following?” Rob asked. His gaze told him Steve’s wife absent.
“Haven’t seen her.” Bull’s eyes flitted to and fro. He pressed lips together, which Rob interpreted as an indication of confusion.
Rob refilled his glass. “Let’s play it cool; drink your beer.”
Bull gulped a swig of beer. “You found Nancy. Think there’s still hope for me to find a nice woman in this town or should I go online?”
“Grass always seems greener on the other side of the fence. Why ask?”
“Got a telephone call from my mother.” Bull reached into his top shirt pocket. “Excuse me, I must take this call.”
“Your mother?”
“Heavens no.”
Rob waited alone as Bull exited the CBC to answer his cellphone.
Steve approached. “You flying solo tonight?”
“No.” Rob wiped a beer spill with a napkin. “Thought Lisa had you hog-tied tonight. At least that’s the impression you gave at basketball earlier.”
“I lied. Pledged to secrecy. Lisa’s at her mother’s. These ladies drafted me to plan a surprise party to honor Lisa as Ann Circle volunteer of the year.”
“Oh. Great.”
“Gotta get back. Would you fill half my glass? My table pitchers all contain diet cola.”
Rob laughed, pouring a full glass for Steve. Bull returned.
“With no live music and no women, you want to head home?” Bull asked.
“You’re not off the hook for the next pitcher.” He saw Steve’s shoulders slump, head pointed away. “Must have been an important phone call.”
Bull glanced in all directions, and then lowered his voice, “Just talked with Neil. He said Alice broke an arm in The Abbey fire. Sarah survived okay. Melissa’s stuck in the hospital. Don’t know how bad.”
“You still planning to ask Sarah out?”
“Not my type. Too controlling. Heard she’s been married once.”
“What’s the problem with married?” Rob’s stomach suddenly queasy. He’d been married. With Nancy considered missing, what was his status? What if a woman hadn’t been married by age thirty? Should she be considered prime marriage material or not? Could the fact she hadn’t been married be evidence of her unsuitability? He’d read a theory of evolution article that the male monkey unsuitable for mating, labeled psycho, would be sent off to live in isolation. Maybe that would also apply to unmarried humans past age twenty-nine. “You should consider Victoria. She often allows you to peek at her best physical charms.”
“Stuff it.” Bull frowned. “I’m in sales. That’s what she’s in when she’s at work. If she flirts with you, she’s not personally interested, only as a tip source. I’d consider her more interested in me if she treated me as she does you.”
* * *
Melissa shivered as the nurse’s sponge started at a shoulder. When the nurse left, she thanked God the I.V. tube wasn’t reconnected and the frightening monitor screen remained blank with its dangling electrodes not stuck with itchy adhesive to sensitive skin.
“Hey, kiddo. How are we this morning?”
“Better.” Melissa couldn’t help but smile at Sarah who held a large newspaper in her hands. Must be the Sunday edition, two days late.
“More flowers? Is that what I see?” Sarah walked to the nightstand. She tucked the top news section under an elbow. The remaining newspaper bulk carefully placed on a chair positioned to avoid a slide off.
“Mitch, from Flowers Plus, brought two earlier. He groused when he saw those flowers you said came from New York and the nightstand bouquet.”
Sarah turned. “Why would he do that?”
“They didn’t come from his shop.” Melissa gazed at Sarah.
Sarah laid the folded news section next to Melissa. “Who—?”
Melissa cut in. “Mark. You remember? The flowers mentioned Sunday.”
“Oh, yeah.” Sarah lifted the vase. “The card only has his name.”
“Let’s forget him.” Melissa wanted to distance the conversation from Mark lest her failed love life spring front’n’center. “Say, where’s Alice?”
“She’ll be here shortly. She said she had to visit Neil on three.”
“As soon as I’m able, I want to visit others hospitalized. Feel bad that I was so lucky to get out.” She didn’t vocalize a desire to learn if Rob Campbell might also be hospitalized, if he survived. She trembled. She glanced at the below the fold front page black edged article headlined: In Memoriam. When she didn’t find Father listed, an exhaled loud sigh of relief filled the room. Hope lived. Rob’s name not listed.
She gasped.
On page two, a cellphone picture taken inside The Abbey showed a blurry figure in the background, female legs in the air. No way any camera caught her! She hadn’t remembered a flash. With her mind’s attention diverted, she hadn’t heard footfalls, but now noticed Sarah in front of the room’s window. Refocusing on the photo, no recognizable persons or features jumped out. There’d been less vestibule smoke with the door open. Still, the camera multiple steps away with the hand pointing the lens, judging by the picture produced, extremely unsteady.
Melissa peered past the paper’s top edge and her toes protruding upwards under the bed’s top sheet. She grimaced as a familiar face appeared at the hospital room door, a microphone held alongside his right leg. Sarah scowled at Joseph Penny, local TV anchor. Melissa’s right hand imitated a movie director’s “cut” signal as a plea for Sarah to stay calm. Sarah and ex-boyfriend Joseph hadn’t spoken civilly in Melissa’s presence since their relationship ended. Sarah denied she’d struck Joseph with household objects citing rusty softball pitching skills as proof. Melissa knew he’d married. Sarah pivoted toward the window.
“Mr. Penny, to what do we owe this honor?” After Penny’s two steps forward, Alice slipped behind him and stood back-to-back with Sarah.
“If you’re up to it, wanted to know what you remember about Friday night’s Abbey fire.” Metal clicking, toolbox latch perhaps, sounded in hallway.
“As you can see, I’m in no condition to agree to any on-camera interview. If that’s your cameraman messing in the hallway, better tell him he needs to leave. There’s really not much I can tell you.” She coughed. Her gaze to the right determined that a motionless Sarah still faced the room’s window. Alice nestled both her casted and uninjured arms inside her sling.
Penny handed the microphone through the room’s door to hallway individual unseen. “Can appreciate you’ve been through an ordeal and won’t stay long. Could you give me an inkling of what you observed Friday night?”
Alice placed
