'Thanks. There are a lot of us here that thank you.'
'I heard the whole DA's staff is here,' Rosenbloom said. 'He must be a very special person.'
'Yes, he is.'
Vail entered the small recovery room. Stenner seemed frighteningly tiny and frail. He looked grey and vulnerable with his arms attached to a half-dozen IV tubes and various machines beeping and humming beside his bed. Vail took his hand.
'Welcome back,' he said softly.
Stenner groaned.
'Can you hear
Stenner's eyes opened a hair and he stared, unfocused, at his friend. He blinked his eyes once.
'You're going to be okay, my friend. And so is Janie. Thank you. Thank you.'
Stenner slowly blinked his eyes again.
'We've got Stampler in our sights,' Vail lied. 'Just a matter of time.'
Under the oxygen mask, he saw Stenner's lips form the word 'Good.' Then his hand slipped out of Vail's and he fell asleep.
Vail stood by the window, staring out at the first red signs of dawn. It was nearing 5 A.M. and everyone was exhausted. But the crisis seemed to be over. Both Stenner and Venable were holding their own and for that Vail was grateful. He gathered the troops together.
'I think it's safe to call it a night - or a morning,' he said with an attempt at a smile. 'I'd like to work in shifts, keep somebody here around the clock. Naomi, work up a schedule, okay? I'm going to hang in here for a while longer.'
'I ain't goin' nowheres,' St Claire said emphatically.
'Me neither,' Meyer joined in.
'Look, we all need to get some rest,' Naomi said, taking command. 'Let's not forget we still have an office to run.'
'I'm going outside and have a cigarette,' Vail said. He went down the long hallway and out on the emergency dock. There was very little activity. The chaos of the night before had been replaced by an eerie calm. He lit up and watched the sky begin to brighten. Parver and Flaherty joined him.
'I hate to bring this up,' Parver said, 'but Stoddard is up for arraignment tomorrow. What're we going to do?'
'Postpone it until we see how Jane is doing. Hell, I don't want to deal with that right now.'
'I'm sorry,' she answered. 'I'll take care of it.'
'You're still having mixed feelings about Stoddard, aren't you?'
She thought for a minute and nodded. 'After finding that stuff in that closet room, I…' She hesitated for a moment, then finished the sentence. 'Don't worry, I'll handle it properly.'
'I know you will.' He smiled at Flaherty, who stood quietly by, holding her hand. 'You two take care of each other. Time has a bad habit of running out when you least expect it.'
'Yes, sir.'
'Better go home and get some shut-eye.'
The emergency doors swung open and St Claire peered out.
'I think we got us a break,' he said.
Buddy Harris was on the phone. The state police officer had been up all night, fielding false alarms and the usual nut calls that result from an APB. It seemed everybody in the city of Chicago had seen Stampler during the long night.
'But I think we got a live one,' he told Vail. 'I just got a call from the Indiana HP. They think they've tumbled on a stolen car with Illinois plates and an MD's tag. Probably wouldn't have noticed it for hours except the dumb bastard parked in a handicapped space next to a diner. It was spotted by a waitress a little after two A.M., so it's been parked there for a couple of hours. They ran the registration. It's owned by a Dr Steven Rifkin. There's no answer at his house, so I called the University Medical Center. They say he checked out of there about ten-thirty last night. Apparently he had a really hard day and was going straight home to bed.'
'You say Indiana has the car?'
'Yeah. In a place outside Indianapolis called Shelbyville.'
