He headed back towards the marina and his house. Perhaps he should have known better than to move to Retribution Bay. Sure, it was a lovely destination, but every time he’d been here there’d been trouble. He pulled out his phone and called Sherlock, wanting to chat to him about Penelope. If anyone could give him advice on how to deal with her, it was him. Unsurprisingly, it went straight to voice mail.
Sam hung up and tried the hospital phone in Sherlock’s room, and this time it rang a dozen times before he was disconnected. It wasn’t as if Sherlock had spoken to him when he’d been there in person, but damn it, he needed to speak with him. He rang the reception. “Hi, Kylie, it’s Sam here. I need to talk to Arthur. Is he in his room?”
“I’ll get one of the nurses to check.”
He walked past the school and the town oval as he waited. Some teenagers were doing football drills, and they were pretty good. Finally, Kylie came back on the line. “He’s in there, but he doesn’t feel like talking. Sorry, Sam.”
“Can you tell him it’s important?”
“Sorry, the nurse has already left. She’s got other patients.”
“All right, thanks.” He hung up and then sent a text message.
Need your advice on a situation. Pick up, damn it.
He waited a minute for the message to go through. Sherlock had never been one to ignore an issue. This time when he rang, Sherlock answered. “What is it?”
Sam huffed out a breath. “Thanks, mate. I’ve just had my tour licence suspended.”
A choked back laugh. “On your first day?”
Sam grinned, thrilled to hear the humour in his friend’s voice, even if it was at his own expense. “Yeah.” He explained the situation and then said, “The park ranger is by-the-book. I need to understand how she thinks so I can figure out what might convince her to let it slide with a warning.”
“Why call me?”
Sam laughed. “Sherlock, you’re the most law-abiding person I know. What would make you relax?”
He was silent a long moment, so long Sam wondered if he’d offended his friend. But he also knew Sherlock liked to think about his answers, so he waited.
“Rules are structure,” Sherlock said. “You start bending them, shifting and twisting them, and eventually they’re going to break. You have no way of knowing whether it will be a hard jerk or a subtle shift that will break them.”
Sam stopped walking. What a revelation into the way Sherlock’s mind worked. He didn’t trust himself enough to know how far he could push it and that was why he stuck by the rules and was so exacting.
Looking back on their years together, he realised Sherlock only broke the rules when somebody else had decided or had ordered him to. Then he couldn’t be held accountable. Did Penelope have a similar outlook? Had there been something in her life which made her unwilling to bend?
“Thanks, mate. I get it now. I appreciate your help.” He began to walk again. “How’s things? Have they given you a discharge date?” Silence. Sam winced and continued, “You should come up here. The weather is beautiful, and I’ve got plenty of time on my hands for the next few days.”
“Friday,” Sherlock answered. “They let me out on Friday.”
Sam made the calculations. “I can fly down and help you out.”
“I’m not an infant.” The line went dead.
Sam swore. He couldn’t get a thing right when it came to his friend. He called Sherlock’s doctor and left her a message to call him back. Sherlock had signed paperwork to say the doctor could discuss his case with Sam and Sam wanted to make sure Sherlock had everything he needed for when he went home. Not that he had much of a home. Sherlock had spent most of his time at the barracks, but he had an apartment and Sam had cleaned and tidied it before he left.
If only he could get Sherlock to come up here for a few weeks. He hated the idea of his friend secluding himself away. The rest of their team wasn’t due back until next year and Sherlock didn’t have any other friends.
Maybe it was time he told Brandon and Amy about what had happened.
They could help convince Sherlock to come up here.
And it would be one less worry.
***
Penelope drove away from the police station, her mind seething. How dare Sam suggest she’d chosen the punishment based on what happened in her personal life? What a nerve. She could keep business and her personal life separate. She’d wanted to challenge him further and come back with some witty remark that would put him in his place, but she hadn’t been able to think of anything.
As she pulled into the office car park, Gretchen called.
