She closed her eyes, counted to ten, and when she opened them, he was grinning at her. She narrowed her gaze.

  Colby laughed. “You do have to keep an open mind with the doc.”

  “Sure, but it’s not all that easy.” She wondered whether she should tell him about Simon’s new revelation, then decided against it.

  As soon as she got back to her desk, she started in on the stack of messages. There was one from Danny, the kid now working for Simon. She quickly returned the call.

  He did answer the phone, but he couldn’t talk. “I’m at work. I don’t want to lose my job.”

  “Good, I understand you’re working for Simon.”

  “Yeah, he seems like he’s an all-right guy.”

  “He is an all-right guy, and he helps a lot of people,” she noted. “Yet you had a reason for calling me, and I’m guessing it wasn’t about Simon.”

  “I do, and I’m not … Can I talk to you after work?”

  “Yes.” She made an appointment to meet him at a coffee shop near one of the jobs he was working on. “Do you want me alone, or is it okay if Simon comes?”

  “It’s okay if he comes. He seems as much a part of this as you.”

  “I don’t know about that,” she said, with a chuckle. “I’m definitely the legal side of it.”

  “I get that,” Danny said. “But, if he’s around, it’s … not an issue for me.” And, with that, he rang off.

  She made a note, then sent Simon a quick text, explaining about the appointment.

  He called her to add, “He’s off work at three, unless they put him on overtime to finish something.”

  “If I have to wait a little longer, that’s fine,” she murmured. “Though he did seem a little upset.”

  “Damn,” Simon muttered, with a sigh. “I hope it’s not affecting his work.”

  She sighed. “I doubt it, but you can always let Joe know that some shit is going on with him.”

  “Joe does know, and he’s keeping an eye on Danny for me.”

  “Let’s not have a meeting with me that costs him his job,” she stated. “I wouldn’t want to be the cause of that.”

  “Of course not. I’ll meet you there.” And Simon disconnected.

  *

  Simon headed to the next project. He could be a good couple hours at this one, but Danny was working here, and Simon would have a chance to check in with Joe about him.

  As he approached, Joe looked up and smiled. “Hey, guess what? We’re more or less having a decent day.” Then he knocked on a stack of two-by-fours, sitting to the side.

  The two of them sat down and caught up on business, as always. Simon quickly went through the work in progress, and then, in an undertone, looking around to see where his new hire might be, Simon asked, “How’s Danny working out?”

  “Just fine so far.” Joe nodded. “He’s here on time. He’s doing his job, and, so far, he seems on the up-and-up, and I can’t fault him for a thing.”

  “Good,” Simon replied. “He has a meeting with Kate today at three. So, if he’s not quite done, let him off anyway, if you can.”

  Joe nodded. “Sure. Problems?”

  “Not that I know of. It’s related to that scenario over the weekend, so we’ll have to see.”

  “Ah.” Joe shrugged. “Yeah, that’s something bound to haunt the kid for a while.”

  “It’ll haunt a lot of us,” Simon stated, with a flat look in the direction of the workers. “I can only help somebody who wants help.”

  “But you can’t take on the responsibility for those who don’t,” Joe pointed out.

  “No, and I have more than enough on my plate without that,” he noted, with a smile in his direction.

  “Yeah, you sure do. Any new buildings happening?” Joe asked cautiously. “We’re about 60 percent through with this one.”

  “I haven’t bought any others, though I do have my eye on a couple. I was thinking I might take a look this afternoon,” he shared. “I wanted to confirm we were well on target with all our supply issues, before I put up the money on something else.”

  “Not a bad idea, after all the pandemic-related troubles,” Joe agreed, with a nod. “This one needed a close eye for sure. The other one over on Davie Street is breaking ground and holding. I was there this morning, and I’ll head back over there in a little bit.”

  “Are you still okay to take on both of them?” Simon eyed his foreman, who’d worked for him for such a very long time. “Otherwise I can put someone else on that job.”

  “No, I think we’ll be okay,” he replied, with a hard laugh. “But you pay me well, and my four boys have plans for that money that I don’t really want to give up on, not yet anyway.”

  “No, maybe not,” Simon noted, with a laugh, “but we must keep both jobs on track. Plus, I don’t want to burn you out.”

  “I know, and I appreciate that. These two rehabs aren’t that far apart, which will save me some time going back and forth,” he shared. “Don’t worry. If we run into trouble, I’ll be the first to let you know.”

  Simon nodded and headed up to look at the work that had been done over the last couple days. He saw Danny up ahead, who frowned at him, then put his head down and kept working. Simon walked past Danny and said in a causal tone, “You’re doing fine. Just relax.”

  Danny’s shoulders dropped in relief, and Simon realized just how hard it was for the kid to pick up and to carry on. Even though that was exactly what he wanted to do and was the best thing for him, it wasn’t all that easy to make it happen. Having somebody like Simon around, who knew what had happened, wouldn’t make it any easier on Danny, but somebody needed to keep an eye out on the young man.

  “I also heard about the meeting this afternoon, so I’ll see you there.”

  Danny just nodded and kept on working.

