“I don’t know this name. I am tired now.”
“Mr. Vladim, are you sure?”
He pushed himself up on the pillow and glared at me. “I will call nurse. You are not allowed here. I am criminal.”
I said, “Listen, I haven’t told anyone anything, but your wife is very, very upset. I think she has no idea where you are.”
He had reached for the call button, but then he stopped and rested his head back down on the pillow. “No. I don’t know this. My wife is gone from here. We are not couple.”
I took a deep breath. “I think you should know that I lost my child when she was three years old. She was hit by a car and died instantly. There was nothing I could have done to save her, but believe me, Mr. Vladim, if there had been, I would have done it. Anything.”
He didn’t respond, just stared at the ceiling, and we sat there for a while like that, not talking. The IV drip’s timer made quiet clicks and sucking sounds every once in a while, and at one point there was a burst of laughter from the nurses’ station down the hall, but otherwise the room was completely silent except for Mr. Vladim’s slow, steady breathing.
Finally, he said, “We take boy to miracle doctor in Houston. They make promise he will find cure. But we must pay cash. Four thousand dollars every month.”
He paused, and I could tell he was trying to keep his emotions under control.
“If we don’t pay, he don’t help. This doctor. He lied. He was devil.” He turned to me. “Cat looker, you will deliver message?”
I nodded, fighting with all my might not to burst out in tears, because for the first time I realized that their child had not survived. “I’ll do whatever you need.”
“Tell her I am okay. They will take me to jail. I will tell police that I make her do everything.”
“And Mr. and Mrs. Silverthorn … do they know who you are?”
He nodded slowly. “My wife. She is third cousin of Mrs. Silverthorn. They help us, and for this we work for them. At first it was good arrangement, but now we are slaves. But Dixie, you must not tell.”
“I promise I won’t. Your wife will be very relieved to know that you’re okay.”
“Please tell her I have no choice. If I call they trace phone and take her to jail.”
“I’ll tell her. And if there’s anything else you need, let me know.” I stood up and put my chair back in place. “I’ll leave you alone now, Mr. Vladim, and I’m glad you’re feeling better.”
I turned and headed for the door, but he stopped me.
“Dixie. What you do with chocolate?”
I turned back to him. “Huh?”
“Chocolate. What you do with it?”
I said, “I’m confused. What chocolate do you mean?”
He raised one eyebrow, as if he thought I must be the dumbest person in the world. “The chocolate I put in your bag. What you do with it?”
I walked back to the side of his bed. “Mr. Vladim, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
He shook his head as his face flushed red and his voice grew louder. “These women. They don’t listen. I told you don’t eat!”
“Mr. Vladim, I think perhaps you dreamed that. The drugs you’re on are very strong, and they can cause all kinds of—”
Just then the door opened and a nurse poked her head in. I could see the guard standing behind her. It was a different nurse this time, a skinny, older woman with spiky black hair and drooping eyes. Mr. Vladim was visibly shaken. His eyes flashed at the nurse and then at me.
The nurse frowned. “Excuse me, who are you?”
I said, “Um, Dr. Hemingway?”
She shook her head. “No, I’m afraid you can’t be here. There’s no one allowed in this room but medical staff. The guard should have told you that.”
I nodded, “He did, but Dr. Dunlop said it was okay.”
“Ma’am, I don’t know anything about that. All I know is you need to leave right now. If Dr. Dunlop wants you on the visitors list, he would need to talk to me. And the last time I looked, there were exactly zero approved visitors for this room.”
I turned to Mr. Vladim and nodded. “Don’t worry.”
He looked away, as if he didn’t want the nurse to know he had even talked to me at all.
The nurse tapped her foot and said, “Ma’am? Right now.”
I touched Mr. Vladim’s hand lightly and headed for the door while the nurse glared at me. I thought about how I’d made a promise to myself that the next time somebody called me ma’am, I’d sock them right in the mouth. I can’t say it was my proudest moment, but sometimes action speaks louder than words. As I passed by her, I made a face and stuck out my tongue.
26
About ten feet outside Baldy’s room I started having second thoughts. Then in the elevator down to the lobby, I was quietly mumbling to myself while my fellow passengers pretended not to notice. Then by the time I made it through the lobby and outside into the fresh air, I didn’t care who saw me—I was straight-up talking out loud and giving myself a good, stern disquisition on the basic standards of reasonable behavior.
I’d gone too far. I should never have promised to deliver Baldy’s message to his wife. He was a grown man. He could do it himself. Don’t get me wrong—I knew without a doubt that what he and his wife had been through was unimaginably heartbreaking, but it just wasn’t my responsibility, and it was crazy of me to even consider delivering messages back and forth between two wanted criminals. Except …
I thought of Janet, all alone in that sprawling mansion, crying herself to sleep every night, isolated from the outside world, and with no earthly idea where her husband was or why he had disappeared. For all she knew he was dead, and now I understood why she always looked so exhausted and tortured—her life was a living hell, and all because she had tried to save her child.
Except, I thought, lots of people deal with sick children, and they don’t all go around robbing banks to pay their medical bills. Not to mention the fact that if I didn’t report Janet’s whereabouts to the authorities, I would essentially be committing a very serious crime.
As I unlocked the Bronco and jumped into the driver’s seat I mumbled to myself, “It’s called aiding and abetting, you dummy.”
No. I just couldn’t take that kind of risk, not even for Janet.
Except then I thought of the pain she must have been in—to lose her child like that, and now the only thing standing between her suffering and a little bit of relief was me. Except I knew without a doubt that if she turned herself in right away she’d have a much easier time in court … and it wasn’t like she and Baldy were murdering thieves. They were just small-time bank robbers, right?
Except how exactly had they robbed all those banks? Had Janet held a gun to the teller’s head while Baldy filled a bag with cash? I mean, robbing a bank is one thing, but robbing a bank with a deadly weapon could mean life in prison for both of them. Except they just didn’t seem capable of that kind of violent crime … except what did I know? They could just as easily have been cold-blooded killers, except …
Except, except, except!
In the car all the way home, I shook my head and sighed so many times I must have looked like a bobblehead doll. Yet again I’d managed to get myself tangled up in a seriously complicated mess, but there was no way out. I’d given my word to Baldy. I couldn’t very well change my mind now and turn his wife in to the police. That would have been wrong, no matter how hard I tried to justify it.
I told myself that if Baldy and his wife had fallen into a life of crime as a way of paying for their child’s medical bills, then that meant they’d been abandoned from the get-go, that society had turned its back on them. No parent should ever be put in that kind of situation, no matter who they are or where they come from or how they got here, and I knew I’d never be able to look myself in the eye again if I betrayed my promise to Baldy. My only choice was to deliver his message to her.