“Not in my lovely alto,” I said.
She hesitated a moment longer. “God, would I like to trust you,” she said, half-aloud.
“What‟ve you got to lose? Besides, we‟ve got a deal. You told me what I wanted to know.”
We started to leave and a new face appeared in the ICU. He was tall and so painfully thin that
he looked anorectic. He was wearing a tuxedo and there was a panicked expression on his
face. He stared at us and at the cop sitting at the control unit.
“Who are all these people?” he asked, motioning to us, but looking at the nurses.
“I‟m District Attorney Galavanti,” she said, and pointing to me, “This is one of my people.”
“Can we please clear the area,” he said, taking command again. “I‟m Dr. George Hanson, Mr.
Raines‟ personal physician.”
“Yes, sir,” she said. “There‟s just one thing. I have a small tape recorder on the bar neat Mr.
Raines‟ head, in case he should say something. .
“Thanks,” I said on the way out. “We may end up with zip, but we could score.”
“Like I said, Kilmer, I‟ll believe it when it happens.” We stepped out into the hall and came
face to face with Stonewall Titan and Doe Raines.
63
DEATHWATCH
She looked like one of those wide-eyed French mimes you see on the stage. Tiny, fragile,
vulnerable, terrified, and none of it an act, if I was any judge. This was a woman who was
running out of control. A stone in the road could throw her over the edge.
The DA excused herself and got out of the line of fire. Dutch and the Stick had moved back
down the ball, out of earshot.
“How is he is he all right?” she babbled, making one question out of two. Titan looked at me
as if I had bubonic plague. His nostrils flared like an angry mule‟s.
“Don‟t you ever light anyplace?” he growled.
“Jake, how is Harry?” Doe demanded, ignoring Titan.
I steered her into a small waiting room adjacent to the ICU. Titan scurried along behind us,
his cane tapping along the linoleum floor like a blind man‟s. I pushed the door shut behind
him. She stared at me with her saucer eyes, waiting.
“He‟s dead, isn‟t he?” she said.
“No, but there‟s very little hope,” I said.
“Oh, God,” she cried out. “Oh, God, I did this to him.”
“What are you talking about?” I said.
“That‟s pound foolish,” Titan added.
She started to sag. I took her by the shoulders and put her in a chair. She sat there with her
hands between her knees and began to shake.
“Better get a doctor in here,” I said to Titan, and he left to look for one.
“What did you mean, Doe?” I asked, kneeling in front of her.
“I do love Harry, I do. He‟s a fine person and he‟s been a good husband,” she said in a
whimper.
“I know it.”
“Maybe if I‟d been more honest…….
“You had nothing to do with it, Doe. Don‟t go off on some guilt tangent.”
“Why did this happen?” she asked as tears burst from her eyes.
“I don‟t know.”
“Was it something to do with the horses?”
“1 doubt it,” I said. “Did he tell you where he was going tonight when he cancelled out of the
party?”
She shook her head. “He called me from the track, told me about the accident, and said he
was staying in town.”
“He didn‟t say why?”
“No. It was fairly common—not the accident, his staying in town.”
“Look, we‟ll find out who did this, I promise you.”
She nodded but she was close to shock. Nothing was getting through to her.
“Where was he shot?” she asked.
“Down at the waterfront, in the Quadrangle.”
“Oh,” she sobbed, “his favourite place in the world.” She stared around as if expecting some
psychic cloud to drift into the room and erase her pain. “It was his idea. We donated the land
for it.”
I took her hands between mine and rubbed some warmth into them.
“Jake, I feel so... rotten.”
“Titan‟s right, that‟s pound foolish. Nothing good can come from that kind of thinking.”
But she wasn‟t listening. She began to rock back and forth and moan like an injured animal.
“How did Harry sound when he ca1led you?” I pressed on. “Was he angry? Sad? Confused?”
“He just sounded like Harry. He was funny about keeping things from me if he thought they
would be upsetting. My God, listen to me, I‟m talking like he‟s dead already. Oh, Jake, I‟m
so sorry.”
She lowered her head into her lap and started sobbing. A moment later Dr. Hanson and Titan
came in. Sam Donleavy was with them. She jumped up and rushed over to him.
“I‟m sorry. I just heard,” Donleavy said. “I‟ve been on the phone half the evening. I drove in
from Sea Oat as fast as I could.”
Doe turned quickly to the doctor.
“How is he?” she said, in a voice that was shrill and ragged at the edges.
He looked at me sternly and said, „May I speak with Mrs. Raines privately?”
“He‟s a friend,” she said.
He didn‟t like that very much but it wasn‟t the proper time to argue the point. He said, “Doe,
we‟re going to do the very best we can but I„m afraid that‟s not very much. Harry was shot in
the forehead. They‟ve done a scan and the bullet is lodged in the rear of the frontal lobe. It‟s
inoperable.”
She fell against him, her arms limp at her sides.
“I‟m going to give you something to relax you,” he said, but she started shaking her head
violently.
“No, I‟m not going to sleep through this. I‟ve been protected enough in my life. I‟m not a
child, George.”
“It won‟t put you to sleep, it will just take the edge off things a little.”
“I want the edge. I want to feel it all. Don‟t you understand? This isn‟t your problem or Mr.
Stoney‟s, it‟s mine. He‟s my husband and I will make whatever decisions are necessary here.
I can‟t do that stoned out on a cot.”
“Let her handle it her way,” Donleavy said quietly.
Hanson was uncomfortable. He patted her shoulder. “AS you wish,” he said.
“May I see him?”
“Of course,” Hanson said.
“I‟ll come along,” Donleavy said, and followed them into the ICU.
The minute they were out of the room, Titan turned on me, his teeth showing.
“Keep out of this,” he hissed, jabbing his finger in my face. “The one thing she don‟t need
right now is you.”
“That‟s up to her,” I hissed back.
“I‟m telling you, back off. Get out of her life. I blame all this on you, you and that bunch of
stumblebums of Morehead‟s. This never should have happened—”
“Forget it!” I barked back. “You can „t blame Morehead. Your mighty Committee screwed
up. That‟s how Tagliani got in here.”
“Damn you,” he said in a threatening whisper. “We ain‟t smart college boys like you hotshot
federals. So they got in! Morehead‟s job was to keep this element in line if they did.”
“Screw you, Titan,” I said vehemently. “You‟re just like the rest of these assholes who want
to pass the buck to somebody else.”
“I don‟t give a hoot owl‟s cross eyes what those wop bastards do to each other,” Titan said,
his voice rising to a shriek. “They want to kill each other off, that‟s goddamn good riddance, I
say.”
He was trembling with rage, the rage of a man whose power had been compromised.
“That ain‟t what I had to say to you, anyway,” he went on. “I‟ll try appealing to your sense of
honour, if you got any. Don‟t give the town reason to wag their tongues, doughboy. She