'Don't lie to me.'
'I've made a lifetime habit of not lying,' he said. 'It's gotten me in trouble a few times, but telling the truth generally makes life simpler. Look, it's chilly, and this robe's thin. You can intimidate me as well if you come inside.'
She stepped across the threshold, keeping the gun in his belly and pushing him backward with it. Chris followed her. 'Honey,' she whispered, 'go check out the house. Quietly. Start upstairs, and don't miss a room. If there's anyone here, tell them the doctor has an emergency patient and needs their help.'
Chris headed for the stairs, and Laura kept Carter Brenkshaw in the foyer at gunpoint. Nearby a grandfather clock was ticking softly.
'You know,' he said, 'I've been a lifelong reader of thrillers.'
She frowned. 'What do you mean?'
'Well, I've often read a scene in which a gorgeous villainness held the hero against his will. As often as not, when he finally turned the tables on her, she surrendered to the inevitability of masculine triumph, and they made wild, passionate love. So when it happens to me, why do I have to be too old to enjoy the prospect of the second half of this little showdown?'
Laura held back a smile because she could not continue to pretend to be dangerous once she allowed herself to smile. 'Shut up.'
'Surely you can do better than that.'
'Just shut up, all right? Shut up.'
He did not go pale or begin to tremble. He smiled.
Chris returned from upstairs. 'Nobody, Mom.'
Brenkshaw said, 'I wonder how many dangerous thugs have pint-size accomplices who call them Mom?'
'Don't misjudge me, Doctor. I'm desperate.' Chris disappeared into the downstairs rooms, turning on lights as he went.
To Brenkshaw, Laura said, 'I've got a wounded man in the car—'
'Of course, a gunshot.'
'— I want you to treat him and keep your mouth shut about it, 'cause if you don't, we'll come back some night and blow you away.'
'This,' he said almost merrily, 'is perfectly delicious.'
As Chris returned, he switched off the lights he had switched on moments ago. 'Nobody, Mom.'
'You have a stretcher?' Laura asked the physician.
Brenkshaw stared at her. 'You really do have a wounded man?'
'What the hell else would I be doing here?'
'How peculiar. Well, all right, how badly is he bleeding?'
'A lot earlier, not so much now. But he's unconscious.'
'If he's not bleeding badly now, we can roll him in. I've got a collapsible wheelchair in my office. Can I get an overcoat,' he said, pointing to the foyer closet, 'or do tough molls like you get a thrill out of making old men shiver in their peejays?'
'Get your coat, Doctor, but damn it, don't underestimate me.'
'Yeah,' Chris said. 'She shot two guys already tonight.' He imitated the sound of an Uzi. 'She just cut 'em down, and they never had a chance to lay a hand on her.'
The boy sounded so sincere that Brenkshaw looked at Laura with new concern. 'There's nothing but coats in the closet. Umbrellas. A pair of galoshes. I don't keep a gun in there.'
'Just be careful, Doctor. No fast moves.'
'No fast moves — yes, I knew you'd say that.' Though he still seemed to find the situation to some degree amusing, he was not quite as lighthearted about it as he had been.
When he had pulled on his overcoat, they went with him through a door to the left of the foyer. Without snapping on a light, relying on the glow from the foyer and on his familiarity with the place, Dr. Brenkshaw led them through a patients' waiting room that contained straight-backed chairs and a couple of end tables. Another door led into his office — a desk, three chairs, medical books— where he did turn on a light, and a door from the office led farther back in the house to his examination room.
Laura had expected to see an examination table and equipment that had been in use and well maintained for thirty-odd years, a homely den of medicine straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting, but everything looked new. There was even an EKG machine, and at the far end of the room was a door with a sign that warned X-RAY; KEEP CLOSED IN USE.
'You have X-ray equipment here?' she asked.
'Sure. It's not as expensive as it once was. Every clinic has X-ray equipment these days.'
'Every clinic, yes, but this is just a one-man—'
'I may look like Barry Fitzgerald playing at being a doctor in an old movie, and I may prefer the old-fashioned convenience of an office in my home, but I don't give patients outdated care just to be quaint. I dare say, I'm a more serious physician than you are a desperado.'
'Don't bet on that,' she said harshly, though she was getting tired of pretending to be cold-blooded.
'Don't worry,' he said. 'I'll play along. Seems like it'll be more fun if I do.' To Chris, he said, 'When we came through my office, did you notice a big, red-ceramic jar on the desk? It's full of orange-slice candies and Tootsie Pops if you want some.'
'Wow, thanks!' Chris said. 'Uh… can I have a piece, Mom?'
'A piece or two,' she said, 'but don't make yourself sick.'
Brenkshaw said, 'When it comes to giving sweet treats to young patients, I'm old-fashioned, I guess. No sugar-free gum here. What the hell fun is that stuff? Tastes like plastic. If their teeth rot out after they visit me, that's their dentists' problem.'
While he talked, he got a folding wheelchair from the corner, unfolded it, and rolled it to the middle of the room.
Laura said, 'Honey, you stay here while we go out to the Jeep.'
'Okay,' Chris said from the next room, where he was peering into the red-ceramic jar, selecting his treat.
'Your Jeep in the driveway?' Brenkshaw asked. 'Then let's go out the back. Less conspicuous, I think.'
Pointing the revolver at the physician but feeling foolish, Laura followed him out of a side door in the examination room, which opened onto a ramp, so there was no need to descend stairs.
'Handicapped entrance,' Brenkshaw said quietly over his shoulder as he pushed the wheelchair along a walk toward the back of the house. His bedroom slippers made a crisp sound on the concrete.
The physician had a large property, so the neighboring house did not loom over them. Instead of being planted with alders as was the front lawn, the side yard was graced with ficus and pines, which were green all year. In spite of the screening branches and the darkness, however, Laura could see the blank windows of the neighboring place, so she supposed that she could be seen, as well, if anyone looked.
The world had the hushed quality that it possessed only between midnight and dawn. Even if she had not known it was going on two in the morning, she would have been able to guess the time within half an hour. Though faint city noises echoed in the distance, there was a cemeterial stillness that would have made her feel like a woman on a secret mission even if she had only been taking out the garbage.
The walk led around the house, crossing another walk that extended to the back of the property. They went past the rear porch, through an areaway between house and garage, into the driveway.
Brenkshaw halted at the back of the Jeep and chuckled. 'Mud on the license plates,' he whispered. 'Convincing touch.'
After she put the tailgate down, he got into the back of the Jeep to have a look at the wounded man.
She looked out toward the street. All was silent. Still.
But if a San Bernardino Police cruiser happened to drive by now on a routine patrol, the officer would surely stop to see what was up at kindly old Doc Brenkshaw's place…
Brenkshaw was already crawling out of the Jeep. 'By God, you
