Jiro was hoping to be allowed to visit his father in hospital once they got back to town, but he was soon disavowed of that notion when Aurora told him they would need to be interviewed—she called it giving a statement—before they were allowed to go anywhere.At least he’d been able to check in on Kenichi by calling the hospital, but the nurse he spoke to reported no change in the old man’s status.Which meant he was still in a coma.Jiro’s shoulders had sagged at that news, but then Aurora had reminded him that at least he was still alive, and that he needed to stay strong so that when his father did finally recover, he could be there for him.
Now and then he would catch Aurora’s eye, and something would pass between them.Their little secret kept him warm, but they never spoke of it.
Afternoon turned into evening, and finally Dalström said he would escort them back to the car on a snowmobile—thank God they didn’t have to walk out—and then follow them back to the police HQ in a squad car.Jiro again got the feeling they were being treated more like criminals than heroes, but he kept his mouth shut.
Then evening turned into night as they were firstly interviewed in separate rooms, and then brought together to sit around the conference table, explaining to Dalström and his partner, Constable Moreau, over and over what had happened out there in the snow and why they decided to go without telling anyone, which seemed to be the biggest sticking point for the detective inspector.Aurora continued to answer his questions calmly and directly, but Jiro found himself becoming increasingly frustrated with the merry-go-round of the same questions being asked in a million different ways.
At one stage, Jiro had stopped the proceedings, demanding to know if they had any news of Taro.The constable had been the one to tell him they were still looking for his brother, and he would be the first to know if any new information came to light.The disparaging side of Jiro wondered if this was actually true; were they really even working on finding his brother?Jiro itched to get out of here.He wanted to check in on his father.He wanted to look for Taro, although God knew where he was going to start.But doing something, anything, was better than just sitting around.
It was nearly ten p.m.when Aurora’s phone pinged with an incoming message.Jiro had been doing his best to stay awake, but his eyelids kept drooping, and he knew he’d probably nodded off once or twice already.The conversation had mostly been in English, for his sake he presumed, but the droning voices were having a soporific effect.
“Oh, shit.”Aurora shot up from her chair.“Sorry, I’ve got to go.”
That woke him up.What was wrong?What message had Aurora just received?
“We haven’t finished your debrief,” Dalström complained.
“I need to get home.My father is… alone, and the lady I asked to check on didn’t turn up as planned.”Jiro had noticed Aurora had been getting more and more agitated as time went on, and now he understood why.
“Right then.”Dalström’s demeanor changed as she explained.“If you need to attend to your family, then you must go.”Clearly, family was important to him, which surprised Jiro a little.Until now he’d found Dalström boorish and a by-the-book type of officer.Perhaps there was a soft side to him as well.
Jiro also stood.“I’m going with her.”He wasn’t taking no for an answer.Not from Aurora and not from Dalström.She was clearly worried about her father, and now so was he.He was also worried about her, but this was a good excuse for him to stay by her side.And it gave him a good reason to get out of this bloody room.
Aurora took her jacket from the back of the chair, and glancing at him once from under lowered brows, she exited the room almost at a run, with him hot on her heels.
“What’s going on?”he asked, chasing Aurora down the hallway.
“That was a message from Millie.She only just got my text; she’s been down in Stockholm visiting her family.Which means no one has been to check on my dad all day.”There was a grim tone in her voice.
“I’m sure he’ll be okay,” he said, hoping it was true.
“If he is okay, he’ll be starving and cranky as a bull.But my dad is not a very patient man.I’m worried he might try to do something…” She never finished her sentence, and it left Jiro to wonder what a man who was practically wheelchair-bound could get up to on his own that might cause a problem?He was about to find out.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“FADER,” AURORA CALLED as she burst through the front door, Jiro hot on her heels.Not bothering to stop and remove her shoes or jacket, she rounded into the living room and found the TV blaring but no sign of Karl.“Fader, I’m home.I’m so sorry I’m late.”She would never live this down, her father would never let her forget her failings.But right now she was feeling very contrite, as if she really was a bad daughter, which was exactly what Karl was going to say when he saw her.But he wasn’t in the living room.
Could have taken himself to bed already?Highly unlikely.If he’d missed dinner, he would be starving, and he would want to tell her all about it when she finally got home.She double-checked the living room, noting the Christmas tree still twinkled merrily in the window and nothing else seemed to be amiss.
She was just about to check the kitchen when she passed the stairway leading up to her bedroom and pulled up short.A crumpled heap of what looked like rags lay at the bottom of the stairs.
“Fader,” she cried, kneeling down beside him.He was unresponsive and lying at an awkward angle.Her chest tightened, and suddenly she could barely breathe.What if he were dead?She couldn’t bring herself to turn him over and check.It was Jiro who got down on the floor beside her, pushed her gently out of the way, reaching to check Karl’s carotid artery.
“He’s alive,” he said, sitting back on his heels.“But I don’t think we should move him.”Aurora wasn’t sure whether to agree or not.She suddenly had no idea what to do.Every coherent thought, every reasoned reaction fled in the face of her father’s disaster.“I’ll ring for an ambulance,” Jiro said calmly.“You should find something to cover him and keep him warm.”
“Yes, yes.”But it took a few seconds for her legs to get the message that she needed to hop up off the floor.She was back in a flash with a throw rug from the couch, covering him gently.Oh God, she’d known something bad would happen, had felt it in her bones.She shouldn’t be relying so much on Millie.The poor woman was upset to find that she’d missed Aurora’s message, and terribly apologetic about not being there when she was needed, but it wasn't Millie’s fault, not at all.It was Aurora’s.She needed to work out a better care plan for her father.This wasn’t working.
She reached out her hand to touch her father, but then withdrew it.She had no idea how badly he was hurt.Did he have broken bones?A fractured skull?Internal injuries.The list grew bigger and bigger inside her head.How long had he been lying here?He must’ve fallen down the stairs.But what was he doing trying to get up to her bedroom in the first place?She glanced up the tall staircase.She made sure the ground floor was wheelchair accessible.But never once did she say she thought her room might cause a problem for her father, because she never dreamed he would want to get up there.
The next half hour became a blur as the ambulance arrived and the paramedics carefully checked Karl and finally got him on a stretcher, making sure to mitigate any spinal injuries.Karl remained unresponsive throughout the whole procedure, and if it hadn’t been for Jiro standing steadfastly by her side, Aurora wasn’t sure she would’ve got through it all.
She told the paramedics they would follow the ambulance to the hospital, and she slipped into the driver’s seat of her car just as the ambulance pulled out of the driveway.“Thank you,” she said to Jiro as he got into the passenger seat beside her.“That’s never happened to me before.It’s like I was in a complete daze.”It was a hard thing to admit.She thought she was tougher than that; she had to be tougher than that if she was going to be a good cop.
“It’s called shock, and just because you’re a highly trained police officer, it doesn’t make you any less susceptible when it’s your loved one who’s in pain.”
Funny, Aurora had never thought of Karl as aloved onebefore.Some days she even thought she hated him.But he was still her flesh and blood, and her reaction today proved that somewhere deep inside she still recognized him as her father.
They followed the ambulance all the way to the hospital, Jiro saying soothing words that she didn’t really hear.Then they waited together, Aurora pacing across the waiting room, Jiro keeping step with her, until she told him to check on his own father, who was in another wing of the same hospital.He did so grudgingly but was back in half an hour, telling her there was still no change, and still no sign of Taro either.
