The Alpha King Call Boy – Chapter 102
“How was your day?”
It should have been an innocent enough question. But ever since Fiona made it clear to me how “creepy” it had been for me to ask about her work while I was keeping secret from her that I was her boss, I’d been trepidatious about returning to the habit of asking that question.
“It was fine.” She offered me a tight smile. “Pretty average Monday. Lots of meetings.”
er things away. New to the routine tonight was a stop over at her desk, where her briefcase was apparently now going to res
about yo
l seemed needless. “You ready for dinner, or want to relax a little before we go eat?”
first sound
r her to come to me. It w
o cues to signal I could start at her feet and from there take it further. No; she was not in the mood.
matter entirely. But I could, at least, discern her real smiles from the false ones by now.
t I was getting tonight.
massage.
she answered quietly. “I just have a lot on my mind, I g
stuff?”
up at the ceiling, t
t something tomorrow. He was very busy, so that was all he said. I don’t know why but I just got a bad feeling, like it was bad news.” Her eyes went to the side, then flickered back to me nervously. “You don’t know what that’s about, do you?”
at the company. Truly.”
d. And anyway, it’s probably nothing. But I turned in a bunch of reports last week that I’m still waiting to hear back from him about. I just hope everything is alright.”
wouldn’t worry about Conrad. He’s a bi
t inclined to believe.
on and hold great faith in Fiona.
ught was to give him a call as soon as Fiona was at work in the morning, to inquire about what was going on. But that, I considered, was exactly the sort o
ould be, I had to admit, nothing more than curiosity.
d, wide-eyed, at the dining room as w
“Oh, this is just b
brewing tension between Iris and Fiona.
sup
t down for the medical test results and a conversation about our plans for my investigation.
hat my patience with Iris was something I could not trust to remain intact through many more of our one-on-one chats. Not if she was going to continue with the pouting routine any time I brought up a topic she found uncomfortable.
he plan worked, and gave me hope for the weeks ahead. Breakfast went fine. Iris was cheerful and positive, reporting that s
e three of us in her room after we ate. She had the CT scan images with he
scan.
et in Iris’s head. She had not to
was primarily to the bone, in which, of course, you can see the bullet is still lodged.”
ger to drawn an imaginary circle around a small area of the transparent black and white image, which she was hol
the skull. I can see why they decided not to remove it. The risk of brain injury would have been too great. And here we can see how the bone has healed around the bullet.”
ils about Iris’s injury. But I was also impatient to hear about the damage to her brain. I didn’t want to seem overeager, didn’t want to reveal my selfishness in wanting to get Iris whatever
nd waited.
c of interest.
uaring her body to Iris and speaking, I noticed, rather carefully. “Do you recall what your former doctor, the one who first treated you, said about that?”
Iris frowned, shaking her head
into any soft tissue areas. The symptoms you’ve described may have resulted from a kind of concussion resulting from the impact. It’s possible that in addition to being shot, you may have hit your head in a fall or other impact.”
k the gunshot didn’t actually cause her memory problems at all – a seco
ell.”
out the likely cause of your pain. I want you to call me when you’re not feeling well from now on, okay?”
eyes to me. What for, I could not say. But I nodded at her seriously to prompt her to agree
he finally
s far as the memory loss
’s great,” I said. “Th
overing her memories, and start talking about the events surrounding my mother’s death. She had no objections.
give it a try.”