“You saw the person?”
“I saw enough glint of metal to know what was coming. I’m attuned to that kind of thing… very… detail oriented.”
Again she heard him gasping for air. “Let me see the wound.”
“It’s nothing. Strictly superficial. It nicked a few ribs. Listen, Mrs. Decker, if you get out now, no one has to know. Especially your husband.”
“I plan to do just that. Originally I was supposed to go out tonight. As a matter of fact, the lieutenant thinks we’ve gone out tonight.” She took out her cell phone. “Can I make a call?”
Donatti pushed his phone over the desktop. “Your cell won’t register in here.”
Reluctantly, she picked up the phone and called Peter, pretending that they had landed and everything was fine. He kept asking her if she was okay. He could hear the anxiety in her voice. Somehow she managed to convince him that Hannah was too cranky to talk to him, and Randy had to concentrate on his driving. He believed her. Why should he not believe her? She knew she should feel guilty, but she didn’t. The subterfuge was worth everything. That his swollen face had come from Donatti’s fist was a big relief. A known quantity-albeit evil-was still better than the unknown.
When she hung up, Donatti was looking at her, an amused smile on his face. “Very sneaky, Mrs. Decker. And not very religious, if you ask me.”
“On the contrary, it’s called keeping the peace on the home front. Shalom bayit.” She clasped her hands together. “How did you know I was in danger?”
Donatti slumped back in the chair. “I could give you a line. Tell you lies and you’d believe every one of them. About how I was being chivalrous and trying to protect you. I didn’t know you were in danger until I saw the piece. The truth is, I was stalking you, Mrs. Decker. I get a real sexual buzz by spying on women who are unavailable to me. After Terry broke with me-before we reestablished contact-I used to spy on her all the time. I still do. It really excites me.”
Rina couldn’t hold his eyes. A warm blush swept through her face.
“You’re nervous. That also gives me a buzz. Don’t worry. I’m not going to touch you. I don’t believe in taking women by force. However, if you’re interested, all you gotta do is wink. I’m not as sick as I look.”
“Remember what I told you that day at the park?” Rina said. “I’ve reinstated every single word.”
Donatti managed a fleeting smile. “Well, then, since sex is out and your plane isn’t scheduled to leave for four hours, do you want to crash here?”
Rina’s eyes went back to his bandage. “Your wound is oozing, Mr. Donatti. Please let me take a look at it.”
“I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not. You’re in pain. If it’s only pain, then you’re fine. But if your wound is festering, you’ve got a serious problem. Just stand up and let me take a peek. Even if you’re fine, your bandage needs to be changed.”
Donatti stalled, then got up from his chair. A moment later, she was close to him, her eyes level with his waist. He could feel her breath on his oversensitive skin. She began to peel back the layers of bandage. As she worked, he focused in on her face, a mask of concentration. Instantly, he was aware of her fingertips brushing against him. Not even a smidgen of sexual overtone.
Rina regarded his wound-red and swollen and oozing. A brownish raised ring sat on the left side of his rib cage. Next to it, the skin was torn and shredded. It was especially jarring because the bullet holes sat on his otherwise perfect body. “You got hit twice. First one’s just a graze wound. Second one went in and out.”
“I’m all right.”
“That may be, but it’s more than superficial. What do you have by way of medicines?”
He reached into his file cabinet and handed her a large plastic shopping bag filled with dozens of vials of pills, creams, ointments, and medical supplies-bandages, tape, clips, cotton balls, cotton swabs, and even a suture needle. The pills were prescription drugs that had been tagged but were without proper labels. No dosage, no Rx, no instructions whatsoever. There were antibiotics, anti-inflammatory medication, anabolic steroids, including a full course of prednisone, and at least ten different types of pain medication, including codeine and morphine.
“Did you get these on the black market or something?”
“I don’t believe in paying retail.”
Rina dispensed with the lecture. She began to sort through the various medications. “What are you taking?”
Donatti sorted through the bottles. “I think I’m taking this one.”
“Amoxicillin?”
“Yeah. Isn’t that an antibiotic? I took it when I had a sort throat.”
“Except you don’t have a sore throat, Mr. Donatti. You have a bullet wound.” Rina studied the medicines. “This will do-Keflex. It might upset your stomach. Take it anyway. You have enough for ten days. You’ll probably need more. What you really need is a doc-”
“Are you done?”
“No, Christopher, I am not done. I haven’t even started. I want to clean this up. To do it properly, it’ll take a while.”
“I’m tired.”
“So am I. The sooner we start, the faster it’ll be done.”
“Then you’ll leave?”
“Yes.”
“Anything to get rid of you.”
Rina told herself to start with the basic. “I need to wash my hands.”
He thought a moment, then reached in his file cabinet and took out several shrink-wrapped packages of latex surgical gloves. Good ones-strong and thin. Rina stared at them, then at him. Then snapped them over her hands.
“Even better.” She sat on a chair while he stood. She took a cotton swab and began to clean the suppurated area.
He winced and jumped.
“Sorry, I know it stings.”
He wrinkled his nose. “It stings and it stinks.”
“It’s infected.”
She worked in silence. A minute passed, then another.
Donatti said, “You have a light touch.”
“Good.”
“You’re not very squeamish for a religious woman.”
“That’s a non sequitur.”
“You’ve done this before.”
A statement, not a question. “Yes.”
“Nursing the lieutenant’s gunshot wounds?”
“Actually, yes, I’ve done that. But my experience goes beyond that. When I first got married, I lived in Israel… during the Lebanon invasion, about eighteen years ago. I lived in what you people in America call a settlement way back when it really was a settlement-”
She stopped talking, needing to concentrate for a moment.
“Today these settlements are actually towns. Besides, I prefer to think of it as resettlement, but that’s my bias talking. Anyway, a group of us pioneer women decided to do our bit for our soldiers on the front lines. Six of us went up North to help out. I was all of twenty. There was this medical camp at the border-makeshift of course, but it had good equipment. There were around… oh, fifty beds maybe. The first day there was awful-the moaning, the groaning, the wounds, the smells, the injuries. The second wasn’t any better. But by the end of a week, you either leave, or you do something useful. Once you’ve learned, you never forget.”
Donatti was stunned. “So what did the lieutenant do while you were nursing soldiers?”
“I suppose he was doing police work in Los Angeles.” She threw pus-filled swabs into the garbage and regarded his eyes. “I wasn’t married to Lieutenant Decker back then, Christopher. I lived in Israel with my first husband.”
Donatti was silent. Then he said, “You’re divorced?”
“Married at seventeen, two baby boys by twenty, a widow at twenty-four.”
Donatti raised his eyebrows, then stifled a yelp.
“Sorry. I need to clean out this fold. It’s a little deep.”
The room fell quiet.
Donatti said, “So Decker’s not the father of your sons.”
“Not the biological father, no.”
“Does he get along with them?”
“Very well actually.”
“How’d you meet him? Decker?”
“My first husband and I eventually moved back to the States. We lived in an insulated, religious community. My husband died there, but I stayed on. A crime occurred and the lieutenant was in charge of the investigation. I, being unattached and tremendously attracted to the man, acted as a go-between for the police.”