#Chapter 58 Austin Punishes The Bald Professor

Austin's POV

I turn to the man on the hospital bed, and when he sees the look on my face, his smile dissolves immediately like ice under the sun. Now that I look at him in a different light, not the one of complete reverence and respect for a man of his worth, but one with suspicion; like he might be guilty after all.

I pick up the reporter's chair and carry it close to Bernie's bed. His eyes follow me every moment and I'm concerned that they might just fall out of their sockets if he keeps up with that.

I don't sit on the chair. I put one leg on it and rest my arms on my knee.

"Tell me something, Professor Bernie Halstead. How has it been ever since you lost your wife?"

Those eyes of his stop darting around like a rat and seem to focus. But not on my face. They are on my arms.

"Losing Elizabeth was... a tragedy."

"I guess so, after I lost my parents at an unusual age."

He says nothing to that. I check my phone.

"And how have you been coping without her, Bernie?"

He shrugs. Delays. "C