**** Couple of weeks later *****
Vic made sure to pull off the side of the road and walk well away from her vehicle before pulling out the burner phone and calling Dr Miller.
His voice was wary as he answered "Dr Miller speaking."
She huffed a laugh "John, its Vic Moretti."
"Ah the lovely Sheriff Moretti, what can I do for you today?"
"We need your help"
"We?"
"Yeah, me and Ferg. We are investigating Bitchface, SHIT! Monahan and have hit a snag that we need professional help with. Your kind of professional help?"
"Like a shrink?"
"Yes. Well no. Not specifically." Hell no! She didn't need a shrink!ell Hellkjfkfjsljf
"Could you be a bit more opaque?"
Vic ground her teeth for a moment smart ass doctors with a sense of humour "Ferg has identified some patients we would like to question further. Only problem is we don't know WHAT questions to ask to establish if there was something hinky going on with how Monahan was treating them."
"Hinky, huh?" She could hear a smile in his voice as he continued "Well I have yet to meet the much feted Deputy Ferg so why don't you send him over and we can have a bit of a chat."
She punched the air in silent victory but her voice was calm "Thanks Doc, be gentle with our Ferg, he's the only one we've got."
"Yes Ma'am!" and she swore she could hear him salute and keyed the phone off with a smile.
The cover story used as an excuse to send Ferg out to the VA was to deliver some necessary files for Walt's ongoing therapy sessions. Discussions about moral and ethical choices etc. Boring, uninteresting stuff, suitable for a Deputy to deliver.
She got a call from Dr Miller a few days later "I enjoyed talking to your Deputy Ferg, he is a treasure."
That stopped her for a moment, and blinking away an odd visual image "Glad to hear it and the tips you gave him seem to be paying off, its slow going but we are making some progress." Not enough, not nearly enough, and it was fucking painfully slow
"Progress is good. That's what I wanted to talk to you about, can you come out to see me again?"
Her brain started whirring away, trying to make a connection, why did he want to talk to her again "John…. Why do you want to talk to me?"
His voice sounded a bit sad "Vic, I need to talk to you about Walt"
She tried to sound breezy and unaffected "Oh, another professional chat?"
"No, this time its personal."
Oh.
Shit.
Short and sweet this time to move the story forward. Also I want to wave HI to my new readers, I have had many comments from new names so welcome and thanks for enjoying my little story.
Thanks to ALL who read and take the time to comment or PM me, trust me they are VERY motivating!