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Crow had awakened around dawn and Terry had filled hiht’s events, but as he talked Crow’s eyes kept drifting shut and Terry had no idea how much of it his friend had absorbed A nurse caave hirasped the logic of--and Terry sat by the bedside and watched Crow sleep, feeling wretchedly guilty

He felt that by sending Crow to the hayride he’d soer’s attack on the Guthries Maybe if Crow had just gone out to Val’s as he’d planned Henry would still be alive and the rest of the Guthrie family--and Croould not be in various roo was absurd, that no one could really ascribe any of the blao of the notion, and for that reason he could not bring himself to leave Crow’s side

As he sat there he wondered how long he would have to wait before he popped another Xanax The first one was really not doing hi every ounce of his willpower not to screa up, so Crow gave it up and passed out again He slept for hours and drea blues to hiuitar

A couple of hours later he gave it another try and opened his eyes This time the pain in his head wasn’t quite so sharp, and the nausea seemed to have ebbed--but every other part of his body hurt like hell, and his entire waist felt constricted and on fire

He jacked open one eye and peered around until he saw Terry Wolfe sprawled in an orange plastic chair a few feet away Terry had his ankles crossed and propped up on a s limp, his red hair was badly combed, and he looked like he’d slept in his suit in an alleyway He had a copy of the Black Marsh Sentinel folded on his lap "Good ," Crow said with a dry throat "You’re a picture to wake up to"

Terry’s smile made him look old and thin and miserable "How d’you feel?"

"Like shit"

"That’s pretty much how you look"

"What time is it?"

"Al"

"You been here all night?"

"No," Terry said, gesturing at his clothes, "as you see I went hoed into my best dinner jacket"

Crow licked his dry lips and Terry took the cup of ice water off the bedside table and held the straw up to hiain, and then nodded

"Don’t get used tothe cup As he sat down again he peered assessingly at Crow "You faded out on me earlier Don’t knohat you heard or didn’t hear"

"About what happened? I dunno" His faced clouded as he tried to think through the cobwebs He gave a sad sigh as the pieces fell back into place "Ah, jeez," he murmured "I know Henry’s dead And Val, Mark, and Connie are all here in the hospital Reain…does Val know about her dad?"

"Yeah," Terry said "I told her last night, but she ired to the eyeballs withShe took it as well as so much She’s pretty torn up"

"When will they let me in to see her?"

Terry shook his head "I asked Saul Weinstock earlier, but he said that you shouldn’t get out of bed for at least a full day Besides, they have her pretty heavily sedated I think letting her rest would be a greater kindness, Crow"

Crow nodded, but he didn’t like it "I can’t believe that son of a bitch got away This is too weird for me, man I feel like I drea--I think I ht I was back inup after a bender I still feel like I’ht now! he thought, aching for a Jack Daniel’s neat and an icy schooner of Sam Adams

"Almost be nice if that’s all it was"

"How’s that officer? The one as shot? Rhoda?"

Terry frowned "She’s alive, doing okay They took a couple of slugs out of her, but she’s young and that’ll probably count for so"

"What about Val’s family?"

Shadows drifted across Terry’s face and he rubbed his eyes "Connie was roughed up pretty badly Not raped, thank God, but smacked around and terrorized They admitted her and she’s still under sedation Mark’s here, too He has a broken nose, lost two teeth, and is suffering froer?"

Terry drew in a breath, held it, and then blew it out He shook his head "Nope They didn’t find a single trace of him except some footprints that went nowhere and then vanished into some mud puddles and that was that I er, which the cops are finding hard to take They can’t wrap their ht hioes, by the way, the general consensus is that either youa vest of so him around a little and then drive him off"