Signe Rayner because her therapy drove their son to suicide. They lost their lawsuit, but there’s not much doubt in my mind that Signe Rayner was guilty.”
I told him what I knew. When I finished, Alex shook his head. “That’s good enough for me,” he said. “I’ll phone Signe as soon as I get back to the office. And I’ll call Dan Kasperski to see if he can take Eli as a patient.”
I sighed with relief. “Good,” I said. “It’s time Eli did better. It’s time we all did better.”
I got out of the car and started towards the University Centre. When Alex came after me, I thought that he just wanted to seize the moment to say something fond and foolish, but his words weren’t about love; they were about danger. “Promise me you’ll be careful,” he said. “There’s going to be a press conference this afternoon to announce that Ducharme’s out of the picture, so all bets are off. We’ve got an officer outside Hilda’s room again, so we’re covered there. But until we make an arrest, don’t rule anybody out, and don’t take any chances.”
“That’s an easy promise to make,” I said. “I’ve got a lot to stay safe for.”
As soon as I got back to my office, I called the hospital. Nathan reassured me that indeed Constable Nilson was back in front of Hilda’s door. Then in a voice edgy with excitement, he said, “I was going to call you. I wanted to be sure you came by when I was on duty. We’ve waited so long for good news about Miss McCourt.”
“And there is good news?”
“The best.”
I still had my coat on. I looked at my watch. Bang on 1:00. If I hit the lights right, I could see Hilda and be back in time to walk with Howard Dowhanuik to my senior class. “I’ll be right over,” I said.
As I drove down the freeway, I tested the rawness in my throat. It was still there, but it wasn’t worse. Maybe the echinacea and the gumbo had lived up to their billing, and my cold had been vanquished. It was a comforting thought, because the day that had started out so free of demands was getting complicated. Sick or well, I had a dance card that was rapidly filling up.
Nathan was in his place at the nursing station. When I called out to him, he picked up Hilda’s chart from the desk. “Look at that,” he said, pointing to the latest figures on the Glasgow Coma Scale. “If she keeps progressing at this rate, we’ll be able to move her out of intensive care.”
“She’s doing that well?”
Nathan gave me the thumbs-up sign. “The numbers never lie.”
As soon as I saw Hilda, I knew I didn’t need the Glasgow Coma Scale to tell me that she was better. The signs were imperceptible but real. Everything about my old friend suggested that, sometime in the hours since I’d last seen her, she had crossed the divide that separates the sick from the well. I walked over to her bed, but, worried about germs, I didn’t bend to kiss her. It was enough just to know that she’d decided to rejoin us.
I glanced at the photograph that I had taped to her bed when she’d first been brought to intensive care. For the first time, the picture of Hilda sitting in our canoe didn’t make my eyes sting. The day I’d snapped that picture, Hilda had taken Taylor up to the top of a hill to pick wild strawberries. They had returned with sun-pink cheeks, mosquito bites, and mouths stained with fruit. Seeing them coming triumphantly towards me with an ice cream pail half-full of berries had been one of the best memories of the summer. Now it seemed possible there would be other sun-filled days, other memories.
“I knew you were indestructible,” I said.
Hilda didn’t open her eyes but she turned at the sound of my voice. “For a while, I had my doubts,” she whispered. Then she smiled and went back to sleep.
My banner day continued. Howard Dowhanuik was a major hit with my senior class. Freed by retirement of the politician’s need to weigh his words, our ex-premier was profane, indiscreet, knowledgeable, and funny, and the kids loved him.
When the last admiring student had wandered off, he turned to me. “I believe it’s payback time. Does the Faculty Club still have that excellent bottle of fifteen-year-old Dalwhinnie tucked away?”
“They do, but, Howard, will you take a