I only choked down half my sandwich and a couple of bites of the salad before I gave up and went inside to search for his discharge paperwork. I checked the bathroom, where he kept all his supplies, and found it tucked behind a box of bandages. He had a cordless landline, so I took the phone outside and called the phone number listed on the papers. The call went to an answering service. They told me the doctor would call me back, but I didn’t know Marco’s number, so I had to find my cell phone—my glorified address book in this rural mountain town—and look it up. I worried that all the opening and closing of the front door would disturb Marco, but he was out cold.

Desperate for something to do, I picked up Marco’s jeans and found a pair of sweats in his drawer that mostly fit me. After I took everything out of his pockets and put them on his dresser, I tossed both of our jeans in his washer along with another pair I found in his dirty laundry. I would have done some housework to occupy my time, but Marco kept a tidy house and other than some laundry and a few dirty dishes in the sink, there wasn’t much to do.

Except…I’d been hoping to talk to Ginger this afternoon, and I realized I could probably do that over the phone. I found her number in my cell phone, then used Marco’s cordless phone to make the call on his porch.

Ginger answered after a couple of rings, sounding breathless.

“Ginger, this is Carly. Did I call at a bad time?”

“With three kids underfoot, there’s never a perfect time,” she said. “Junior said you might be stopping by.”

“That was the plan, but Marco overdid things today, so I brought him home. Now he’s taking a nap, and I’m out at his house without my car.”

“Do you need someone to come pick you up?”

“Maybe later,” I conceded. “But for now, I’m sticking around to make sure he’s okay. I’ve put in a call to his doctor, and I’m waiting to hear back.”

“Well, if there’s anything I can do to help…”

“Thanks,” I said. “I’m hoping you can help with something else. I’m not sure what Junior told you, but Marco and I are worried about Greta. She didn’t show up to work this morning, and I hear that’s not like her.”

“It’s not. She really likes that job, and she wouldn’t screw it up. Even if she decided to play hooky, she’d pretend to be sick.”

“If she was scared, do you know where she might have gone?”

She was silent for a moment. “Why would she be scared?” Her voice rose in pitch. “Is that damn Tim Hines stalkin’ her again?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I’ve heard he stalked her this summer. Do you know why he stopped back then?”

“I don’t have a clue. She just said he stopped comin’ round.”

“Did she say if she got someone to intercede for her?”

“Who would do that?”

“I don’t know,” I said, not wanting to volunteer any information and sway her answers. “Do you know if she’s been seeing anyone recently?”

“No. I know she had that one-night stand with Max back at the end of the summer, and then she said she was taking a break from men.”

“I know Lula is her best friend, but does she have anyone else she might turn to?”

“Other than me, not really,” Ginger said. “All her friends moved away. Oh, wait. One of them recently came back to sort through her parents’ things after they moved to Florida. They took what they wanted and left the rest for her to deal with.”

“You’re kidding,” I said. “That sounds like a nightmare.”

“They gave her the house too. It ain’t worth much, but something is better than nothin’. Her name’s Leann Burton.”

“Do you have a number for Leann?” I asked.

“Last I heard, she doesn’t have a landline. If you want to talk to her, you’ll have to drop by and hope she’s there.”

“Do you have an address?”

“More like directions,” she said, then proceeded to give me detailed instructions on how to find her place off the highway to Ewing.

“Did Greta tell you anything about Lula?” I asked.

“You’ll have to be more specific.”

“Did she tell you that Lula had come back?”

“No. I had no idea. Does that mean you’re out of a job? Crap. Does this mean Wyatt doesn’t want me to clean Hank’s house anymore?”

“That’s between you and Wyatt,” I said. “And Lula took off the very next day. Marco and I were trying to find her—then Greta disappeared too.”

“I called the sheriff’s office like Junior suggested, but they won’t do nothing since it hasn’t been more than forty-eight hours.”

My stomach cramped. Angie had said she’d call them too, so the pressure was on—but they likely wouldn’t do anything for another day and a half. That meant that Marco and I were currently the only ones looking for her, and Marco was out of commission for the foreseeable future.

“Do you have a grandmother in a nursing home in Ewing?” I asked. “Angie said Greta went up there a few times a week to see her nana.”

“Yeah, Nana Thelma. She and Greta are pretty close. I don’t get up there all that much because of the kids.” Her excuse was understandable, but I still heard the guilt in her voice.

“Do you think your nana would be open to me paying a visit?”

“You think Nana Thelma knows something about Greta bein’ missin’?” she asked, a little incredulous.

“I don’t know,” I said, wondering how much I should tell her. “But I know a man stopped by the café last week asking about Lula, and he made Greta uncomfortable. She told Angie she recognized him from Ewing, but she wasn’t sure where she’d seen him before. I figured I’d check out the places where she spends the most time. Ask around about him.”

The phone beeped with an incoming call, and caller ID said it was a medical clinic. “Ginger, Marco’s doctor is on the other line. Thanks for all your help.”

“When you find Greta, tell her to call me.”

“I will.” I hung up and transferred to the other line. “Hello?”

“Carly? This is Dr. Freeman.”

“Thank you for calling me back.”

“From what the service told me, Marco’s in severe pain after doing a lot of physical activity? Why don’t you fill me in yourself?”

I told him some of the things Marco had done, including our mud adventure, leaving out the fact we were investigating two missing women. “He just got so tired out of nowhere. It scared me, and I wondered if he might have hurt himself.”

“We did some extensive work in his abdomen, so there is a possibility of internal damage and bleeding. Does he have pain in his abdomen? And if so, in one spot or all over?”

“He has pain in his leg, but he says it’s mostly his abdomen.”

He was silent for a moment. “Have you checked his blood pressure?”

“No.”

“If you have a blood pressure cuff, take his pressure. If it’s running low, bring him in to the ER, but I suspect his pain and exhaustion are from overdoing it. He underwent major trauma, and it’s going to take some time for his body to heal. But if you have any more questions or concerns, feel free to call me back. Or if you think he’s getting worse, bring him to the ER.”