“Ahem, Mr. Winters was hospitalized this afternoon. I’d just come back to pack some clothes when I heard the phone ringing.”

“What? Hospitalized? Which hospital?”

Hearing Mrs. Winters’s gloomy tone, Gerald’s heart thumped in his chest. He hastily asked for the hospital’s location.

Mrs. Winters told him the address.

It happened to be at a hospital in the same county.

Mrs. Winters also happened to arrive at the same time after hitching a ride on one of the county’s bread trucks.

Gerald assis