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"You found her discarded bandaging," said Escott "That&039;s not proof of her death

It&039;s not proof of anything except that they&039;ve likely been changed for a proper dressing"

But he hadn&039;t seen them, seen how much blood was on them I stared out the frontof the Nash as the streets slipped past in one strearay blur

Coldfield snorted "Charles, if he wants to feel guilty about her being dead, go ahead and let him"

"We don&039;t know that she&039;s dead"

"Yeah, but he did spend half the night hauling those bags offor her"

"He was filling in the tiet Doc out"

"And if the money hadn&039;t been there,that tiht have helped her"

"Now, that&039;s quite unfair to-"

"Charles" I held up a hand "Stop defending ht Let&039;s just leave it at that"

He opened his mouth like he wanted to say ht It didn&039;t work on Coldfield, atching the road

"Yeah, she&039;s probably stone cold by now Of course, if you&039;d really worked at it last night and found her, everything would be different She&039;d still be dead, but etting distracted"

The flash of rage that shot throughIt seemed to roar up and envelop me like red flames Escott reacted as if he saw and felt it, too, and flinched, his face going white

"Jack" he whispered "No"

Coldfield ignored us "On the other hand, if she&039;s alive, then you&039;re feeling sorry for yourself for no reason at all, unless it&039;s so I know people like that, and I never do havefro fro I didn&039;t dare, for then I ht kill him

"On the other hand, what happened is what happened and can&039;t be changed or made better I&039;d say you did the best you could at the tio at that until we find out one way or another about the girl"

Escott held his breath for the longest time, and even over the sound of the car I could hear his heart thu fit to burst A fewto go berserk after all, the harsh pounding eased, and he let his pent-up air sigh out very slow and easy

I i, had to shut et ain I wasn&039;t ready to talk and be polite yet, but was past the point of being dangerous to anyone within shouting distance of me, myself included

About five minutes later I looked at Coldfield "You really are a son of a bitch"

He glanced over, chuckled once, and kept driving

We were going straight to the roadhouse and only barely staying inside the speed lied and ran some when he saw the cross streets were clear If there were any cops around, they weren&039;t interested in us

When I&039;d co out of the clinic without Opal, he&039;d started the car and pulled forward, ready to brake when I stopped, only I&039;d not stopped, but kept co, to vanish and reappear in the seat next to Escott so as not to waste time

Coldfield had nearly swerved off the road at this I barely noticed, being too busy telling theo next Then I told them what I&039;d found-or rather not found- in the house on the corner and the dark conclusion I&039;d drawn froer settled back into its box There was no point beingto hear it Guilt and self-pity were old, unwelco in to set aith it You&039;d think I&039;d know better by now Coldfield certainly did and could recognize when a h his as usually a lot more diplo shot Sullivan probably wouldn&039;t be there, but I was ga soone or how to contact hione, then he&039;d be in some place Maxwell didn&039;t know about, but that the local muscle would That&039;s where I would put the pressure until so the floor in time to call out the turn we needed and asked Coldfield to cut the lights and stop just before we ca for a look ahead and made it out at the sah into the black sky

"Holy hell," said Coldfield, and hit the gas

The sight didn&039;t get any better the closer we got; the whole joint was on fire and so far gone it&039;d be useless to call for help The building was already collapsing in on itself Noveranda

Coldfieldus an eyeful of the destruction, and pulled up behind it The parking lot was clear of cars, but we did see evidence that so two of them behind I boosted out of the Nash before it stopped and hurried toward the slack forravel The fire created its own hot wind, and it plucked at my clothes

Even at a distance you can tell the difference between alive and dead The dead seem smaller, even when they aren&039;t The first man I came to had been shot in the back of the head andto run or resist Maybe he hadn&039;t knohat hit hione, and I went sick at the s A few feet fro the interht from the fire at my back-45s The killer must have stood about there with a semiauto in hand and

I walked around to see the dead nized his coat He was in profile, his eyes were still open, and hadn&039;t clouded over yet

Baker

The second s throide There was a hole in his back, which may have stopped him, and another in his head, which had certainly killed hi, a thick line of spittle and blood flowing fro He was alive

