We listened as she outlined the rest of his injuries, which, thankfully, all turned out to be minor. When she excused herself to check on her other patients, I used the time to study Ford as he watched Walter. It didn’t take long for Ford to look my way. His eyes looked haunted and I was sure he was going to say something, but then he dropped his eyes again and turned to stare out the window. “At least… at least he has a nice view.”
I glanced at the window. There was nothing to see but gently rolling fields covered in white powder. I was about to say as much when I noticed the fingers on Ford’s right hand moving against his own leg. It took me a moment to realize what he was doing.
Drawing.
He had nothing to actually draw with, but he was definitely tracing patterns onto the fabric of his pants with his fingers.
And he didn’t even seem to be aware that he was doing it.
The sight of him sitting there so silent, lost in whatever it was that he was seeing out that window, made my insides tighten uncomfortably. I was about to tell him I’d be right back but realized he probably didn’t even know I was in the room anymore. And I was reluctant to disturb him because as eerie as his behavior was, he also looked more relaxed than I’d seen him in a while.
I quietly left the room and did a quick check-in with Alex to make sure he’d picked Puddles up and to ask him to go take a look at Walter’s house to see if the fire department had managed to get any cleanup done in the basement. My hope was that Walter’s insurance would cover all the necessary repairs, but the biggest step was getting the water out of the basement before it froze. As it was, it’d be a while before Walter would be able to move back home. It wouldn’t surprise me if the repairs to his house took longer to deal with than the healing his body had to do.
My second call was to Sally-Ann to let her know what I’d already told Alex… that I was taking the rest of the day off. I hadn’t told either of them why and they’d both jumped to the wrong conclusion that I needed to go home and rest after the harrowing incident at Walter’s place.
That wasn’t even a fraction of the truth because I’d been through a whole lot worse when I’d worked in Detroit. Normally, I thrived on nonstop work and I didn’t consider myself productive unless I worked more hours in a day than I didn’t. But Pelican Bay wasn’t Detroit so I knew I’d have to start finding other things to do in my down time… now that I had such a thing.
I sighed and made my way back to Walter’s room.
Down time would have been a welcome thing at the moment because I was not looking forward to what I was going to have to do next.
Not.
At.
All.
I ignored my inner voice that immediately called me out on the lie with a snide little comment.
Yes, you are.
Chapter Six
Ford
I knew where he was taking me about five minutes after we crossed the Pelican Bay town line, because instead of staying straight on the quiet highway, he turned right on a side road that wasn’t really a road at all – it was a long, winding driveway that led to the old Wright house, though few people called it that it anymore. The older adults in town, my parents included, just referred to it as that house while kids called it Fright House.
Like most kids, I’d believed the stories I’d heard about Fright House being haunted, so when Jimmy had let me tag along with him and his buddies to the dilapidated house one night when I’d been thirteen, I’d thought it would be cool. I’d also foolishly believed it to be my brother’s way of apologizing to me for hitting me for the first time a few days earlier. But it’d turned out that Jimmy and his buddies had needed some entertainment for the evening while they drank beer and smoked pot. It’d started off fun enough with the older boys telling me all about the supposed history of the place and the ghoulish ways family after family had died in the cursed home. Then we’d mysteriously started hearing strange sounds…
I shuddered when I remembered what had happened next.
“Hey, you okay?”
Cam’s hand came to rest on my forearm. It wasn’t until he softly said my name that I realized how lost in the past I’d gotten.
“What are we doing here?” I asked. I pulled my arm away because even through the sweatshirt I was wearing, I could feel my skin tingling.