ruddy-faced MDC cop that had picked me up was sitting on one of the other treatment tables in the cubicle off the emergency room. His partner leaned against the door jamb. He was skinny with pimples.
'I'll need a statement,' ruddy-face said.
'Yeah, I imagine. Look, you know Quirk, homicide commander?'
He nodded.
'Call him, tell him I'm here and need to see him. He'll come down and I'll give the statement to both of you. You been through my wallet yet?'
'Yep.'
'Okay, you know my name and my line of work. It's important that Quirk gets what I have to say. A guy might get killed, and he's the key to a couple of murders.'
The doctor returned with my X rays and pushed past Pimples into the room. 'As I said, rib cracked. I'll tape it and bandage the wound, then we'll put you to bed. In two or three days you'll be back on your feet.'
Ruddy-face said to his partner, 'Go call the lieutenant, Pooler.'
Pooler said, 'How come he gets special treatment? I say we get his statement and let Quirk know through channels.'
'That's what you say, huh.' Ruddy-face took out a big wooden kitchen match and stuck it in his mouth and chewed on it.
'Yeah, how come because the guy's got a private license we have to kiss his ass. Quirk'll get to his statement when he's ready.'
Ruddy-face took the match out of his mouth and examined the chewed end.
'You be sure and call the lieutenant by his last name when you see him, Pooler. He'll like that. Makes him feel he's popular with the men.'
'Jesus Christ… '
Ruddy-face got a very hard sound into his voice. 'Goddammit, Pooler, will you call the lieutenant? This guy got shot, two other people got killed. Lieutenant's going to see him anyway. If he knows him maybe he'll want to see him sooner. Why would this guy make up the story? 'Cause he's queer for the lieutenant? If the guy's right and we don't call we'll be directing traffic in South Dorchester Christmas morning.'
Pooler went. The doctor was busy wrapping my rib cage and ignored them both.
'Where am I?' I asked her. 'Boston City?'
'Yep.'
When the doctor got through a nurse wheeled me up to a ward bed. The ruddy-faced cop came with me. His partner stayed down to wait for Quirk. The ward was half-empty and depressing.
'It'll be full by morning,' the nurse said. She cranked up the bed and she and the cop slid me onto it.
'Doctor says give you a shot to help you sleep,' she said.
'Not yet,' I said. ''Wait until I've talked with the cops.'
Ruddy-face nodded at her that he agreed.
'Okay,' she said to ruddy-face. 'Tell the floor nurse when you're through and we'll come in and give him his shot then.' She left. Ruddy-face sat down beside the bed.
'How you feel?' he asked.
'Like I been kicked in the side by a giraffe,' I said.
He fumbled inside his coat and brought out a pint of Old Overholt.
'Want a shot before the nurse gets back?' he said.
I took the bottle.
'Crank me up,' I said. He raised the head end of the bed so I was half-sitting, and I inhaled half his bottle.
I handed him back the bottle. He wiped the top off with his hand in an unconscious gesture of long practice, and took a long pull. He handed it back to me.
'Finish it,' he said. 'I got another one in the car.'
The liquor burned hot in my stomach, and the pain was a little duller. Quirk arrived; Belson was with him. Quirk looked at the bottle and then at ruddy-face. I put the bottle down empty on the night stand away from ruddy-face.
'Where'd he get the bottle, Kenneally?'
Ruddy-face shrugged. 'Musta had it with him, Lieutenant. How ya doing, Frank?'
Quirk said, 'I'll bet.'
Belson nodded at ruddy-face.
'Okay'?Quirk turned to me?'lemme have it.'
Belson had a notebook out. Ruddy-face got up and moved to the end of the ward, where he broke out a new match and began to chew on it.
'I'm fine, thanks, Lieutenant. Just a little old bullet wound.'
'Yeah, good, let's hear it all. There's two carcasses downstairs right now that the MDC people brought in from Jamaica Pond. I want to hear.'
I told him. He listened without interruption. When I got through he turned to Belson. 'You see the two, Frank?'
'Yeah. One of them is a gofer for Joe Broz, Sully Roselli. I don't know the other one. His driver's license says Albert J. Brooks. Mean anything to you?'
Quirk shook his head and looked at me. I shook mine too.
'CID is looking into him,' Belson said. 'Right, now see what you can do about getting a leash on Hayden. Pick up and hold.'
'Yates will be disappointed,' I said.
'Can't be helped,' Quirk said. 'Hayden's a witness to attempted murder and two homicides. Got to bring him in.'
Quirk looked back at me thoughtfully. 'Two of them in the dark,' he said. 'Not bad.' He nodded at Belson and they left. As they went out Quirk said to Kenneally, 'Tell the nurse we're through. And don't give him any more booze.'
By the time the nurse got there I was halfway under again and barely felt the needle jab.
Chapter 21
I woke up in bright daylight, confused, to the sound of a monotonous deep cough from the other end of the room. I shifted in the bed and felt the pain in my side and remembered where I was. The coughing went on down the ward. I creaked myself around on the bed, dropped my legs over the side, and got myself sitting up. All the beds were full. I had a hospital johnny and an adhesive sash around my torso. Very natty. I stood up. My legs felt spongy, and I braced myself with one hand against the bed. Steady. I walked the length of the bed. Not bad. I walked back to the head. Better. I U-turned, back toward the foot. Then I started down the length of the ward. Slow, shaky, but halfway down I didn't have to hold on. An old man with no teeth mumbled to me from one of the beds.
'You get hell if they catch you out of bed,' he said.
'Watch,' I said.
I kept going. All the way to the end of the ward, then back, then down the ward again. I was feeling balanced and ambulatory when the floor nurse came in. She had a cheerful Irish face and a broad beam. She looked at me as if I'd messed on the floor.
'Oh, no,' she said. 'Right back in the bed, there. We're not supposed to be strolling around. Come on.'
'Cookie,' I said, 'we are doing more than strolling. We are getting the hell out of here as soon as we can find our pants.'
'Nonsense, I want you to hop right back in that bed. This minute.' She clapped her hands sharply for emphasis.
'Don't do that,' I said. 'I may faint, and you'll have to give me mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.' I kept on
