Righteous Obsession (37 page)

Doctor Trumbull nodded.  “Yes.  People who have been
through a traumatic experience such as yours tend to suffer emotional
consequences such as flashbacks, irrational fears and nightmares, but you don’t
need to suffer.  We have an excellent psychiatric staff here and I can
recommend a doctor if you’d like to talk to someone.”

Colin shook his head.  “That’s okay.  I can handle
it.”

“Well, I can’t force you of course, but I strongly
urge you to give it a try.”

“I’ll think about it,” Colin replied hastily.

Jeff arrived after Colin had finished lunch.  Alethea
decided to go back home for a while.  She wanted to give them as much time
alone as possible.  “I’m going to see if Liam would like to go out for lunch.”

“I think he’d probably enjoy that.”

She gave him a kiss.  “I’ll see you later, okay?”

“I’ll be looking forward to it.”

After Alethea had left, Jeff turned to Colin, “I was
thinking I’d call Caitlin.  Would you like to talk to her too?”

“I’d really like that.  You know, I always wished I
had a sister,” Colin confessed.  “And now I do.”

Jeff dialed Caitlin’s number.  It rang several times
with no answer.  “Well, I guess she must have her cell turned off right now. 
I’ll try her later.”

“If you don’t mind helping me, I’d like to walk around
for a bit,” Colin said.

“I’d be glad to,” Jeff replied.  He helped Colin get
to his feet.  “Ready?”  He nodded and took hold of Jeff’s arm.  “Easy does it,”
Jeff cautioned.  They walked out of his room and down the hall.

Doctor Trumbull, attired in surgical scrubs, was
standing by the nurse’s station.  Colin stopped to ask him a question.  “Is it
okay if I go off this floor?”

“You can go anywhere you want inside this hospital as
long as you don’t overdue it.”

“I won’t,” he promised.  “Thanks.”

“There’s a nice roof-top garden terrace.  We can go
there if you’d like,” Jeff suggested.

“It sounds nice, but I’d like to go downstairs to the
front entrance first.”

They went downstairs and stood by the front entrance,
close enough to see out, but not be seen by the people outside the hospital. 
“Wow!”  Colin remarked as he took in the crowd still outside the hospital. 
“Alethea mentioned there were a lot of our fans keeping vigil.”

“Yes, there’s been close to three hundred at times. 
They’ve been very orderly and haven’t caused any trouble.”

“Well, the first thing I’m going to do when I get out
of here is let them know how much I appreciate their support!”  He decided.

“Why don’t we go up to the roof, now,” Jeff
suggested.  “It’s really nice and the view is good.”

“Okay.”

“Colin, what are you doing down here?” A familiar and
angry voice demanded. He turned around to find his parents.  Amanda flew at
Jeff in anger.  “What do you mean bringing him down here?  Don’t you realize
his assailant could be out there in that crowd?”

“Mom …”

“I know you don’t care that we almost lost him, but
his family does!”

“Mom!”  Colin finally had to shout to make himself
heard over her tirade.

“What?”

“Don’t yell at Jeff, okay?  Doctor Trumbull said I
could go wherever I wanted to inside the hospital and it was my idea to come
down here.”

Amanda looked from Colin to Jeff and then turned and
sailed back out the entrance without saying another word.  Peter turned to
follow her, but then turned back to Colin.  “Just be careful you don’t tire
yourself out, Colin.”

“I’ll be careful, Dad,” he promised, giving his father
a hug.

“Lord!  I’d forgotten what a temper your mother has!”  Jeff
remarked, shaking his head.

“Yeah, she gets mad easy, but it blows over just as
quickly.”

“I’d also forgotten how attractive she is.”  He looked
wistful.  “It doesn’t seem fair that I’ve aged and she hasn’t.”

Colin shot him a quizzical look that he didn’t see,
but remained silent.  They got out of the elevator on the top floor and went
outside on the terrace.  Colin stood in front of the wall that surrounded it
and looked around.

“Careful,” Jeff warned.  “If you feel dizzy or faint,
let me know right away.”

