mention the general to you?” Kathleen’s face darkened for a moment, but then she grinned. “Oh, sure. He said that Illen had gone too far this time.” “Was he talking about General Baranov?” Kathleen held a finger to her lips. “Shhh. We’re not supposed to mention that name. Never. Never.” “About Dr. Nikolayev? Did you ever hear that name?” Her face screwed up in concentration. At any other time she would have looked comical. She shook her head. “Nope.” She suddenly looked sly. “Darby and I had sex, you know. He was pretty good, but not as good as my husband.” Otto felt terrible. He didn’t want to hear this. But it was important. “Did you ever go to Mexico with Darby?”
“Nope.” “How about Russia? Did you ever go to Moscow?” “Nope.” “Did you ever leave Washington with him?” “Nope. I’m practically a hometown girl. I’ve never been anywhere except with my husband.” She glanced at the door. “I want to go home now. I’m fucking well tired of this shithole.”
Otto closed his eyes for a second. When he opened them, Kathleen was staring at him. “Did you ever meet General Baranov?” For several seconds it didn’t seem as if she was going to answer the question. But she nodded. “He came to Darby’s house one night.” “Did you talk to him?” “He said that I was beautiful.” Kathleen drifted off, her eyes losing their focus for a little bit. “What else did he tell you?” “I don’t remember,” she mumbled. “Please, Mrs. M.” I have to know.”
She whimpered. “He told me to go away. I didn’t belong there.” “What else?” “He told me to stop playing games and go back to my husband.
My husband needed me.” It wasn’t what Otto had expected to hear. Yet coming into this he didn’t think that he had a real idea what she would tell him. He was on a mission of exploration. “Did you stay the rest of the night anyway?” “Nope. I went home, and Darby got shot in the eyeball. Poor, beautiful Darby.” She closed her eyes. “He had everything. But it wasn’t enough. Not nearly… enough.” Otto watched her face for a minute or two, his heart breaking. She’d had an indiscretion. She was human after all, not the flawless woman he’d imagined she was. In the end he’d been disappointed in, or at the very least angered by, every woman he’d ever known, especially his mother.
But he wasn’t angry with Mrs. M. He was sad for her, and he wished that he had the magical power to erase some of her past. She was sleeping now. He turned away from the bed and removed the chair from the latch. Liz was cool. And he still had Louise. He girded himself, then opened the door and stepped out into the corridor. A startled Janis Westlake jumped up. “Where were you?” Otto demanded before she could say anything. “This room was left unguarded. Thank God nothing happened to Mrs. M. Where were you?” “I was taking a phone call,” she said. “Sir, you’re not supposed to be here.” “Since when?” Otto demanded. “Since this afternoon, on Mr. Yemm’s orders, sir.” “We’ll see about that. In the meantime, where is Dr. Stenzel?”
“He said that he was going downstairs to the cafeteria,” Janis Westlake said.
“Don’t leave your post again,” Otto ordered, and he headed for the elevators. At the corner he looked back. Janis Westlake was gone, and the door to Mrs. M.“s room was open.
Dr. Stenzel was seated alone in the nearly empty cafeteria, eating a cheeseburger and fries with a large Coke. Otto got a couple of cartons of milk and went over to him, “Mind if I join you?” Stenzel looked up and frowned. “As a matter of fact I do mind. I’d like to eat my lunch in peace.” Otto sat down anyway. “Listen, Doc, I’m sorry about being such an asshole the other day. It’s just that I’ve got a lot of shit going on.” He bobbed his head. “You know what’s been happening.
Sooner or later they’re going to get really lucky, and it’ll be more than Liz’s baby that gets hurt.” Stenzel said nothing. He studied Rencke’s eyes. “Look, they’re like family to me, ya know. The only family I ever had. I’d do anything to protect them.” Otto shook his head. “Even if it means pissing you off.” Otto flashed his most charming, sincere smile. After a beat Stenzel’s expression softened.
“You are an asshole,” he said. “But you’re a fascinating asshole.” He glanced at the cartons of milk. “Milk?” “They didn’t have any cream, and no Twinkies. This’ll have to do.” “What are you doing here?”
