“Have you tried walking?”
“Yes,” she said. “To the bathroom.”
“And how did that go?”
“I’ve been better,” she said.
“Yes, I’m sure you have,” he said.
“I used both crutches, and it was slow going.”
“The crutches will be a help temporarily,” he said. “We can change that cast to a walking boot after a few weeks,” he added. “But, for now, I don’t want you moving around much or putting any weight on the good leg. And that casted leg needs to be elevated. Meanwhile, we must watch that other leg wound too. There’s always a chance of infection setting in.”
“I could do that at home,” she said hopefully.
“And who’ll look after you?”
Her face fell.
He nodded. “Look. You live alone. You don’t have anybody close who could come and look after you.”
“There are people I could call to help,” she said slowly. She looked down at the leg and winced, thinking of trying to get to the bathroom or getting in and out of bed at her place. “The setup here is better. I get that, but—”
“Stay here for a few more days,” he said. “Whether the guards are here to help you or to keep you contained,” he said, “they’ll stop anybody from trying to get in here.”
There was some wisdom to that, so she sank back against the bed and nodded. “How bad is my head?”
“Considering how close you came to being dead right now, I would say, it’s not so bad,” he said. “However, the bullet ran right along the skull line,” he said, “and packed one hell of punch. But you’re alive.”
“I know,” she whispered. “Sometimes I forget to remember that.”
“Focus on that,” he advised. “There will be another day after this,” he said. “Tomorrow is bound to be better.”
“It can’t be much worse,” she whispered.
“None of that,” he said. “From where I stand, this all could have been a lot worse.”
And, with that, he turned and walked out. She realized she was being selfish and feeling sorry for herself, remembering the other men from the sub. Besides, it wouldn’t help anything. But all the thoughts of everything that had gone on continued to circle in her head. Nothing made any sense, and she desperately needed it to. She liked things that were logical—like code, where she could see a problem and fix it. Lines of code made sense, or they didn’t. And, as soon as she saw something wrong, she could apply her knowledge and figure out how to make it right. But this? There was no making it right. She didn’t know what the hell was going on, but something was seriously wrong that defied logical explanation, and she couldn’t see her way out of it.
Just then her father called her. “I spoke with him,” he said abruptly.
She frowned. “I only told you about him being here,” she said, sitting up straight, “so you wouldn’t worry.”
“Well, I know how this works,” he said. “I’ve watched my children go through hell like this and have a bad end,” he said. “I wanted to make sure that I put in a pitch to see that you came out on the right side of this.”
“Oh, Dad,” she said, with a heavy sigh, as she sagged against the headboard. She reached up a tired hand and brushed her hair off her face. “Did you tell Mom?”
“Not the details,” he said. “I didn’t want to upset her any more than I had to.”
“She’ll have to know sometime though,” she whispered.
“Maybe not,” he said. “Maybe this will all be over, and she won’t have to know anything about it, until it’s done with.”
Her father was nothing if not an optimist. But, after his son Rory’s death and what happened to Ally with her lowlife boyfriend, her father was no longer the same believer in humanity. Not like before. “I think Axel is working in my favor,” she said, “but you know how these guys are. It’s just so hard to know what they’re thinking.”
“I know,” he said. “I’ll keep an eye on it, and I’ll hound him too.”
“I doubt if that’ll help,” she said.
“It can’t hurt,” he replied. “Somebody’s got to look after you, and I can’t do much from Australia.”
“Dad, I’m fine,” she whispered.
“You’re stuck in a hospital bed with busted-up legs,” he said. “They won’t even let you leave the hospital because you can’t look after yourself,” he said. “You probably have to be in traction with your leg elevated, don’t you?”
She chuckled. “Did you talk to the doctor too?” she asked.
“No, but maybe I should.”
“Don’t bother. I just spoke to him,” she said. “He repeated almost exactly what you just said.”
Her father chuckled. “Medical advice is pretty well universal,” he said. “I am concerned about the head injury though.”
“I’m normal. I’m talking. I’m rational. I don’t even have a concussion. I just have a bunch of stitches on the side of my head. And, of course, they shaved my head. At least that strip.”
“That’s to be expected,” he said. “Right now, it’s probably still numb too. That’ll hurt and itch like hell before long. Guaranteed to drive you crazy.”
“Great, thanks,” she said. “I’m really looking forward to that.”
“It will be fine,” he said humorously. “At least you’ll know you’re alive at that point. Right now, you probably feel like you’re half dead.”
“I do,” she said. “It’s kind of frustrating. But I’m working on it. I just want answers.”
“We all do,” he said. “We all do.” And, with that, he hung up.
*
Axel got water-cooler word from Mason that the navy had two guards on Ally’s hospital room. Well, I don’t need to stick around here so much then, Axel thought. Now, besides digging into Hostettler, that ex-boyfriend of Ally’s was a piece of information Axel wanted to deal with personally. But how the hell would he get to the bottom of that?
Then he decided that the best tactic was forward movement. He’d look up the ex’s address, remembering that he had a wife and a little girl, as Ally had said. Finding the directions, he hopped into his Jeep and left the base’s hospital and headed into San Diego. It was another fifteen minutes across traffic to get to the small bungalow. He walked up to the front door, and a woman answered. He smiled and introduced himself. “I’m looking for Carl. Is he home?”
“Yes, he’s out back,” she said, frowning.
Axel nodded. “I’d like to speak with him,” he said easily.
Still frowning, she closed the door partially and called out, “Carl, somebody’s here to see you.”
“Can’t even get a day off, can I?” he said humorously. She opened the door when Carl arrived, and Axel stared at him.
“Who are you?” Carl said, frowning.
“I’m involved in the investigation of an accident that happened recently,” he said and introduced himself with his name and base.