My Life is You Ch. 10

"Have you called his workplace?" Detective Morrow asked, writing down notes on a pad of paper.

"I’m his workplace," Sprite said. "Seth is a private physical therapist and right now I’m his only patient. He lives at my house during the week and then goes home on the weekends. I guess you can say my body is his construction project," she finished with an impish grin.

"And you are?"

"My name is Alyxandria Mallon, but everyone calls me Sprite," Sprite smiled.

A slight curve of the lips was the only sign Detective Morrow gave that he was being charmed. "So, when did you first notice that Mr. Evans was missing, Miss Mallon?" inquired Detective Morrow.

"When he didn’t show up at 8:00 a.m. Monday morning, I thought he was just running late. Normally he arrives between 7:45 and 8:00 and we start my first therapy session of the day at 8:15. I didn’t really start wondering, though, until it was 9:00 and I still hadn’t heard from him. Seth had never been even a moment late, so an hour with no phone call was weird."

"And what did you do at that point?"

"I called his cel phone. Seth always carries it. He didn’t answer so I tried his house. But he doesn’t even have an answering matching there since he’s home so rarely."

"At what point did you contact Mr and Mrs. Evans here?" Detective Morrow was doing no more than taking notes and asking occasional questions at this point.

"I called Belinda that evening. I had to wait until she got home from work. I wanted to go by his house earlier, make sure he wasn’t in there sick or something, but I can’t drive just yet because of my back."

Detective Morrow sat back in his chair, which creaked again at his movement. "Has Mr. Evans ever disappeared like this before? Has he ever needed time away by himself and forgotten to tell anyone?"

Eric spoke up. "No, never. Seth and I usually talk every day. We’re twins and very close. And if he doesn’t call me, he calls Belinda. They’ve been best friends since college. In fact, Seth is the one who introduced Belinda and I."

"So let me get this straight," Detective Morrow sat forward again, tenting his fingers together. "You normally speak with your brother everyday, the last time you did so was so early Sunday morning that it might as well have been Saturday night, but you didn’t think to be worried when you hadn’t heard from him by the time you arrived home from work on Monday. Why is that?"

Belinda and Eric exchanged a look before Belinda spoke for the first time, "We were worried, but not about his being missing. That never occurred to us until Sprite called Monday evening."

"Then what were you worried about?"

"Saturday night Seth got some unusual news about a former patient of his. He had been very close to that patient, so the news upset him," Belinda tried to explain without going into details.

That didn’t work. William Morrow wasn’t a detective for nothing. "What sort of upsetting news?"

"A man by the name of Dillon Marshal used to be a patient of Seth’s," Eric told Detective Morrow. "While at the club, Seth ran into some of Dillon’s friends, who told Seth that Dillon had pretty much cut himself off from the world. Seth became worried that Dillon may have fallen into a deep depression, one that could potentially be suicidal."

"That’s a serious problem. Did Mr. Evans inform anyone of his suspicions?" Detective Morrow frowned. Emergency personnel of any kind always took the threat of suicide very gravely.

"No, Seth felt he needed to meet with Dillon first. He wanted to evaluate Dillon’s mental and emotional state. Seth has worked with a lot of seriously injured patients and he’d be able to tell the difference between depression and a desire to start anew, often by distancing one’s self from the past."

"So did Mr. Evans make an appointment to meet with Mr. Marshall?"

"Part of the problem was Seth didn’t know how to approach Dillon. They’d had a falling out and hadn’t spoken since."

Detective Morrow raised an eyebrow. "Am I right in assuming that Mr. Evans and Mr. Marshall had a relationship of a personal nature?"

Eric flushed. "No, they didn’t. But not because neither of them wanted it. Seth is very much in love with Dillon, but he would never step over the line when it comes to one of his patients."

"So Mr. Evans was upset by the fact that he believed the man he’s in love with was suicidal. Do any of you have Mr. Marshall’s phone number? I’d like to call and speak with him, find out if Mr. Evans has been in touch."

"I have it," Belinda volunteered, pulling an electronic organizer out of her purse. With a few strokes of the stylus she had pulled up Dillon’s phone number. Writing it down on a piece of paper Detective Morrow had handed to her, she pushed it across the desk to him.

He glanced at the paper before looking back up. "Have any of you actually gone to Mr. Evans’ house?"

"Of course we have!" Eric exclaimed. "We went Monday night after Sprite called. I have a key and we let ourselves in, but he wasn’t there."

"What did the house look like?"

All three of them gave him a puzzled look. Detective Morrow sighed. "Is Mr. Evans normally a neat individual?" Belinda and Eric nodded. "Was it still neat in there?" They nodded again. "Any signs of a struggle?" They shook their heads. "Any notes left behind?" Another shake of the head.

Detective Morrow scrubbed at his eyes before running his hands down his face. "Look, I’ll be honest with you. I’m going to call Mr. Marshall and I’m going to call all the hospitals and jails in the area. But the truth is there’s not a lot to go on. There’s nothing to point to foul play at this point, so there’s only so much I can do."

Eric looked like he was about to protest, but Belinda stopped him. "We’ll appreciate anything you can do. We just want Seth home again."

**

Seth watched Nurse Sterning quietly close the bedroom door behind her. She was leaving with the full bedpan, but this time she didn’t have to juggle it with a tray of dirty dishes. Of course, that was because she hadn’t bothered to feed him tonight. As she put it, why waste food on a dead man?

He should have been crying. He should have been struggling to escape. Instead he just lay there, unable to believe that this would be his last night alive.

Nurse Sterning had been very agitated when she entered the room fifteen minutes ago. She had paced up and down, muttering to herself. He had only been able to make out occasional words, like "damn interfering fools" and "tonight, yes, tonight."

Finally she’d turned to look at him and her face was terrifyingly calm, almost serene. He’d known in that moment his fate was sealed. If he’d had any doubts, though, her words would have taken them away.

"It seems someone has reported you missing to the police and has also mentioned to them that you might have come bothering my Dylan. The detective that called wanted to speak to my baby, but I convinced him that Dylan was at the doctor’s office.

"But I can’t put him off forever. Eventually he’ll have to come here to speak to Dylan. I can’t have you here when that happens, now can I? So, I think the time has come for you to leave us. Yes, you’ll definitely have to leave us now."