Chương 4
“And the nerves?”
“Too early.”
“Walking?”
“Too early.”
Her face tightened again.
Harold put a hand on her shoulder.
“We saved both legs.”
She began crying without sound.
I stared at Harold.
He understood what I was asking before I said anything.
“The orthopedic damage is catastrophic.”
Sarah’s crying stopped.
“What does catastrophic mean?”
Harold removed his surgical cap and folded it in his hands.
“It means the road is going to be long.”
“How long?”
“Months before we can answer some of the questions you’re asking.”
“Basketball?” I said.
Harold looked at me.
It was a cruel question, and I hated myself for asking it because I already knew.
“I would not make basketball the goal right now.”
Sarah turned her face away.
Tyler had spent the last four years measuring his life in gyms.
Morning drills before school.
Film sessions at lunch.
Free throws after dinner when the rec center manager was willing to leave the side door unlocked.
College scouts had started calling in the spring.
Not Duke or Kansas or one of the schools boys put on bedroom posters.
Smaller programs.
Real ones.
Enough for Tyler to print each email and tape it above his desk.
I had teased him for printing emails.
He told me paper made things official.
“What happens now?” Sarah asked.
“He goes to recovery.”
“Can we see him?”
“Soon.”
Price stepped closer.
“Doctor, when would you consider him medically capable of a formal interview?”
Harold’s entire face changed.
“Not tonight.”
“I’m asking when.”
“I heard you.”
“We need to preserve his recollection.”
“You need to preserve his brain function.”
Cho looked like he wanted to disappear into the wall.
Price held Harold’s gaze.
“No interview until I clear it,” Harold said.
“That includes deputies, attorneys, investigators, school officials, reporters, parents of missing girls, and anybody else who thinks urgency outranks trauma.”
“Understood.”
“No, Agent, I don’t think you do.”
“Harold.”
He looked at me.
I shook my head once.
The anger left his face reluctantly.
Price waited until he walked away.
Then she turned to me.
“You have my number.”
“I don’t.”
She handed me a card.
“Now you do.”
“What happens to Barnes tonight?”
“He has been placed on administrative leave pending investigation.”
“Meaning he goes home.”
“Meaning he is no longer acting as sheriff.”
“He still has a gun.”
“Mr. Irwin.”
“He has several.”
Price did not ask how I knew.
“I suggest you go home when your son is settled.”
“I’m staying.”
“Then stay here.”
“I don’t need instructions.”
“No, but you may need a warning.”
Sarah looked at Price.
“What warning?”
Price kept her attention on me.
“Barnes told responding deputies that Dennis threatened him at the courthouse six months ago.”
I laughed once.
It came out wrong.
“What?”
“According to Barnes, you said you could bury him where no one would find him.”
Sarah stared at me.
“I never said that.”
Price remained still.
“Did you have an argument?”
“He dropped a lit cigarette in my mop bucket.”
Cho looked up.
Sarah said, “He what?”
“Barnes was smoking near the loading entrance.”
“That building is nonsmoking.”
“I mentioned it.”
“And?”
“He asked whether I planned to arrest him.”
Despite everything, Cho’s mouth twitched.
I continued.
“I told him I planned to clean up after him like usual.”
“That was it?” Price asked.
“That was it.”
“No threat?”
“No.”
“Witnesses?”
“Deputy Kessler was there.”
Price and Cho exchanged a glance.
“What?” I said.
“Kessler was first deputy on scene tonight,” Cho said.
I felt something cold settle in my stomach.
“The one repeating that the shooting was justified?”
Price nodded.
“Probably.”
Sarah folded her arms.
“So Barnes has already started lying about Dennis.”
“We don’t know that.”
“I do.”
Price’s patience finally cracked.
“Mrs. Irwin, knowing your husband is not the same as knowing what happened in a loading dock six months ago.”
Sarah looked at me.
The anger in her face was not directed at Price anymore.
“Apparently I don’t know everything.”
That hurt more than the slap.
Price saw it.
She put the card into my hand.
“Do not contact Barnes.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“Do not contact Kessler.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“Do not conduct your own witness interviews.”
I said nothing.
Price’s eyes narrowed.
“Mr. Irwin.”
“I heard you.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“You didn’t ask anything.”
Cho closed his notebook again.
Price exhaled through her nose.
“Fine.”
She and Cho walked toward the elevators.
Then Price stopped and came back.
“One more thing.”
I waited.
“We checked Barnes’s county vehicle.”
“And?”
“No one was inside.”
Sarah looked sick.
Price continued.
“But there was blood on the rear passenger-side floor mat.”
The elevator chimed behind her.
“Whose?”
“Lab hasn’t confirmed.”
“Emily’s?”
“We don’t know.”
“Tyler’s?”
“Unlikely based on location.”
She lowered her voice.
“And the mat was wet.”
“With blood?”
“With bleach.”
Then she walked away.
Sarah and I did not speak until the elevator doors closed.
She sat down.
I sat beside her.
For several minutes we listened to the hospital breathe around us.
A nurse laughed at something behind the desk.
A vending machine compressor kicked on.
Somebody down the hallway argued quietly about parking validation.
Sarah folded Price’s business card in half.
Then in half again.
“Were you going to tell me?”
“About what?”
She looked at me.
“Don’t.”
I rubbed my hands over my face.
“The phone call.”
“What phone call?”
“Outside.”
Her eyes sharpened.
“You called someone.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“Marcus.”
She stared at me for a long time.
“No.”
“Sarah.”
“No.”
“I asked him for help.”
“What kind?”
“Information.”
“From who?”
“People we used to know.”
Her voice dropped.
“You promised.”
“I promised I was done with that life.”
“That includes those people.”
“They’re not criminals.”
“That isn’t what scares me.”
“What scares you?”
She laughed bitterly.
“You really want me to answer that?”
“Yes.”
“You.”
The word sat between us.
May you like
I looked away.
She twisted the folded card until the paper bent white along the crease.
