You just gotta keep your eyes open to see it happen.”
Delroy pulled his bathrobe a little tighter and wished that the hospital had provided him shoes. His own were as soaked as his clothes. Despite being dry now, he still felt cold.
The deputy grinned and indicated the bathrobe. “How you like the hospitality?”
“I don’t have any clothes,” Delroy said, “except for the wet ones.” He kicked the bag containing the sodden mess at the side of his chair. “I’ve been thinking about putting these back on, but I was hoping to find a laundry nearby. I guess I left my duffel.”
“I’ve got your duffel out in my cruiser,” the deputy said. “I saw it and took it with me. Figured you wasn’t going but to one place after the doc cleared you: the Crossbar Hotel. I give you your clothes earlier, why you mighta gotten all dressed up and cut outta here before I had a chance to figure out what was what.”
Delroy didn’t know how he felt about that. In all his life, he’d never been arrested. “Am I going to be arrested?”
The question upped the interest of many of the nearby onlookers.
A few of them started whispering to each other, their attention diverted from the televisions in two corners of the room.
“Nah,” the deputy replied, shaking his head. “I’m not gonna arrest you. Just wanted to make sure you were all right, return your duffel to you, see if you’d come clean about the fight, and see what your plans were.”
“Plans?” Delroy frowned. He hadn’t made any plans past reaching the cemetery.
“Yeah,” the deputy said. “What you plan on doing after you suit up in some of those clothes I’m gonna bring you?”
“I—” Delroy hesitated and decided to go with the truth. “I don’t have any plans.”
The deputy looked squarely at Delroy and nodded. “Kind of figured that. Lying in the graveyard like you was, you didn’t look like a man that had planned his every move. You got anybody here in town you know?”
Delroy immediately thought of Glenda. But he didn’t know if his wife—or ex-wife, as the case might be—was still in Marbury. She might have been taken in the Rapture.
No, not might have been, Delroy told himself. She’s gone. She’s up there. She’s up there right now with Terrence. He hoped that he was right, and was instantly ashamed that he didn’t simply believe that.
“No,” Delroy said. “Nobody.”
The deputy thought for a moment, took his glasses off, cleaned them, and put them back on. “The floor nurse said she recognized your name.”
Delroy didn’t say anything. Knowing that people might know who he was didn’t sit well. The ones who knew him also knew that he’d quit coming back home after Terrence was killed and had more or less abandoned his family. He felt shamed about that.
“She told me your daddy used to be a preacher around here,” the deputy said. “You bein’ a chaplain and all, well I guess you followed in his footsteps.”
“On my best day,” Delroy stated, “I was never the man or the preacher that my father was.” He knew that was true.
The deputy nodded and looked like he didn’t know what to say.
“I’ve got money, Deputy,” Delroy said. “Once you get me my clothes, I’ll get out of here and find a hotel.” After that, he had no clue about what to do.
“Thought you might do something else before you did that,” the officer said.
“What’s that?”
“Buy me breakfast,” the deputy said. “After all, I saved your life out there. Should be worth at least a stake in a breakfast. I figure you gotta be hungry and you probably don’t know the best place to eat at in Marbury if you ain’t been here for a while. It’s Hazel’s, of course. Probably was around even back in your day.”
“Yes, it was,” Delroy admitted, surprised at how comforting that information was. His father had taken him there as a boy, and he’d gone there on Saturday mornings with Glenda when he was on leave before they did their weekly shopping down at the farmer’s market and Werther’s IGA.
“Well, then,” the deputy said, “I gotta admit if you knew about Hazel’s then, you’d have probably found it on your own. But if you weren’t buying me breakfast, why then you’d have been without company, wouldn’t you?”
Delroy didn’t feel like company, but he didn’t feel right about rejecting the deputy’s offer.
“Don’t go and be thinking about it so much,” the officer said with an honest smile. “I’m a cheap date. You can afford me.”
Despite the sadness and melancholy that weighed within him, Delroy couldn’t help but feel a little amused at the big man. “What’s your name, Deputy? I didn’t get the chance to go through your wallet.” “Oh, it wouldn’ta done you any good,” the deputy replied. “My wife goes through it regular enough for the both of you.” He stuck out a big, freckled hand. “Name’s Purcell. Walter Purcell.”
Delroy took the man’s hand and felt the man’s strength again. “All right then, Walter, I’ll treat you to breakfast.”
“Well, you should,” Walter said. “Getting off pretty cheap for having your life saved.” He sounded tough and serious, but he winked.
“Well, what’re you standing around for?”
Delroy gestured at the bathrobe. “My clothes.”
“Hazel won’t mind the bathrobe,” Walter assured him. Then held his hands up. “I’m just joshing you. I’ll be right back with your duffel.” He turned and was gone.
Delroy watched the deputy go, wondering what he was letting himself in for by agreeing to have breakfast with the man. If Deputy Purcell hadn’t insisted on breakfast, Delroy knew he wouldn’t have eaten. He was also certain Walter knew that.
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In Radu Stolojan’s office, the computer twittered.
The sound drew the producer’s attention at once. Only one person had access to the videophone capabilities of the computer. He leaned forward and tapped his security code to answer the call.
The