“I’m fine,” Colin assured him.  He sighed.  “Alethea
mentioned that there were lots of letters and cards after I was stabbed.  She
didn’t say so, but I got the impression not all of them were from
well-wishers.”

“I imagine that’s usual with anybody who’s famous.” 
Jeff replied, attempting to comfort him.  “I assume those were probably turned
over to the police, hoping one might be from the person who did this to you.”

“I guess,” Colin agreed.  “I think I want to go back
to my room now.”

“Okay.”  Jeff saw he got safely back to his room. 
Colin immediately noticed the vase of roses and bent slightly to sniff them.

“Alethea brought those with her this morning.”

“I figured.  They’re from her mom’s rose garden.  She
has a beautiful rose garden.  That’s where Alethea and I were married.”

“I wish I could have been there,” Jeff admitted.

“We had it videotaped.  I can send you a copy, if you
like?”

“I’d like that very much.”

Colin glanced into the mirror.  It was the first time
he’d taken a good look at himself since his hospitalization.  He winced at how
pale he was.  “Jesus!  I look like a vampire who hasn’t put the feedbag on for
a couple of days!”

“You are a bit pale, but that’s to be expected with
the amount of blood you lost,” Jeff explained as he helped Colin back into bed.

There was a knock on his door and Amanda peeked
inside.  “Is it safe to come in or should I throw my hat in first?”  Behind
her, Peter caught Colin’s eye and smiled.

Colin chuckled.  “No, Mom come in.”

Jeff excused himself and stepped out into the hall so
Colin and his parents could talk privately.

“How are you and Jeff getting along?”  Amanda asked.

He shrugged.  “Okay, I guess.  We’re just taking it
one step at a time.”  He smiled.  “I did find out I have a brother that’s two
years younger than me and a sister whose the same age as Liam.  I always
thought it’d be neat to have a younger sister and now I do.”

“I’m sorry about the awful way I behaved this morning.”
She gave him a hug.  “I’m a terrible bitch!”

 “It’s okay, Mom.  I’m sorry I scared you.”

“I guess I owe Jeff an apology.”

“I don’t think he expects one.”  He didn’t speak for a
moment then asked.  “Was Alethea able to convince Liam to go out for lunch with
her?”

“Yes.  He didn’t want to go, but she was quite
insistent,” she replied, smiling.

“Since you and Alethea have been helping Liam to deal
with this, he’s opened up and started talking about it.  We think he’s in
better spirits, too.”  Peter explained.

“Well, we’ve talked quite a bit and I know, from what
he’s said to me what happened to him really rattled his cage!”  Colin
remarked.  “And it really isn’t an abnormal reaction, given his age and where
he grew up.”

“What do you mean?”  Amanda asked.

“You know, when you’re nineteen you think your
invulnerable anyway.  Growing up in a very affluent suburb where the crime rate
is very low he never realized there were people who might want to harm him for
no reason.  In a way, this whole episode’s destroyed his innocence.”

“I think it’s changed you a lot, too,” Peter remarked.

“Yeah, I don’t think I’m ever going to be comfortable
with a group of fans surrounding me like I was before.  I’ll always be afraid
somebody’s going to pull out a knife.”

“You look tired so we’ll let you get some rest but
we’ll come back tonight.  Okay?”  Amanda said.

“Okay, Mom.”  He gave both his parents a hug.  “See
you later.  After his parents left, Jeff came back and brought Alethea with
him.  Colin stood up and she moved quickly to where he was standing, put her
arms around her and being careful not to brush against his wound, gave him a
kiss.

“Umm…”  Colin said, putting his arms around her.  “It’s
nice to kiss you standing up for a change.”  He tilted forward suddenly.  Whoa!” 
Jeff and Alethea each caught an arm and helped him down into a chair.  “I guess
I’m not all that steady yet.”

