Page 146 of Another Girl Lost

Dawson left her staring after him. She reminded him of a trapped animal doing its best to cling to bravado.

He rode the elevator to the third floor and found Lynn Yeats’s room and knocked. Inside, a television clicked off. “Come in.”

He moved into the dimly lit room and found Lynn lying in her bed, IVs hooked up to her arm. The doctors had told him she’d been heavilysedated and the plastic on her face had come close to killing her. She’d been at the critical stage of hypoxia.

“Detective Dawson.” Her voice was rough, jagged.

“Ms. Yeats.” He moved to the side of the bed. “How’re you doing?”

A romantic comedy played out on the muted television screen. “Okay. Better.”

“I hate to bother you now, but I’d like to ask you a few questions.” He’d called the hospital and spoken to Lynn’s boss. She had a solid reputation as a floor nurse. However, she’d changed hospitals five times in the last decade. Digging deeper, he’d found reprimands on her record. Not enough to trip a criminal investigation but enough to force her out of the job.

“Sure.” She sat up and turned off the television.

“Mind if I sit?”

“No, go ahead.”

He pulled up a chair, sat, and flipped through a notebook that didn’t have many clean pages remaining. “For my own understanding, can I confirm a few facts?”

“Sure.”

“You and Tanner Reed met at Mike’s Diner in January of 2014.”

“January 15. It was cold and windy. I ducked in for breakfast before my morning shift.”

“You were a regular at Mike’s, correct?”

“Yes.”

“A little off the beaten path for you, wasn’t it? Opposite direction of your work from your house.”

“Not at the time. I worked closer to the diner, but it wasn’t super convenient. But I also never ran into doctors or nurses from the hospital. I closed my mind to work completely when I was off duty.”

“Was it love at first sight?”

She plucked at the hospital identification band. “I was attracted to him. He was a beautiful man. But I never thought he’d notice me.”

“But he did.”

“Yeah.”

“Magical, right? When I met my wife, it was at a fundraiser for a circus. She was working the dunking pool. I knew the second I met her, I had to talk to her. But she’s the one that made the opening line. Who made the first move with you and Tanner?”

“He did. I thought he was talking to someone else at first.”

“That’s how I felt about my wife. I never thought I had a shot, but I went for broke. How long before your first date?”

“We met in the diner for breakfast several days a week for a couple of months. He asked me out for the first time in late March.”

About the time Sandra had vanished. “You two hit it off right away?”

“We did. It all started to feel very natural.”

He flipped back pages. “You said you met his cousin at his house.”

“Yes. The young girl. Dark hair. Quiet.”

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