be for long. ‘If you get in to see Barbara, say hi for me.’
‘I will.’
Holly watches him cross to his car, noting the way his left hand goes to his side after he turns up his collar. Seeing that makes her want to cry. Or maybe howl with outrage. Life can be very unfair. She’s known that ever since high school, when she was the butt of everyone’s joke, but it still surprises her. It shouldn’t, but it does.
20
Hodges drives back across town, fiddling with the radio, looking for some good hard rock and roll. He finds The Knack on BAM-100, singing ‘My Sharona,’ and cranks the volume. When the song ends, the deejay comes on, talking about a big storm moving east out of the Rockies.
Hodges pays no attention. He’s thinking about Brady, and about the first time he saw one of those Zappit game consoles. Library Al handed them out. What was Al’s last name? He can’t remember. If he ever knew it at all, that is.
When he arrives at the watering hole with the amusing name, he finds Norma Wilmer seated at a table in back, far from the madding crowd of businessmen at the bar, who are bellowing and backslapping as they jockey for drinks. Norma has ditched her nurse’s uniform in favor of a dark green pantsuit and low heels. There’s already a drink in front of her.
‘I was supposed to buy that,’ Hodges says, sitting down across from her.
‘Don’t worry,’ she says. ‘I’m running a tab, which you will pay.’
‘Indeed I will.’
‘Babineau couldn’t get me fired or even transferred if someone saw me talking to you here and reported back to him, but he could make my life difficult. Of course, I could make his a bit difficult, too.’
‘Really?’
‘Really. I think he’s been experimenting on your old friend Brady Hartsfield. Feeding him pills that contain God knows what. Giving him shots, as well. Vitamins, he says.’
Hodges stares at her in surprise. ‘How long has this been going on?’
‘Years. It’s one of the reasons Becky Helmington transferred. She didn’t want to be the whitecap on ground zero if Babineau gave him the wrong vitamin and killed him.’
The waitress comes. Hodges orders a Coke with a cherry in it.
Norma snorts. ‘A Coke? Really? Put on your big boy pants, why don’t you?’
‘When it comes to booze, I spilled more than you’ll ever drink, honeypie,’ Hodges says. ‘What the hell is Babineau up to?’
She shrugs. ‘No idea. But he wouldn’t be the first doc to experiment on someone the world doesn’t give Shit One about. Ever hear of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment? The US government used four hundred black men like lab rats. It went on for forty years, and so far as I know, not a single one of them ran a car into a bunch of defenseless people.’ She gives Hodges a crooked smile. ‘Investigate Babineau. Get him in trouble. I dare you.’
‘It’s Hartsfield I’m interested in, but based on what you’re saying, I wouldn’t be surprised if Babineau turned out to be collateral damage.’
‘Then hooray for collateral damage.’ It comes out clatteral dammish, and Hodges deduces she’s not on her first drink. He is, after all, a trained investigator.
When the waitress brings his Coke, Norma drains her glass and holds it up. ‘I’ll have another, and since the gentleman’s paying, you might as well make it a double.’ The waitress takes her glass and leaves. Norma turns her attention back to Hodges. ‘You said you have questions. Go ahead and ask while I can still answer. My mouth is a trifle numb, and will soon be number.’
‘Who is on Brady Hartsfield’s visitors list?’
Norma frowns at him. ‘Visitors list? Are you kidding? Who told you he had a visitors list?’
‘The late Ruth Scapelli. This was just after she replaced Becky as head nurse. I offered her fifty bucks for any rumors she heard about him – which was the going rate with Becky – and she acted like I’d just pissed on her shoes. Then she said, “You’re not even on his visitors list.”’
‘Huh.’
‘Then, just today, Babineau said—’
‘Some bullshit about the DA’s office. I heard it, Bill, I was there.’
The waitress sets Norma’s new drink in front of her, and Hodges knows he’d better finish up fast, before Norma starts to bend his ear about everything from being underappreciated at work to her sad and loveless love life. When nurses drink, they have a tendency to go all in. They’re like cops that way.
‘You’ve been