Эд Горман - Riders on the Storm

“Some. I felt sorry for the guy. This is a bullshit war and he’s one of the people who paid for it. I tried to be as nice as I could but he was getting way too drunk. I did everything I could to get him to take a cab. I even offered to drive him home myself if he’d just wait till closing time.”

“How was Will?”

“Sort of pathetic. He just kept drinking and saying that he wanted to be friends again with Donovan. But Donovan just kept pushing him away.”

“Physically, you mean?”

“Yeah. Will’d get close and Donovan would tell him to shut up and go away. And a couple of times he gave him a little push. No big deal. I finally got Will to go into the dining room and do his drinking.”

“Was Lon Anders here that night?”

“I had a dinner that night so I didn’t get out here until around nine. He wasn’t here while I was. Why’re you asking about Anders?”

“Just doing my job.”

“Anders is a friend of mine.”

“All I said was that I was doing my job and that is all I’m doing. How about Teddy Byrnes?”

A sneer as cool as his shirt. “Yeah. He was here for an hour before I got here. Then he left when I got my friend Heinrich to help me. He’s one of our chefs and I had to pay a lot of money for him to come here from Chicago. Eight years ago he was still in Hamburg and he wasn’t working as a chef. Have you ever heard of Sankt Georg?”

“No.”

“You’re taking your life in your hands to walk around there at night. Heinrich grew up there and pulled two years as a bouncer in a club where he claims there were at least two murders a month. I need any help with some psycho bastard like Byrnes, I just walk back and sic Heinrich on him. As soon as Heinrich got Byrnes in a hammerlock and then jammed his thumb in Byrnes’s eye, I assumed the fight was over. And then Byrnes slipped the hold and knocked Heinrich out in one punch. And he was out for almost ten minutes. I got scared he wasn’t going to wake up.”

“What happened to Byrnes?”

“He took a long look at how unconscious Heinrich looked and split.”

“But he was here and I assume you’ll testify to that.”

“Of course I will. But that’s a long haul to prove that he had anything to do with Steve’s death. I admired Steve for serving the country, by the way, but he was totally full of shit about the war. You didn’t do so well by it yourself, McCain, and you didn’t even get over there. That was one hell of an accident.”

“Yeah. It wasn’t fun.”

“I lucked out. Heart palpitations since I was young. They’ve never really bothered me that much but they were my ticket out so I have developed a fondness for them.”

He was out of the booth and this time his hand was out.

As we shook, he said, “For what it’s worth, I know Will from the times he’s been out here. I like him and I feel sorry for him.”

“But he’s still guilty, huh?”

“I’m sorry, man,” he said, “but he’s still guilty.”

The psych ward. I had called Lindsey Shepard but was told that she and her husband were probably on the ward now visiting with Will Cullen. I assumed I could persuade them to let me speak to Will.

I stepped off the elevator and was confronted by a long desk and two thick-looking doors to the left and right. Both bore signs: ONLY PEOPLE WITH PASSES ALLOWED. The air was somehow different here. Confined, claustrophobic.

A man in a blue security guard uniform laid his paperback down on the desk and said, “Is there something I can help you with?”

“I’d like to talk to Will Cullen but to do that I need to speak to Lindsey Shepard first. Are she and her husband here?”

The guard checked his clipboard list. “Yes, she’s still here. Her husband left.”

“Would you get her on the phone? I’m sure she’ll say it’s all right.”

“I’ll have to ask you for your driver’s license.”

“Of course.” I handed my billfold over.

He studied the photo and then studied me and then handed the billfold back.

“That’s Lindsey Shepard you’d like to see?”

“Yes.”

“Nice lady.”

“Yes, she is.”

He shook his hand as if it had been asleep and punched numbers on his phone. Then, “Kay, would you tell Mrs. Shepard that there’s a man named Sam McCain who’d like to come back and see her?” Listening. “Sure, I’ll hang on.” Cupping the phone and to me, “Still as hot out there?”

“Feels worse than ever.”

“I don’t want to leave work. The air conditioning. All we’ve got at home are three fans. I could probably pull an extra shift if I wanted to but I’d feel guilty. I sorta feel guilty already. Here I’m sittin’ in air conditioning and the wife and my three kids are sweatin’ it out at home.”

I heard a voice through his muffling hand.

“Yeah. Fine. I’ll buzz him in right now. Thanks, Kay.” After hanging up, he said, “There’s a small reception area. That’s what you’ll be standing in when you go in there. Just wait and a nurse will come to meet you. She’ll bring Mrs. Shepard to you.”

Why couldn’t the nurse just take me back to Will’s room? What the hell was going on?

The buzz that let me in was quick and quiet. The waiting area was plastic flowers, uncomfortable-looking chairs, two tables piled with magazines, and the kind of framed paintings you can buy on the highway sometimes from trucks and people who look like stereotypical Gypsies.

I stood and waited.

Most hospital floors are busy and noisy during the day. Two corridors stretched in front of me and in the center of them was the nurses’ station. I could hear conversations working their way down the halls but they were subdued; the only familiar sound was the occasional squeak of a nurse’s shoe on a polished floor.

This afternoon Lindsey Shepard had shed her casual look for a summer suit of ivory-colored linen. Her hair was combed back somewhat dramatically. This more conventional Lindsey lost the appeal of her former self.

“I’ve tried calling you several times, Sam.”

“Out and about. I just decided to run up here in case Will had started talking.”

“I wish he was. I think Dr. Rattigan got a little overexcited when Will started showing signs that he was at least understanding what people were saying to him. Doctor Rattigan asked me to come over right away. I was getting my photograph taken for a brochure we’re doing. He saved me from that but I’ve been sitting with Will for two hours now and not getting anywhere. Chief Foster has been here twice and he’s called twice. But there’s nothing to report.” Then, “Would you be willing to spend a little time with him?”

“Of course.”

“He’s sitting in a chair next to the window. The nurse said that when she first came in around seven o’clock this morning he’d gotten up out of bed and moved a chair around so he could look out. We’ve cut back on two of his meds to see if that might make him less groggy.”

“I’ll just sit there and try to talk to him.”

“Hopefully he’ll recognize you. And hopefully he’ll trust you more than he does us. You two have been friends for years.”

“A quarter century.”

She hadn’t lost that gamine smile. “Perfect.”

Once I got to the center of the psych ward I saw that it wasn’t as quiet as I’d thought. There was a group room with a large-screen TV, a ping pong table, smaller tables where both checkers and chess were being played, an exercise bike, and a tall bookcase stacked full with paperbacks. I noticed that there was a small square device in the wall near a snack table. When patients wanted to light a cigarette they went there, pressed the cigarette in what appeared to be a hole in the device and got their smoke going.