I bawled at Escott and Coldfield to hurry over

Coldfield turned the car heater up as high as it would go; I took the coat from Baker&039;s body and wrapped it close over Calloway, a futile attempt to keep him warm, then we put him in the backseat and drove like ht he had a snowball&039;s chance of surviving, but it hat you&039;re supposed to do, so ere doing it

"It had to be Angela," I said In my own ears ot back he could give her whatever information she&039;d need on the layout of the place She&039;d want to hit it to get back at Sullivan She&039;d kill these guys on principle sion when Kyler and then Sullivan caht," said Escott

"It is right Blowing off the back of a guy&039;s skull is her specialty I&039;ve seen her do it and not even blink"

"Sullivan could also do it just as easily"

"Why should he shoot his own ed "It see as an alternative You did express suspicion that he was himself behind the hit at the hotel, for reasons yet unknown I also have doubts on why she would attee"

"She knows he doesn&039;t dare hurt Opal since he needs her, too"

"I&039; here"

"She&039;s crazy like her old man"

"But not foolish, it&039;sthat you&039;d freed Doc, he er As with the clinic, he&039;d make certain to be very much elsewhere"

"Okay, if that&039;s true, then why should his pet cops loiter here being targets?"

Another shrug "As decoys? Distractions? But we&039;ve not enough infor Sullivan and his companions could all be back there in that" He jerked a thumb in the direction of the roadhouse, noell behind us

I hated the idea, for it meant that Opal could be there as well

"But we need solid infor further inquiries with our reluctant guest in the trunk is in order"

"Yeah, but not just yet"

Coldfield grunted "Gunshot wounds, Charles The doctors are gonna bring in the police Then when they see this is another cop"

"Yes, you don&039;t want to be hanging about when they start asking aard questions"

"It&039;s ht, well, you&039;ll just have to leave me at the hospital to deal with this bother and you two carry on Jack also cannot afford to have too much official attention focused on hiot him there? Or even why you happened to be at the roadhouse in the first place? You can lose your license over this I say you just dump him and we drive like hell away from there"

"I&039;ll stay and help," I said, before Escott could answer "I can keep the cops fro too curious"

Escott shook his head "Thank you While both your suggestions are worthy of consideration, I&039;ve already decided on my own solution to the dilemma"

"Which is?"

"I call Adkins His name, authority, and hero status should be able to sh spots with the police Besides, we can use the opportunity to present our other passenger to him"

"He didn&039;t strike me as the type to do anyone favors," I said

"Then you should be available to persuade hi Adkins&039;s face clean of all expression appealed to me enormously "Sure, count me in"

I checked on Calloway He was still breathing, barely, which was a miracle How he could even be alive with a bullet in the head was past

If Angela had done it-and I was sure she had-it was going to raise one hell of a stink with the New York bosses They&039;d be out two valuable assets with Baker and Calloway gone, along with all the future revenue froiti those kinds of places, it was a great way to clean up their ela wouldn&039;t care about such details She&039;d want to get back at Sullivan, and this was fast, direct, and brutal- her way ofpoint Just too bad for the dead men I said asto concern Escott "Doubtless it ork against her in the sense that two undesirable elements in the police force have been removed

One may hope it will improve the overall standard"

"Two more heads lopped off the Hydra?"

"Exactly"

His cold attitude was understandable He&039;d not spent any time with the men; they weren&039;t much more than abstractions to him Not that I&039;d liked them either, they&039;d both been bastards, but h of life to be cured ofall hope for a person, any person-at least when I was in control enough to think about it-even Calloho had wanted to kill me With that in ive them a way clear of the darkness It looked like they hadn&039;t ducked through in time Someone had taken even that slim chance for redemption away from theht One of these nights I just et hi had eaten away at his soul Of course, I could just hypnotize it out of hiht Better to do it the old-fashioned way

Sudden bright lights in a bleak neighborhood Coldfield pulled up to the hospital&039;s eo for help

Coldfield opened the trunk and kept a lookout while I pulled Maxwell free and carried hiht have been safer, but I didn&039;t want to sit there With the little overhead light on so I could work, I said Maxwell&039;s nah, and I put him under just as fast before he could do much more than widen his eyes in shock

"Okay, Max, we&039;ve been looking for Sullivan, and he&039;s not at the clinic or the roadhouse Where else would he go?"

