“How’re you feeling?”
“Now, how do you think I’d be feeling, McCain?”
“Stupid question, huh?”
“Very stupid.”
“You planning to stay on with Linda?”
“I’m not sure that’s any of your business. But she plans to sell the house and move on.”
I nodded. I hesitated before I said it. It wasn’t the kind of thing I wanted to think, let alone put into words. “Were you protecting him?”
The smoke he exhaled did a lovely blue dance in the sunbeams. Then he looked at me and said, “Why don’t we cut the bullshit, McCain? You’ve got something to say to me, so why don’t you say it.”
“Maybe I just stopped in to see how you’re doing.”
“Oh, I’m sure that’s true. I keep asking the nurses about how you’re doing. We have something in common now, something we’ll remember the rest of our lives. When Adair shot us. But that still leaves something unsaid, doesn’t it?”
“We can always have this talk when you’re feeling better.”
“Just get to it, McCain. Right now.”
I sighed. “If you knew Lou set up that fire, it was your legal duty to tell the law. You protected him because he saved your life. You committed a crime.”
The head sank slowly back to the propped-up pillows. “The outfit I was with in Korea, bunch of racists. Used to taunt me all the time. I figured the gooks would probably treat me better than the assholes in my outfit did. So if one of them had had to save my life, I wouldn’t be here today complaining about them. But Bennett-he was decent to me. I could tell I was sort of mysterious to him. Like somebody from outer space. But he was decent and if he caught somebody giving me a hard time, he shut him down right on the spot. The same with saving my life. He could’ve been killed right along with me. But he didn’t care. He ran crisscross in front of all the gunfire and grabbed me and dragged me back to where I belonged. And he got me patched up enough so that I could hold out until they got a medic to take care of me. Bennett was some kind of half-assed medic himself. Did a damned good job on me. Damned good job.”
He lolled his head to the right so he could see the table. He stabbed out his cigarette in a round tin ashtray. He left his head lolled like that, just staring at me. Something had changed in his demeanor. He wasn’t as severe and formal as usual. And when he spoke, the language was a lot looser and friendlier.
“There I was with all these peckers picking on me because I was colored and I was half bleeding to death when Bennett went all heroic and rescued my ass and-” He smiled. “And I still didn’t answer your question, did I?”
“No, no you didn’t.”
A deep sigh. He touched brown fingers to the white tape. His face reflected pain. “Lou was shady. Took me a long time to figure that out. He ran on two tracks. There were the businesses everybody knew about, and then there were the businesses almost nobody knew about. He used a lot of different corporate names, so it was hard to trace any of it back to him. I put up with it. As far as I knew, nobody was being hurt. It was just-shady. Even when Roy Davenport got involved. Davenport was a mean son of a bitch, but I never knew about him actually hurting people. He did, of course. Maybe I forced myself not to realize that-you know, so I wouldn’t turn against Bennett. But I happened to be around, the night that Raines and Davenport forced Bennett to write the letter admitting that he’d paid them to set the fire. They wanted it as insurance. They were afraid that Bennett had enough clout to set them up and turn them in. Later on, they started blackmailing him with it. That was when I couldn’t handle it any more.”
“You were friends with Karen.”
“I was half-assed in love with her. Just like most men were.”
“So what did you do?”
“I knew Davenport had the letter. I had to figure out where he kept it, and then I had to figure out how to get it. He’d just fired this secretary he’d been dallying with, and she was real, real pissed. I offered her five hundred dollars for the combination to his safe. I got the letter with no problem.”
“What happened to it?”
“I put it in my safe deposit box in the bank. I’ll turn it over to the law as soon as I leave here.” His face was grim. “I didn’t figure on anybody getting killed. That came out of nowhere.”
“Maybe I should stop back.”
The voice came from behind me. When I turned, I saw Mike Parnell in his wheelchair sitting outside the door.
“Hey, Mike, c’mon in.” Hughes waved him in. Then to me, “Mike and me play shuffleboard over at Henry’s Tap all the time. He’s been up here every day visiting me.”
Mike rolled in, right up to the bed. His new white T-shirt bore a vivid image of the American flag and beneath it, the slogan “The Blood of Heroes.”
“You like hanging out with Commies, do you, William?”
“Oh, now, c’mon, Mike. You know what I told you. There’s some people who just don’t understand why we need to be over there. That doesn’t make them bad people, that just makes them full of shit.” I got the grin when he finished talking.
“Well, if there’s one thing McCain is, it’s full of shit. Always has been.”
“So you two know each other?”
“Old friends,” I said.
“Used to be old friends, you mean.”
I guess it was the sudden tension. Or maybe it was just because I’d been standing for so long. The legs started to tremble and the head started to spin a little.
“I’m sorry, Mike. I feel like hell about it. I just think it’s a mistake being over there.”
Then I fell against the rolling table on the side of Hughes’ bed.
A strong hand grabbed my forearm. “You all right?” Hughes said, still holding onto me.
“Just a little weak. I’d better get back to my room.”
“Maybe I should call a nurse.”
“No. I’ll be all right. But I’d better get going.”
I looked over at Mike in his wheelchair. I put out my hand. He wouldn’t shake.
About halfway back to my room, I wished I’d asked Hughes to call for a nurse. I was sodden and chilled with sweat. The legs were weaker than ever.
By the time I reached my room, I was staggering. I was so concerned with not falling over that I didn’t realize Wendy had not only appeared but helped me to my bed.
“Real smart, Sam. What’d you do, run up and down the hall?”
But I was too fatigued to say anything. I drifted into a half sleep, aware that Wendy had been joined by a nurse. There was something about a sponge bath and something about sheets being changed and something about another IV drip. Then there was something about sleep.
Voices woke me. Man and woman. Both familiar.
When I rolled on my side and opened my eyes, I wasn’t sure if what I saw was real. Wendy sitting in a chair next to my bed. Mike Parnell sitting in his wheelchair next to Wendy.
“I saw Mike in the hall. I wanted to tell him how much he hurt your feelings. Which was fine, because Mike wanted to tell me how much you hurt his feelings.”
“You should be a cruise director.”
“Very funny. Now I want you two morons to agree to disagree. I’ve invited Mike out to my place as soon as you get out of here and are able to have a little fun. We’ll have some steaks and some liquor and we’ll have a nice time. Mike’s girlfriend will be joining us.”
“I still can’t believe you’re going out with him,” Mike said. “You were a cheerleader.”
“I know. But times change. You have to make do with what’s available.”
“Yeah, but Sam McCain? You can’t do better than that?”