Garrison Reeves carefully approached the woman on the bed as the servant emerged from the bathroom.
“Mr. Reeves, the hot water is ready in the bathroom.”
Garrison Reeves treated the woman on the bed as if she were a fragile crystal, handling her with extreme care. He gently carried her into the bathroom, placing her in the bathtub without even removing her clothes.
His mind seemed disconnected as he instinctively reached to undress her, but then he quickly withdrew his hand and called for the servant.
“Help her clean up, be gentle. Check for any other injuries on her body. After washing, dress her and call me.”
Garrison Reeves left the bathroom but remained close by, frequently glancing back to ensure everything was alright.
The servant remembered his instructions and carefully removed the woman’s clothes. She had thought the facial injuries were severe enough, but the wounds on her body were even more shocking. There were numerous fresh and old scars, including knife wounds and large burns, crisscrossing her back.
The servant’s hands trembled at the sight of these injuries. Even as an observer, she felt pain and didn’t know where to start. Taking a deep breath, she gently wiped the woman’s body with a soft towel, afraid to use too much force.
After a simple hair wash and wrapping her in a bath towel, the woman remained unconscious throughout. If not for her faint breathing, one might have thought she was dead.
Garrison Reeves stood outside the bathroom door, deep in thought and occasionally listening for any sounds from inside.
His assistant asked, “Mr. Reeves, is that woman inside Miss Dawson you’ve been looking for?”
Winifred Dawson? Garrison Reeves wasn’t sure. The difference between this woman and his memory of Winifred Dawson was significant.
He hoped it was Winifred Dawson but also wished it wasn’t because his memory of Winifred Dawson was of someone perfect and flawless like a piece of jade. The person inside seemed like a withered grass in mud, devoid of life.
Garrison Reeves remained silent, which seemed like an acknowledgment.
The assistant also stayed quiet and began arranging for a driver.
After nearly ten minutes, there was movement from the bathroom. The servant opened the door.
“Mr. Reeves, I’ve cleaned her up and changed her clothes. But I don’t know how to carry her out; she has many injuries-at least twenty or thirty.”
Twenty or thirty injuries? That meant there wasn’t much unscarred skin left.
Garrison Reeves flinched before entering the bathroom, staring at the woman in a bathrobe in the bathtub.
It was indeed Winifred Dawson.
The person who had been missing for five years appeared before him in such a manner-stuffed into a sack and thrown at his doorstep like garbage.
If Garrison Reeves had any doubts before about whether this person was Winifred Dawson, he was now completely certain.
Five years could change a person significantly in appearance but not in their bone structure. Winifred Dawson’s bone structure was beautiful; even now, despite being emaciated with a long scar on her left cheek, one could still glimpse her former glory through her bones.
What couldn’t change were certain physical details like a red mole behind Winifred Dawson’s ear.
His heart raced as if it would leap out of his chest.
He had found Winifred Dawson just when he was about to give up and even considered building a tombstone for her. He had finally found her.
Garrison Reeves didn’t know whether to feel happy or sad about finding Winifred Dawson.
Happy because his persistence over these years had not been in vain; sad because Winifred Dawson was not healthy-she must have suffered greatly over these years.
Standing by the bathtub, Garrison Reeves slowly bent down and touched the scar on Winifred Dawson’s left cheek with trembling fingers.
He lifted Winifred Dawson out of the bathtub. When he held her earlier, he hadn’t noticed anything unusual; now he realized how light she was-probably only about 80 pounds at 5’6″.
He carried her back to the room and asked the servant to change the dirty bedsheets while he continued holding Winifred Dawson.
The assistant suggested, “Mr. Reeves, why don’t you put Miss Dawson on the sofa?”
“No need,” Garrison Reeves insisted on holding Winifred Dawson. He asked his assistant, “Is the driver here?”
“He’s on his way; he’ll be here in about ten minutes.”
Garrison Reeves’s face showed signs of anxiety; he feared staying too long in Peachshire Town would alert Leland Burns that he had found Winifred Dawson.
Reluctantly admitting it, Garrison Reeves knew he couldn’t match Leland Burns’s power. If Leland Burns came to take her away, Garrison Reeves might not be able to stop him.
So his immediate priority was to take Winifred Dawson away and settle her in a secluded place where he could get medical help for her injuries and gradually nurse her back to health.
He wondered how Winifred Dawson would react when she woke up and saw him. He also wondered if she would tell him about her experiences over these five years-why she ended up in a sack and why she was dumped by a black car at his place.
Thinking about it now revealed many puzzling questions tinged with danger.
But Garrison Reeves had no time to investigate further; any significant movement would surely attract Leland Burns’s attention.
Garrison Reeves held onto Winifred Dawson until the driver arrived. He got into the car with Winifred still in his arms and instructed his assistant once more to clean up any surveillance footage around them to ensure no information about Winifred being there leaked out.
The assistant nodded in agreement.
Even after getting into the car, Garrison Reeves continued holding Winifred Dawson. Her hair was still wet under a towel; worried that keeping it wrapped too long might cause headaches when she woke up, he gently removed it and adjusted his hold on her for comfort.
Unable to use their original flight plans due to having Winifred with him, Garrison Reeves decided to take her to Bankshire where he also had property.
After an eight or nine-hour drive,
they arrived at Bankshire at dawn. Garrison Reeves carried Winifred inside and immediately arranged for a doctor to examine her injuries.
Winifred had been unconscious for too long; test results showed she had been drugged into this prolonged sleep state which should wear off within 12-24 hours-she would wake up soon enough.
As for external injuries visible without removing clothes further examination at a hospital would be needed to rule out serious internal conditions.