InSight

whether to continue. “You must have been very much in love with him.”
    In Abby’s experience, men rarely talked about their predecessors with the women they loved. They just flat-out didn’t want to know. But Luke asked, and he deserved an honest answer.
    “Yes, with every fiber of my being. I know that’s probably not what you want to hear, but I won’t diminish him by saying otherwise. He’s been diminished enough. Stewart was beautiful and exciting and brilliant. The father of my child. But life with Stewart revolved around Stewart. He was a whirlpool, and he sucked everyone around him into it. That was okay with me at the time, but that was a million years ago. We were different then. If I met Stewart today, the way I am and the way he was, he wouldn’t look twice at me, because I couldn’t see his art or praise his talent. I know he loved Macy and me, but his art made him whole. It gave him life, a sense of where he fit in the world. At least those bastards haven’t taken that from him. I’m sure it’s what’s kept him alive.”
    She reached over and found Luke’s hand. “No matter what I felt for him in the beginning, it’s difficult to erase those last months from my mind—and impossible to forget the last day. It’ll always be there. I see the rage and fear in his eyes, and the futility of not being able to stop the slaughter swallows me whole. Now I know something else controlled Stewart, a monster created by even greater monsters.”
    “Did Mrs. Gentry contact you after the shooting?”
    “A brief call when I came out of the coma to invite me to a memorial service for Macy, which she knew I couldn’t attend. Lucy told me her public statement oozed grief over the tragedy. She claimed she’d never get over it.”
    “I bet. I wish Norm Archer would get back to me. People are dead, and I want to find out why a doctor who’s supposed to help people purposely destroyed a man, and what Carlotta Gentry had on him to make him do it.” Luke blew out a slow breath. “I need to go to Charleston .”
    “You know what they did to Matt. These people will stop at nothing to protect whatever they’re hiding. Consider what she did to her own son.”
    “That’s why I’m worried about you,” Luke said. “I don’t want to let you out of my sight.”
    “You have to. I won’t hide out like some thief on the run.”
    “I know a guy who can help.”
    She shook her head. “Oh, no. You’re not putting some muscle man bodyguard on me. I won’t have it.”
    “Only when I’m not with you. You’ll never know he’s around.”
    “Of course not. I’m blind, remember.”
    “My point exactly. You’re out there every day without the benefit of a crucial sense, vulnerable to whoever comes at you. I know what that’s like, believe me, and my situation doesn’t compare to yours. If you could see, you never would have gotten into Stewart’s car. You’d know who attacked you in your back yard. You ― ”
    Her body slackened in defeat. “Okay, okay, I get the picture. Pardon the pun.”
    Luke took her hand. “It’s for your benefit. I’m not trying to confine you or take away your independence. I understand your need for that, but these aren’t ordinary circumstances. I want to make sure you’re safe.”
    “I know, I’m sorry. I’m hardheaded, that’s all. I guess it affects my pride when I need help. That still doesn’t answer what to do with Stewart.”
    “I think it’s time he got some first-rate psychiatric treatment. Call Dr. Weston. Have him check Stewart into a private facility where he’ll be safe.”
    Abby’s head spun. How much simpler it had been when Stewart’s actions were the result of illness. She thought about the day he took her to the cabin and how it must have taken the strength of Hercules to act normal. He’d fooled her until the end.
    Luke brought Stewart lunch. Weston’s shot had calmed him. He gobbled two hamburgers, guzzled a bottle of water, and fell asleep.
    * * * * *
    D on Weston had guessed the identity of their visitor from the beginning. How many men with strong schizophrenic symptoms and a connection to Abby had half their jaw missing?
    “Please, Don,” Abby said, “give us more time to find out what happened. If the authorities in Charleston know his whereabouts, they’ll send him back to the same hospital that induced this psychotic state in the first place.”
    “I find it hard to believe any reputable doctor would play with someone’s