Chương 4
“Where?”
“Here.”
“In the building with the man who may have disappeared my husband?”
His eyes shifted toward the hall.
“If Vance came for Romano, leaving the protected floor may be worse.”
I hated that he had a point.
“I’m calling the police.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“You don’t know who you’ll reach.”
“That is not how police departments work.”
Marco looked tired suddenly.
“It is exactly how institutions work when enough people are afraid of the same person.”
The doors opened.
Renee stood outside with Logan on her hip.
My son was holding a packet of crackers in one hand and Captain Bear in the other.
He had crumbs on his chin.
The sight of him nearly broke me.
“Mommy, I got cheese.”
I took him so quickly he dropped two crackers.
“I see that.”
“Miss Renee said I can have juice.”
“Miss Renee is trying to purchase your loyalty.”
Renee gave me a strained smile.
“It was apple juice.”
“Then she knows your price.”
Logan nodded solemnly.
“Apple.”
Behind us, Alessandro’s gurney rolled into the hallway surrounded by doctors, nurses, and men in dark suits.
Patients’ relatives stood at doorways pretending not to stare.
A janitor froze with a mop halfway out of a bucket.
Somewhere down the corridor, a woman shouted that her mother needed her medication and nobody had the right to lock a hospital floor.
Real life kept moving despite the fact that mine had apparently been assembled from counterfeit documents.
I carried Logan into an empty family consultation room.
Renee followed.
Marco stayed outside the glass door.
I could see him speaking into his earpiece.
Logan climbed into a chair and immediately began peeling the label from his juice bottle.
“Did I do bad?”
I sat across from him.
The question hurt more than it should have.
“You scared me.”
His lower lip pushed out.
“I was thirsty.”
“I know.”
“The door was open.”
“I know.”
“I came back.”
“You came back to a dead man.”
“He wasn’t dead.”
Renee turned away, pretending to inspect a box of tissues.
I rubbed my forehead.
There was no useful parenting manual for this.
“You still have to stay where Mommy puts you.”
“Even if somebody’s cold?”
“Yes.”
He considered that.
“What if they’re really cold?”
“Still yes.”
“That’s not nice.”
“No, it’s not.”
He drank his juice.
I looked at Renee.
“Can you stay with him for five minutes?”
She glanced toward Marco.
“Where are you going?”
“To find out what’s happening.”
“Catherine.”
“I’m not leaving the floor.”
“That is not what I asked.”
Her voice had the tone she used when new nurses tried to lift heavy patients without help.
I looked at Logan.
He was making Captain Bear drink apple juice.
“I need to know.”
Renee sat beside him.
“Five minutes.”
Marco blocked the consultation-room door before I made it three steps.
“No.”
“I need my phone.”
“It’s in your locker?”
“Yes.”
“Someone will get it.”
“I can get my own phone.”
“You are not walking around.”
“I work here.”
“Tonight that makes you more exposed, not less.”
I folded my arms.
“What does that mean?”
“It means Vance may know exactly who you are.”
The hallway noise seemed to fade.
“Why?”
Marco’s gaze went past me toward Logan.
“Because if David was compromised before he disappeared, his family would have been the first leverage.”
I swallowed.
“Then why am I alive?”
“I don’t know.”
“That answer is becoming popular.”
“I prefer it to lying.”
I almost reminded him who he worked for.
Then a hospital security officer approached from the elevator doors with two Baltimore police officers behind him.
Marco’s shoulders tightened.
The security officer pointed toward us.
“That’s the woman.”
One of the police officers was a middle-aged Black woman with silver at her temples and the controlled expression of someone who had already been told three contradictory versions of the same incident.
The other was younger and looked irritated by the number of armed civilians in the corridor.
The older officer stopped in front of me.
“Catherine Winters?”
“Yes.”
“I’m Sergeant Denise Hall.”
She showed me her badge.
“We received a report of an unauthorized child in a restricted medical area and a possible unlawful detention.”
Her eyes moved to Marco.
“I’d like to speak with you separately.”
Marco said, “She stays here.”
Sergeant Hall looked at him.
“Are you her attorney?”
“No.”
“Her employer?”
“No.”
“Her husband?”
His expression did something strange.
“No.”
“Then I wasn’t asking you.”
I liked her immediately.
“I’ll speak with you,” I said.
Marco leaned toward me.
“Do not mention Vance.”
Sergeant Hall heard him.
“Who’s Vance?”
Marco’s face went blank.
I looked at him.
Then at the officer.
A sensible woman would have listened to the armed man whose boss had apparently employed her dead husband.
A sensible woman would have taken Logan home two hours ago.
A sensible woman would not have brought a three-year-old to a hospital shift in the first place.
“I need to know whether you have an Elliot Vance in your department records.”
Marco swore quietly.
Sergeant Hall studied me.
“Why?”
“He may be connected to my husband.”
“What kind of connection?”
I hesitated.
There was no short version that did not sound insane.
“My husband died two years ago.”
Her expression softened by a fraction.
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m not sure he did.”
That removed the softness.
The younger officer shifted his weight.
Sergeant Hall said, “All right.”
Marco muttered, “This is a mistake.”
She looked at him.
“You can leave anytime.”
“No, he can’t.”
The voice came from behind us.
Everyone turned.
A man stood near the nurses’ station wearing a navy overcoat over hospital scrubs.
He was in his late fifties, maybe sixty, with gray hair cut close at the sides and a visitor sticker on his chest.
He looked ordinary.
That was the worst thing about him.
May you like
He could have been a physician coming off call or somebody’s father waiting for biopsy results.
Marco’s hand disappeared inside his jacket.