  Simon checked up on a couple guys nearby as well. Most of the time he had a decent relationship with his staff, until all kinds of issues with the hired help had turned out on one project, all that Simon hadn’t known about. So now he wasn’t prepared to get too far removed from the finer details of his operations, just to make sure he didn’t end up with staffing trouble like that again.

  He had a quick talk with some more of the guys for a couple minutes to see if there were any problems or concerns, checking in with some subcontractors and tradesmen too, and, with everything on track for the moment, and everybody appearing to be happy, Simon moved on.

  So far, every situation had required a certain amount of communication and some adjustments, but, by investing the time to hear the details from people on the ground, Simon gained the understanding that he needed to resolve the issues. He made some calls and worked out a few supply and delivery details, making sure that a scheduling problem was cleared up.

  Then, with a much better grasp on the details Joe had asked him to help resolve, Simon turned in the direction of the café. He had to admit that heading there was partly because of the doctor and partly because Simon was getting damn hungry again.

  He noted an appetite increase every time he had one of these weird connections with these spirits, and he didn’t know what the hell that was about and who the spirits were, especially this most recent one. He could almost hear his grandmother’s voice in the background, telling him that he must pay attention. Of course he had been just a child back then. Simon’s attention span had been incredibly limited at the age of six, making it almost impossible to remember anything he might have picked up psychically. However, this was also his current problem, as he tried to navigate through this situation.

  As he walked in, he smiled at the owner, quickly ordered some coffee and a muffin, and took up residence at a small table outside the restaurant, where he could sit and watch. Sure enough, it wasn’t very long before the doctor came bumbling through, in worse condition than he had been in before, to such an extent that Simon was quite surprised. The doctor looked more unkempt, more stressed out, plus muttering to himself—not the Bluetooth this time. Dr. Burnett made his way through the line, placed his order, and then stepped off to the side. Something was seriously off about him today, more so than any of the other days.

  Either something had severely upset his life or was in the process of doing so. Simon didn’t know what was going on, but the man looked like he had completely lost whatever anchor he had previously had.

  Dr. Burnett, as if sensing Simon’s gaze, looked up and stared directly at him, then frowned and walked over. “Do I know you? It’s Simon, right?”

  Simon shrugged. “Yes, that’s correct. We’ve spoken a couple times, but briefly.”

  The doctor nodded absentmindedly.

  “Are you all right?” Simon asked. “Do you need something? You look like you’ve just lost your best friend.”

  “A brother,” he muttered. “And not so much lost but on the verge of losing.” He shook his head. “A mainstay I always thought would be there and now, all of a sudden, maybe not.”

  Simon just nodded, not sure what he was supposed to say, then added his condolences to the conversation. The doctor’s order was called just then. He walked over, grabbed his items, then stepped out of the café and headed back toward his office, still looking shell-shocked, but maybe a tiny bit more alert. Simon picked up his phone and called Kate.

  She sounded distracted when she answered, “What’s up?”

  “I just saw your doctor. He looks like his world’s fallen apart. I did ask him if he was okay and if he needed anything. He mentioned something about being on the verge of losing his brother. I didn’t realize he even had a brother, but anyway he seemed pretty rattled. Then he grabbed his order and walked out.”

  “A brother,” she repeated. “What the hell? I don’t have any information on a brother.”

  “Which is kind of what I was wondering,” Simon noted. “It’s not exactly something you can hide, is it?”

  “No,” she replied, “which is another reason for the work we do. There was no mention or record on my reports of a brother, but the whole family history thing has been giving Reese fits because nothing adds up.” She took a moment and added, “Thanks. I’ll get back to you on that.” She ended the call with a click.

  Simon got up, still quite perturbed at the doctor’s appearance, and, acting on an impulse, half ran to catch up with the good doctor. He watched as the older man unsteadily headed back to his office. Simon frowned as he watched him head up the elevator. Simon followed slowly behind. He didn’t go in at first and couldn’t hear any of the conversation with the front desk, but Simon thought he’d picked up on the shocked tone in the receptionist’s voice. By this time, Simon entered the building and headed to the elevator. He got out on the third floor and then stepped inside Dr. Burnett’s empty waiting room, figuring that the doctor should have had enough time to get to his private office.

  The receptionist looked up at him and frowned.

  He nodded. “I was just speaking with Dr. Burnett, as we were both at the coffee shop, but he looked like he was having a tough time. I just wanted to confirm that he made it back okay.”

  Her face softened, and she nodded. “He does look upset. I left him some messages that may or may not help. I don’t know.” She sighed. “All we can do is hope that the news isn’t bad and that he will come through it just fine.”

  “What does Dr. Burnett’s schedule look like today?” Simon asked, waving around at the empty waiting room.

  “He asked me to clear most of it for the day, so if you’re hoping to get in to see him—”

  Simon smiled and shook his head. “No, that’s okay. I just see him at the coffee shop all the time and was worried.” And, with that, he gave her a small wave, and, coffee in his hand, he stepped back out into the main hallway and walked toward the stairwell, stopping to look out a third-floor window.

