Part 12 (1/2)

I told them my story with only a slight interruption for dinner. It took me over two hours, between my fatigue and Ranson's questions.

When I finished, she stood up and said, ”Okay, now it's time for you to go home and go to bed.”

”She's coming home with me,” Danny added.

”Good idea,” Ranson said.

But there was still some unfinished business.

”Barbara Selby,” I said. ”I have to know how she is.”

Ranson told me that the last she had heard, which was several hours ago, was that Barbara was still in surgery.

* 86 *

”Go get some sleep, Micky. I'll let you know as soon as anything happens,” she added.

”You had better. I have to know. Call me as soon as you find out,”

I answered. Then Danny and I left.

* 87 *

CHAPTER 12.

Danny had stopped and called Elly, so she was not surprised when we showed up. She had even made up the sleeper couch for me. It looked very inviting, but common courtesy compelled me to take a quick shower first. The bathroom in the police station had only gotten off the first layer. Besides, I was hoping that Ranson would call and tell me that Barbara was all right.

The quick shower was actually a quick bath, since my feet felt they had held up my weight enough for the last few days. Danny came in as I was drying myself off and handed me a bath robe. I realized I was embarra.s.sed at her seeing me naked. That had never happened before.

The embarra.s.sment, not the nakedness. Maybe because I had finally realized how c.r.a.ppily I had been treating her. Maybe embarra.s.sment is natural when you're naked in front of an ex-lover with her current lover in the next room. I suspected it was a bit of both.

She looked me over, shaking her head the whole time. I was pretty thoroughly bruised up, all of them painful.

”Lucky for you, Elly is a nurse and she is waiting in the living room with our in-case-of-alligator-attack camping first aid kit.”

”I can't wait,” I said. ”Danny, uh, I...”

She waved me off and said, ”Come on out, I want you to meet Elly.”

We left the bathroom for the living room. Elly was there, complete with a large, bright orange first aid kit.

Elly Harrison was not very tall, but she still looked willowy. If she wanted to, she could probably look fragile, but she didn't now and I * 88 *

doubted I would ever see her that way. She had black, shoulder-length, wavy hair and penetrating hazel eyes.

She sat me down and started working on my cuts with the professional cheerfulness common to all good nurses. We talked while she worked, her side of the conversation being more intelligible than mine, since I did a fair amount of groaning and b.i.t.c.hing. Elly didn't work in a hospital, but was a visiting nurse. She traveled around to homebound patients, checking up on them and evaluating their conditions. She said that most of her patients were terminal, cancer and AIDS, but they didn't need to be in the hospital. The more we talked, the more impressed I was with Elly. I couldn't dismiss her even if I had wanted to.

”Come on, Danno, bedtime,” Elly said, catching sight of me starting to nod my head. I was tired, but I didn't want to lie down yet.

”Yeah,” Danny agreed. ”Get some sleep, Micky.”

I started to protest, but was interrupted by the phone. Danny picked it up, then handed it to me. It was Ranson.

”She got out of surgery about an hour ago. They were successful in removing the bullet, but she hasn't regained consciousness yet,”

Ranson paused, she sounded tired. ”They don't know if she will.

The doctors are guarded about her chances of recovery. She's listed as critical and is in ICU at Charity. But there is some good news,”

Ranson continued. ”We found the notebook you hid in the copy machine. It contains dates, routes, and meeting places for deliveries.

This information is going to disrupt the drug trade for a while. We're hoping for a few good busts before they figure out we know where they're going to be.”

”Yeah, well, I'm glad that Barbara Selby's life helped raise the price of cocaine in this part of the country,” I replied. I think Sergeant Ranson and I disagreed as to what was good. We'd given the drug boys a bruise in the bank account. That wasn't worth Barbara in a coma that she might never come out of.

”Look, Micky, I know...” Ranson started.

”No, you don't,” I countered. ”You didn't see her lying in that swamp. If I need professional sympathy, I'll go find a wh.o.r.e.” I had been hoping, praying even, that Barbara would be all right. That whatever mistakes I had made, they hadn't been permanent ones.

* 89 *

”Okay, Micky, get some sleep,” Ranson answered and she hung up. She had been holding her temper, but not by much. I caught Danny and Elly exchanging a look. Danny got out a bottle of brandy and poured three gla.s.ses. She handed the fullest one to me. I didn't say anything, just started drinking it. She and Elly sipped theirs.

Good impression, Micky. You cursed out a highly decorated detective sergeant in front of an a.s.sistant D.A. and her lover, whom you just met this evening.

”Get some sleep, Mick,” Danny said. ”You always get real grumpy when you're tired.”

I finished my brandy. Danny gently pushed on my shoulder so that I lay down. Then she tucked me in and kissed me on the forehead. Elly bent over and did the same.

”Good night,” she said. They turned out the lights and went into their room. I heard the low murmur of their voices, then the light under the doorway flicked off.

I lay very still, feeling the ache in my bones and the warmth from the brandy ebbing in separate currents through my body. I didn't know I was crying until I felt the wetness on my cheeks. I hoped Danny and Elly were asleep; I didn't want them to know I was crying.

I wasn't even sure why, for a lot of reasons, probably. Some basically self-centered, like I hurt and the last few days had been hard.

Because I should have saved Barbara Selby and I didn't. Because Danny and Elly were together on the other side of the bedroom door and I was in the living room by myself. Because somewhere I had made the choice to be by myself in the living room and I couldn't make that choice go away now, no matter how much I wanted to. Because what happened wasn't Ranson's fault, but I had taken it out on her. Because...

the list seemed to go on and on.

I woke to the stiffest muscles I've ever had. Danny and Elly were in the kitchen. I could hear their lowered voices.

”Good morning,” Danny said, as she looked out the kitchen door and found I had my eyes open. ”Why don't you stay in bed?” she said as I gingerly swung my legs out of bed.

”Places to go, people to see,” I said, shaking myself awake.

”It would be a good idea for you to take it easy,” Elly chimed in from the kitchen door.