Seaside Secrets. Dana Mentink

       FIVE

      Six o’clock could not arrive quickly enough. Angela had slept no more than a few hours, finally getting up before sunrise to shower and make a pot of instant coffee, most of which was already gone. At the stroke of six, she dialed, knowing that Marco would be in the office after his early morning workout at the local gym. Marco’s routine was as predictable as the sunrise.

      She also knew he would not answer the phone unless there was a very good reason. The man despised technology.

      “Marco,” she said into the machine after the beep. “It’s Angela. There’s been some trouble.”

      “What trouble?” he said as he picked up the phone. She heard noise in the background.

      “Is Candace there this early? What’s wrong?”

      “Nothing,” Candace called from the background. “I was picking Donna and Brent up from the airport.”

      Angela smiled. “How was their honeymoon?”

      “Just a minute,” Marco muttered. “Gonna try and put this thing on speakerphone.” There was the sound of Marco pressing buttons, and then they were disconnected. She smiled, picturing him there, big fingers stabbing away at a phone that was beyond his comprehension, brilliant though he was. She was about to redial when there was a knock at the door.

      Her breath caught. Too early for housekeeping. Skin prickled on the back of her neck, the way it had when she’d realized Tank was watching her in her hotel room. Enemy or friend? Unsure, she crept to the door. There was no peephole. She placed a hand on the door as if she could somehow feel who it was through the panel.

      “Who is it?” she called.

      “Dan Blackwater.”

      Relief and tension rippled together through her insides. She thought their connection was over; she was hoping, anyway. He was the past for her, the cruel, savage past that would not seem to get out of her present. The seconds ticked on as she tried to think of a polite way to get him to leave.

      “Hey, not to be pushy, Angela, but this coffee is burning my hand. I forgot to get those cardboard sleeve thingys.”

      She yanked open the door. He held two to-go cups, a white paper bag tucked under his arm. “What are you doing here?”

      “I will excuse that ungracious tone if you’ll please take this coffee.” He thrust the cup at her, and she took it. “I figured you could use some breakfast. I’m on my way to the hospital. Thought we might as well go together, since we both have some questions for Lila.”

      Her computer beeped, saving her from trying to rally a polite refusal. “Hold on—that’s Marco. He’s trying to Skype this time. Candace must be helping him.”

      She opened up Skype, and Marco’s shaved head filled up the screen, Candace peering over his shoulder.

      “What trouble?” Marco demanded.

      She filled him in and introduced Dan. “He’s, um, I knew him in Afghanistan.”

      Marco was silent for a moment. A retired navy man, he understood the significance of that statement. “Okay. I’m leaving now for Cobalt Cove. I’ll see which one of your sisters is available to come with me. Don’t meet with Tank or Gruber until I get there.”

      Candace blew out a breath. “I’d come, too, but Tracy is in a school play, and they’ve got practice every day.”

      Angela smiled, thinking of her sweet six-year-old niece. Tragic that the child had lost her father in Iraq when she was barely old enough to know him. Then to lose her grandfather a month ago. Angela swallowed the hard lump in her throat. “Did she land the coveted role?”

      “Yep, she’s the snowflake in the winter play. There will be sparkles and white tights and a tiara.”

      Angela laughed. “Can’t wait to see it.”

      “Sarah and I will look into things on this end.”

      “How is she?”

      Candace frowned in a way that told Angela everything. Sarah had been at the wheel when their father’s car was forced off the road and he was killed. Her emotional trauma far outweighed the physical damage from the crash. “Still not sleeping, and Mom and I have to practically force food down her throat.”

      “I’ll be back soon and...” Angela trailed off. How could she comfort her sister when she couldn’t even help herself? She regrouped and straightened her shoulders, hoping Dan hadn’t noticed the lapse.

      When they ended the call, Dan offered to drive her to the hospital.

      “No need. I’ll drive myself. I have some things to do afterward.” At the moment she had precisely nothing to do until Marco arrived, but she didn’t want to be in the car next to Dan. His silver gaze searched her face as if he understood completely that she was avoiding him.

      She thanked him again for the coffee and took the scone he offered before they got into their vehicles and drove to the hospital. Lila Brown was being treated on the fifth floor.

      The hallway was quiet. A nurse returned Angela’s cell phone and pointed them to room 504. The smell of the hospital assaulted her, the odor of disinfectant and, she imagined, despair. So many stories ended at such places; she felt as if her own story had ended in a hospital, too, far away on foreign soil.

      She sensed Dan looking at her.

      “I guess you spend a lot of time in hospitals, for your chaplain work.”

      She had. But now she practically had to force herself through the doors, her visits to patients strained, requiring her to seclude herself afterward just to get her rampaging emotions under control. Her commanding officer had asked her to take a month off. Humiliating but she had complied meekly.

      “You, too,” she managed. “When are you going back to surgery?”

      His gaze drifted away. Surprising. He was tall, strong, self-assured to the point of arrogant, but something uncertain crept over his face, a shadow she didn’t understand.

      “Not sure,” he said. “Lila’s room is right over there.”

      As they rounded the corner, there was a crash, the sound of metal hitting the tile floor. Dan sprinted ahead, and, after a second of paralysis, Angela followed. They burst into the room.

      A nurse looked up, startled. She held a roll of gauze in one hand. A vase of flowers had been upended, the white roses lying in a puddle of water on the floor. The bed sheets were tousled.

      “What happened?” Dan demanded.

      “She freaked out.”

      “Lila Brown?’

      The woman nodded. “She was asleep. I needed to change her dressing. I woke her. Tried to cheer her up by showing her the flowers. She opened the card and screamed. Grabbed her clothes and ran. Moved so fast I gouged her with the scissors. What’s wrong with that girl?”

      “Which way did she go?”

      The nurse shrugged. “Dunno.”

      Dan charged out into the hallway.

      “I’ll go