There was a knock on his door and Alethea went to
answer it.  She came back with a petite, dark-haired woman in her early
thirties, carrying a manila envelope.  “Colin, this is Detective Marie
Wickersham, who’s in charge of your case,” Alethea said by way of
introduction.  “Detective, this is my husband, Colin and his father, Jeff
Michaels.”

“Hi!”  Colin offered her his hand.

“Hello,” She replied, shaking his hand.  She nodded at
Jeff.  “Well, you certainly look a lot better than the last time I saw you. 
I’m glad you’ve made such a good recovery.”

“I’m lucky I had such a good doctor,” Colin said.

“No argument there,” Wickersham agreed.  She opened
the manila envelope.  “The reason I’m here today is to show you the composite
of your alleged assailant whom Liam with help from our artist put together.” 
She drew the sheet out of the envelope and gave it to him.  “We did some color
enhancement on the computer using Liam’s description of his skin tone, hair,
and eye color.”

Colin took a look at the composite, gasped and almost
dropped it.  He had gone noticeably pale.  “Jesus!  That’s him!”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes!”  He pointed at the picture.  “I’ll never forget
those eyes!  He had the coldest eyes I’ve ever seen!”

None of the three of them noticed how pale Jeff had
suddenly become.  Looking at the composite over Colin shoulder he saw Dave’s
face staring back at him.  He clutched the back of the chair to keep himself
from falling.

Wickersham put the composite back inside the
envelope.  “We’re going to be making copies of this and giving them to our
patrol officers.  They’ll be checking motels, car rental agencies, the bus
station and the airport so we can pick up his trail.  I’m also going to fax a
copy of this composite to larger cities within driving distance of here in case
he caught a plane or bus from one of them.”

“There’s something else,” Colin suddenly said.  “I’m
sorry I didn’t remember until now, but there’s a teenage girl I think he may
have tried to kill also.  She was a fan of mine and I met her when we performed
in Minneapolis.  Somebody tried to strangle her a few days after our concert. 
I remember him taunting me about it before he stabbed me.  You should talk to
the detective in charge of her case.  I have his card in my wallet.”  Colin
looked confused for a moment.  “Where is my wallet?”

 “It’s in my bag along with some of your other
personal things,” Alethea spoke.  She picked her voluminous purse and started
to dig through it.  Colin smiled at her and shook his head.  He was always
kidding her about trading it in for a pack mule.

“Here it is!”  She unearthed his wallet from the
depths of her purse and gave it to him.

“Thanks,” He said, grinning at her.  He searched his
wallet, looking for Madison’s card.  He finally found it, pulled it out and
gave it to Wickersham.  As he did so, another card flipped out and fluttered to
the floor.

Alethea bent and picked it up from the floor.  “What’s
this, Colin?”  She handed the card back to him.  He glanced at it, wearing a
look of puzzlement for a few seconds.  “Oh, that’s the card of the officer
who’s investigating the person who tried to run down McGregor and me.”

“What!”  Alethea demanded.  “You never told me about
that!”

“I’m sorry.  I didn’t want you to worry.”

“It seems you didn’t want me to worry about a lot of
things!”  She replied crossly.

“Can you give me the details of this incident?” 
Wickersham requested.

“It happened after our concert in Minneapolis.” Colin
related the story of the car that had almost ran McGregor and him down.  He
ducked his head.  “I felt so guilty because if I’d been paying closer attention
to what was going on around me I might have heard it coming and we both
could’ve escaped without injury.”

“And you now think it was the same person who stabbed
you?”

“Yes, since it appears he was stalking me.”

Jeff couldn’t believe what he was hearing!  Dave had
not only attempted to kill Colin twice, but had also been the one who attacked
Debbie Simpson and tried to kill her!  He felt ghastly – his stomach twisting
with revulsion and making him feel as if he was going to throw up any minute. 
He covered his face and stumbled out from behind Colin’s chair.

“Are you okay, Jeff?”  Colin asked worriedly, reaching
up to steady him.

“I’m sorry, Colin, but the migraine I’ve been trying
to hold off all day is coming on strong.  I’ve got to go back to my hotel and
lay down.”

“Are you sure you can make it?”