so many grazes and purple bruises that I couldn’t be sure, but I had a feeling it had slackened. “What the fuck? Who called them?”
“The hospital. It’s policy.” I shrugged again. “Enjoy your last few days of freedom. There’s almost certainly an arrest in your future.”
I pushed away from the window and strode toward the door, turning around with my hand on the handle. “You can use the call button if you need something. Someone will probably be by eventually. Provided they have a minute to spare.”
“You should have just let me die,” he groaned, no doubt also feeling the effects of the alcohol now that the sun had made its appearance in his room. “Why would you let me live just so I can be arrested?”
“There’s no easy way out of this life, Craig.” I twisted the knob on the door and yanked it open. “Be a man and grow up already. All this shit you’ve been pulling is pathetic.”
Letting the door slam shut behind me, I inhaled deeply once I was out of his room. It still smelled like shit in there.
The police would be by again every day until Craig was ready to be discharged. Later today, they would be coming to take his statement. One sniff at the fumes in there, and I doubted they would need to ask many questions.
As much as I didn’t revel in the misery of others, in this one instance, I decided it would be okay to not feel sorry for the guy at all. The healing process was going to be a painful bitch. It would require extensive therapy that I sure as shit wouldn’t be providing, and he might or might not have done permanent damage to more than one part of him.
I’d never asked April point blank but I was sure he’d been arrested in the past. If this wasn’t his first conviction, he might also be facing prison time. Hell, even if it was, he might end up behind bars.
Since I hadn’t been there when the police had arrived last night, I didn’t have many details about the accident. If someone else had been injured, he might as well become acquainted with the size of that room. A much smaller one would be waiting for him.
I couldn’t say I’d been shocked to receive the message from the surgeon informing me of the police’s visit. He’d reeked of alcohol while we’d treated him. I just hadn’t been sure if he’d consumed it or if he’d had several bottles of bourbon dumped over his head before the accident.
Consumption had been my first guess, of course, but that wasn’t the kind of thing I was at liberty to guess out loud. Drunk driving was a serious offense, but more especially so when there had been an accident. If push came to shove and I had to testify against him, I couldn’t have been overheard talking about how drunk he was before we’d even done the blood tests.
I sighed just thinking about all the different possibilities of the capacity in which I might be called to testify against him. As Adi’s doctor or his, as her therapist or April’s boyfriend. Or at this point, ex-boyfriend is probably more accurate.
My phone had been ringing and beeping off the hook again, just like it did every day, but none of those calls or messages had been from her. I hadn’t been expecting to hear from her last night, but I’d kind of wondered if maybe she’d be ready to talk by this morning.
As it turned out, saving her ex-husband was something she evidently needed more than fourteen or so hours to get over. But I got it. Adi meant everything to her, and as desperate as I was to keep them in my life, she was even more desperate to get Craig out of theirs.
I didn’t blame her for it, nor did I judge her for the way she’d reacted yesterday. I just really wished she’d speak to me about it. With the arrest for drunk driving coming, there was even less of a chance of Craig getting custody than there had been before.
Moreover, Adi’s father wouldn’t be dead. But if time was what she wanted, time was what I would give her. I hated the thought of so much as a day away from her, but I had made my decision. Now it was time for her to make hers.
In the meantime, there were other pieces of the puzzle I could get