"No, thanks," said Acardo at Applegate's side.
The Berry brothers were almost twins-same height, weight, glasses-though Isaac Berry was a good ten years older, hair fuller, with definite gray in his sideburns and a tired look in his eyes. The detectives, in contrast, looked nothing alike. Applegate was tall, black, bespectacled, and wearing a neatly pressed navy blue suit with a perfectly matched red-and-blue striped tie. Acardo, his partner, was short, white, almost bald, and definitely disheveled. They were known on the streets and in the squad room as Black and White.
Jacob Berry recognized the white officer. Berry had given Acardo a physical about two months earlier. Acardo should have been a physical disaster. He overate the wrong foods, got no exercise, and was on the verge of a serious drinking problem. His vital signs, however, were fine. No high or low blood pressure, cholesterol well within reasonable bounds.
"Yes," said Jacob.
"We'd like a description from you of the man who got away," said Applegate. "Do you think you could help us?"
"I… about six one, dark, wearing a denim… no, a leather jack… I'm not sure. He had a scar. Here."
Jacob made a slashing motion down his forehead through his right eye.
"Dark scar. I'd say it was at least a year old, maybe more."
"Anything else?" Applegate asked politely.
"I think he was the leader," Jacob said.
"Officer Matthews," asked the other Dr. Berry. "Is he, do you know…?"
"Critical, but alive," said Applegate. "Bullet went through a rib and right lung, took a turn, and hit the spleen."
"I shot hun," Jacob said, looking from one policeman to the other.
"Jake," his brother said. "I don't think you should say any more."
"According to the paramedics, you also saved his life in the ambulance," said Acardo.
"Thank God," said Isaac Berry, patting his brother's hand.
"Sorry to do this, Doctor," Applegate said, "but we've got to read you your rights."
"Wait a minute…" Isaac Berry said, rising from the vinyl seat that whooshed as he left it "No," his brother countered.
"They would have killed my brother if he didn't have that gun," Isaac insisted.
"Officer Matthews disrupted the robbery, not Dr. Berry," said Applegate evenly. "We're not really here to argue the merits of the charges, just to deliver them."
Acardo droned off the Miranda while Isaac Berry did his best to look angry and the still-seated Jacob Berry looked through (he window over the shoulder of the pretty Hispanic woman.
"Possession and firing of an illegal weapon," Applegate said. "Assault with said weapon. Assault-"
"Wait," said Isaac. "Assault with a deadly weapon?"
"Charge has been brought by one Albert Davis, one of the three men who entered your brother's office this morning. He claims he was unarmed and Dr. Berry shot him. My guess is that Officer Matthews shot him, but we'll see when they finish getting the bullet out of Davis's leg."
"This is crazy," said Isaac Berry, raising his voice. "A man comes into my brother's officer to rob and maybe kill him. The man gets shot and he wants Jacob to… He can't do that."
"I'm afraid he can," said Applegate. "Was he unarmed, Dr. Berry?"
"Don't answer him, Jacob," Isaac said.
'The little one with the crazy face had the gun," said Jacob dully. "One of them, I can't remember which, had a… the heavy one-he had the knife."
"You sure?" asked Acardo.
"I'm sure."
"You're going to have to come to the station with us, Doc," said Acardo, looking at both doctors to be sure there would be no trouble.
"Fine," said Jacob, rising slowly with Applegate's help.
"Jake, don't say anything more, not a word. I'll have a lawyer at the station as fast as I can."
"I think we should go now, Doctor," Applegate said gently.
"This is illegal, a clear violation of my brother's rights," Isaac insisted.
"No, sir," said Applegate. "It may not seem fair to you, but it's perfectly legal."
"How would you know? Are you a lawyer?" Isaac said, stepping between the detectives and the exit to the waiting room.
"Yes, he is," said Acardo.
"DePaul University Law School, nineteen-eighty-four," said Applegate. "Now, I know you're distraught, but if you even touch one of us, you will be obstructing justice and we'll have to fill out a lot of papers and this could get very complicated."
"Isaac, please. It'll be all right," Jacob Berry said, touching his brother's arm.
"Oh, Jake, what'd I do? I talked you into coming to this goddamn city and now…"
"I'll be all right," Jacob said, moving toward the door with the two policemen. "The officer's not dead. He saved my life and I shot him. Can you imagine?"
Jacob's eyes met those of the pretty Hispanic woman. He thought she was, indeed, trying to imagine, and a look crossed her impassive face mat made it clear that her imagination matched his deed.
Applegate and Acardo flanked Jacob Berry and ushered him down the blue-carpeted corridor.
It was Applegate's opinion, shared only with his partner and based on almost fifteen years of experience, that Dr. Jacob Berry would be a bigger television news splash than the Dana Rozier murder. Public indignation, the fear of invading blacks, and the gun control flap would make Dr. Berry a hero or a martyr. The sagging man between him and Acardo would probably walk away from all of this with a suspended sentence and a fine. The American Medical Association would probably issue a note of censure, but that wouldn't keep Berry from practicing. He'd have to leave the city, but Acardo doubted if at this point that meant very much to the young doctor. Applegate and Acardo had seen it before. Slightly different script, but same story. They could save a lot of time and taxpayers' dollars by packing Dr. Jacob Berry's things and putting him on the next train to Lordsburg. But that wasn't the way things worked.
"We're stopping for a coffee on the way back," said Acardo. "You want one?"
They stepped into the empty hospital elevator.
"I don't know," said Jacob, looking at Applegate. '1 don't know."
Lonny stood in the parking lot and looked at the entrance to the convenience store. An ad for Virginia Slims showing a lean, light-skinned black girl with the whitest teeth and the fullest lips in the world glared at him from the store's stone wall. Next to it was a sign that announced a dollar off on a six-pack of Coke.
Lonny didn't try to find shelter. He was soaked through and tired. He just stood behind a car and waited till there were no customers inside. Then he looked around to see if anyone was heading toward the store before he hurried across the lot and opened the door.
The whole day had been a bad dream. It was just continuing. Lonny Wayne did not carry guns. Lonny Wayne did not rob stores. Lonny Wayne didn't get drug dealers angry with him by stealing their wheels. Lonny Wayne just wanted a few dollars in his pocket, a car, and the girl he'd met last night in McDonald's. What was her name? He had it written down on a sheet in his wallet His ambitions were small. He wasn't even asking for the fox in the Virginia Slims ad.
Lonny grabbed something from a shelf, some Dolly Madison cupcakes. He brought them to the counter, where one of those people from India or somewhere stood waiting, watching Lonny drip on the floor.
"Anything else?" the thin, dark man said.
Lonny put the cupcakes on the counter and pulled his few dollars from his pocket. The man behind the counter, who had seen derelicts and addicts, robbers, and madmen and women in his four years in the store, was suspicious, but dozens with Lonny's vacant look came in every day. Money was money. The man opened the cash register to put in the two singles and give Lonny his change. Lonny saw bills hi the tray. He had to be sure that there was a chance at the three hundred before he pulled this.