Page 28 (1/2)

The current crisis hadn’t quite reached us yet, but it looht he needed to know that Bob Robertson was not a loner but a conspirator

The trick would be to deliver this news convincingly but without revealing that I’d found Robertson dead in

numerous laithout co resting place

When I turned the corner half a block frohts on in several houses at that late hour The chief’s place blazed brighter than any other

Four police cruisers stood in front of the house All had been parked hastily, at angles to the curb The roof-rack beacons of one car still flashed, revolved

On the front lawn, across which rhythht chased waves of blue, five officers gathered in conversation Their pos­ture suggested that they were consoling one another

I had intended to park across the street from the chief’s house I would have called his private nu a story that avoided any mention of my recent exertions as a dead- of the heart, I abandoned the Chevy in the street, beside one of the patrol cars I switched the head­lights off but left the engine running, with the hope that none of the cops would get close enough to see that no keys were in the ignition

The officers on the laere all known to me They turned to face me as I ran to them

Sonny Wexler, the tallest and toughest and softest-spoken of the group, extended one brawny ar past hiot CSI work­ing the place"

Until now I had not seen Izzy Maldanado on the front porch He rose fro to on his knees, and stretched to get a kink out of his back

Izzy works for the Maravilla County Sheriff’s Department crime lab, which contracts its services to the Pico Mundo police When the body of Bob Robertson was eventually found in that Quonset hut,

Izzy wouldthe scene for evidence

Although I desperately wanted to knohat had happened here, I couldn’t speak I couldn’t s Sounsuccessfully to choke down that phantoht of Gunther Ulstein, a h School band, who had experienced occasional difficulty sing Over several weeks, the condition rapidly greorse Before he had it diagnosed, cancer of the esophagus spread all the way into his larynx

Because he couldn’t s, his weight plu subsequently to reth of his colon Radiation therapy failed hi, as he had been in his final days, Gunny Ulstein can usually be found in a rocking chair on the front porch of the house that he built himself His wife of thirty years, Mary, still lives there

During his last feeeks of life, he had lost his ability to speak He’d had so much that he wanted to say to Mary - how she had al­ways brought out the best in his with the subtlety and the range of eers now, regretting what he failed to say, futilely hoping that as a ghost he will find a way to speak to her

Aif it would have kept ht you ht that’s why you came The chief’s been shot"

Jesus Bustao now, soed the chief three times in the chest on his own front porch"

My stomach turned over, over, over, al beacons on the nearby cruiser, and the phantoe rose into the back of my throat

I must have paled, must have wobbled on suddenly loose knees, for Jesus put an arainst my back to support me, and Sonny Wexler said quickly, "Easy, kid, easy, the chief’s alive He’s bad off, but he’s alive, he’s a fighter"

"The doctors are working on hiht now," said Billy Munday, whose port-wine birthely in the night, lending his and portents and evils iot to be I hter," Sonny repeated

"Which hospital?" I asked

"County General"

I ran to the car that I’d left in the street

FORTY

THESE DAYS, MOST NEW HOSPITALS IN SOUTHERN CALI­fornia rese discount carpet or business supplies in bulk The bland architecture doesn’t inspire confi­dence that healing can occur within those walls

County General, the oldest hospital in the region, features an im­pressive porte-cochere with li cornice all the way around the building At first sight of it, you know that nurses and doctors work inside, instead of sales clerks

The main lobby has a travertine floor, not industrial carpet, and the travertine face of the information desk boasts an inlaid bronze ca­duceus

Before I reached the desk, I was intercepted by Alice Norrie, a ten-year veteran of the PMPD, as running interference to keep re­porters and unauthorized visitors frooing to be there awhile"

"Where’s Mrs Porter?"

"Karla’s in the ICU waiting rooht from the OR"

The intensive-care unit was on the fourth floor In a tone meant to imply that she would have to arrestup there"

"You don’t have to bust ave me"

I took the elevator to the second floor, where County General has its operating rooht OR proved easy Rafus Carter, in uniforuard outside the door

As I approached through the fluorescent glare, he rested his right hand on the butt of his holstered gun

He saw me react to his suspicion, and he said, "No offense, Odd, but only Karla could coet my back up"

"You think he was shot by somebody he knew?"

"Almost had to be, which means it’s probably sohter," I said, echoing Sonny Wexler’s mantra

Rafus Carter said, "He better be"

I returned to the elevator Between the third and fourth floors, I pressed the STOP button

Uncontrollable tres too weak to stand on, I slid down the wall of the cab and sat on the floor

Life, Storree of grace It’s about perseverance, about staying on your feet and slogging forward no y, this life is boot cah all its obstacles and all the wounds that it inflicts, you cannot h adventure, which she calls