He sounded simultane"Twenty-five dollars?" McGovern asked sly shocked and cynical, "That's all?"
"you Iyup," Leydecker said. "I gave Deepneau the second-degree assault stuff because it do sound fearsome, but in the state of Maine, lumping up Your wife is only a misdemeanor. 1) inkle in the law," Chris Nell said, "Still, there's a nifty new law joining them-"If Deepneau wants bail, he has to agree that he'll have absolutely no contact with his wife until the case is settled in the street, or court-he can't come to the house, approach her on even call her on the phone. if he doesn't agree, he sits in jail."
"suppose he agrees and then comes back, anyway?" Ralph asked.
"Then we slam-dunk him," Nell said, "because that one is a felony... or can be, if the district attorney wants to play hardball.
In any case, violators of the Domestic Violence bail agreement usually spend a lot more than just the afternoon in jail."
"And hopefully the spouse he breaks the agreement to visit will still be alive when he comes to trial," McGovern said.
"Yeah," Leydecker said heavily. "Sometimes that's a problem."
Ralph went home and sat staring not at the TV but through it for an hour or so. He got up during a commercial to see if there was a cold Coke in the refrigerator, staggered on his feet, and had to put a hand on the wall to steady himself. He was trembling all over and felt unpleasantly close to vomiting. He understood that this was nothing but delayed reaction, but the weakness and nausea still frightened him.
He sat down again, took a minute's worth of deep breaths with his head down and his eyes closed, then got up and walked slowly into the bathroom. He filled the tub with warm water and soaked until he heard Night Court, the first of the afternoon sitcoms, starting up on the TV in the living room. By then the water in the tub had become almost chilly, and Ralph was glad to get out. He dried off, dressed in fresh clothes, and decided that a light supper was at least in the realm of possibility. He called downstairs, thinking McGovern might like to join him for a bite to eat, but there was no answer, Ralph put on water in which to boil a couple of eggs and called Derry Home Hospital from the phone by the stove. His call was shunted to a woman in Patient Services who checked her computer and told him yes, he was correct, Helen Deepneau had been admitted to the hospital. Her condition was listed as fair. No, she had no idea who) was taking care of Mrs. Deepneau's baby; all she knew was that she did not have a Natalie Deepneau on her admissions list. No, Ralph could not visit Mrs. Deepneau that evening, but not because her doctor had established a no-visitors policy; Mrs. Deepneau had left that order herself.
Why would she do that? Ralph started to ask, then didn't bother.
The woman in Patient Services would probably tell him she was sorry, she didn't have that information in her computer, but Ralph decided he had it in his computer, the one between his giant economy-size ears. Helen didn't want visitors because she was ashamed.
None of what had happened was her fault, but Ralph doubted if that changed the way she felt. She had been seen by half of Harris Avenue staggering around like a badly beaten boxer after the ref has stopped the fight, she had been taken to the hospital in an ambulance, and her husband-the father of her daughter-was responsible. Ralph hoped they would give her something that would help her sleep through the night; he had an idea things might look a little better to her in the morning.
God knew they couldn't look much worse.
Hell, I wish someone would give me something to help me sleep through the night, he thought.
Then go see Dr. Litchfield, you idiot, another part of his mind responded immediately.
The woman in Patient Services was asking Ralph if she could do anything else for him. Ralph said no and was starting to thank her when the line clicked in his ear. "Nice," Ralph said. "Very nice." He hung up himself, got a tablespoon, and gently lowered his eggs into the water. Ten minutes later, as he was sitting down with the boiled eggs sliding around on a plate and looking like the world's biggest pearls, the phone rang. He put his supper on the