Elysium Dreams

Twenty-Two

A teenage girl with brown curly hair and deep brown eyes opened the door for Xavier and me. We identified ourselves and she handed us masks that were sitting next to the door. They looked like the type we wore in the morgue. I slipped the elastic straps over my ears and pinched the metal piece down around my nose. The lower half of my face was now fully covered. Xavier did the same and we were led into the living room.

In a recliner, knees drawn up under him, sat Dr. Ericson. He also wore a mask, but his forehead and cheeks were flushed where we could see them. His eyes were blue and bloodshot with dark rings around them. He didn't look like a man in pain; he looked like a man with a serious infection raging through him.

"Dr. Ericson," Xavier sat down on the couch. I sat next to him. The girl, who I assumed was his daughter, sat in a chair across from us.

"Dr. Reece," his voice sounded congested and abnormal. I tried not to sigh.

"We just need you to answer a few more questions. The rest of our team is out looking for your wife," Xavier assured him.

"Whatever you need," Dr. Ericson answered.

"You said you woke up around two this morning and she wasn't home?" Xavier started.

"Yes. We agreed that Grace, that's my daughter, should go to her friend's house tonight. I'm getting better and I'm unlikely to be contagious at this point, but it never hurts to be careful. Hilary then sent me a text that said she was having dinner out with a co-worker. So I had some soup and went to bed. I woke about two and got up to see if Hilary had remembered to pick up some more soup and she wasn't home."

"Do you know what co-worker she had dinner with?" Xavier asked.

"No, I didn't ask, but she has several co-workers that we go out with."

"Where did Grace spend the night?" I asked.

"With my family," Sheriff Rybolt came out of the kitchen carrying a tray of coffees and teas. He set them all out, giving them to everyone but me. He pulled a can of soda out of his pocket and handed it to me. "We thought it'd be you two that would come for the interview."

"Thank you," I told him. "So she spent the night with your family?"

"Emily and Grace are on the basketball team together," Sheriff Rybolt told me.

"What happened to your neck?" Dr. Ericson asked.

"Run in with a bad guy," I told him, since I was the only one wearing a bandage on my neck. "Tore a hole in it. No big deal, just another scar."

"Daddy," Grace looked at Dr. Ericson with wide eyes. "You should tell them."

"Tell them what, honey?" Dr. Ericson replied.

"About mom," Grace pressed. "I know already. It's basic biology information."

Dr. Ericson visibly changed. His composure fell some, his face seemed to age. The disgraced man closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"My wife may be having an affair," Dr. Ericson finally said. "I don't know who with, but it wouldn't be the first time. However, she has always come home at a decent hour. Her lateness tonight has never happened before."

"We'll make note of it," I said.

"How did you know?" Dr. Ericson asked his daughter.

"I have brown eyes, so did Henry. You and mom both have blue," she frowned. "When we started doing biology this year we had a class on genetics. The teacher assured me that it couldn't happen. So I talked to Henry about it."