ODDS OF LOVE: Season Nine

Episode 84

DuBuis was actually starting to understand exactly why Lyle Peters had been so concerned about the school headmaster almost as soon as he stepped onto the front porch of the Hightowers' two story colonial style house in Evergreen Acres. Something just seemed..... off about the very stillness of the house. It seemed too empty although the man was supposed to be inside on his sick bed. Except for the one curtain blowing in the faint breeze from an upstairs window. And nobody was responding to his knocking at the door.

He didn't know exactly what to do now. He was getting concerned but if Gerald didn't answer the door what could he do? It was not like he could force his way in. He almost laughed out loud at that. No. This too rich too elegant too fancy neighborhood that probably wouldn't let him and Spencer buy a shed there wasn't one he wanted to call attention to himself.  Any time he had to be there he  felt like he was being watched even though the neighborhood was always equally quiet and sedate with nobody ever outside walking or jogging. There were never even children playing in the streets.

What was Gerald even doing living in a place like this? The headmaster couldn't make that much more money than any of the rest of the staff did. Then he recalled hearing other staff gossiping in the employee lounge that the Hightower family apparently had old family money in England. Apparently Gerald didn't really have to work. He chose to work. Hell , he lived to work. He was sorry to have missed the man but not so much his wife. When he had began working at the school he didn't know Faith's dead girlfriend Pamela had a cousin working there as well as a teacher and he certainly hadn't known that Penelope was married to Gerald. He definitely hadn't known that Penelope bore an almost eerily striking resemblance to Pamela with minor differences. He hadn't known Pamela very well except through his sister but coming across her clone on a daily basis wasn't his most fun activity.

He sighed and stepped off the porch to head back to his car. He and Spencer had decided to take the kids out to eat tonight. Maybe test out the new kids meal Nigel wanted to add to the restaurant menu. And it would be a good night because it was both Glory's  and Matilda's night offs , he smiled. No banging pots and pans from the kitchen and no chorus girl music from the dining area. Spencer was very happy about that. And DuBuis was looking forward to checking out the steak and kidney pie tonight.

Then he heard from behind him the immense polished dark mahogany front door opening slowly. He looked back and was astonished to see the man in question Dr. Gerald Hightower unsteadily swaying in the doorway in a dark blue terrycloth bathrobe and pajamas. The man did indeed look sick. In fact, DuBuis thought with alarm as he returned back to the porch, he looked like he was about to die. What the hell was wrong with him? And maybe he should have grabbed a mask before he left the clinic. The last thing he wanted was bringing germs home. Even before Spencer had been shot and paralyzed his immune system was not the strongest around.

" Dr. Lane ," Gerald choked out as he allowed himself to slip down to sit on the porch. His face was even more red and flushed than it usually appeared. And there was a small stain of drying vomit on the front of his robe. " I'm.... glad you stopped..... by. I don't think.... I'm....."

Then the man lurched forward and began to throw up even more on the porch flooring, just narrowly missing DuBuis as he came to stand by him with his cell phone in his hand.

" I need.... help ," Gerald whispered in between bouts of nausea and vomiting.

" I see that," DuBuis said as he dialed 911. " I'm getting it. You can thank Lyle Peters for my being here. He cares almost as much as about the people at the school as you do. "