“We should have taken him ourselves,” Lacy cried as it looked certain that Travis’s efforts were failing. Her father’s body looked lifeless, his spirit fast fading from the sagging bones. Where he looked vigorous when he was on two feet, she realized how frail he really was.
“It would have been worse, Lacy,” Travis said. “He took a bad fall inside. I never should have moved him, but I had no choice. His neck, maybe even his back . . .”
That was why he was lying all funny, Lacy thought to herself, as she stared down at her father’s face. He seemed so peaceful. The world for that instant stopped as she made her last connection with Jess Dalton. And then, everywhere around her things were spinning. The noisy blare of fire trucks and ambulance sirens, people rushing around her, and
