Page 21 of Obsession

“Sure. You do too. Gordon Cole ... graduated a couple of years ahead of us. Ryan’s friend, even though Ryan was younger.”

Sam snapped his fingers. “Oh yeah, Doc Cole’s son, Gordy. He was at the Hideaway with—” His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard. “Sorry. You don’t need to deal with that tonight.”

No, she didn’t.

“So, Gordy became a doctor?”

“Yep. I think he’s going by Gordon now. He pretty well runs this place now that Doc Cole has semiretired.” Everyone knew Doc Cole, especially if they had a sports injury.

“He’s been here since med school?”

“No, he joined his dad in the clinic last year after practicing several years in Jackson. He’s a good surgeon—did Dad’s knee replacement,” she said as a light tap sounded on the door before it opened, and Dr. Cole walked in.

“Emma, what have you done to yourself?” he asked.

“Hopefully only sprained my wrist.” Given the pain, she doubted it was that simple.

He tipped his head toward Sam. “Been a while,” he said.

“I’ve just moved back to Natchez.”

“I’m sure Emma told you I haven’t been back long.” He typed into the computer, and like magic, her X-rays appeared on theflat-panel screen hanging on the wall. “Well,” he said, “it looks like you may have dodged a bullet.”

She startled. It was almost like he knew someone had shot at her.Relax. It was a common phrase. “My wrist is just sprained?”

“It definitely is that, but...” He used his pen to point out one of the bones in her hand. “This may be a tiny break, but nothing we need to cast.” He gently examined her hand, and she flinched when he squeezed the side of her wrist. “Ice it at least four times a day to keep down the swelling. How did you do it, anyway?”

“It was Sam’s fault. We were at Mount Locust and arguing about quitting time and there was this hole...” She shrugged.

His eyes narrowed. “Sam pushed you?”

She laughed. “That didn’t come out quite right. We were arguing about quitting time, and I stepped back into the hole.”

He opened a drawer and took out a compression wrap. “You’re excavating at the site? I thought I read in the newspaper you were only mapping out the slave cabins and cemetery.”

“That was the original plan, but something came up that changed everything.” She didn’t plan to tell him what. “It will be okay if I drive, won’t it?”

“Before you answer that,” Sam said, “you might need to know she drives a stick shift.”

Surprise crossed the doctor’s face. “Not many of those around.”

“It’s my dad’s old truck,” she said.

“The old ’97 Tacoma Ryan used to drive in high school?” he asked.

Her throat tightened. She hadn’t expected him to remember it. “Yeah. After Ryan got the Mustang, Dad gave the truck to me.”

Gordon wrapped the compression bandage around her wrist and hand. “I’m going to leave your fingers partially free, but it would be better if you didn’t drive until the swelling goes down, regardless of whether it’s a stick shift or automatic,” he said.

She frowned. “But—”

“Let me put it this way—if you’d injured your foot like this,I would tell you no weight bearing on it if you want to avoid surgery. Same thing here.” He gently pressed the Velcro end to the bandage. “Have you heard from your brother?”

Why did everyone want to bring up Ryan tonight? “No. It’s like he just dropped off the face of the earth.” Ryan and Gordon had been really close before her brother took off. “Have you heard from him?”

“No,” the doctor said. “But I’ve always understood why he didn’t come back, not that I believe he killed that girl.”

“He might think he’d be railroaded,” Sam said.

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