watching.” He paused. “You’ll be all right.”
She smiled at the medical report. “I must look a sight.”
He felt her unbandaged hand. “Terrible.”
“Am I on drugs?”
“Painkillers.”
“So I’m not dreaming. This is all real.” She moved her eyes again, focusing. “Why do you have your clothes off?”
He was shirtless, his lower chest wrapped in white adhesive tape. “Oh, this,” he said, fingering the tape. “Hector.”
Her eyes clouded. “What happened to him?”
“He’s dead.”
“Dead,” she repeated, dismayed.
“I didn’t mean to hit him so hard,” he said slowly. “It must have been the angle.”
“I don’t understand,” she said, confused.
“I hit him with the statue,” he said, looking at her directly. “It was self-defense. That’s the way it makes sense. There won’t be any more questions. He knocked you over-do you remember that?” He waited for her nod. “He killed Karl.”
She watched him as he spoke, then closed her eyes. For a second he thought she had drifted back to sleep. “You got your man,” she said.
“We did.”
“So it’s finished?”
“Yes, finished.”
She opened her eyes. “Hannah?” she said, remembering.
“She was the contact. The end of Matthew’s chain.”
“But she never-at the ranch.”
“She didn’t know. She only knew Eisler.”
“All this time,” Emma said vaguely, lost in her thoughts. “I thought she was my—”
“She was. She liked you.”
“Then why?”
“You got in the way. Like Karl.”
“Like Karl,” she repeated, trembling.
“Get some sleep,” he said.
But she grabbed his hand more firmly. “No, don’t go. Stay. I don’t want to dream about it. I want to be awake.”
“You can be awake tomorrow. You’re really going to be all right, you know. You’re lucky.”
She smiled, her eyes closing again. “Yes, lucky.”
“Is there anything I can get for you?”
“Call Daniel. I want to see him.”
Connolly nodded. “They’re putting a call through. He’s at the site.”
“It’s finished now,” she said, not hearing him. “I can sort things out.”
He looked at her nervously. “What are you going to do?”
“When I saw him hitting you,” she said slowly, “I knew. So clear. Just like that. I killed him, didn’t I?”
He didn’t answer.
She opened her eyes. “Not the story. The truth.”
“Yes.”
She nodded. “I thought so. You see what that means? To kill for someone-If I felt that way, Daniel must know. Maybe all along. All those lies. Not his bed. But he knew.”
“He never said anything.”
“He was waiting for me. To see if it would pass. Like the others. This time he was waiting for me. It was all right, you see, until it was someone—”
He raised her hand to his lips. “I can talk to him.”
“No. Me. It’s time. When it’s so clear. We always think we have time for everything,” she said, her voice drifting.
“You’re not dying.”
“No. But look how fast. When did all this happen? This afternoon? One afternoon.”
“We’ll have lots of time.”
She raised her hand to the side of his face. “We’ll go dancing,” she said.
“I thought you were dead. In the car.”
She moved her hand along his cheek, soothing him.
“Marry me,” he said softly.
She smiled. “A proposal. Don’t you think I have enough husbands?”
“Not yet.”
“Everybody always wants to marry me,” she said dreamily. “Why is that, do you think?”
“You’re a nice girl.”
She looked at him as he kissed her hand. “Am I?”
“Hm. I’ll even ask your father.”
A faint smile. “He hates the Irish.”
“I’ll bring him around.”
“You won’t.”
“I will.”
“Promise me?” she said seriously. “No lies. Not even little ones.”
He was leaning over, brushing her lips, when the nurse came in. “Telephone,” she said, looking at him with disapproval. “She’s supposed to sleep.”
“You heard her,” he said to Emma, getting up from the bed.
“Don’t worry him,” she said. “Tell him I’m all right.”
“You are all right.”
He turned to go, but she stopped him. “One thing,” she said, her eyes bright now. “That place they go? Reno? Do you think they’ll do two at once?”
He laughed at her. “Use two judges.”
On the phone at the nurse’s station he was asked to verify that the call was an emergency before he was patched through. The connection was scratchy, as if the rain were on the line with them.
“This is Michael Connolly. We met at—”
“I know who you are,” the voice said coldly.
“Look, I’m sorry, but your wife has had an accident. A car accident. She’s all right, but she’s pretty banged up.” A silence. “You still there?”
“Yes. She is all right, you said?” His inflections were still European.
“She has a serious fracture. Shock.”
Another pause. “You were with her?”
“No,” Connolly said, surprised. “Not in the car.”
“Where is she?”
“Here on the Hill. In the infirmary. There wasn’t time to get her to Santa Fe. I thought you’d better know.”
“Thank you,” Pawlowski said politely. “May I talk to her?”
“She can’t come to the phone-she’s in bed. You can see her, though. Can you leave right away?”
“Leave? Tonight? But the test—”
“Sorry,” a voice interrupted. “This is the security officer. I have to remind you this is an open line.”
“Listen,” Connolly said, annoyed, “I’m security too. The man’s wife is in the hospital.”
“Sorry, sir. Orders. Have you finished?”
“No, we haven’t finished. Pawlowski, did you hear what I said?”
