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thumb and forefinger, he pinched off an inch of air to show how thin his expertise was. ‘And what little I do know, I know about crap like this. The longer you leave things the way they are, the harder it’s gonna be to get back.’

‘Get back where?’ Mike said.

‘You left a corpse and your wife’s body behind, went on the lam with your daughter, and pulled half a mil out of the bank.’

‘Three hundred thousand.’

‘Oh. Well then.’

‘It’s not what you think,’ Mike said.

‘I haven’t told you what I think.’

Mike said nothing.

‘Every hour that passes, you look more suspicious,’ Hank said.

‘You’re acting like a seasoned criminal.’ He shot a glance at Shep. ‘No offense.’

Shep shrugged. ‘None taken.’

‘If you stay in hiding, you will be vilified,’ Hank continued. ‘You will lose control of what story gets told and which leads get investigated.’

‘Spoken like a cop,’ Shep said.

‘I can’t walk from my bed to the toilet without wheezing anymore, son. I’m too tired to play sides.’ Hank’s focus shifted back to Mike. ‘I want to help you. Maybe I need a distraction. Maybe it’s more than a distraction. Hell, if I can do one right thing before…’ He made a noise, amusement at his folly, and Mike couldn’t help but wonder if Hank’s steadfastness was tied, somehow, to the worn school picture of the young boy thumbtacked to his office wall. Hank continued, ‘I spend my days staring down the barrel. I see things with a certain clarity now. Perspective, I think they call it.’

Mike started to interrupt, but Hank held up a hand, cutting him off. ‘At the moment, you’re merely a person of interest in this case. You have not been formally charged. You’ve got a very limited window to step back from the edge. Now, the situation is drastic, and you’ve never struck me as someone who wanted only convenient facts, so I’m gonna lay out the picture, and let’s skip the part where you’re outraged and emotional, because, Mike, you don’t have the time. There are whispers of infidelity, you walked in on your wife…’ His hand churned the air. ‘You can guess how that script’ll play. Ninety percent of the game right now is how you look, and you look guilty. Even your name: Michael Wingate. You created a fake identity-’

‘No,’ Mike said sharply. ‘I was never Mike Doe. I left behind a fake identity.’

‘If they charge you with assaulting your wife-’

‘Charge me for that?’

‘They can take away your health-care-proxy rights. Then who makes the choices for Annabel? And what are you gonna do with Katherine? Raise her on the run? Bonnie and Clyde, eating beans and franks under the open western sky? There’s no play like that, not in this day and age. Especially not for a parent. We’ve gotta find someone we trust and get you with the authorities.’

Shep said, ‘Bad idea.’

Hank swung his head over to take in Shep. ‘Don’t get stuck on stupid, son. This ain’t you against the world.’

‘It might be,’ Shep said. ‘He killed the man’s brother. These guys weren’t exactly agreeable before that.’

‘You’re right. They’re bad news, it’s hunting season, and they don’t have a little girl slowing them down.’

‘Hunting season,’ Shep said. ‘I like that.’

Hank kept his stare on Mike, as if Mike had made the last remark instead of Shep. ‘So that’s it? You gonna track them yourself? With an eight-year-old girl?’

Mike looked away, fidgeting.

‘She’s precocious,’ Shep answered.

‘So are William Burrell and Roger Drake. And you know what else? They’ve got more practice at this.’ Hank heaved a sigh. ‘The authorities will be able to protect you and your daughter better than you can out here on your own.’

‘Unless the authorities I land with are in with Graham,’ Mike said. ‘In which case I’d be walking myself – and Kat – into the lion’s den. I can’t protect her in custody.’

‘All cops are not corrupt,’ Hank said wearily. The dappled skin over his temple twitched. He looked suddenly brittle, as though he might shatter if you threw the wrong words at him. ‘I gotta see my doctor at eight. If you give me a few hours after that, I will find you a department with honest cops who can protect you, alert or no alert.’

‘I watched a cop come back from searching Kat’s bedroom wearing latex gloves and holding a throw-down gun,’ Mike said. ‘She’s a witness. She saw two of these men.’

‘As did everyone at that country club the night of the awards,’ Hank said. ‘Look, this thing hasn’t gone according to their plan. Kat hasn’t seen anything incriminating yet. You still have a shot to excise her from all this.’

‘Not with these guys. They’ve used her for bait once already.’

‘Can you get her to your in-laws?’ Hank asked. ‘Grandparents?’

Mike choked on the thought, swallowed to moisten his throat.

‘They wouldn’t know how to protect her.’

‘So how about Annabel?’ Hank stood and tugged his gloves from his pocket. ‘You think they’ll go after her to get to you also?’

Shep said, ‘Yes.’ He checked his watch. ‘Shift change in an hour. I need to go back to the hospital.’ He crossed and opened the front door, letting in a spill of pale gray light, the bleakest edge of morning.

Hank crowded him at the door, neither man giving way, a momentary logjam. Hank shouldered through first onto the walk and turned back. His gaze stayed on Shep, though he was addressing Mike. ‘I’ll call you in six hours with a name and a station.’

Shep pretended not to hear him. ‘Don’t trust the cops,’ he told Mike. He gestured politely, and Hank stepped aside to let him pass.

Their respective cars waited on opposite ends of the lot. Breaking apart, they headed out into the storm. Mike stood in the doorway long after they’d driven off.

Chapter 33

‘Look at this. Come here.’ Her black hair arcing across her face, Dr Cha beckoned Shep closer, leaned over Annabel, and rubbed two knuckles in to her chest, hard. Still unconscious, Annabel shifted on the bed and grimaced.

‘Sternal rub,’ Dr Cha said. ‘The bone’s beneath only a millimeter of skin there, so people recoil from pressure. When they’re responsive, that is.’

The surgical ICU occupied the east wing of the ground floor, so morning light suffused the double room. The dividing curtain had been pulled back to reveal the unoccupied bed, adding some breathing space to the cramped quarters.

‘And check this.’

Shep looked up at the doctor, their faces close. Watching Annabel eagerly, Dr Cha pinched the pad of Annabel’s finger. Annabel’s hand twitched away. The doctor regarded the hand with wonder. ‘Is that not the most beautiful damn thing?’

‘Beautiful,’ Shep agreed.

Dr Cha straightened up, and Shep took a step back. She cleared her throat and adjusted her wire-frame glasses, all business again. ‘She’s breathing above the vent now, which is good. We have it set for fourteen breaths a minute, but she’s at sixteen. If this keeps up, we might get her extubated by the afternoon.’ She cocked her head. ‘Why the face? This is good news.’