Alan grabbed the bedrail so hard his knuckles went white. The deputy stepped out of the room and started talking into his radio.

I stood there with my phone in my hand and finally understood the thing Emily had been trying to say.

This was not a fight that got out of hand. This was not a husband panicking after hurting his wife.

Someone else had been watching. Someone else had known. Someone else had sent the message.

The deputy came back into the trauma bay with a different expression. “Dr. Hayes. We need you to tell me exactly where Daniel lives.”

I gave him the address. The street. The crossroad. The color of the house. The keypad code to the garage, because Emily had once trusted me with it and I had never deleted it from my notes.