Three more days.
The good news was that Dr. Gonzalez, surgical chief overseeing Ethan’s neurosurgical residency, decided to follow a conference with a long weekend. Ethan had bartered his shifts to gain three more days in Hidden Falls.
The bad news was he would be in serious debt to his colleagues when he returned to Columbus in time for Monday morning rounds, exactly one week after his scheduled return.
And there would be Gonzalez to deal with. Ethan reasoned he had three days to produce an explanation that the chief might accept. Somebody who survived four years of medical school and five years of a six-year residency should be smart enough to come up with something, even if he would probably be on probation for the entire final year of his residency.
What mattered at the moment was Quinn. And Nicole. And what Ethan had let her drag him into last night. He was going to need some help getting out of this mess.
Walking away wasn’t an option. Not this time.
Ethan glanced at the clock in the motel room. Instead of guzzling bad coffee and hitting the interstate, Ethan now planned to drive across the bridge above the falls, go into town, and find the house Dani Roose lived in when she wasn’t incognito up at the lake. Ethan left his half-packed suitcase on the bed and went out to his car.
The night had been late. Ethan could have used some coffee, but he didn’t dare delay or he could spend all day guessing at Dani’s movements. He wanted to catch her before she left.
And he would do it without remorse in repayment for the morning she banged on his motel room door not much later than it was now. She’d needed something he had. Now he needed something she had.
Ethan pulled up to Dani’s house on the north edge of downtown, wagering that her fishing habit was temporarily curtailed by the loss of her boat and that seven in the morning was too early for Dani to be working on a project in someone else’s home. At her front door, he knocked sharply twice before stepping back to await her response.
When she opened the door, she was dressed and her long hair was braided. One hand gripped the handle of a large mug. She stared at him and sipped coffee.
Ethan’s envy magnified his sense of morning caffeine withdrawal.
“I need your help,” he said.
Dani turned around and walked back into the house. Since she left the door open, Ethan followed her through the sparsely appointed living room and into the kitchen, where she took another mug from the cabinet and filled it. She set it on the table and sat down to finish her half-eaten breakfast.
When he picked up the coffee, Ethan knew he had lost the edge he’d felt a few minutes ago. With the first sip, he was in her debt.
“My day is scheduled.” Dani used a corner of toast to scoop eggs.
“Then I need you to reschedule it.”
She scoffed. “You’re a piece of work.”
He plunged in. “I’m guessing you’ve worked on Quinn’s laptop.”
She raised one shoulder about an inch and let it fall. “That’s not exactly a secret.”
“Recently Quinn’s computer has been. . .transferred to a new location, and it doesn’t seem entirely happy with the change in locale.”
“I can’t help you if you’re going to talk in code.” Dani took a long draft of coffee.
“We took Quinn’s computer to Lauren’s apartment.”
“We?”
It hadn’t been Ethan’s idea. He’d argued against it—vehemently—to Nicole and Lauren. No doubt by taking it they’d added some technical degree of theft to a particular form of illegal entry. Cooper Elliott would know the specifics, but Ethan hoped the whole business would be cleared up long before Cooper needed to know anything about it. Ethan decided not to mention the spare house key that Nicole knew where to find inside Quinn’s kitchen and had dropped in her pocket.
“The computer won’t power up,” he said.
“Doesn’t surprise me.” Dani put the last of the eggs in her mouth.
Good. If she recognized the computer’s behavior, then she probably knew how to resolve it.
“Perhaps I was chewing too loudly to hear you,” Dani said, “but I think you skipped over the part about why you stole Quinn’s laptop.”
Ethan didn’t know Dani well, and he was tiring of parrying every time they conversed. But he needed her on Team Find Quinn.
“So the computer is not dead?” he said.
“Quinn refuses to let it die with dignity. There may still be some extraordinary measures worth trying.”
“I want you to come to Lauren’s and try them.” Ethan took a deep breath. “And then I want you to help us find some information that may be on the computer.”
Dani laughed. “No. I think I have a Styrofoam cup around here if you want to take your coffee with you.”
Ethan didn’t move. “I’m serious.”
Dani stood and set her breakfast plate in the sink. “Let me see if I have this straight. You broke into Quinn’s house. You stole his computer—and who knows what else. Now you want me to join your ring of thieves to gain access to private information to which you are not legally entitled.”
“We didn’t break anything.” Ethan swirled the coffee in his mug. “And I prefer to think of the computer as borrowed.” Since they had a key now, they could put it back.
“And the private information?”
“It might help us find Quinn.”
“I have somewhere to be by seven thirty. And it sounds like you have a busy day of criminal activity ahead of you.”
Had Dani been this harshly unsympathetic when she was in high school? Ethan couldn’t remember. At the time, he hadn’t known her well enough to care.
“Think about it, Dani,” Ethan said. “It’s been five days now. Even you have to admit that’s extremely unusual for Quinn. If he’s not up at the lake, where else would he be?”
She hesitated, a brief interruption to her motion of reaching for her orange North Face vest.
“No,” she said. “I have to go, and so do you. No offense, but considering what you just revealed, I’m not comfortable leaving you alone in my house.”
Ethan followed her out. She started up her Jeep and backed out of the driveway.
Ethan banged a hand against his steering wheel. He was never going to persuade Gonzalez to forgive his transgressions if he couldn’t even persuade someone who cared about Quinn to help with a simple skill. His car lurched as Ethan backed out of the driveway and turned the wheels to follow Dani before he lost sight of her Jeep.
She headed southwest of town. Ethan tried to remember the geography and what might be out that direction or how far she might drive. He made no effort to disguise his efforts to follow Dani because he knew he wasn’t any good at stealth, and he didn’t want to risk losing sight of her vehicle among the rural back roads. When she pulled up in front of a house in a subdivision that had not existed when Ethan lived in Hidden Falls, he was right behind her.
“Is this some kind of a joke?” Dani took her toolbox from behind the driver’s seat and slammed the door.
“I’m not letting go of this.” Ethan braced one arm against the Jeep to block her path.
Dani pivoted and walked the other direction around the car. Ethan met her at the walkway leading to the front of the house.
“I have a job to do here,” Dani said. “You’re not invited.”
“I’m not leaving.” He matched her stride. “You can show your tough exterior all you want, and I respect it, but I know you care about Quinn.”
At the front step, she glared at him. When she reached for the doorbell, Ethan covered it with his hand.
“Don’t do this for me or Nicole or Lauren. We’re nothing to you. I get that. Do it for Quinn.”
“Fine.” She rolled her eyes. “I’ll come this afternoon. But I’m not making any promises beyond that.”