Luke awoke not sure where he was. His head throbbed and things kept swimming in and out of focus around him. Voices penetrated his fog and he could make out things like, ‘bed 23’ and ‘I.V.’ and ‘hydrocodone,’ but none of the voices he recognized. Then, Deana, his sister, spoke in his ear next to him.
“Luke? Luke? Can you hear me? Your eyes are open.”
Luke turned his head toward her voice and the world spun crazily. It settled after a few seconds and Deana’s face swam up from below. She smiled at him.
“There you are,” she said. “Are you ok?”
He had no idea. He didn’t feel much except for the throbbing in his head and the sickening spinning of the room. He tried his voice. “Where?”
“Where are you?”
He started to nod, but stopped because the room started spinning again.
“You’re in the hospital. Mom and Dad are here too.”
“What happened?”
“You got knocked out,” she said.
He couldn’t remember. Were he and John doing something stupid, like the time he fell jumping over ramps with his bike? He thought hard, but nothing surfaced.
“Mom’s on the third floor and is doing great,” Deana went on. “Dad’s still in I.C.U. but will be moved out today. He’s doing a lot better.”
Mom on the third floor? Dad in I.C.U.? He crawled back through his memory and fought to sort things out. It seemed like just yesterday, he and Ellie were playing Monopoly in the living room and she was beating the crap of him. Or was that last year? He remembered giving her cookies in a bag Mom had fixed up, but couldn’t fit it into any time frame. Was it summer? Winter? Did he slip on the driveway and crack his head? The Monopoly game kept swimming up to his consciousness and he saw his hand moving the racecar to Boardwalk over and over again. Every time there was a sound like water crashing or waves breaking over the sand whenever he landed on the spot.
“The police are right outside too, so don’t you worry.”
Police? What the hell happened? The racecar slid across the board and stopped on Boardwalk. ‘Splash!’ Ellie’s face looking scared.
“Katy and Christopher are with Grandma and Grandpa, but they’ll be back up here in about an hour. We sure were worried about you.”
Racecar. Boardwalk. ‘Splash!’ Ellie scared. Racecar. Boardwalk. ‘Crash!!’ Ellie terrified!
His eyes opened wide. Not a splash of water. A crash as glass broke. Ellie’s face scared. Then the killer! In his house!
“Where’s Ellie?!” Luke tried to sit up. “Where’s Ellie?! Where’s Ellie!?” The room started spinning again and he felt Deana’s hands on him and her voice, soothing, trying to calm him down.
“Lay back, Luke. Lay back. Everything will be ok. Calm down.”
Her voice was irritating to him. He didn’t want to calm down. He wanted to know where Ellie was.
He stopped struggling and sat back in his bed and closed his eyes. The spinning seemed to slow. He kept his eyes closed but spoke. “Deana. Tell me where Ellie is.”
Nothing happened for a minute and he thought Deana left, but then he heard her sigh.
“They don’t know.”
“They?”
“The police. They haven’t found her and they haven’t heard from her father.”
“Her father? What does he have to do with anything and where is she?”
“Her father took her. They thought he was dead, but he’s not. He broke into the house and knocked you and Mom out, shot Dad, and left with Ellie. He’s the killer, Luke. I’m sorry, but the pool dummy killer took Ellie and it’s her dad.”