Page 6 (1/2)
AS the night crept by, the nurse periodically checked Escott, ood that would do Coldfield kept up with the co new to say, just looked tired
Escott got worse, sinking as we stood by The sound of his fast, shallow breathing filled the little room It was the only sound in the world I hated it, and I didn&039;t want it to stop
I thought about calling Vivian Gladwell Escott hadn&039;t wanted her to knoas in the hospital Would he want her here now? Would it help? I couldn&039;t work it out, couldn&039;t decide, couldn&039;t do anything
Faustine caet her She&039;d shed the reporters I hardly noticed when she hugged me, then moved on to speak to Bobbi Couldn&039;t hear what she said, but after a ether until they were in the hall Soon as she was out ofI went to the door Bobbi wept and clung hard to Faustine, who slowly took her toward Roland&039;s roo in Russian The words didn&039;ttone in the up the wall, hat in hand, overcoat draped over one ar her pretty hard," he observed "Must really like him"
"They&039;re close friends, yeah"
"Friends with a dame How &039;bout that?"
I&039;d heard him say it before "It can happen Like me and Adelle Taylor"
The mention of her name caused Kroun to crack a brief, pleased smile When it came to Adelle, he was starstruck "She&039;s friends with your pal in there?"
"Yeah She is Listen, you don&039;t have to stay"
He shrugged "When you gonna do so"
"Yeah, I got that from the doc What about you?"
"I can&039;t-I what?"
"Give him some blood"
Must have misheard hiht of it A lot But I couldn&039;t decide; I just didn&039;t knohat Escott would want "It e It hardly ever-"
Kroun gavea new entry on the clipboard He walked around her to the bedside Coldfield straightened to glare first at him then me
"He looks like hell," said Kroun, his attention on Escott "Why haven&039;t you done anything yet?" This was directed my way He dropped his coat and hat on the chair
"Done what?" Coldfield rue on Charles" There was only so much I could say with the nurse present I closed the door to keep things private
"An exchange?"
"The kind that made me like I ahtened to face Kroun
"Yeah He&039;s in the same club"
"What?"
"Hey!" Kroun hadn&039;t wanted that news spread
"What&039;s it matter?" I said
Coldfield pointed at Kroun "He&039;s like you?"
"That a probleain with enough e was clear "You know Charles best, ould he want?"
Coldfield visibly fought to focus He otten details from Escott at some time or other about how vah ht return, but it rarely worked, or there&039;d be a lot ht not come back as I had done "It wouldodds, Shoe Real long Against"
It was a lot to take in, a lot to think about He looked at Escott, then at odda for?"
"I can try, but you&039;ve got to understand that-"
"Cripes," said Kroun, disgusted "Stop wasting tiive him blood before it&039;s too late"
The nurse had picked up that so out of the ordinary was afoot "A transfusion?" she said
"Yeah, sweetheart, one of those"
"Let et the doctor" She sidled toward the door
"Ahhh, cripes" Kroun slipped his suit coat off and unbuttoned one shirt cuff, rolling it up
"Sir, you can&039;t just-"
He ignored her The tulass straas still on the bedside table He took the straw and snapped it in half, then dumped the leftover water on the floor and put the tue
"Sir? What are stop!" Her voice shot up
Kroun let out a few ripe words as he swiped the jagged end of the straw hard across his exposed wrist Blood suddenly flooded out He held his wrist over the glass to catch the flow
We stood rooted-me, Coldfield, and the nurse-too shocked to rirabbed up a discarded coht on the cut The bloodsmell hit me hard
"Gabe?"
"Not now" Kroun tapped Escott&039;s face with the back of his hand "Hey Hey, pal Wake up Come on!" He hit harder, once, twice, and Escott&039;s eyelids fluttered Hemoan He wasn&039;t awake, but could respond a little Kroun held the glass to Escott&039;s lips and tilted it
The nurse screaht her and kept her back I didn&039;t see what good this ht do, but Kroun seemed to know his business
"Come on drink up, pal," he murmured "That&039;s it"
Some of the blood trickled down one side of Escott&039;s mouth The rest aped at ot to be tooher toward the door She pushed it violently open and kept going, shouting for help
"Gabe?"
"He got lass on the table "Didn&039;t choke" He went into the washrooot and carefully undid the cloth, holding his cut under the streah, but Escott
Bobbi rushed in "Jack?" She froze, seeing the blood that smeared Escott&039;s face and pillow "My God, what are you DOING?"
