She glanced at Curtis’s locked gate and whispered, “I wish I’d called yesterday.”

I had the same thought about every earlier sign I had dismissed.

But there would be time for guilt.

Right now Owen needed me to remain steady.

The paramedic checked his pulse again, asked when he’d last eaten a proper meal, and gently suggested the hospital.

Owen’s eyes filled.

“Will they make me tell the story all over again?”

“Not to everybody,” Ellis promised.