young man nodded, sucked at something in his teeth, and when he said nothing more, asked no more questions—How do you know old Bud?—Sutter knew he’d made a mistake, although he wasn’t sure where, which was the worst kind. He saw the young man glance at his Minnesota plate before he moved on. But then after a few steps he turned back to toss Sutter a kind of two-fingered salute and an empty smile. “If those crickets come back,” he said, “you bring her on back and we’ll get her fixed up.”
21
The woman put him on hold and in those minutes Sutter ordered a coffee from the waitress and received it, stirred milk into it, and drank half of it down. From the booth window he could just see the garage a half block away, the two-tone Chevy in the lot.
At last the doctor came on the line to tell him that Audrey was doing much better today, stronger, her temperature considerably down, and he was taking her off the drugs.
“When can I take her home?”
“Let me have another look at her after lunch, and we’ll see about sending her home this afternoon. But no promises.”
Sutter hung up, then sat staring at the phone’s home screen, at the image of his daughter and himself smiling out at him, that time she got him to go skating with her, both of them red-faced and wearing black knit caps like a father-daughter burglar team. Then he dialed the same number and asked the nurse on duty to let Audrey know he’d called and that he’d be coming in after lunch to see her.
The waitress returned and he found the simplest thing on the menu and she wrote that down on her pad and collected the menu and went away again—unsmiling, no-nonsense; another breed entirely from the one at the café, with the birthmark.
He drank his coffee and watched the garage. He pulled out his wallet and his notebook with the names and numbers of the garages and set them before him, and after a while he opened his wallet and slid the white business card free and held it at its four points between his thumbs and forefingers.
She might remember more when she’s feeling better, Tom. I know you know that.
Keep it, Ed. I’ve got your number in the phone.
Well, take the card anyway. And Tom . . . I’ve got this. I promise you.
sheriff edward moran, the card said, in raised black. Little sheriff’s star up in the corner that caught the light like gold, that looked damn near like the real deal. One good-looking card, Sheriff.
He looked out the window for a long while. His phone was under his hand and he kept turning it round and round on the tabletop.
You could just take the bastard’s picture and show it to her.
That still wouldn’t prove it.
Be enough to bust him, though.
It’d still be his word against hers. Only one thing can prove he was there.
Hard evidence, pal. I know it.
He took another sip of coffee, then picked up the phone and punched in the number and held the phone to his ear. The woman who answered was the same one he’d spoken to thirty minutes ago, in person, and he said, “Yes, is Ryan working today?”
“Ryan Radner?”
Sutter hesitated. “Is there another Ryan?”
“Not today there’s not.”
“Well, Radner’s the one I want.”
“Did you need to speak to him?”
“No, ma’am. I was just wondering how late he’ll be there today so I don’t miss him.”
“He’ll be here till five today, sir. That’s when we close.”
“Thank you very much,” Sutter said.
“You’re very welcome, sir.”
He was at the hospital at half past noon and when he looked around the doorjamb she was sitting up with a spoon halfway to her mouth and she looked so much like her mother in that bed, in that place, that his heart went out from under him, and she looked at him, the spoon halted in midair, and said, “—What?”
He corrected his face, his heart, and stepped into the room.
“Nothing,” he said. He held up the white paper bag, and her eyes widened.
“Is that a Portman’s bag?”
“Kept it in the trunk all the way up here.”
“Strawberry?”
“What else?”
She set aside the pudding and pulled the large paper cup with its coat of frost from the bag and fastened her lips on the straw and caved her cheeks and shut her eyes.
The doctor floated in, the wings of his open labcoat riding his currents, greeted Sutter and stepped up to Audrey.