Chapter 4

The first month of Jay's deployment continued. For a solid week after he left, Hailey slept in his discarded tee shirt. But now laundry day had rolled around. She picked up the shirt from where she'd haphazardly dropped it this morning.

Enough of this. You've got to get washed. She threw it in the laundry basket and headed toward the washer.

Later, when the load came out of the dryer, she stared wistfully at the shirt. I can't mope around here the whole time Jay's gone. She neatly folded the shirt and put it in his drawer.

Next, she stripped the bed and washed sheets and towels. The dryer dinged the next time as she sat in front of the TV eating warmed-up pepperoni pizza. She brought the laundry basket back to the living room. She flopped on the couch to hold stuff and finish the semi-interesting movie she was watching.

The first item she pulled out was a fitted sheet. She laughed as a funny memory came to mind. Early in their relationship, Jay attempted to teach her his "sure-fire fitted sheet folding method."

"Did you learn that in the Army?"

"Negative. My mom. She showed Will and me. However, Will failed fitted sheet folding."

Hailey gave him an amused look. "That's odd. You'd think since he became a surgeon, which requires manual dexterity, he could have mastered something as mundane as sheet folding." She paused. "Or maybe he thought it was a waste of time."

Jay gasped. "I'm crushed you would say that."

Hailey sighed. "Bottom line, it's only a sheet. If I can cram it in the linen closet, I'm good. We can't all be as neat as you."

Jay narrowed his eyes at her. "You're not giving it the proper effort."

"The only things I feel like expending effort on tonight are eating and maybe a movie," she said as she stacked towels.

Jay noted that the towels were a little lopsided. He wisely kept that observation to himself. "Okay, we'll revisit this lesson another time," he said.

"Gee, can't wait," said Hailey in a sassy tone.

"You think I'll forget, but I won't," threatened Jay.

Hailey made it a point to be the first person to get to Intelligence every day and the last person to leave. She declined invitations to unwind at Molly's with excuses of paperwork to finish, being too tired or having a headache.

Kim and Adam had just passed through the gate when Kim looked back up the stairs. "I'm worried about her," she whispered. "I get that she misses Jay, but she's taking it to extremes."

"I know," agreed Adam. "She looks thinner and paler."

Kim halted at the bottom of the stairs and grabbed Adam's arm. "Let's have her over for dinner. We can guilt her into it by saying Makayla wants to see her aunt Hailey."

"Yeah, yeah. That's a good idea. And she wouldn't disappoint a little kid." Then Adam had a vision of the whole downstairs of Disco Bob's house. "But what about all those boxes everywhere? It's kinda a mess." Kim and Makayla were in the process of moving in with Adam.

Kim waved a hand. "That doesn't matter. We'll just push them to the side. Hailey won't mind."

"Works for me. When were you thinking?"

"What about Saturday night?"

"Saturday's good. I can fire up my new grill," said Adam with a big grin.

"You sure you know how to use that thing?"

"Come on. All guys know how to grill. It'll be fun."

"I'm holding you to that."

Adam cut his eyes to her. "Darlin', that's not exactly a ringing endorsement about my grilling skills."

"I'm thinking of the incident with your neighbor that almost brought out the fire department."

They had reached the parking lot and Adam beeped open the truck doors. "Right. Mr. Crawford. Dude must be 85 or 90. Hell, he might even be 100, for all I know. He seemed ancient even when I was a kid. And he has cataracts. He got confused about which way to turn the gas off."

He shook his head. He could still visualize the flame that shot up and barely missed the eaves of the house. "Hard to believe he only singed his eyebrows."

"Exactly. But I know you won't make that mistake," said Kim with a smile.

"Trust me, I got this."

"But we won't say anything to Makayla yet," said Kim.

Adam laughed. "Yeah, she'll get too excited and pester us to death."

The next day, the unit had a bad case. Two elementary school students were caught in the crossfire on the playground when a man tried to abduct them. The school security guard managed to wound him in the shoulder and thigh. But the perpetrator limped down the street before cutting through backyards and onto a city bus. Panicked riders struggled to subdue him as he waved his gun. The driver and one male passenger were shot before the bus crashed into three parked cars.

The bus driver, only one month from retirement, died in surgery. The last report they'd had from Med was that the students and male passenger were still in surgery, but for non-life-threatening injuries.

In a weird twist, the suspect claimed he was the kids' father. Eventually, he admits he's the cousin of the non-custodial father and was going to get paid $2,000 to snatch them.

Hailey looked up from her computer and sighed. Torres looked up, too. "Crazy shit, right?" he said.

"Honestly, it's not any crazier than other cases we've worked," said Hailey. She sat quietly, lost in thought for a moment.

"Are you okay? You seem . . . distracted," said Torres.

Finally, Hailey met his eyes. "Tomorrow's Jay's birthday. I haven't heard from him in two days."