Evelyn's fingers in his felt warm and cool at the same time. When he took them in his, the delicate fingertips twitched, and for a moment he thought she wanted to release her hand from his grip and pull it away. But ... she didn't.

The touch sent a strange tingling sensation through his nerves.

Was it the numbness from his infirmity?

No, it was something else.

Slowly, his gaze slid to his hand, which had just clasped the smaller, softer one. Warm... It felt warm.

Eve's footsteps moved quietly away, accompanied by the soft creaking of the floorboards, before they fell silent on the stairs.

'What the hell are you doing, Ryker?'

The smile and warmth on his face disappeared as quickly as they had appeared. As if a curtain had fallen and cast a shadow over his soul. To be honest, he didn't want to dwell on what had thrown him off balance.

'You have to concentrate on the job. Surveillance. Protect the child. Just until Dylan gets here. It can't be that hard,' he scolded himself inwardly.

Humming softly, he pulled the blanket back over his shoulders and gathered it in front of his chest. A heavy breath slipped over his lips and his gaze lifted again. The grey-blue soul mirrors stared into the mouth of the fireplace. Crackling, orange-red flames danced over the logs and greedily ate their way deeper into the wood. The warming fire sent a pleasant warmth into the room. But despite the heat Ray felt on his face and skin, his shivering only slowly subsided.

Sighing, Ryker leant back in his chair. His gaze wandered over the light-coloured stone of the fireplace, the gleaming wood and the kitsch, which probably came from Edana and which Ri and Eve had too much respect for to clear away. An old music box with a ballerina and a mirror in the lid cast its shadow on the light-coloured stone behind it.

Ryker sighed softly before tilting his head and looking over at the sleeping boy nestled against the back of the armchair. The hair seemed almost dry by now and no longer hung in thick, dripping strands in the child's face. Nevertheless, Liam was still unhealthily pale.

Probably the shock.

As he labored to draw air into his lungs, the creases on his forehead deepened. He closed his eyes for a heartbeat. Vague images emerged in his head. Memories that his mind had not yet been able to process because he had his own battle to fight.

But now, in this moment of calm, they returned.

He remembered how Eve had dragged the sobbing and coughing boy to the shore. Her eyes were wide with worry and fear. He could read those eyes like a book. Self-reproach, guilt. He remembered her posture and how she had pressed Liam to her. Eve had only thought of her son.

Never mind that she had run into an icy lake; she would undoubtedly have jumped in after him. Hadn't she mentioned just a few days ago that she couldn't swim? That was another reason why Liam should never have come near the lake. But that didn't matter to Eve.

She had focussed so much on Liam that everything else lost importance. Even her own life. And even now that Liam was safe, she thought of nothing but him. She stayed in her soaked clothes, not caring about her own well-being. She made tea, put it in front of the fireplace and hardly dared to take her eyes off her offspring.

Everything ran together like threads into a single fact: The worry of a loving mother who feared for her child's life.

'I'm afraid she might hurt him out of revenge on me,' he recalled Dylan's words during the phone call.

Hadn't he come to protect the boy from his mother? Because she had allegedly kidnapped Liam? Because she was dangerous? Vengeful? A cuckolded woman who wanted to hurt her husband by taking the boy from him? With an unstable mind.

That was what he had assumed.

That's what he'd been told.

But with every day he spent at the cottage, his doubts grew.

He had worked on a few cases over the years and knew how a duplicitous person behaved. Someone who played a false game - like himself. But Eve, or Kaylen, was not one of them.

Her concern was serious, her fear genuine.

The shock was written on her face like words of black ink on white paper.

Groaning, his strong body sank forwards again. Ryker ran the flat of his hands over his face and propped his elbows on his thighs. His thinking became increasingly sluggish. The gears of his mind still seemed to be trapped in the icy water. Everything meshed more sluggishly, no doubt due to the tablet, which kept pushing back the sharp throbbing in his back and the trembling.

And yet he was certain: he didn't know the whole truth.

He heard an engine outside, along with the crunching of the gravel, and he grimaced. He didn't need to think or look for long to know who it was. There was only one possibility, and he didn't like it at all: the doctor.

Hurried footsteps on the stairs made him turn round, and he saw Eve hurrying towards the door. She had dried off in the meantime and put on fresh clothes. She stroked her hair nervously and had a wry, somehow uncertain smile on her lips.

An irritating tug accompanied the next heartbeat in his chest. A feeling that was completely alien to him and that he couldn't categorize. It got worse when Dr Taylor stepped through the front door with a charming smile.

