Page 63 of Deception

“I called a friend, and she’s going to bring her home from preschool. But thank you. That’s very sweet of you.”

Olive had to wonder if that friend was Sabrina. Maybe Olive could somehow find out.

When Rebecca’s eyes drooped, Olive scooted away from the bed. “I should go and let you rest. But if you need anything . . .”

“We’ll let you know.” Matt gave a firm nod.

Olive stepped from the room and began to slowly walk down the hallway. But as she passed the nurse’s station, a conversation there caught Olive’s ear.

“The situation is dire,” a man—a doctor, Olive assumed, said. “We should do more tests.”

“Yes, sir,” the nurse answered.

“Call Dr. Peters. He’s the one overseeing our patient. He needs to be included in this.”

Wait . . . Dr. Peters? He was the man who’d talked to Mitzi last night at the coffeeshop.

Washethe doctor treating Rebecca?

Suddenly, things felt a lot more interesting again.

CHAPTER 35

Olive stepped from the hallway and back into the ER waiting room.

She’d already texted Mitzi about Dr. Peters’ possible connection to Rebecca, just to give her a heads-up.

As Nova joined her in the waiting room, a man standing at the nurses’ station caught Olive’s eye. She’d seen him somewhere before but couldn’t place the location.

The man, who was shorter than Olive’s own five-foot-six-inch frame, was probably in his early thirties with thinning, light brown hair, a thin build, and wire-framed glasses.

As soon as the man saw Olive and Nova, his expression changed. He recognized them also.

He stepped closer. “Weren’t you in the office earlier today? Goodmen Marketing?”

“We were.” Olive suddenly remembered the man from the office. “We were interviewing Matthew Hansen.”

“I’m Brad,” he told them. “I work with Matt. I heard what happened and wanted to come check on them. How’s Rebecca doing?”

“It’s hard to say,” Olive started, not wanting to say too much. “She seems to be hanging in.”

He tilted his head compassionately. “I understand. I just wanted to swing by so Matt and Rebecca could know we at the office are thinking about them.”

“That’s very kind of you.” Olive imagined Matt’s coworkers probably had to come out quite often to check on them.

Then she realized that this guy might be a good person to talk to.

“You said you work with Matt?”

“I do. I have for the past three years. He’s a good guy. I just feel terrible about all he and Rebecca are going through.” Brad’s voice didn’t contain any doubt. He truly believed Rebecca and Matt were experiencing a hard time.

“That’s nice that the company is there to support him,” Olive said.

“Yeah, it’s been really hard on them. Whatever we can do to help.” Brad crossed his arms.

“I heard it’s been difficult on Matt having to take all these days off work.”

Brad squinted. “Really? Our boss has given Matt liberal leave. His own mom had cancer, so he’s been pretty understanding. Even volunteered to let y’all come out to film the interview there.”

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