David claimed it concerned an elderly patient.
I believed him.
That evening, I stopped at my usual gas station. While the tank filled, I noticed a thin teenage boy sitting beside the ice machine with a worn backpack between his knees.
He approached carefully.
“Ma’am, could I borrow your phone? I need to call my aunt.”
I thought of my own son and handed it over.
When the boy returned the phone, he thanked me and said his aunt was coming.
Then he looked toward the entrance of the parking lot and stepped closer.
“Please don’t get into your car yet.”
His voice was so serious that I stopped moving.
“My husband is paying you to watch me?” I repeated after he told me.
The boy nodded.
His name was Marcus.
He explained that David had approached him at a church meal program almost two months earlier. David claimed his wife suffered from memory problems and sometimes wandered around town without realizing where she was.