Ray took a deep breath and wrestled with himself. Part of him wanted to grab the small-town doctor and shove him out the door. But his sluggish mind reminded him that it was important and necessary for someone to check on Liam.

The little boy had been in the water for a long time. It was important to check his lungs to see if any fluid had built up and the child needed further care or perhaps even to be taken to the hospital for observation.

Instinctively, he slid a little to one side as Eve approached with the doctor. The chair slid creakily across the floor as he slid sideways with it. The doctor greeted him politely, but then turned to Liam. Still, he was close enough for Ray to smell the odour of disinfectant and menthol. His pulse immediately shot up again and inevitably quickened, like a river rushing through a hollow. Suddenly, the trembling returned to his shoulders and he had to squint. Despite the fireplace, he suddenly felt cold again.

Just in time, he managed to firm up his expression and weakly return the polite nod of greeting.

Fortunately, both Eve and the doctor were more focused on Liam than on him. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Eve gently wake Liam. Exhausted and drowsy, the little boy blinked a few times before he seemed to become aware of where he was and Dr Taylor calmly began his examination.

He carefully palpated the child's body before listening to his lungs and abdomen to check for breath sounds. The minutes seemed to drag on until the small-town doctor finally nodded slowly.

"Everything sounds fine," Dr Taylor announced and Evelyn expelled the breath she had been holding with relief. "There are no rales, the airways are clear and there doesn't seem to be any water in the lungs." The doctor smiled reassuringly. "A warm bath, hot soup and plenty of sleep should be enough. He just needs to warm up properly again."

At that moment, Ray also breathed a sigh of relief. He had arrived in time - thank God.

"Your turn, Ray."

With these words, the doctor turned to him. There was something in his voice that he couldn't place. An unfamiliar hardness that seemed to increase when the doctor's gaze fell on the part of his naked chest that was peeking out from under the blanket. But Ray only noticed this in passing, as something else came to the fore.

His body instinctively tensed up under the red woollen blanket. His heart was pounding in his throat. Adrenalin shot through his body and tightened his chest. It immediately irritated his strained lungs and throat, and he struggled with the next coughing fit. To stifle it, he stifled his cough, but that only made it worse. The smell of the disinfectant was suddenly so pungent that it took his breath away. Ray felt as if a loaded and uncocked pistol had been held in front of his face.

"I'm fine, Doctor," he croaked out. The fabric of the blanket wrinkled tightly as his hand gripped the ends tighter. "It was about the boy, not me."

He saw Dr Taylor frown critically and turn towards him more clearly. At that very moment, a hoarse, wheezing cough escaped him, and he tasted the sickening flavour of lake water in his mouth again. Bitter and earthy, as if he had mixed a glass with water and dirt and poured it down his throat. At that moment, he wanted to shake his own body and curse it for betraying him.

His voice sounded as if it had been worked with pebbles and was treacherously rough. "Stay away!" he hissed determinedly, before doubling over with another fit of coughing. He looked up again just in time to stop the doctor's movement as he tried to reach for him.

"No!" he rumbled and grabbed the doctor's wrist. Unlike with Eve, this time it was rough and firm, making his knuckles stand out brighter under the skin.

"Ray, please," Eve now intervened in the conversation to appease him. Her gaze was full of concern - but this time it wasn't directed at Liam, but at him. Her green-blue eyes were fixed on him as she gently stroked Liam's hair. "You can't possibly work in this state," she said, but it was clear that wasn't her point.

"You saved Liam's life. And that cough doesn't sound good. It's dangerous. I couldn't forgive myself if..." she began but fell silent when his head flew round to her almost a little too quickly.

Liam, too, was now staring at her with wide but tired eyes.

"Please," Eve pleaded again after a brief silence. "Let Dr. Tay- ... Jonathan at least listen to you. Just to make sure ..."

A dark rumble rumbled inside him like a trapped animal. Detached from the sting he felt in his chest when Eve called the doctor by his first name. With narrowed eyes, he gripped the man's wrist even tighter. Then he let go abruptly.

"No!" he rumbled hoarsely as he pushed himself heavily out of the chair and leaned against the backrest. He was glad that his voice obeyed him this time. Even if it sounded rougher than usual. "I'm all right. All I need is a hot shower and a bit of rest. There's nothing wrong with me."

Ray clung to the sheet around his shoulders like a drowning man as he hastily averted his eyes. The doctor's presence irritated him like fingernails on a slate, and Eve's worried look didn't make it any better.

"I'm calling it a day," he grumbled and turned away even more quickly. His leg was still stiff as he dragged himself up the stairs. To hell with the bloody doctors!