“They made me drink broth for breakfast.” Hope made a squishy face.
“She’s progressed to soft food,” Melanie told them. “By dinner she’ll be asking for a hamburger.”
Jo pulled up a chair along with Agent Burton. “Hope, this is my friend Mrs. Burton. She and I are working together to make sure we know exactly what happened when you were asleep yesterday.”
Hope scanned the four of them. “Am I in trouble?”
“No, baby!” Melanie patted her leg. “You’re not in trouble.”
“’Kay.”
Agent Burton started with a simple smile. “Hope, honey . . . do you remember what happened yesterday?”
“I fell and broke my arm. Mommy said I hit my head hard, too.”
“Right. What about before you fell? You were really far from the inn. Do you remember why you left home?”
Hope bit her lip and looked around the four of them again.
Melanie once again patted Hope’s leg through the blankets. “Honey, you’re not in trouble. Just tell us the truth.”
“M’kay . . . I was playing outside, in the backyard where Miss Gina could see me. I heard a dog barking. It sounded like it came from the front yard so I looked. I didn’t see a dog.”
Wyatt kept a hand on Melanie’s shoulder, which she covered with one of hers.
“Then what happened?” Jo asked.
“Uhm, I was going back when I heard it again. Then I saw Mr. Lewis by the trees on the other side of the road.”
Melanie gripped his hand. Both of them knew instantly how wrong this was going. Mr. Lewis had hustled from his room, or so they thought, and was outside when Melanie started screaming Hope’s name. Then he told them he hadn’t seen her since breakfast.
“Did Mr. Lewis say anything to you?”
“He went like this.” She made a waving motion toward herself. “I ran across the street. Mr. Lewis said he saw a puppy running off in the woods without its mother.” A pained look crossed Hope’s eyes. “I told him I wasn’t supposed to leave the inn. He said it was okay and that Miss Gina wouldn’t be mad cuz I was with him.” Hope stared at Melanie.
“It’s all right, baby. No one is mad at you.”
Jo pushed out a long breath. “Then what happened?”
“Mr. Lewis and I ran in the trees. He said he saw the puppy go down the hill. It was really steep. I was scared.”
“I bet,” Agent Burton said in a soft voice. “Did you go down the hill?”
Hope started to shake her head. “I-I didn’t want to go down. Mr. Lewis said I should find the puppy and maybe my mommy would let me keep it.”
“Did Mr. Lewis go down the hill?”
“No, he said he was too big.”
Wyatt felt Melanie start to tremble under his hand. His feet itched to move. Find Mr. Lewis and beat him within an inch of his life.
Instead, Wyatt did his best to keep all emotion from his face and listen while Agent Burton and Jo asked questions.
“So you went down the hill?”
Hope shook her head faster. “I didn’t. I guess I tripped or something. I don’t remember falling.”
“Did you see the puppy?”
“No. Mr. Lewis saw the puppy,” Hope told them.
“Do you remember anything else, Hope? Anything about Mr. Lewis that didn’t feel right?”
Hope sat in silence for a several seconds, then opened her eyes wide. “He had a tattoo on his arm.”
Jo leaned forward. “And that didn’t feel right?”
“Well, Mr. Lewis is always so nice, but the picture on his arm was like a scary Halloween.”
“Mel, have you seen this tattoo?”
“No. He was always in a full dress shirt when I saw him.”
Agent Burton lifted both of her arms to Hope. “Can you point on me where you saw Mr. Lewis’s tattoo?”
She pointed to the agent’s left forearm, right below her elbow. Wyatt tried to remember if he’d seen the man with short sleeves. Like Mel, he only remembered a suit.
“Was it his left arm?”
Hope shrugged. “I don’t remember.”
“What does a scary Halloween mean?”
“Dark and squiggly. And kinda like the picture the doctor put on that thing.” Hope pointed to a light box on the wall of the room.
“Like an X-ray?”
Hope nodded.
“An X-ray of your arm?” Jo asked.
Hope pointed to her head. “An X-ray of my head.”
Jo glanced at Agent Burton. “A skull.”
“Yeah,” Hope added. “I saw a few of them. They were mean and ugly.”
Jo patted Hope’s leg. “You’ve been really helpful, honey. I’m going to talk to your mom outside for a few minutes.”
“M’kay.”
Melanie kept it together until the four of them walked out the double doors of the ICU. Then she lost it.
“He hurt my baby!” She turned toward Jo, grabbed both her friend’s shoulders, and shook them. “He did this!”
The River Bend posse jumped to their feet and moved by Mel’s side, all asking questions.
“What happened?”
“This is about Mr. Lewis, isn’t it?” Miss Gina asked.
“Okay, okay . . . everyone needs to settle down,” Agent Burton attempted to calm the room.