Vic, feeling tired and sore, decided to go back to bed for a while after Walt left for work. She discovered that her right wrist was swollen and sore, probably from breaking her fall as she smashed into the wall. Thankfully there had been no signs of a concussion from the attack.
Walt, also feeling tired, dragged himself to work. He felt worn out physically, but was quite happy emotionally, from spending all that time with Vic. He was relieved that her injuries were not serious and he was chuffed that she seemed to like his company. The first thing he did at work was call Ruby to see how she fared overnight.
"Hi Ruby. I hope you were ok last night. Did you block your door?" Walt asked, drinking some much needed coffee.
"Yes, Walter. Everything's fine. Don asked to see me, but I refused, pretending to be very tired. How is Vic doing? Did you see all her bruises?" Ruby asked. It wasn't meant to be a trick question.
"Um…yeah," Walt fumbled a bit, not sure whether Ruby was fishing for clues about him and Vic. Like how much of her clothing did Vic take off last night to show her bruises.
"That wasn't meant to be a trick question, you know Walter," Ruby said sincerely, reading Walt's mind, as usual.
"She's fine, Ruby," Walt said, changing the line of questioning. "Ferg just walked in. I'm going to see what kind of information Don was willing to part with. He probably doesn't realize this, but it's illegal to tamper with video footage obtained under a warrant. So, we'll catch him if he's deleted anything. Ferg will know how to check for that kind of thing. Hey, I was thinking of coming to see you today. Is that alright? Will you be home?" Walt asked. He thought he'd better check on Ruby and also put some pressure on Don.
"Yes, Walter. I'm a prisoner here, as you know. I can't leave until you grant me parole," Ruby replied with mock annoyance in her voice.
"Sorry, Ruby. I know you've made some sacrifices to take on these duties. Hey, I heard from Bill. He's doing ok. Henry saw him at the Red Pony the other night and made him a big cheeseburger to say thanks and cheer him up a bit," Walt added.
"I heard that. Bribery will get you everywhere, Walter," Ruby laughed. "Bill's doing ok. He won't starve without me. He always pretends to be helpless, but I know he's very resourceful."
"Well, thanks for what you're doing. It takes courage. I just hope you're keeping safe," Walt said with warmth in his voice. He was very fond of his Ruby.
"I'm fine, Walt. When did you want to stop by?"
"I'm not sure – maybe late morning. I have to talk to Ferg and then take care of a few things. Do you want me to call first?"
"No, you can just come when you want. Any time is good. See you soon then, Walt."
"Hey, Ruby. Do you need anything – snacks, a book?" Walt offered.
"How about a side arm?" Ruby asked.
"Um…Ruby…I don't think so. You have to take the safety course and then get certified. It takes weeks," Walt replied, not sure if Ruby was serious or not.
"I'm just kidding, Walter. You know I don't like guns," said Ruby, laughing a little, although it wasn't really that funny.
Walt got off the phone and called out for Ferg to come into his office. Ferg came quickly, carrying his cel phone and large note pad. He had a lot to report to Walt. The two had a brief chat about Vic's condition and Ruby's status. Both men cared deeply about their female colleagues, each for slightly different reasons. Ferg, since he still had his own mum, thought of Ruby like an aunt. And Vic like a sister. Ruby was like a mother figure to Walt. And as for Vic, well, Walt couldn't put his feelings for her into words just yet.
"Did you see Vic last night?" Ferg asked. "How is she doing?" Ferg did his best to maintain a look of innocence on his face. He was also a budding detective and like Ruby, had a feeling that Vic and Walt might have eyes for each other. But he would never ask directly about it. Or tease Walt about it.
"She was pretty sore last night. Lots of bruising. I slept on the couch last night and she seemed sore but ok this morning when I left," Walt said. No need to add any details about the couch or the sleeping arrangements. Walt, although wanting to keep everything private, knew in his heart that Ruby and Ferg (and probably Henry and Cady) would figure things out soon enough.
"Ruby's ok too. I'm going to see her this morning. I also want to bug Don. Put a bit of pressure on him," said Walt. "He's going to be in a heap of trouble if I find out that he messed with any of the video footage. What did you find, Ferg?"
Ferg explained that he had to phone Don this morning to prompt him to send the video footage. Ferg looked at the email he finally received. As suspected, the footage was incomplete. It looked like about 3 minutes of footage was missing from the emailed file. "Can you find a way to confirm that, Ferg? I mean confirm that it was deleted rather than it being an error?" Walt asked.
"Yup. I can do that, but I have to see the camera's SD card in person. I can check for 'hidden files' on the card. If I can find the files, I should be able to view them. I think we should seize the camera and card altogether," Ferg suggested. Walt suggested that since he was going to the home that morning, he would confront Don and seize the camera and card. The two discussed their theories regarding the attack on Vic. Ferg hadn't had time yet to track down detailed information on Don or his family.