Stenzel asked. “Your name has been taken off the visitor’s list, and Elizabeth already checked herself out and went home with her husband.”
“Is she okay?” Otto asked, alarmed. “She was supposed to spend the night.” “She’ll be fine.” Otto searched Stenzel’s face for any sign that he was lying. But the psychiatrist was telling the truth. “I’ve got a question about Mrs. M.“s visitors.” “I don’t know why your name was taken off. You’ll have to talk to Security.” “No, I meant who’s been here to see her, besides us, and Mac and Liz. Has there been anyone else?” “Her doctors-” “No, I mean someone else. Someone not connected with the hospital or with the Company.”
Stenzel thought for a moment, then started to shake his head, but stopped. “The priest.”
“What priest?”
“Vietski, or something like that. He’s the parish priest at Good Shepherd, where Kathleen attends. Mr. McGarvey said that he stopped by.”
“Is his name on the list?”
“According to the nurses he’s practically one of the staff. A lot of military and government employees go to Good Shepherd.”
“Mac knows that he was here?” Otto asked. He wanted to make sure.
Stenzel nodded.
“Who else has been to see her?” Otto pressed. “Friends? Someone from one of her charities? Maybe the Red Cross? One of their neighbors?”
“Nobody,” Stenzel said. “Security is keeping a tight watch on her.
Nobody who isn’t supposed to be here has seen her.”
Otto got up to leave, a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. “You’re wrong, Doc. I got in to see her.”
Dick Yemm got off the elevator on the sixth floor and hurried past the nurses’ station to Janis Westlake, who jumped to her feet when she spotted him. “How is she?” he demanded. “Fine.” “Okay, what the hell is going on?” “One of the nurses said that there was a call from you. But there was nobody on the line.” “I didn’t call-” “No, sir. I think that it was Mr. Rencke. When I got back to my station he was coming out of Mrs. McGarvey’s room. I think that he made the call to get me away from the door.” Yemm was angry. This shouldn’t have happened. “You checked on her? Nothing’s wrong?” “She’s fine,” Janis Westlake assured him. “Did he say where he was going?” “He asked where Dr. Stenzel was, and I told him the cafeteria.” Dr. Stenzel came up the corridor, stopped in the nurses’ station for a moment, and emerged with a patient clipboard and chart. He looked up, seeing Yemm and Janis Westlake with concerned expressions on their faces. “Is something wrong?” he asked. “Have you seen Otto Rencke?” Yemm demanded.
“In the cafeteria. He left just before I did.” “Did he tell you where he was going?” Stenzel shook his head. “No, but he told me that he managed to see Mrs. McGarvey.” Yemm shot Janis Westlake a dark look, then turned back to the psychiatrist. “What’d he talk to you about?”
“He wanted to know who’d been here to see Mrs. McGarvey, other than us and the hospital staff. I told him that so far as I knew the only other person up here was the priest from her church.” “Yeah, he checks out, and there’s been no one else,” Yemm said. “What else did he want to know? Did he ask you why his name had been pulled from the list?”
“No, but like I said, he admitted that he was able to see her anyway.”
“I’m doubling the guard,” Yemm said. “Might be a moot point. I’m going to be discharging her soon.” “I’m still doubling the guard, no matter where she is,” Yemm insisted. “Is she ready to go home?”
“Probably not. But I can’t keep her here against her will. It’s just that going back to the house might not be the best thing for her so soon.” “We’re trying to get them to go to a safe house where they’d be easier to watch. Her and Elizabeth. But they’re stubborn.” Stenzel managed a faint smile. “Runs in the family,” he said. He pushed open the door and went into Kathleen’s room. The television was on and tuned to an episode of ER. She was propped up in bed, smiling. She had fixed her hair and put on a little makeup. She looked up. “Dr.
Stenzel,” she said. “When can I go home?” “How are you feeling, Kathleen?” “Bored ” she said, and the door closed. “I’m sorry about the screw up, sir,” Janis Westlake said. “Don’t worry about it,” Yemm told her. “Rencke is a lot smarter than the rest of us. That’s why I’m calling for backup.” She was startled. “Sir, do you think that it’s him?” Yemm shrugged. “I don’t know. Hell, I don’t know anything now.”
THIRTY-ONE
