I raised the sheet and looked at my leg. It was bandaged thickly, around the thigh. The part that showed looked a little bruised but not too puffy.
'Cops been around?' I said.
'Yeah. Hospital called them when they saw the gunshot wound. I told them you was out in the woods with the dog while I waiting in Stockbridge. When you didn't come back I went and found you.'
'They believe you?'
` No.
'Don't blame them,' I said.
A thin-faced, dark-haired nurse came in.
'Awake,' she said.
'Yes.'
She smiled without thinking about it and took out an electronic thermometer and took my temperature. She read it and nodded to herself and wrote something on her clipboard. She took my pulse, and my blood pressure, and noted those.
'We hungry yet?' she said.
'I am,' I said. 'How about you?'
Another automatic smile. 'I'll have them bring you something.'
She located a remote control unit attached to a cord on the bedside table.
'Want to sit up?'
'Sure.'
I noticed that during her time in the room she had not looked at Hawk. But she was aware of him. I could see the awareness in her shoulders and the way she held her neck. She showed me the remote.
'We push this to sit up,' she said. 'And this turns on our television. And if we need a nurse we push this one.'
I said, 'Are you going to get into bed with me? Or is this we stuff just a tease?'
She looked blankly at me for a moment. Then she grinned.
'Let's wait until your leg is better,' she said.
'That's what they all say.'
'Oh, I doubt that,' she said. 'My name is Felicia. You want me'-she grinned-'for medical reasons, press the button.'
She watched me while I raised the bed into a nearly sitting position. Then she turned to go. At the door she glanced back at Hawk. He smiled at her and she flushed and went out of the room. In maybe a minute she was back and with her came a young guy wearing a brown Sears and Roebuck suit. He was nearly bald, and what little was left he wore cut very short.
'Officer deShayes wants to see you,' she said, and whisked her white skirt back out the door without looking again at Hawk.
DeShayes showed me a badge that said Pittsfield Police on it. Then he put the badge away and took out a small spiral notebook with a red cover.
'Feeling okay?' he said.
'On top of the world,' I said.
'Good,' he said. 'Good. Just some routine questions here. We always have to follow up on gunshot wounds, you know.'
'Yeah.'
He glanced once at Hawk, who had retired to an uncomfortable ~ chair under the television set and appeared to go to sleep. Now that I was sitting up,
I could see that his jeans were black and he wore them tucked inside black cowboy boots.
'Friend of yours?' deShayes said.
'Darth Vader,' I said.
DeShayes nodded. 'So how did you come by this gunshot wound?'
'Self-inflicted,' I said. 'Accidental.'
'Un huh. Could you describe the events which caused you to perpetrate this self-inflicted wound?'
'Sure. I was walking the dog, in the woods, and thought I'd take a little target practice. And accidentally shot myself.'
'And where is this dog now?'
'In his car,' I said, nodding at Hawk.
'And the gun with which the wound was inflicted?'
'He's got it,' I said. Without opening his eyes Hawk produced my gun from inside his jacket and held it out
