The nurse stopped at the door and whispered to him, “Get her the pancakes. The eggs are awful.”

Ben Stone gave a devastating summation to the jury, which left Ted wondering once again at Michael Moriarty’s ability to pack passion into such a laid-back delivery. The screen jumped to an ad for senior scooters. He hit the mute button and went out for a coffee. He knew what the jury was going to do.

The pot held a half inch of black goo. Ted went through the cabinets and found a box of filters, but the can of Bustelo in the dorm-sized refrigerator contained nothing but a light coating of dark brown dust. He left it open on the counter and walked down to the snack and beverage machines.

Salt or sugar. Pick your poison. He surrendered two dollars and was rewarded with a twenty-ounce bottle of Mountain Dew and two quarters. The Fig Newtons whispered his name, but he put his money away and took a walk along the corridor to stretch out the kinks in his back. He wasn’t tired and didn’t need the caffeine—yet. The soda bottle slid into his jacket pocket for later.

The double door at the end of the hall was operated by an electronic release. Anyone who wanted to enter had to either swipe a pass or be buzzed in by a nurse, who could monitor the situation via closed-circuit television. As an added precaution, and at the Zielinskis’ request, a guard was on duty, sitting on a folding chair inside the door. Only he wasn’t.

Ted walked quickly to the station. “Excuse me.” He didn’t wait for any of the people on duty to take notice. “The guard is not there. Does anyone know what’s going on?”

The women all ignored him. A male nurse looked up. “All security personnel were called down to the ER to handle a situation. He’ll be back as soon as things downstairs are under control.”

Ted was not reassured. “What kind of situation?”

The nurse shook his head and continued typing. He didn’t know, didn’t care, or didn’t care to be questioned about it—or all three. Ted didn’t like it. Anything out of the ordinary would have put him on the alert. A missing security guard was a screaming siren with blue and red strobe lights.

“Can you let me know if anyone tries to come in while the guard is gone?”

That got the attention of one woman. Her eyebrows met in the universal expression for What are you talking about?

“I know I sound paranoid, but I’d feel better if you went along with me on this,” Ted said.

“Not a problem.” She smiled once in dismissal and returned to her work.