Deadline

“It would be, if he was consistent. One minute it’s like he can’t get enough of me. Then the next, he’s pushing me away, literally keeping me at arm’s length.”

“Has he told you why?”

“Is there a why?”

“Obviously Dawson thinks so.”

“Your husband says he regards himself a loner.”

“We’ve tried to turn that thinking around.”

“Headly told me that, too. But there’s more to this resistance than general self-denial. I think he’s resisting me for a specific reason.”

“What makes you think so?”

“I feel it. I believe it must have something to do with Jeremy.”

Eva said nothing, just waited for her to elaborate.

“Possibly with Jeremy’s PTSD, with him being who and what he is.”

“Dawson would never lay your ex-husband’s sins at your feet. I know him well enough to assure you of that.”

“No, I don’t believe he would either. I think…I think…Actually, I don’t know what to think.” She bent her head low and massaged her temples. “Where did he go? What could Glenda have uncovered that sent him flying out of here?”

Earlier they had discussed the possibility of calling the researcher and asking her what she had revealed. But neither knew how to reach her or even what her last name was. They had decided to wait until morning and call her at the magazine office. Eva had cautioned Amelia against becoming too optimistic. “He’s relied on her for years. She’s like a secret weapon. I doubt his Glenda will betray his trust.”

If the researcher was as protective of her sources as Dawson was, Amelia doubted they’d learn much from her, either. But she didn’t know where else to turn for answers.

“For him to have left Headly tonight, it must have been something vitally important.”

“He knew Gary was out of immediate danger.”

“Yes. But still. He’d been agonizing over him for hours. What could possibly have prompted him to leave and not even to call to check on him?”

“I’ll admit, that doesn’t seem like Dawson. Tell me again everything he said.”

Amelia reiterated the conversation in the stairwell. “Could it relate to what Willard Strong told him?”

“About a shack that Jeremy owned?”

“You don’t suppose…Oh, Lord. You don’t suppose that Glenda located it. Surely Dawson wouldn’t go there alone.”

“We’ve got to tell Gary.” Eva stood up and headed for the door.

“Eva, no.” Amelia followed her from the waiting room and down the corridor. “You can’t tell him. His blood pressure.”

“That can be controlled with medication. But if he learns later that I didn’t tell him about this immediately, I can forget our Alaska cruise. He’d probably divorce me.”

They entered the ward without any of the medical staff seeing them and slipped behind the privacy curtain. Headly’s eyes popped open. He took one look at them and knew instantly that they weren’t there to fluff his pillow. “What?”

“Tell him.” Eva scooted aside so Amelia could move closer to the bed.

In a rapid whisper she filled him in, concluding with, “If Glenda gave him an idea of where this shack is, do you think he’d be foolish enough to go there alone and confront them?”

His gaze moved back and forth between them, ending with his wife, whose distress was as apparent as her resignation. Headly closed his eyes and gave a long sigh. “Fuck.”

More than a profanity, the word was weighty with despair. Coming from a man of purpose and action, it heightened Amelia’s fear. “They’ll kill him, won’t they?”