Lou stared at Jack. Jack stared back. Jack thought the detective's expression hovered somewhere between frustration and irritation.
"Are you pulling my leg about all this?" Lou questioned.
"No," Jack said with a short laugh. "I'm being serious."
Lou meditated for a moment and then said moodily, "I don't know if I want to live in your world. But screw it! Come on! Let's make this ID on Rakoczi."
They entered the ER, which was already overflowing with patients. Several uniformed policemen were in evidence. Lou sought out the ER director, Dr. Robert Springer. Dr. Springer took Lou and Jack back to a trauma room, the door of which was closed. Inside, they found Jasmine Rakoczi. She was lying naked on an ER bed. An endotracheal tube had been inserted and then attached to a respirator. Her chest was intermittently rising and falling. Behind her, on a flat-screen monitor, blips recorded her pulse and blood pressure. The blood pressure was low, but the pulse was normal.
"Well?" Lou asked. "Is this the lady you saw in Laurie's room?"
"It is," Jack said. Then he looked at Dr. Springer. "Why are you respiring her?"
"We want to keep her oxygenated," Dr. Springer said while he adjusted the respirator's rate.
"Don't you suspect her brainstem was destroyed?" Jack questioned. He was surprised that they were making such an effort in such a clearly moribund situation.
"Without doubt," Dr. Springer said, straightening up. "The organ people are trying to locate any next of kin. They want to salvage the internal organs."
Lou looked up at Jack. "Now that is going to be ironic," he said. "She might save a handful of people."
"Ironic isn't a strong enough word," Jack replied. "I'd lean toward mordantly satirical."
To Dr. Springer's surprise, the detective then cuffed the medical examiner on the head, accused him of being a pompous ass, and then the two walked out, laughing.
epilogue
6 WEEKS LATER
DETECTIVE LIEUTENANT Lou Soldano nosed his departmental Chevy over to the curb next to a fire hydrant and tossed onto the dash the plastic-laminated card that spelled out who he was and who owned the vehicle. He then reached over, got out his breath spray from the glove compartment, and gave himself a few good squirts to hide the Marlboros he'd inhaled en route. Tipping his rearview mirror down, he looked as his reflection. He needed a shave, but he always needed a shave, especially at a quarter after eight in the evening. Since he couldn't do anything about his stubble, he used his fingers to get his hair all going in the same direction. Satisfied with his appearance, he opened the door and stepped out onto the street.
The air had the silky feel of a spring night. Thanks to daylight savings, the sky was a light rose color that faded to silvery violet to the east. Lou walked up Second Avenue with a spring to his step. He'd called Jack and Laurie that afternoon in the hope of meeting up with them to bring them up to speed on the AmeriCare case, and they had invited him to join them for dinner at their favorite restaurant, Elios.
Lou had already had a few meals with Jack and Laurie at Elios- some good, some not so good. In the latter category was the evening Laurie announced that she was a marrying the twerp she had dragged along. Lucky for everyone, it was a false alarm and the memory of the evening brought a smile to Lou's face. It was also lucky that he and Jack didn't shoot themselves right there in the restaurant. They both had been devastated.
Lou paused outside. Directly in front of the door was Jack's mountain bike, secured to a parking meter with a panoply of locks. Lou shook his head. Neither he nor Laurie could talk Jack out of using the damn thing. Lou smiled wryly about Jack constantly ragging on him about his smoking being dangerous for his health, since the danger of riding a bike in the city, particularly the way Jack rode, was a thousand times greater.
Inside the restaurant, the evening's festivities were in full swing. People were clustered about the bar to the point of impinging on the diners occupying the coveted front tables. Lou felt decidedly self-conscious, as he always did around such high rollers, particularly the glitterati who seemed to laugh and talk a bit louder than everybody else.
After making his way through the bar crowd, Lou was faced with the jam-packed dining room. Slowly, his eyes made the circuit, looking for a familiar face. With relief, he spied Jack and Laurie at a table in the far right-hand corner.
With as many tables and chairs packed into the room as humanly possible, it took Lou some time to worm his way over to his friends. En route he knocked one man's arm, causing him to spill his wine. When Lou turned around to apologize, he dragged the belt of his raincoat, which was over his arm, through another person's soup. Despite these travails, he eventually made it.
"Sorry I'm late," Lou said as he gave Laurie's cheek a peck and shook hands with Jack across the table. He made sure he didn't knock over their fluted glasses with his arm or his coat.
"No matter," Laurie said. She pulled a bottle of champagne from the ice bucket and filled the glass in front of Lou.
Lou tried to drape his coat over the curved back of his chair, but his antics quickly brought an attentive waiter, who took the coat. Lou sat down and used his napkin to blot the line of perspiration that had appeared along his hairline. To him, it felt as though it was 90° inside the restaurant. He quickly undid the top button on his shirt, loosened his tie, and then fanned himself. "Next time, we'll meet down in Little Italy with my people," he said.
"You're on," Laurie said cheerfully.
After a few pleasantries, Jack said, "I'm really curious about the AmeriCare investigation. What's the news?"
"Me, too," Laurie said.
Lou eyed his friends. When he thought about their friendship, he was always a little amazed. He wasn't even friendly with his own doctor, nor his kids' doctor, for that matter. Most of Lou's friends were other police officers, although there were a couple of firemen who he played cards with on a regular basis. But Jack and Laurie were different than the other doctors Lou had encountered. They didn't look down on him for his education or what he did for a living. In fact, he felt it was just the opposite.
"Okay," Lou said. "Business before pleasure, but let's see! Where shall I begin? First off, I have to say that what Jack told me the morning Jasmine Rakoczi got shot has turned out to be prophetic. Jack, my boy, you were on the money."
Jack smiled and gave Lou a thumbs-up sign.
"However," Lou continued. "The lion's share of the kudos goes to Laurie for being persistent in the face of universal ignorance on everybody else's part, including Jack's, and for finding Rakoczi's tissue under Stephen Lewis's fingernails."
"I'll drink to that," Laurie said. She raised her flute and clicked glasses with the others.
"Now," Lou continued after putting his glass down. "Ballistics are back, and they indicate that Rakoczi's gun killed both my captain's sister-in-law and Roger Rousseau." Lou reached over and gave Laurie's forearm a squeeze. "Sorry to bring up a painful subject."
Laurie smiled and nodded acknowledgment of Lou's sensitiveness.
"Ballistics also indicate that David Rosenkrantz's gun killed Rakoczi, so that gets Jack off the hook."
"Very funny," Jack said.