May I: Sharpen Up the Knives

Cal was just pouring himself a cup of coffee when Emily came into the kitchen, still dressed in her pajamas. “I slept on the couch waiting for you last night. What time did you finally get home?”


He looked at his watch and mentally counted, “Not until late. What time did you get home from that shopping trip last night?”

“We got back into town around ten—home by ten-fifteen.”

“Really? That soon.”  He took a sip of his coffee, and set it back down on the counter.

She shuffled into the kitchen and pulled out a bowl from the cabinet. “We drove back to Delanie’s and then I drove home. She doesn’t live too far away from us, you know.” Taking a spoon from the drawer, she put it in the bowl with a slight clatter. “Considering we go to the same school.” Opening the fridge, she closed it. “Dad? Does not being here last night, have anything to do with Gillian?”

Tipping the cup, he drained all remaining coffee and rinsed it out and set it in the sink. “What makes you ask that, love?”

“You always get that really concerned, fierce look in your eyes when anything happens with Gillian.” She shrugged, taking the milk out of the fridge. Her eyes were filled with concern when she turned back around. “Did something happen . . . with Gillian?”

He looked over, into his daughter’s concerned eyes. Quickly deciding not to tell her about how he had gone over to Gillian’s, seen how sick she looked—although there was probably a version that his daughter had seen when she had gone to the office looking for him—and watched as she fainted, then developed a higher fever that he had to carry her into the emergency room.

“Dad?” He broke out of thought, as she set the milk down on the counter. “Where did you just go?”

“Nowhere that you need to know about. Eat your cereal would you?” He warned for her not to press him any further. So she went on and poured herself some cereal, poured some milk on and began eating. She watched as he began to walk away, and then turned around; his voice a lot softer this time as he leaned against the counter. “Gillian is going through some tough things right now that I can’t really talk about. You understand that, don’t you love?”

Emily nodded, before swallowing. “Yeah . . . I mean, Gillian just kind of became like my second mother when the two of you met. When I saw her yesterday, it scared me . . . a little to see her like that.”

“I know, Em.” Swiftly, he walked over to her and kissed her on the top of head, then pulled out his car keys from his pocket and began walking towards the back door. “I have to go into the office for a little while. Would you mind cleaning up the house a little?”

“Sure.” She offered, slightly confused as she scraped up the last few stray pieces of cereal floating in the bowl. “Are we expecting company?”

“Not sure yet.”He called back to her as he retreated towards the back door and was gone, before she could ask anything further.

---

“Any sign of Lightman or Foster?” Eli asked as he walked with Ria down the hall of the Lightman Group building.

“No sign of either one of them.” She shook her head, black heels clicking down the hall; dressed in a dark blue dress shirt, with grey pants. “By the looks of it, neither Lightman nor Foster has set foot in this office recently. Although, Gillian’s car is still in the parking lot.”

Eli looked at his watch. It wasn’t like either to be absent. “Well Lilly Donovan should be here within the hour. Just hope one of them makes it here. We could really use fresh eyes on this.” They exchanged a glance, and then he disappeared into the computer lab.

Ria stood there for a moment, before going back down the hall. She tried Gillian’s cell phone, but got her voicemail. She left a message and was just about to try Lightman when he walked through the door.

Standing, she tucked her phone back into her pocket. “I’ve been trying to reach you for the past hour. “

He smacked his lips, looking around.  “I had a bit of an emergency to attend to.”

Looking slightly surprised, she watched as went around to the side of his desk. “Oh—and Foster? Where is she?”

“She’s taking a little personal time.” He continued to walk at a fast pace down the hall to his office. “What’s with all the sudden questions?”

“Besides that you and Foster disappeared without telling anyone?” She inquired casually, raising her brow. “We’re right in the middle of the case.”  

“I’m well aware of that, Torres.” He offered, the tone of his voice laced with agitation. Closing his fingers around the object he took from the desk and stuck it in his pocket. “What did you and Loker find on Jacob Donovan?”

“He’s having an affair. Quite ashamed of it too.”

“Good. Invite the wife, the mistress and the husband in. I would like to have a bit of a chat.” Pointing out, he walked out of the room. “That is what you wanted me to do, isn’t it?”

Ria nodded, followed him out of the office. She flashed a surprised look, slightly taken back that he fact that he had just taken the words out of her mouth. ”Yeah. I think Jacob Donovan killed his friend and tried to do the same with Frank Cole, but we don’t have much to go on.”

“You did get a base reading on him, didn’t you?”He called back to her as he walked back down the hall. Shaking her head, at his quick ability to disappear, she went to go make the needed phone calls, as well as fill Loker in.

---

Pushing back the curtain an hour later, Samantha walked in to find an empty bed. Although they had put a few more watchful eyes on the room, they had gotten swamped and hadn’t been able to get back until now.

Sighing, she knew that Gillian was long gone. The gown had been discarded underneath the pillow. When she had walked by the bathroom on the way over—it was empty. Still, she checked everywhere possible, but the good doctor and her bag of clothes were gone.

Returning back to the front desk with her chart, she informed the doctor and had just hung up when Dr. Lightman walked through the ER doors.

“Looks like he’s back again.” The nurse with brown curly hair motioned over to him as he walked over. “Sam, isn’t that the man that brought the pneumonia patient in last night?”

Opening the chart, she looked up to see him walking over towards them in quick strides. “Yeah.” Closing the chart, she slid it forward so that it wouldn’t be in view. He looked tired; apparent that he had a long night.

“Dr. Lightman.” Samantha greeted as friendly as possible. On her break earlier, she had looked him up on the computer. He was a psychologist—and an expertise in body language. The whole situation made her feel uneasy, but she was relieved that she didn’t have to tell him the news. He was watching her closely, eyes shifting back and forth as he leaned his arm against the counter. “What can I do for you today?”

He was silent for a moment, like he was in deep concentration. Before he could answer, Dr. Tucker came bounding through the doors. Cal was still watching Sam; followed her line of sight, then looked back at her.

“You look positively relived to see him. Why is that?”

“Dr. Lightman. If you’d follow me. I can explain further.” Dr. Tucker cut in. “Let’s go somewhere private, shall we?”

 “Nobody wants to talk in private, unless something happened.” Cal stated, standing in place. Dr. Tucker sighed, closing the distance between them. He met some rather dark eyes and nodded in affirmation.

Dr. Tucker lowered his voice. “Unfortunately when got swamped, Dr. Foster chose that time to leave our care. I’m having security look at the tapes, but I’m guessing that she left about an hour ago—” Before he could finish his explanation, Cal closed the distance between them.

“You do realize, that’s twice now that she’s left under your care.” He said, raising two fingers. And with that he bounded toward the doors and walked out.