He struggled with that one for a while, then finally gave up I knew better, or thought I did, and kept at hi I started asking about the et at least one useful nanieirone place to search I got a few of each, writing them down, but had a lot of doubts on whether any would prove useful His best tip pointed back toward New York, with the naht call to ask for help if he needed it Just the nah, Maxwell didn&039;t have the number in his head; Sullivan was always the one to deal with the big boys Maybe Escott could find a way to turn one up, but not anytietting myself noticed by that crew, either It sees local

"Doesn&039;t sound likeat my list

"I&039;ll have to make the rounds of the town, try to hook up with anyone who could pass the e to Sullivan that I want to talk to him"

"That&039;ll take tiame left" Well, not quite, but I didn&039;t want hi back

"You be careful You thuure you helped Angela with the fire and killings and be on the defensive That generally makes ahim to be any too reasonable, so don&039;t worry, I&039;ll watchyou off the sidewalk is a lousy way to spend an evening"

He sounded like he wasn&039;t intending to co on the hunt, which suited oing to stay out of the line of fire if I had to hog-tie theoing to otten

They were useful, but mostly as decoys to keep Coldfield and Escott busy should they decide to trail after

A few more questions for Maxwell, just so it looked like I orking hard

Whenhim to take another nap

"Now, that is a handy talent to have," said Coldfield, all admiration

"Handy like a dull knife," Imy temples

"How is it you can do that?"

Gave a shrug "I just can, is all It&039;s sort of built in with the condition, like the teeth being able to slide back when they&039;re not needed I figure it&039;s for keeping things quiet when I&039; Escott had ht fros-as in people? But Charles said-"

"Things as in aniht"

"What? Like rats, or s?"

I shot his!"

"Hey, no offense"

Waved a disotten some bad press because of that movie"

"So it&039;s cattle for you?"

"Cattle, soe to stand the blood loss without being har whatever this is

It acts on people like hypnosis"

He shook his head "Da I ever seen"

I stretched a bit in place, getting the kinks out of uess I&039;d better find out how Calloway&039;s doing and take this one in for Charles to toss to his federal friend"

"Keep him out of trouble, okay?"

"Charles? No problem"

It wasn&039;t as bad as we&039;d anticipated, the part about having to deal with the police, anyway No one had fallen over theotten Calloway checked in, so Escott took the opportunity to call Merrill Adkins and explain the situation Adkins proht over Coldfield chose to wait in his car through it all, parking well away from the hubbub near the hospital I kept hih he&039;d not been aware of any of it

A little break to give my head a rest, then I had one last session with hi questions When Adkins took him into custody, he would find him to be a reestions would eventually wear off, but by then it would be too late Maxould have turned stoolie and have to keep at it to stay alive

Leaving Coldfield behind-he was content to slouch low in the front seat and listen to the radio-Maxwell and I marched up to the front entrance of the hospital, and if his face was a bit blank and he sees, no one bothered to coency area, where I&039;d last seen Escott in a waiting room

He was still there and so was Adkins, who stood up as soon as he caught sight of -I want to talk to you"

That e frootintimidated by assholes "How&039;s Calloway?" I asked Escott

"No news yet They&039;re still working on him"

"What about the cops, they come yet?"

"An officer did wish to talk toto him"

I&039;ll bet he was "Charles, Max here ondering if there was any coffee in this joint"

"I&039;?"

"Oh, very quiet, a little sleepy, but otherwise just fine"

Escott offered a ghost of a s with suppressed hulad to hear it"

Maxwell now received a close once-over froot the ih

The waiting roo couple huddled against each other in their chairs in one corner and twoout into the hall every few ht of a doctor with news I noted them all and didn&039;t try to meet their eyes They all looked miserable, all very worried over their own troubles I would have liked another place for Adkins to interview ood as any

Adkins wore the saht, short jacket, striped scarf hanging froloves were off, but he kept the newsboy cap on indoors Either his head was cold or he was starting to go bald and was shy about letting people know about it His jacket was open, and when he sat down I caught a glimpse of a leather shoulder harness and the butt of the pistol he packed under his left arm

"So how is it you and Escott came to find that cop?" he asked without preamble

But Escott and I had already worked that story out "It&039;s connected to our earlier business with you"

One of thein on us

That&039;s when I recognized hied with Adkins, as did the other Great, I was surrounded

"With those three you turned over? How?"