The Chance (Thunder Point #4)(70)

When their meals came, Senior started asking about weather conditions and if it was always so cold in Virginia. He called her Janice three times. She corrected him twice and he told her again that she looked so much like her mother. Then he told her he’d tried to call her but Ma Bell was very unreliable.... They hadn’t called AT&T “Ma Bell” for twenty years.

As Laine watched and listened to him, she grew more and more alarmed. Senior seemed to shrink, to grow smaller before her eyes. He became vulnerable and elderly, holding his elbows close to his sides while he ate. The same man who an hour ago filled the foyer with his confidence, size and bluster was becoming frail and needy as she watched. She stared into her bread bowl of clam chowder a lot, trying to keep her eyes from misting. She exchanged a few glances with Eric and it was apparent he knew what she was thinking.

They left the restaurant when it was dark. While Eric drove the car, Senior became anxious and kept asking if it was the right way. When they pulled into the garage Senior said, “Oh? This is it?”

“This is it,” Laine said. “Eric, would you do me a big favor? Would you find clean sheets for the bed in the guest room? And would you take Dad upstairs and let him help you with the linens? I have something to do.”

“Be glad to,” he said.

“And, Dad? Can you give me the keys to your rental car? I’ll get your bag for you.”

“Okay,” he said, his voice rather subdued. That was not her father’s voice but the voice of an old, tired and confused man. He dug in his pocket for the keys and came up empty. “I don’t have them.”

“Do you know where they might be?” she asked, knowing he wouldn’t have an answer.

“On the hook by the back door?”

“Okay,” she said. “Go upstairs with Eric. I’ll find them.” Since there was no hook by the back door, since there was no back door other than the one that led to the garage or the patio doors to the deck, she just went to his rental car, a midsize Ford Taurus. The doors were locked, the keys were lying on the passenger seat, there was no luggage in the backseat and his briefcase was on the floor of the car, passenger side. She went back into the opened garage, got herself a couple of tools from her toolbox and broke into the car in less than twenty seconds. The alarm sounded right away but she slid into the car, grabbed the keys and silenced it.

She popped the trunk in search of luggage, but there was none. Huh? She checked the backseat again. Nothing. She took the briefcase and keys and her tools inside. After storing her tools and lowering the garage door, she took the briefcase into the small study and her desk.

In the briefcase she found the car rental papers—he’d rented the car in Portland. His plane ticket was from Boston to Portland, one way, and there was a luggage receipt but no bag. His wallet was inside along with his cell phone. She checked the phone—he had missed calls from several people, from Pax, from his practice. She read a few text messages:

Dr. Carrington, Dr. Ellis of the American Association of Orthopedic Surgeons has been trying to reach you and would like you to call him....

Dr. Carrington, Dr. Sorenson from Women and Children’s is still waiting for your consult....

Dad, call me as soon as you get this message....

Dad? Just give me a call and tell me what’s up—I heard from your office that you were a no-show in San Francisco....

There was a sleeve of pills. It looked like so many of the samples her father had always had on hand from pharmaceutical reps—Cognex. She went to her computer and looked up the drug, already knowing what it was going to say. Treatment for mild to moderate symptoms of Alzheimer’s.

She looked in his wallet. The usual cash and credit cards and driver’s license were there, but there were also lists on small slips of paper. Notes to himself. Phone numbers for his office, Pax, his partner in the practice, reminders about appointments, medication schedule—there was no other medication in the briefcase but he was supposed to be on cholesterol and blood pressure medication.

Whew.

She left the briefcase under her desk were it wouldn’t be visible. She went upstairs. She’d call the Portland airport and find out if they still had the luggage Senior had checked, but that was hardly urgent now. She found Eric just smoothing the comforter over the sheets. “Do you have any sweats or boxers Senior can borrow?” she asked. “There’s no luggage.”

“No luggage?” Senior asked. “No luggage? What’s that about?”

She just looked at her father. “You must be very tired. Eric will get you something to wear to bed....” Ten minutes later he had brushed his teeth with a new toothbrush and was tucked into bed. “I’ll be downstairs for a while before I go to bed and I’m going to leave a light on the stairs so you don’t forget about them.”

“I won’t forget,” he said.

“I’ll leave the light on anyway.”

Once she was downstairs, she walked into Eric’s arms and let him hold her. She rested her head against his shoulder. “God,” she whispered.

“You had no idea?”

She shook her head. “This seems pretty sudden.”

“But you said you haven’t spent that much time with him.”

“I haven’t. Pax sees him occasionally, much of the time they’ll see each other at the hospital. But he’s got it bad—that can’t just have happened. I have to look this up.” She went to the kitchen for a glass of wine.