In fact his attention was focused on the hospital’s hallways, or what he could see of them.
He was pretty sure there were no other guards posted anywhere on the third floor, but he had no way to determine if any might be found elsewhere.
Other doors under guard would tend to point to the presence, and therefore the survival, of Attorney Terrell and Commissioner Troutman, while the absence of any other guards in the hospital would hint of an opposite conclusion.
That was something he would have to ask Deborah about, Longarm thought.
He had spent enough time with Billy that people were starting to show up for work now, and he could hear voices and footsteps from the lower floors. At the third-floor nursing station there was actually a nurse visibly on duty now, although the area had been empty when he came upstairs. Apparently these hospital people were fairly early to get on the job. All the better, he supposed, to wake patients out of their sleep so annoying procedures could be followed and unnecessary fees imposed.
In any event, Longarm did not want to risk exposure as a phony wandering through the place. If he were found out, it would call attention to the visit in Billy’s room and alert whoever it was who was behind this craziness. Almost as bad, it would keep him from repeating the performance. Better, he decided, to be cautious until he had something of a handle on what was going on. Accordingly he did not try to investigate the rest of the hospital corridors, but settled for brief glances down the main hallways as he passed the second-floor landing and got back down to the ground floor, where he quickly returned his doctor disguise to the laundry room where he’d found the smock.
He had to admit that he felt a helluva lot better when he once again had the familiar weight of a .44 Colt strapped at his waist. For a little while there he’d felt purely naked, walking around completely unarmed like he’d been.
A check of the Ingersoll showed that he still had time enough to stop by the boardinghouse for a shave and a change of clothes before he would have to leave for his meeting with Henry.
And wouldn’t Henry be pleased when he learned Billy Vail was still alive. Lordy, he reckoned.
Come to think of it, Longarm realized, he probably should get Henry off by himself somewhere before he delivered that news. Otherwise the coffee-and-crullers crowd at Maxwell’s Cafe might overhear some whooping and hollering that would draw unwelcome attention.
Chapter 27
Henry’s reaction was even more than Longarm had expected it would be. After an initial yelp of joy, the prim and proper clerk dropped to his knees, good suit pants and all, clasped his hands, and began whispering. Right there on Colfax Avenue in front of God and everybody.
But then, Longarm realized, that was the whole idea, wasn’t it? Longarm wasn’t a praying man himself. But he could sure understand it in this case. News as good as this didn’t come along just every day of the week.
“He’s alive, Long? Billy is really alive? You’ve seen him? Talked to him?”
Longarm affirmed it, and went through the whole story. Well, most of it. He left out a select few details about how he’d happened to be talking to Deborah in the wee hours of the morning.
“Me and Billy talked it over, Henry. We’re gonna keep this under wraps, just like whoever it is doing this wants. But for a little different reason. We want them all to show themselves an’ what they’re up to before we go and do anything about it. So not a word, Henry. Not to anybody but the oldest and most dependable of our bunch. An’ the boss don’t even want you letting Dutch nor Smiley in on it by telegraph wire. If those boys from the Secret Service are in on the deal—if they really are from the Secret Service, that is—there’s no telling what-all they might find out, right down to private telegraph messages. You know? So any word going out, it’s gotta be face-to-face an’ only with the few we know for certain sure we can trust. An’ that don’t include anybody, not one swinging dick, from the U.S. attorney’s office or any of the politicians, not state nor federal level either one. You understand, Henry? Nobody but the boys we know are straight an’ square an’ loyal to Billy Vail. Not nobody else. None.”
“I understand,” Henry said. “One thing, though.”
“Yes?”
“Can I sneak in to see Billy?”
“We talked about that, Henry. Right now Billy don’t think that would be safe. I only got in my own self by pretending to be a doctor, but we can’t throw in too many fake doctors or somebody is gonna twig to the act. For right now you’d best stay away. What I think I’ll do, though, an’ this just now come to me, what I think I’ll do is get my nurse friend to slip messages in or out as need be.”
“But wouldn’t that mean taking her into our confidence? Are you sure we can trust her?”
“We already are relying on her when you think about it. She already knows this is a put-up deal, that there’s secrets afoot. After all, her recognizing Billy an’ thinking that surely I was a part of the conspiracy is what led me to Billy to start with. I mean, she knows it’s taking place with Billy’s cooperation. She doesn’t know, an’ doesn’t have to at this point, that he was fooled into it. An’ she won’t say anything out of school. She only talked to me because she knows how close me and Billy are. She just naturally assumed I’d know what was going on, but she’s no dummy. She likely figured out at least a part of the truth from the questions I was asking her so’s I could get inside.
“The point is, she knows Billy and she trusts me. She won’t do nothing to give us away. Best of all, she can walk into that room any time and the guards won’t think a thing about it. She’s been doing that ever since Billy was brought in. The guards won’t know the difference between her going in there on a doctor’s orders or on ours. They’re used to seeing her in there two, three times every day. I’ll get her to sneak in a pad of paper and some pencils—no sense trying to hide pens an’ ink an’ all that—so Billy can send instructions out if he wants to. Or whatever.”
“I just wish … never mind,” Henry said. “I can be patient if I have to.”
“Sorry, but me and Billy talked about this. He thinks it’s best for you to stay away. Me too unless there’s damn good reason to play doctor again. And anyway, this idea of mine about Deborah will let us communicate. Billy can run things while whoever is behind this thinks they still got him isolated. That way they won’t get scared off before we can finger them and figure out what they’re up to.”
“All right, Long. I’m in. Of course.”
