Chapter Twenty-One
Amonth had passed and Camila was getting impatient for the police to find Adrien. It wasn’t that she wasn’t enjoying her time there with her little family, but she seriously was ready to move on, to start the next chapter of their lives. Right now she felt as though she was in a holding pattern. Waiting. Always waiting.
Staying cooped up inside as difficult. She had always been an outdoor kind of girl and she missed it. Especially since she’d had to live that way with Adrien at the farmhouse for so long. She wanted to be able to walk outside without it being dangerous for her and her family, and she was starting to get a bit grumpy without being able to go out in the sun and enjoy the cold snowy weather.
No one clashed with anyone in the house, so it wasn’t that they were all going stir crazy and getting on each other’s nerves, but they all agreed they were ready to go home. The walls of the safe house were all well insulated, so everyone had their own privacy, but she also really wanted to be alone with Samuel the way it had been when they first arrived.
She didn’t voice these thoughts out loud to anyone, though, and just waited for the ordeal to be over. After all, it would be totally selfish of her to complain, considering they were doing all this mainly for her. Adrien might attack any one of them, but she was his primary target. She was sure she wasn’t the only one who felt like complaining, everyone was just biding their time.
Then, finally, one morning about five weeks in while they were all just finishing breakfast and cleaning up, Samuel’s phone rang.
The sound was so loud, even coming from his pocket, that it was impossible not to hear it, especially since everyone went still and silent on hearing it. Even Samuel looked surprised at the sudden phone call as he pulled out his phone.
“Hello?” he said, phone to his ear, his expression tense.
Camila watched as his expression slowly darkened and she moved toward him.
He murmured, “All right, I’ll make the call.” And then he cut the call off.
He turned and kissed Camila’s head and said, “Give me a few minutes,” and then walked out of the kitchen, dialing some other number.
Camila watched him go, and then turned back to her mom and they slowly resumed cleaning up.
Her heart was beating fast in her chest. She could tell by Samuel’s expression that Adrien hadn’t been caught yet, but she thought they must at least have had news about him, otherwise, why call, right?
The sudden call had caught all of them off guard, but after they were finished cleaning up in the kitchen, the three women moved to the living room to wait on Samuel’s return. Usually, they all went their separate ways after eating, unless they had something they wanted to do together, and now they all sat tense and silent in the living room.
Could they really be onto him? After more than a month?
Camila had to hand it to Adrien. He’d managed to evade the police for so long not once, but twice, and even while he was really sick the second time around. But she was more than ready for him to get caught so she could go back to living a normal life.
It took a while for Samuel to come back. He didn’t acknowledge them, sitting on the edge of their seats as he stood staring off into space for a long while.
Camila got impatient and stood up, going to him. “Samuel, what’s going on? Did they find him?”
He sighed, and then glanced at her. He put his arm around her and led her back to the couch, and then he sat beside her, putting an arm around her shoulders and pulling her into his side. He’d been doing that a lot, and she wondered if it was because he was uneasy she would disappear if he didn’t keep her close at all times. She felt the same about him, so she wasn’t exactly complaining.
“They don’t have him, yet, but they did catch word of him.”
“Where is he?” Morganna asked, her brow furrowed.
“A man fitting Adrien’s description was admitted into a hospital just over the border in Canada. He was suffering from dehydration, had severe blood poisoning and a bullet lodged in his shoulder,” he stated. “He was delirious and had to be restrained. He tried to strangle a nurse while he was there.”
“While he was there?” Morganna questioned, suspiciously.
“But they didn’t arrest him?” Camila said. “Even after the trouble he caused the nurses, he wasn’t under arrest?”
Samuel shook his head. He looked weary and tired. “No, they didn’t. The Canadian police nor the hospital were aware he was a criminal on the run, though apparently the fact that he had a bullet in his shoulder raised quite a few alarms. Also, since he did cause some trouble at the hospital, to the point they had to call security to keep him down, you would think that they would have held him, but no. A nurse tried to interfere and that was when he tried to strangle her. She’s fine. Security got him to stay down, but they were more worried about treating him than calling in the police. The doctors assumed he was acting that way because he was ill, not because he was a criminal.”
Camila bit her lip, feeling anxiety beating like a drum in her chest.
How did Adrien manage to get all the way up in Canada? Or did he just collapse somewhere, and some nice person took him to the hospital?
Either way, he was far away, and out of the cops’ reach. It wouldn’t be that hard for him to make his way back across the border, either. Their best bet was that he was alone in a foreign country, and he hadn't had time to pick up his stuff from the farmhouse before he escaped, so he shouldn’t have anything on him. No phone, no wallet, no identification…
Still, he was likely willing to do a lot to get what he wanted, so what if he just decided to hurt someone?
When is he going to stop?