Later on that morning, Walt made preparations for his visit to the old folks' home. Since he didn't own any hair products, he had to resort to wetting down his hair. He changed his hairstyle by moving the part, which he had never really liked, but seemed stuck with. He also donned a fake handlebar moustache. He left to go to the home in Sheridan. At the door, Ruby was quite surprised to see Walt in what looked like a disguise. His hair looked quite different, he was sporting a large bushy moustache, and a different style of shirt. Ruby could not contain her laughter. Again, Walt was annoyed by the teasing. He thought he looked ok, quite different than the usual. By the time Walt had made it to the small kitchen table, Ruby had her cel phone out, and was snapping photos of him. "How about if I put on the kettle for some tea, Walt," Ruby remarked. She turned her back to him and fussed with the teapot and kettle. And deftly sent the photo of the 'new Walt' to Vic with a label "Walt in disguise."
With teapot in hand, Ruby apologized for laughing at Walt. They had a cup of tea and discussed the attack on Vic. Walt assured Ruby that he thought Vic was doing ok and was resting comfortable. "Ruby, how much of the guy did you see? I mean did you see his face? If I showed you a photo of him, do you think you'd recognize him?" Walt asked.
"I don't know. I think I only really saw the back of his head and body as he ran down the hall. Do you know who he is?" Ruby asked.
"I might," Walt replied. "I have a hunch that it's someone Don knows. That's what he's been hiding." Walt mentioned that he and Ferg had been able to uncover details about Don's background and family. "It could be Don's nephew, Barry. He was a casual employee here last year. And, it turns out that Vic busted Barry a while back, so maybe that's what motivated Barry to attack her, if he recognized her," Walt shuddered, thinking of Barry going after Vic like that.
Walt explained that he was able to find a photo of Barry from an arrest record of Vic's from more than a year ago. Without Don's knowledge, Walt was going to ask a few staff members to see if they recognized Barry and had seen him on the premises before. If confirmed, Walt would confront Don about it all. It was sounding like Ruby and Vic would not be credible witnesses identifying Barry, but Walt figured that Don and some employees would be able to confirm things.
After tea with Ruby, Walt canvassed a few staff members, showing them the photo of Barry. He confirmed that Barry had been returning to the home even though he had been fired and banished last year. And one of the aides confirmed that she had seen Don and Barry arguing in the office on the morning of Vic's attack.
Walt called Ferg to give him an update regarding his findings. Then Walt returned to Ruby's room to see if she might be able to make him a sandwich or snack. "Yup," he thought to himself, more teasing about the moustache. Ruby was happy to make Walt a grilled cheese sandwich and to hear about what seemed to be a break in the case. However, she was also saddened to hear about Barry's troubles and Don's attempts to hide the problems. She let Walt know that although Don seemed to be an accomplice, he also seemed to be quite compassionate. She had heard very complimentary things about Don's management of the facility during her brief stay.
Walt decided that it was time to confront Don. He walked purposefully to Don's office and with his best Sheriff's voice, he requested Don's full attention. "Don, I know you didn't send all of the video footage to Ferg. And we know about Barry. The jig is up."
Don, who had been nervously fiddling with his pen, looked like he was going to puke. The pressure to help Barry was intense, but was nothing like the pressure he felt now from Walt.
"Walt, I'm so sorry." Don knew he had to tell the truth. "I've been trying to help Barry for a long time now, but he seems to be spiralling out of control because of drugs." Don looked crushed. "He's my sister's boy and he's had a hard time. His dad ran off when he was a youngster and Barry never really did well after that. I've done my best to guide him – I even gave him a job here, but it's always the drugs. They control him. I fired him, but I think he's kept a key to the place and he's been coming back here, stealing from people to feed his habit."
Don looked at Walt and thought he saw his features soften. "Don, I understand you wanting to help Barry. But he's been stealing from these kind folks – and you saw how he attacked Vic. It's escalated to an unacceptable level. He needs help. More than you can give him. Where is he now?"
Don, realizing that Barry really did need professional help, wrote down the address where he thought Barry might be hanging out. "Walt, I'm sorry about Vic. I never saw that coming. And I'm sorry about the camera footage."
"Don, I'll need to confiscate the camera and SD card. Will, in fact, be taking all the cameras with me today," said Walt. "It's a crime to tamper with camera footage obtained under a warrant," Walt added somberly. "I need to find Barry as soon as possible. And then we'll have to speak to you - you may be facing charges."
Don looked crestfallen, but not entirely surprised. At Walt's request, Don agreed to continue to monitor the situation and report any sightings of Barry. As well, Don would report to Sheriff Dalton's office as soon as possible to face the consequences.
