“Where are you going?”
“To a hospital,” Ray said. “We’ve got a legit reason to be at a hospital. So I’m taking you to a hospital.”
It didn’t happen often. Hardly ever, in fact. But rarely, every once in a great long while, Tony Briggs felt stupid.
The girl. He’d been so preoccupied with all of last night’s bullshit that he’d forgotten all about her.
Ray could take a stroll around while he was getting sewn up. Guy had a touch with nurses anyway. At least one of them was using his head for something besides stopping crutches.
“Score one for Salcedo,” Tony said. “If they haven’t let her out yet.”
“Hey,” Ray said. “Heads up.”
“What?”
“Two o’clock.”
“Where?”
He nodded up the street. “Brick house, front yard.”
Tony squinted into the glare and saw a bunch of little kids building a snowman. “What’s the problem?”
“That one with the pigtails.”
“What about her?”
“She look like trouble to you?”
“Man, what are you talk…”
Tony stopped without finishing the sentence. He looked at Ray, clenching his jaw. He checked his gauze pad. Folded it over. Pressed it back against the cut.
“In the Care Bears coat,” Ray said. “Seriously.”
“Blow me,” Tony said. “Seriously.”
“Hop out and punch her before she sees our faces.”
“Why don’t you just fucking drive?”
19
In the elevator, a young guy loaded with gift bags got off on the maternity floor. He looked like his whole world had opened up. One floor later, a middle-aged woman got on and pressed the button for the oncology lab. She looked like her world had caved in.
Worth rode along in silence, adding up time in his head. Counting what he’d managed last night, after the crime scene at his house cleared out, he’d slept a total of about eight hours in the past seventy-two.
He felt clear and alert, but he knew it was an illusion. Just his body tricking him with adrenaline. It would be easiest just to push through until his shift tonight.
It would also be a bad idea. He figured he needed at least a couple more hours today, just to keep the tanks from going bone dry. He didn’t want to let that happen.
Worth offered a smile to the woman when he stepped off on Gwen’s floor. She didn’t seem to notice that anyone else was there.
“Knock knock.”
Gwen’s face brightened the moment she saw him. “Hey.”
“Hey.” He smiled back. “How are you feeling?”
“Better,” she said. “Lots better.”
In the time it took for that, Worth realized that over the past few days he’d stopped thinking about her like a person. Gwen had become a situation.
Seeing her smile, a fresh start in her eyes, he remembered why he’d done what he was doing.
“You look great.”
“Yeah, right.” She made an attempt to arrange her gown, then waved off the effort. “Do you guys know each other?”
Worth nodded to the detective from the Domestic Violence Squad he’d spoken with early Saturday morning. Kendrick. Kendall?
“Hi,” he said. “Didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“You didn’t. We were talking hair.”
Kenna. She stood up, shouldered her Softsider, and gathered her coat and scarf. She patted Gwen’s toes through the sheet and said, “I’ll keep in touch. Call if you need me. Okay?”
“I will.”
Detective Kenna caught Worth’s eye. She glanced toward the door. Worth looked at Gwen—back in a minute—and followed.
Outside the room, Kenna pulled the door closed behind them. “It’s Matt, right?”
“Good memory, Marly.”
“Not bad yourself.”
It wasn’t impressive. Back when they’d still been trying, early on, he and Sondra had gotten one false positive from a home pregancy kit; a few days before she’d started her period, almost two weeks late, they’d sat up past midnight picking baby names. Marly had been Sondra’s top choice in the Girl column.
He didn’t mention it. “I don’t mean to step on your toes. I was just in the neighborhood, thought I’d check up.”
“Jesus. My toes?” She had a likable laugh. “Step on ’em. It’s refeshing.”
“Anything happening?”
“They’re discharging her today. The warrant on James came through this morning.” She glanced over his shoulder, and they both moved out of the way of a nurse pushing an EKG cart. “There’s a vacant one-bedroom in a building over near Creighton University.”
“Good,” he said. “That’s good.”
In the ten years since Tiffany Pine, the department’s DV Squad, the Domestic Violence Coordinating Council, and local shelters had worked together to create a county-funded network of safe apartments across town. Cases the squad deemed high risk were given temporary shelter on an individual basis. This was the news he’d been hoping to hear.
“She made me talk her into it,” Kenna said. “But look, I’ve been doing this awhile, and I’m not seeing a girl who wants to go back to her apartment.”
“I don’t suppose she does.”
“I’ll be honest,” Marly Kenna said. “I’m not liking this one.”
“Anything in particular?”
“Just one of those bad feelings. You know?”
“I know exactly,” he said. Thinking: You have no idea.
“Basically where we’re at is, the girl’s barely back on her feet, shithead’s in the wind, and I’m up to my tits in casework.”
Worth felt his eyes flicker down to the front of Detective Kenna’s sweater. It happened before he could stop it. If she noticed, she didn’t make it an issue.
“Plus half the town’s been cooped up without utilities for the last, what?” She looked at her watch. “Forty-eight hours? And counting?”
“I take it calls are up.”
“You’d think it was Christmas.”
Careful, now. “Anything I can do?”
“Well, as long as you’re offering…when’s your next shift?”
“Tonight,” he said. “Just came off two, so I’m on the next four.”
“If the radio gets slow, think you could roll by the place, maybe?” Her face clouded as soon as she said it. Apologetic. “But you’re not in the field. Sorry, I forgot.”
“It’s no problem.”
“Hey,” she said. She touched his arm; Worth sensed that the gesture embarrassed both of them. “Not for nothing, but I’ve heard of some bullshit details, you know?”
He waved it off. “One of those things.”
“Then again, it’s probably lucky for Gwen in there that she knew right where to find a cop she felt she could trust.”
“Give me the number, I can check in on her,” he said. “Any problems, I’ll radio dispatch, have them send a unit over.”
“I’d appreciate it,” Kenna said. “I’ll tell Northeast to be aware of the location, too. But you know how it goes.”
“Northeast assholes,” another voice said. “They just want to chase bangers. Find guns and whatnot.”
The guy walking toward them carried gloves in one hand, a corduroy coat on his arm. Tall, nice clothes. A clean smile.
When Marly Kenna saw him, her eyes flickered, then hardened a little. But only a little.
She smirked. “Spoken like an asshole.”
“Marly Kenna. You look great.”
“I know.”
“Who’s on bullshit detail?”
Kenna glanced at Worth. He saw in her expression that she didn’t want to embarrass him further, wasn’t sure what he’d want her to say. He extended a hand and spared her the awkwardness.
“Matt Worth,” he said.
“Hi.” The guy had a friendly grip. “Ray Salcedo.”