  There was nothing really that Simon could do, but it did feel as if he should do something, and he hated that. He absolutely hated that feeling of knowing he was supposed to do something, but not knowing what it was. It always panicked him. Even as he stood here, the doctor came out into the hallway, not completely distraught but obviously still upset.

  Simon wondered if he should say anything, but the doctor quickly took the elevator and headed downstairs. That was enough for Simon. He dashed down the stairs, and, when the elevator didn’t open on the main floor, he swore and ran down another flight of stairs to the parking level. There, he watched the doctor get into a vehicle, and, with very little care or concern about looking out for other traffic, he exited the parking lot and took off.

  Simon phoned Kate back. “Look. I know it really has nothing to do with you, but the doctor just took off in his car, as if he had horrifically bad news, and he’s quite distraught.”

  “What would you like me to do?” she asked, her voice gentle. “We have no reason to even follow him, much less question him.”

  “Yeah, that’s a good point.” Then he groaned. “I feel like it probably has to do with the doctor’s brother.”

  “And I can’t even find a brother so far. I would like to see Danny a hell of a lot earlier than three o’clock, hoping he has more info on the good doctor.”

  “I can go and check with him,” Simon offered, “but Danny was a little bit hesitant to even talk to me in front of the other guys.”

  “Of course,” she said. “He wouldn’t want anyone to know that he even knows you personally. I can understand that. In the meantime, this doctor’s world is coming apart, and we don’t really know why.”

  “If you can find out if he really has a brother, that would help because this definitely had a personal feel to it.”

  “We’re on it,” she said, and, for the second time in one hour, she ended the call.

  Chapter 19

  Kate got up, walked over to Reese’s office, a space allocated to the analysts on the job. She smiled at her and began, “So, this Dr. Burnett …”

  Reese nodded. “What about him?”

  “We didn’t come up with any other siblings, correct?”

  “Just the sister who died when they were teenagers.”

  “I have it from a good authority,” she shared, almost wincing, “that something may have happened involving a personal family member, and the doctor mentioned a brother in this conversation.”

  The analyst started clicking the keys on her keyboard. “As far as I’m aware, there wasn’t any brother.”

  “What about …” Kate added. “What if we have somebody in a care home or somebody who potentially had a different name or something going on?”

  “And yet, why would that be?” Reese muttered, as she clicked away.

  “I can’t answer the why part,” she replied. “All I can do is question whether there is that possibility.”

  “Sure there’s a possibility, but I’m not sure why it would be a name change for a brother. Sure, with women, some change their names when married and such.”

  “Right.” Kate sighed. “Anyway, maybe take a closer look and see if you can come up with a brother, a birth certificate, a death certificate, something.”

  The analyst nodded. “Okay.”

  Kate walked back to her desk, and almost immediately her phone rang. It was Reese.

  “I found a birth certificate, and you’re not going to believe it.”

  “What?”

  “There’s definitely a brother, and he drowned.”

  “Drowned? So, you have a death certificate?”

  “No, that’s where the interesting part comes in, given the case that you’re looking at. He was resuscitated, only he was never quite right afterward, so he’s under full care.”

  “Ah, so there was brain damage?”

  “Yes. I am pulling his medical records right now.”

  “Give me a location,” Kate said, as she picked up her keys and grabbed her wallet. “Also, why did that not show up in the initial search?”

  “There was a name change. I’m still working on that,” Reese noted, confusion in her tone. “Oh, here it is. He’s at the Haven Center, a full-time skilled nursing care facility. Looks high-end.” She shared the address. “Do you want me to phone over there?”

  “Nope, I’m heading over there myself,” Kate replied. “I want to see this brother and find out what I can.”

  “Okay,” Reese said, “but you know that you may not get in there without a warrant. Looks like it might be a private facility. Plus, if he’s badly disabled, you may need his guardian’s permission to see him. Then you have all the HIPAA laws to navigate too.”

  “That’s fine,” Kate noted. “Just gather as much information as you can.”

  “I’m on it.”

  Kate walked out to her car, hopped in, and, with a quick text off to Rodney and Simon, headed over to the nursing home. Pulling into the parking lot, something about the place surprised her, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. Except … it seemed awfully quiet.

  As she walked into the home, she immediately saw that home was a misnomer and that facility was far more accurate. She turned to the receptionist, who had a plastic smile on her face. “I’m here to see Roger Burnett,” she murmured.

  Quickly checking a file, she looked back at Kate with a shrug. “I’m so sorry. We don’t have anyone here by that name.”

  Kate nodded. “I believe he may be here under the name of Roger Burnside.”

  “Oh, Roger,” she said, with a knowing smile. “Unfortunately my directive here says family visitors only for him, so unless you are fam—”

  Already weary of the fake airhead receptionist routine, Kate pulled out her badge.

  The woman’s face went blank. “Excuse me. I’ll have to get the director.” And, with that, she dashed off.

  Kate wasn’t exactly sure why a director was needed, but he soon came bustling out, in his most officious form. This was something that Kate recognized as a frustrating and time-consuming yet unavoidable step when dealing with organizations. She sighed, as she nodded at him and held up her badge for his inspection.

  “What’s this all about, Officer?”