a single, bright orange slice of carrot. Was he yet another example?

Lou checked the wall-mounted clock. Nearly eight. The stress was showing on Millie’s face. She hadn’t appeared at all frail until now. Lou took hold of her hand, which was surprisingly callused.

The woman smiled grimly. “I don’t know what I would have done without you,” she said, pulling a tissue from her purse to dab at her tears.

“He’s going to do fine. After all these years in the ER, I can tell a battler when I see one.”

“Do you have any idea what could have happened back there in my kitchen?”

“I saw most of it developing, and right up until the last second, I didn’t believe he was going to do it. Has he ever done anything that impetuous or poorly thought out before?”

“Joey’s a little what you might call accident prone. That’s why they know him so well at DeLand.”

“I see.”

“But he’s not really reckless—certainly not in this way.”

“Back at the restaurant, you used the word ‘limited’ when you spoke of him. What did you mean by that?”

Millie sank down on a sofa, and Lou did the same on the far side.

“Joey came to my office one day when he was just thirteen,” she said. “He told me he was looking for a job. I still have no idea how he found me or how he got out to the restaurant. I tracked down his family—what there was of it, anyhow. No father. Alcoholic mother. Joey was the oldest of four. They lived in a dump of a place in Baxter. Family Services was about to move in and dole out the kids to foster homes. I talked them into letting me have Joey. Even though he had some learning issues, and an attention problem, he graduated from high school when he was nineteen. A few years after that, I set him up in a small apartment in the Dorms. That’s what I call the place out behind the restaurant where some of the staff stays. He does a good day’s work, and the rest of the staff really likes him and sort of protects him, if you know what I mean.”

“I do.”

Lou was unable to reconcile anything in the boy’s history with what he and Dennis had witnessed, and this hardly seemed like the time to start barraging Millie Neuland with probing questions. Still, she continued her narrative with no prompting.