"What do you mean?" I asked, keeping my voice low.
She didn't look up from her paperwork. "We have observation cameras in every pediatric room. Both audio and video. Security records everything. If you want the truth, go to the security office at 2:55. Tell them I sent you. Sit down and watch Channel 12 at 3 a.m."
That was it. She walked away before I could ask another question.
***
Around 2:58 a.m., I knocked on the security office door. A tired-looking guard was sitting behind a bank of monitors.
She didn't look up from her paperwork.
"The nurse sent me," I said. "Room 412. Channel 12."
He didn't ask questions. He just pulled up the feed. The screen showed Howard sleeping. He looked so vulnerable under that thin hospital blanket.
The chair next to his bed — the one Jasper was supposed to be in — was empty.
The digital clock in the corner of the screen flicked to 3:00 a.m.
The door to the room opened. I expected to see a doctor or another nurse. Instead, Jasper walked in.
But he wasn't alone.
The door to the room opened.
A woman followed him. She closed the door softly behind her.
Jasper still had his coat on. He hadn't been sitting with our son. He had been... somewhere else.
Howard stirred. "Dad?"
Jasper pulled the chair close to the bed. "Hey, buddy. You doing okay?"
The woman stayed near the wall, her arms folded. She was watching them both.
"We need to make sure we're telling the story about what happened the right way," Jasper said.
He had been... somewhere else.
My stomach dropped.
Howard frowned. "I told everyone I fell."
"Right." Jasper nodded quickly. "You were riding your scooter. I was outside. You lost your balance. Freak accident. That's what we tell Mom."
"But Dad, I don't want to lie to Mom."
