Page 3 of Absent Reason

There was no sign of response from Joseph, but Amber knew that she couldn't expect one, not when he was like this.

"We're keeping him sedated for now," the doctor said. "It's safer if he has time to heal like this."

The doctor left, and Amber sat there, staring at Joseph, barely able to believe what had happened to him. How could someone have done this to him?Whywould someone have done this to him?

Amber tried to distract herself from those thoughts, trying to just be there with Joseph as his girlfriend. She pulled up puzzles on her phone, solving them one after another. She started with crosswords, moved on to some chess problems, and kept going. Anything to distract herself from what had happened.

Yet it wasn’t what she really needed. Amber needed answers, and getting those answers meant going back outside to talk to the cops, however much she thought that she ought to be in here, hoping that Joseph would wake. Amber struggled to compose herself. She knew that the cops wouldn't give answers to Joseph's girlfriend, but theymightshare information with an FBI agent with an interest in the case, just as a professional courtesy. Amber tried to look as professional as she could as she left the room to approach them.

"Hi, guys," Amber said. "Have you been here long?”

“We’re the ones who attended the scene,” the older cop said. “I’m Park, this is Granby.”

"Do we know who did this yet?" Amber asked.

"We received a call from someone who found him out on the street at the mouth of a blind alley not far from his apartment," one of the cops said. "He was unconscious when the paramedics got there, and none of the witnesses report him saying anything while hewasawake."

Amber's heart sank at those words, trying to picture what must have happened. It sounded like Joseph had been jumped by someone, but why? Joseph had never mentioned any enemies, and he certainly didn't seem like the kind of person who would get into a fight.

"Did any of those witnesses see anything that might help catch this guy?" Amber asked. She wanted to believe that there might be a quick answer to this, that whoever had done this might be caught quickly.

Amber’s hopes of a quick arrest started to fade as Park shook his head. Amber frowned, trying to make sense of the situation. Why would anyone want to attack Joseph?

"Do you haveanyleads on who might have done this or why?" she asked.

It was Granby’s turn to shake his head. "Not yet, but we're working on it. We've got some nearby security cameras we're reviewing, and we've been canvassing the area for more witnesses. Maybe someone saw something but didn’t stick around."

Amber nodded, feeling a sense of frustration. She knew how unlikely that was to give them much. She wanted to do something to help, but right now, there was nothing she could do but wait and hope.

Amber hated that. For as long as she could talk about the case as an agent, it felt as though she could push back the pain that was waiting deep inside her at the thought of what had happened to Joseph. They had no leads, and Joseph had been left for dead in an alley. She needed to do something, anything, to help find out who did this to him.

What was the alternative? Sitting there by his bedside, doing more puzzles while she waited for him to wake up?

"What’s your current theory? Was this a mugging?" Amber asked. "Is there a chance that we'll be able to find who did this by tracing something like his phone?"

Amber had access to the resources to do that. If someone had hurt Joseph this badly just to steal from him, she would do everything it took to find them. She would use every resource she had access to, even if it hurt her professionally to do it. The pain that she felt right then was so great that she simply didn't care what happened to her as long as it helped to find the person who had done this.

"They didn't take anything," Park said. "So we're not convinced that this is a mugging gone wrong. That's part of why we're here. If someone targeted him, then we want to know why."

"Not a mugging?" Amber said. She had a hard time believing that someone would do this to Joseph for some other reason. Everybody liked him. He was a journalist, though. One who often reported on political events and on criminals. Was it possible that he'd stepped on the wrong toes with one of his stories? Had he upset someone with everything he'd been working on?

"They didn't take anything, but theydidleave something behind," Granby said. He took something out of an evidence bag, something that made Amber's heart almost stop in her chest, feeling as if a hand was clamping down on it.

It was her diary. Her workbook, the one in which she'd sketched out ideas for puzzles alongside her personal thoughts. It had been essential in her former role as a puzzle editor for the Washington News but had also contained references to everything she’d thought and felt.

Amber stared at it in shock. She had known that it was missing, but she'd assumed that she'd simply lost it somewhere in her apartment, under the chaos of half-finished puzzle projects.

Instead, it seemed that someone else had taken it. Someone who had then gone out and attacked Joseph. Someone who had left the diary next to him as... what? Some kind of message?

That prompted another horrifying thought. This attack didn't have anything to do with Joseph. The fact that someone had left the diary behind meant that they'd wanted to send a message to Amber. The wholeattackwas a message.

Joseph was lying there hurt, maybe dying, because of her, and Amber didn't know what to do next. All she could do was sit with him and hope that Joseph woke up.

CHAPTER THREE

"Doctor!" one of the nurses called out, sounding suddenly worried as she rushed over to Joseph's hospital bed.

A doctor ran in, not the same one Amber had seen before. This one was younger, slightly built. He hurried to the bedside, joining the nurse, looking just as worried.

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