Fear - 21

"Doctor Collins, he's not going to get any better because you're standing there staring at him," one of the nurses said, gently resting her hand on Gene's shoulder. "And it won't do him any good if you collapse from fatigue. Go home, get some sleep. I promise we'll call you if there's any change."

Gene scrubbed his face with one hand, realized he was beyond exhausted, and nodded. He gave her his phone number and made his way slowly to the elevator, trying unsuccessfully not to yawn while he waited for it to appear.

Moments later, he was stepping off into the lobby. Just ahead of him at the reception desk, he saw two police officers, one of them the one he'd talked to what seemed like hours ago. He realized belatedly, as he checked the time, that it had been. The officer turned, saw him, and came over.

"We found out where Mr. Mathews and his friend were living. You were right. It was a trailer, in a trailer park not too far from the gas station where Mr. Mathews was dumped. The place was pretty well torn apart, partly we presume from the beating Mr. Mathews endured, partly because Mr. Lewis made a very hurried exit afterward, taking his belongings with him."

"He probably thought he'd killed Shawn and ran," Gene said angrily.

"I agree. There was a trail of blood leading from the interior out to where, from the oil stains on the ground, Mr. Lewis had parked his truck. Best guess is he took Mr. Mathews to the gas station and left him there then returned long enough to grab his things and run."

"Have you caught him yet?"

"No. We know the make and model of his truck, thanks to the fact he often gassed up at the same gas station where he left Mr. Mathews, so we have an APB out for it. The problem is, once he got onto the main highway, there's plenty of places he could have gone and lots of spots where he could have pulled off, dumped the truck, and taken off into the wilderness."

"Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll run into a hungry bear," Gene growled.

The officer smiled tightly. "If we're lucky."

"What if he decides to come back for Shawn? He's done that before, although as far as I know up until now he's never hurt him badly enough that Shawn's ended up in the hospital."

"As you know, we have an officer in the ICU so Mr. Mathews is safe. Besides which Mr. Lewis would have to be insane to try something like that."

Gene arched an eyebrow. "I think he's already pretty much proved he's not sanest man around."

"True. Okay, I have to get going. If I were you—"

"You'd go home and get some sleep." Gene chuckled tiredly. "Which I'm planning on doing."