going to tell me I was crazy.
“Doc said you were upset,” he went on. “You’ve got nothing to be upset about. You’re not
the first fella who had a crack on his head and has got confused. You want to take it easy, and
let us boys do the worrying. All we want to do is to get this straightened out. The girl died. If
someone hit you, they didn’t stop, and that makes it a hit-and-run job. It’s our business to find
the fella and teach him not to do it again. We’ll find him more quickly if you can help us.
You want us to find him, don’t you?”
50
That sounded reasonable enough, but he wasn’t kidding me. I’d seen that guy’s car turn
over and smash into a tree before I had blacked out. If they had found me five minutes after
the crash, as the doctor had said, they would have found him, too.
I said I wanted them to find him,
Riskin nodded and peered at me.
“Is it right you were hitch-hiking?”
“Yeah.”
“And the girl let you drive the car?”
I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t understand why they were so anxious for me to admit
driving the car, unless they wanted to pin Della’s death on me. I began to get the jumps again.
He repeated his question in his mild voice, and even gave me an encouraging smile.
“I was not driving!” I exclaimed, raising my voice. “She was driving. I was sitting at her
side, and her husband was sitting at the back! How many more times do I have to tell you
guys?”
I expected him to start yelling at me, but he didn’t. He just nodded his head and looked a
little sadder.
“I’m sorry, boy. You want to take it easy. You don’t want to get worked up. I guess there’s
been a misunderstanding about who was driving.”
“There damn well has!” I said. “That sergeant of yours …”
“Never mind about the sergeant. He’s been taught to bawl people out. It’s the system. I
never could cotton on to it myself,” and he grinned at me.
I was still a little suspicious of him, but in spite of that, I was beginning to like him.
“Where did she pick you up, boy?” he went on. “You were walking along some road and
she overtook you and you showed her your thumb. Is that what happened?”
“No; you’ve got it all wrong. Look, will you let me tell you what did happen: right from the
start?”
51
“That’s just what I want you to do,” he said, and took out a notebook. “Mind if I make a
few notes? I’m not as young as I could be, and my memory ain’t what it was,” and he winked
to show me he was kidding.
I gave him the whole works. I told him about Pittsburgh, how I wanted to get into the big
money, how I’d hitch-hiked to Pelotta, how I had busted MacCready’s jaw and double-crossed Petelli. I went on to tell him how Della had offered to help me, how Pepi and Benno
had chased us, and how the other car had crashed into us.
It took time, and I had scarcely a whisper left in me by the time I was through, but I was so
glad to get it all off my chest that I didn’t care how I felt.
Riskin never said a word all the time I talked. He made notes, scratched his ear from time
to time, but he didn’t interrupt.
“That’s a very comprehensive story,” he said when he was sure I hadn’t anything more to
tell him. “Now you take it easy, boy. You’ve nothing to worry about. Maybe you’d better
take a nap. You look tired: like me. I’m always tired, but the Chief never gives me any time
for naps.” He stood up. “Well, so long. I’ll be in again in a day or two. If there’s anything else
you remember, just let me know.”
“There isn’t anything else to remember,” I said. “You’ve got the lot.”
“That’s fine. Well, you take a nap. So long for now.”
I watched him tiptoe out of the ward. Up to now I hadn’t had any use for a cop, but that
little guy was different. I decided he was the nicest cop of them all.
Two days went by. I was making progress. The doctor was pretty pleased with me.
“You keep on like this,” he told me, “and we’ll have you up in a couple of days. You have
a constitution of an elephant, and a head like granite.”
I grinned at him, but I wasn’t all that easy. I was wondering what Riskin was up to, and if
he were going to show up.
“I’m looking forward to seeing the town,” I said. “I’ve heard enough about Lincoln Beach,
but I’ve never had a chance of looking it over.”
He looked surprised.
52
“This isn’t Lincoln Beach. What gave you that idea? This is Miami.”
“Miami?” I stared at him. “But they have a hospital at Lincoln Beach, haven’t they?”
“Of course. It’s a wonderful hospital.” He smiled. “Almost as good as this one.”
“Then why didn’t they take me there? What was the idea of driving me over two hundred
miles to Miami ?”
“It wasn’t two hundred miles,” he said patiently. “It was more like seventy. As you were
nearer to Miami than Lincoln Beach, they brought you here.”
I began to get excited again.
“But I hadn’t even reached Lincoln Beach before the crash,” I said. “We were only a few
miles outside Pelotta, on our way to Lincoln Beach, when that car hit us!”
“Don’t bother your brains about it,” he said, getting his bedside smile hitched to his face.
“It’ll straighten out in a few days.”
And when he left me, I lay there, feeling cold, wondering if the bang on the head had
affected my brain, wondering if I were going crazy. I began to long for Riskin to come and
see me. Every time anyone came into the ward, I raised my head and looked eagerly to see if
it were him. I got so my heart pounded every time that door opened.
The next morning they moved me out of the ward.
“What’s the idea?” I asked the nurses as they pushed the bed along a corridor. “Where are
you taking me?”
“Doctor thought you’d like to have a room to yourself,” the fat nurse said. “He wants you
to rest more than you’re doing.”
That wasn’t the reason, I told myself. Maybe they thought I was nuts and wouldn’t be safe
with the others. I began to get excited.
“I don’t want to be alone!” I said. “Take me back! I’m fine as I am. I don’t want a room to
myself!”
The doctor appeared from nowhere.
“There’s nothing to get excited about,” he said. “You’ll like this room. It’s got a wonderful
53
view.”
I thought if I made too much commotion they’d put me in a strait-jacket: that’s the kind of
state I had worked myself into.
It was a nice room, and the view was swell, but I hated it. I had a feeling I had been put in
there for a purpose, and I wanted to know what that purpose was.
In the evening, around six, when I was lying there alone, looking out of the window at the
ocean and the pleasure boats and people surf-riding, the door pushed open and Riskin came
in.
“Hello, boy,” he said, easing the door shut, “how are you coming?”
“Why have they put me in here?” I said, trying to sit up. “What’s the idea?”
He tiptoed across the room to the bed.
“Hey, hey, what’s biting you? Don’t you know a room like this costs dough?”
“Then what’s the idea?”
He reached for a chair and sat down.
“I don’t think that doc likes his other patients to see me coming in here,” he said. “Maybe
it’s that. He’s a nice guy, that doc. Maybe it occurred to him it might be embarrassing for you
to have policemen asking questions with everyone in the ward trying to listen in. That might
be an idea, too.”
I looked at him for a long moment, then I drew in a deep breath, and ran my fingers over