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By the tiot home, I was exhausted I ht It was nearly one o’clock when I finally turned out the light I got up at six and did a three-h rabbed an apple, and arrived at the office by seven It was Tuesday and I was thankful I wasn’t scheduled for physical therapy that day Now that I thought about it, ood, or ation distracted me froes onwith from the day before I hauled out my crisscross and checked the house nuuessed Fraker, Jaone to see and why the rush It was possible, of course, that she’d consulted with both, but I couldn’t quite picture that Could Nola be the woman Bobby’d fallen in love with? I couldn’t see how Dr Fraker tied into this, but so on
I took out Bobby’s address book and tried the nue froodmother in a Walt Disney cartoon "We’re sorry, but the nuht-oh-five area code Please check the nuain Thank you" I tried the codes for surrounding areas No luck I spent a long tih the other entries in the book If all else failed, I’d have to sit here and contact each person in turn, but it seemed like a tiresome prospect and not necessarily productive In theto make house calls, but it occurred to ht iven hospital routine, she’d probably been rousted out of bed at dawn I hadn’t seen her for days anyway and she one The air was clear and the sun was already intense I slid my VW into the last available space in the vistors’ lot and went around to the front entrance The information desk in the lobby was deserted but the hospital itself was in full swing The coffee shop was ja irresistibly through the open doorway Lights were on in the gift shop The cashiers office was busy, filled with young ferand hotel nearing check-out ti up for birth and death and co overdoses… a hundred life-threatening episodes any given day of the week And through it all the insidious sexuality that made it the stuff of soaps
I went up to the third floor, turning left when I got off the elevators near 3 South The big double doors were locked, as usual, I pushed the buzzer Alter a moment, a heavyset black woman in jeans and a royal blue T-shirt rattled some keys and opened the door a crack She wore a nursy no-nonsense watch and those shoes with two-inch crepe soles designed to offset fallen arches and varicose veins She had startling hazel eyes and a face that radiated co indicated that her name was Natalie Jacks, LVN I showed Ms Jacks the photostat of my license and asked if I could talk to Kitty Wenner, explaining that I was a friend of the family
She looked my ID over carefully and finally stepped back to let me in
She locked the door behind me and led the way down the corridor to a roo the way I don’t knohat I anticipated- wo ex-Presidents and jungle beasts Or the lot of theues and make their eyes roll back in their heads Instead, as I passed each door, I saw faces raised in curiosity toward ht shriek or do birdcalls while I tore off my clothes I couldn’t see any difference between theht orrisome
Kitty was up and dressed, her hair still wet from a shower She was stretched out on her bed, pillows propped up behind her, a breakfast tray on the bed-table next to her She wore a silk caftan that drooped on her fraer than buttons on a couch and her arms were bare bones fleshed out with skin as thin as tissue paper Her eyes were enormous and haunted, the shape of her skull so pronounced that she looked as if she were seventy Sally Struthers could have used her picture in an ad for foster parenting
"You got a visitor," Natalie said
Kittys eyes flicked to me, and for aShe had to know that The energy was seeping out of her pores like sweat