The doctor, arriving hat see and almost as loudly While he checked Escott, he also instructed several heavyweight orderlies to escort us froht, but Kroun caught the doctor&039;s eye for a moment I was too busy to hear, but the eviction was abruptly canceled, and the orderlies and everyone else were kicked out of the roo in with other bystanders attracted by the co me, Bobbi, Coldfield, and Kroun inside with the oblivious, hypnotically wham mied doctor
Kroun sat the s fell quiet except for the fast, labored saw of Escott&039;s breathing He was fully out again
Bobbi started up "What did you do to Charles?" She&039;d aimed both barrels into help" His bleeding had stopped, leaving a hell of a red welt on his wrist He frowned at it
She put that together with the blood on Escott "Ho does that help?"
He didn&039;t answer, just shook his sleeve down, buttoning the cuff
I stumbled out with a half-assed account of what he&039;d done
Bobbi looked at Escott, then at us "Will it help hied "Maybe Left it late Have to wait and see"
"Jack, will this turn Charles into-"
"I don&039;t know Gabe?"
He shrugged again, pulled on his coat, buttoned it, checked his handkerchief If he started fiddling with it again, I&039;d knock his block off
"C&039;mon talk to us How did you know to do that? I never heard of it"
"Well, it&039;s a big world, you learn so like this!"
"Hey! Sickrooood arotta talk, da Then, "No I don&039;t"
He went out
"Son of a bitch," ru"
"You&039;re all crazy," said Bobbi She went to Escott, found a clean, damp cloth, and dabbed at the blood It took her a while; her tears were back
I went to her, but she didn&039;t want to be held
Soo-ink how?" she asked, gently easing inside A daood question "Bob-beee, poor da&039;link You let ht, I need to stay"
Faustine looked hard at the doctor, as still out for the count "Zen I find coffee Yesss?"
No one turned her down She swept out I heard her dealing with the crowd in the hall, telling thenized the nurse&039;s voice raised in challenge, but Faustine wouldn&039;t let her by and kept asking about coffee
Hours of hell later I went looking for Kroun
He was in a dark waiting rooazine The glowing spill froh for our kind to read by, but it looked odd I turned the light on
He squinted "Ow Too bright"
"Too bad"
"How&039;s your friend?"
It was hard to speak Almost too hard I had to s, and my mouth was cotton dry "His his fever&039;s down He&039;s breathing better"
"That&039;s good"
"Is he going to need a second dose?"
"Nope" Kroun turned a page
"The doctor woke up"
"He reood, too"
"He checked Charles out, took a blood sample, did some other stuff The infection&039;s Charles seeoddaed "Maybe it is Thanks for telling your big friend about aphone"
"He had to know"
"No, he didn&039;t"
"Coldfield won&039;t say anything Who&039;d believe him?"
"That&039;s not the point-"
"Where&039;d you learn that angle on the blood? Who told you?"
"Doesn&039;t matter" He continued to read
"The hell it does The one who made me didn&039;t know, and neither did the one who made her Who did your initiation?"
"Drop it, kid"
Was he asha "You don&039;t have to go into detail"
"I&039; into it at all"
"Where&039;d you meet her? When?"
"You deaf? I&039;m not-"
"Or was it a man?"
That netted me a beaut of a "what the hell did you just say?" expression
It lasted about two seconds
I blinked at dark green linoleum, disoriented I was facedown on the floor with no understanding of how I&039;d gotten there My jaw hurt and hurt bad I triedwith a sudden burst of agony and the taste of my own blood-told me it was broken Shattered maybe In several places The rest of e
When I resuh I still drew a blank on what had happened I foundit slow
Kroun sat in his chair as before, but leaning forward, rubbing the knuckles of his right hand They were raw and red His expression was cal off, or do you want your face rearrangedleftover blood from my mouth with the back of one hand
"Well?"
"I&039;azine up from the floor "And the es filled with pictures about hunting and fishing "I need to get out of this town"
"Thought you still had business"
"I do To else"
"No need to hang around here"
"Soet about Michael and Broder already?"
"You could say"
"Word of warning: don&039;t Mike looks nice, but he isn&039;t Broder looks dangerous, and he is"
I&039;d figured that out already; Kroun just wanted a change of subject "I&039;ll keep that in ht"
"No problears It seeoaded his up here then we&039;ll go Thank you"
"Mrunted again and found a page to read
Bobbi looked up when I came in She smiled-a small, sleepy one-but my world tilted another notch back toward its proper place onceas she smiled like that
"Faustine&039;s left?" I asked
"She&039;s bunking in Roland&039;s room," she said "If there&039;s ot s?"
"Not that I know of"
I checked Escott over again for the u and steady, no longer racing fit to tear itself apart
"It&039;s getting late for you," she said