After his meeting with Don, Walt, feeling better about the case, headed back to the office to finish off some work. He put in one last call to Vic. He had called her a couple of times throughout the day to make sure she was alright. She mentioned that she had napped on and off through the day, feeling quite lazy. She was a bit sore, but was rather enjoying a rare day off. Without missing a beat, Walt asked if it would be alright for him to come and visit her that night. Vic was pleased to agree to that, and Walt offered to bring dinner for them both.
Walt brought cheeseburgers to Vic's for dinner. Vic could only contain herself until they were part way through their meal. She had a strange expression on her face for a while that had left Walt puzzled. Finally, mid-way through her cheeseburger, Vic let loose with raucous laughter.
"Nice moustache," she howled. "Where the hell did you get that? You look like Tom Selleck," Vic continued, roaring with laughter, almost choking on her burger.
Walt, feeling a bit put upon, replied, "I LIKE that moustache. There's nothing wrong with it. Hey, how did you find about that?" Walt demanded. Vic showed him the image on her cel phone.
"Ruby sent a picture to me and Ferg. And then I accidentally sent it on to Cady and Henry," Vic continued to laugh, thinking this was hilarious.
"Geez, Vic. I was undercover. I needed a disguise." He had a sad expression on his face at this point.
"Did you pull that out of your undercover magic kit, or what?"
Walt sighed. "I found it a while ago when I was cleaning up around my cabin. It was from a Halloween party we went to years ago," he said. Then in a very quiet voice he said, "Martha liked it."
"Oh Walt. I'm sorry. It was just so unexpected to see you with a different hair style and then a moustache on top of that." Vic was now worried that she may have taken the teasing a bit too far.
"It's ok, Vic. Don't worry. I got plenty of teasing today from Ruby. And I'm sure Cady and Henry will be lining up to bug me about it before too long," Walt said, feeling a tad sorry for himself. Sometimes he felt like he would always be the recipient of everyone's teasing. He got up from the couch and brought his dinner plate to the kitchen. He leaned on the counter by the sink for a minute, scratching his upper lip. It was still itchy from the glue that had held the moustache in place.
Vic finished her burger in two bites and followed Walt to the kitchen. She knew Walt well enough to read his body language. "I'm sorry," she said, putting her arms around his mid-section. "I took the teasing too far again. You were seriously trying to help and I rained on your parade," Vic said, honestly now feeling bad about giving Walt a hard time.
"It's ok, Vic," Walt said, liking the feeling of Vic attached to his middle. "It did look a little goofy. I just thought that I needed a different look in case anyone recognized me as Sheriff." He enveloped Vic with his arms and whispered into her neck, "Sam Elliott. Not Tom Selleck."
They nuzzled together for a few minutes until Vic, feeling sore, broke their bond apart. Walt sensed that she was feeling uncomfortable. They settled back on the couch where Vic could lean on the pillows. And maybe lean on Walt. She was eager to hear what Walt and Ferg had learned about Don.
Walt ran his hand through his hair, wanting to fiddle with the part. Vic recognized that as a sign of either fatigue or frustration, or both. "Well," said Walt. "We didn't have much to go on at first, but now we have a clearer picture of things. This afternoon, Ferg was able to find out more on Don's family. Turns out that he has a nephew named Barry who has a sketchy background. Barry's had a drug problem for some time and has a record for assault, theft…you name it. Has a pretty long rap sheet. In fact, you arrested him once. Here's his photo." Walt showed Vic the photo of Barry. Vic vaguely remembered the arrest. "Ferg's also looking into his employment records. It looks like he was a casual employee, working for Don at the old folks' home. Don fired him, but Barry made a copy of his keys and has been coming back."
"Holy shit," Vic said. "That's probably it. If he needed money for drugs, he might be prowling around the home, stealing whatever he could."
"And that's probably why he assaulted you. He recognized you from the arrest and thought you were coming to get him. He'd been arguing with Don again, asking for money. Don was trying to get him to leave, threatened to call the police and then he saw you and panicked."
"Well, Walt, I'm relieved that you've seemed to solve the case. What's left to do?" Vic asked.
Walt listed what he thought they still needed to do – find Barry, gather more evidence to build the case, document the missing video footage, interview more witnesses and take a formal statement from Vic and Ruby. It sounded like a lot, but things were coming together with the case. He would extricate Ruby from the home and both she and Vic would be safe now. Walt was relieved.
"Well, all that can wait until tomorrow, can't it?" Vic asked, laughing. There was still a lot to pull together for this case and it would take several days to complete. The biggest challenge was to locate and secure Barry, but she knew Walt could do that. She pulled him towards her on the couch and they lay there for a while. They were both exhausted. Vic knew that the couch was too small for Walt, so she suggested they sleep (yes, SLEEP she said) in her bed tonight. They weren't intimate yet, but were rapidly moving closer to that. Walt was happy to be anywhere Vic was. They curled up together and slept through the night.
