confused he felt, it was better than those endless, mind-numbing days of depression, when his soul felt as if it were on fire, and consciousness itself was an unbearable burden.
'How's the investigation going? What have I missed?'
'Very well, that's enough for now,' Dr. Patel intervened. 'You mustn't wear yourself out.'
'How long have I been here?' said Lee.
Nelson and Patel exchanged a glance.
'How long?' Lee demanded.
Finally Nelson spoke.
'Three days.'
'Three days? What the hell was going on for three days?'
'You collapsed in your apartment three days ago with a cero-spinal meningitis,' Patel said, his voice very clipped and brisk.
'Cero-what?'
'It is a brain fever, usually bacterial. You remained in a coma for three days, from which you have now awakened.'
Lee looked at Nelson.
'It's true, lad,' Nelson said softly.
Lee shifted his gaze to Patel. 'Bacterial…so it's not contagious?'
'No.'
'When can I get out of here?'
'Let us not be in too much of a hurry, now,' Patel cautioned. 'You have been very ill, you know. You are responding well to the antibiotics, but-'
'But I'm working on an important case-'
'Lee,' Nelson interrupted, laying a hand on his shoulder. 'Chuck is concerned about you. We all are.'
That sounded like a prelude to bad news.
'What? What is it?' Lee demanded, feeling panic rising in his throat. 'What's happened? Was there another victim?'
'No, no, nothing's happened,' Nelson reassured him. 'It's just that-' He paused and looked away.
'He's not taking me off the case?' Lee could hear his voice tightening, becoming shrill.
'Please,' said Dr. Patel. 'Please do not become agitated-'
Nelson rubbed his left eyebrow and looked away from Lee. 'Chuck thought you could use some rest.'
'I just had three days of rest, for Christ's sake!'
'I know, I know,' Nelson replied.
Dr. Patel attempted once again to intervene. 'Now, I really must insist-'
'But Lee, you almost died! Did you know that?'
'Well, I'm here now, aren't I?'
'Gentlemen, please!' Dr. Patel's voice now held an edge of panic.
'Let me talk to Chuck,' Lee pleaded.
'You can try,' Nelson said, 'but I don't know-'
'Now you really must be leaving!' Dr. Patel practically shouted, taking Nelson by the shoulders. 'If you are not leaving I will be calling security to have you removed!'
'All right, I'm going,' Nelson growled. 'Chuck will be by when his shift is over. You can talk to him then,' he called over his shoulder as the doctor pushed him out of the room.
Patel returned to Lee's bedside after Nelson was in the hall. 'You must not be getting so upset,' he said, checking Lee's pulse. 'It really is not advisable.'
'Sorry.' Lee's temples were pulsing with pain, and his body ached with exhaustion.
Dr. Patel frowned. 'I am going to be blunt with you, Mr. Campbell. If you do not allow your body time to heal, you cannot hope to recover. If you attempt to hurry the process, you could very well end up in hospital again-or worse. Do you understand what I am saying to you?'
Lee looked away. 'Yes,' he said, trying to stifle a yawn. 'I understand.' But what he was thinking was how quickly he could talk them into letting him out of this place.
Chapter Fifty-six
By that evening Lee's head had stopped pounding. He awoke as the sun was setting, feeling ravenous. He turned his head to see Chuck sitting next to his bed, flipping through a magazine. Dr. Patel stood at the foot of the bed, studying his chart.
'I'm starving,' Lee said.
'Okay.' Chuck replied. 'What do you want?'
'A cheeseburger.'
Morton smiled. 'That's got to be a good sign.'
'You're not out of the woods yet,' Dr. Patel said glumly. He seemed to think that throwing cold water on their hopeful mood was his unpleasant but necessary duty.
'Is he allowed to eat?' Chuck asked.
'If he feels hungry,' the doctor replied gloomily, as if Lee's appetite were a dismal sign.
'Okay,' Chuck said, rising and tossing the magazine on the chair. 'I'll be right back.'
'Hey, has anyone called my mother to say I'm okay?' Lee asked.
'She was here earlier, while you were asleep. She'll be back tomorrow. Oh, and Dr. Azarian stopped by too,' he added. 'She said she'd come by later.'
He darted out the door, followed by a gloomy-faced Dr. Patel.
Lee's stomach took a little hop of anticipation at the mention of Kathy's name. He longed to talk to Chuck about her, but the subject of women was a strained one between them, since things turned out the way they had with Susan. On the rebound from Lee after college, Susan Beaumont had gravitated to Chuck for many reasons, both good and bad. Lee knew this because she had told him as much after a few too many glasses of eggnog at a Christmas party a few years ago. Marrying Chuck was another way to stay close to Lee, she had said. Instead of feeling flattered, as she had perhaps expected, he reacted with guilt and dismay. He begged her never to repeat this to anyone-least of all Chuck-but he had no idea what went on between them in private. He prayed she had taken his advice. She wasn't an unkind woman, just a chronically immature one.
Susan Beaumont was exactly the kind of woman Chuck Morton was drawn to: one who seemed to need protecting. Lee thought she was an emotional vampire, but Chuck needed to be needed, and like every man who saw Susan, he was floored by her beauty-the kind of effortless, shimmering beauty that struck other women as unfair, and left men helpless and weak-kneed before her. Susan Beaumont Morton was the kind of woman who wore her good looks so casually and yet so consciously that it was hard for anyone-man or woman-to think of anything else when talking to her. But Lee sensed Circe's touch in Susan from the beginning, and just hoped she had been kind to Chuck, who still adored her after all these years of marriage, with an eager devotion Lee found touching. Chuck had always been in love with her, and Lee hoped that she had come to care for Chuck the way he deserved.
She needed things Lee couldn't give her-things he suspected no one could give another person, but Chuck Morton's mission in life regarding women was unchanging ever since Lee had known him: rescue, protect, and serve. Lee knew Chuck's protectiveness extended to him as well, and he was touched by it. He could tease Chuck about that, but he would never tease his friend about his relationship to women. Chuck believed to this day that Susan had left Lee for him. Lee allowed him to believe this fiction because it was easier on everyone-or so he hoped.
But Kathy Azarian was different. He had dated more beautiful women, others besides Susan, but no one who touched him quite the way Kathy did. Was it the way she wrinkled her forehead when she was thinking hard, or the way she pursed her lips to one side, the single lock of curly hair that fell over her eyes? It was that and more-the sound of her low, throaty voice, the slight lisp in her speech, the way she wrapped her fingers around his arm as
