He thought for a second. “That’ll be all right. What relation did …?”
“There’s another complication, Doctor. Her injuries were caused by a car bomb. She’s going to need security. What room will she be in?”
“She’ll be in the Phillips wing, room 504. I can notify the police.”
“Thanks, Doctor. I can do better than that. I’ll take care of it.”
I called Tom Burns’s private number. Fortunately he can come out of a sound sleep ready to listen. I explained what had happened. He said he’d have a good man at the room in twenty minutes. I told him this was connected with the Bradley case so he could start the meter running. He said he was more concerned about something else.
“What’s that, Tom?”
“You. You were the target, not the girl. How about if I put a man on you, too?”
“No, just her, Tom. It’d just get in the way. I’ll be careful. I’ve had the wake-up call.”
I spent the rest of the night and well into the morning beside her, holding her hand and talking to her. The nurses came and went, and I felt like an idiot, but I heard somewhere that the talking might do some good. I thought there might be something inside that was listening and wanted to come back to my voice.
Around ten o’clock I went out into the corridor and used my cell phone to call Mr. Devlin. I was relieved to see a tall man in nonmedical clothing sitting in the corridor with a good view of Lanny’s door. He had the indefinable but unmistakable stamp of private security about him. I knew Tom Burns had come through.
I relayed what had happened to Mr. Devlin. He was grim and grouchy, but there was no mistaking the tone of deep concern.
“What do the doctors say?”
“They say it’s important that she wake up. So far she hasn’t. I’m staying here with her at the hospital.”
“You do that. And call me as soon as there’s a change.”
“Thank you, Mr. Devlin. I will.”
“Another thing, sonny. I’m calling Tom Burns. I want you covered, too. This is getting way out of hand.”
It was hard to say no, but the last thing I wanted was a tail. I didn’t know where the next few days would take me, and speed and invisibility could be my two best friends. A tail could interfere with both. I said it and kept at it until Mr. Devlin backed off.
I later found out why.
22
Before going back to Lanny, I checked my messages. Nothing at the office, but there was one at home. It was from Daddy. I returned the call and got him at the club.
“Hey, Mickey, it’s like this. There were two men in here yesterday. They were asking questions about you.”
“Like what, Daddy?”
“When you be in, where you live, stuff like that.”
“What’d they look like?”
“Both Orientals. Maybe Chinese. One a big guy. He’s no sumo wrestler. A little smaller’n me. The other one’s a little guy. About your size.”
I realized anyone of normal proportions would be “a little guy” to Daddy.
“Thanks, Daddy. I know what you told them.”
“Right. Nothin’.”
It was painful, but I told Daddy about Lanny. He felt the pain, too. He, of course, asked what he could do. I told him same as me. Sit tight and pray.
I was more certain than ever that all of this could be traced back to Kip Liu, my personal perversion of Dick Clark. The gaping hole was the lack of proof. More than ever I wanted five minutes with Mei-Li.
I called Harry to see if we were still on for the next morning. After I filled him in, he was on with a vengeance.
There was no change through the day. I held Lanny’s hand and babbled on, but there was no response. Around four in the afternoon, my mind was numb. I was out of one-way conversation. The best I could do was recite song lyrics. At some point I told her I was going to say the words to one of my favorite Harry Arlen songs, “My Ship.” I got to the part where it says that the pearls and all the treasures my ship will bring will mean nothing “if the ship I sing doesn’t also bring my own true love to me.”
I could feel the wetness on my face as my head rested down on the pillow beside her. I must have fallen asleep, because I came up sharp when I thought I heard a hoarse whisper say, “Weill… Curt Weill.”
I jumped up and looked at her. Her eyes were at half-mast, but they were open.
“What? Lanny, did you say something?”
I bent down close and I could hear her say, “Curt Weill. You said it was Harry Arlen. Curt Weill wrote it.”
I grabbed her hand and almost yelled, “You came back! Lanny, stay here. Don’t move. And don’t go back to sleep!”
I ran out the door and down the corridor to the nurses’ station.
“Get the doctor! She’s awake!”
The nurse was on the pager, and the doctor arrived just after I was back beside her. I read encouragement in his face, and I started to come back to life. He checked her signs, asked her some questions, and gave orders to the nurse. He came over to me before leaving.
“That’s the big one, but there are a couple more. She seems alert and that’s the best sign. We’re treating her primarily for concussion. We’ll know a lot more in a couple of days. Were you there when it happened?”
I filled him in. “If that car door hadn’t been open and she hadn’t been leaning out. That blast…”
He just shook his head. “She had something working for her all right. I’ll tell you something else. She had to want to come back just now. You must have been saying the right things.”
I stayed another hour just holding her hand and talking. This time it was two ways. A team of nurses and younger doctors came to do some tests, so I left them alone.
I called Mr. Devlin to give him the news. It was a lift to hear that it really meant something to him. I told him I was coming back to the office and I’d check in with him. One more call to Daddy to let him know she was awake, and I was on my way.
It was dark, and the night air felt so good that I decided to walk. I came up Cambridge Street and took my usual shortcut through Pi Alley. I always loved that little paved pathway. It was actually where the newspaper trade in New England began. Printers used to throw their printing type, called “pi,” into the street, whence the name.
It was dark, but I knew every inch of the rough pavement. Fifty feet into the alley I might have heard something or just sensed that someone was behind me and gaining. I looked back and saw the outline of a man moving directly toward me.
I couldn’t tell if it was paranoia or just good, solid fear, but I picked up the pace anyway. The pace of the footsteps behind me came up, too. It was a good seventy feet to the end of the alley ahead of me. I’d have given next year’s pay for just one more human being in that alley.
I looked up and my prayer was granted double. I could see two figures coming toward me about fifty feet away, and the comfort it brought cannot be overstated. They were clearly men, which, under the circumstances was all to the good, although any form of humanity would have done.
The comfort was short-lived. The steps behind me were beginning to gain speed. I was tempted to call out to the approaching pair, but I had no idea what to say.
In what seemed like a second, the steps behind me were up to a dead run and no more than twenty feet away. The other two were still a good forty feet ahead. Even if I yelled, what could they do? I was tempted to run toward them, but it was too late.
I spun around with both fists ready. A glint of light from above played on the barrel of a gun. I braced for the shot and crouched. What I felt was a kick in the ankles that sent me sprawling. I hit the ground in a gangly lump
