“Of course they are.”
Marquis stood up straight. “Those boys were serious. What’d you do to set ’em off?”
“I talked too much.”
Marquis was out. But Lucas was going to need some help.
Sixteen
Lucas called the rental car manager, a man he’d done business with many times before, and explained the situation. It wasn’t a pleasant conversation, but it ended reasonably well and freed Lucas to find some medical attention for Marquis. Over Marquis’s mild protests, Lucas drove him to the VA Medical Center on Irving Street in D.C.
Lucas sat in the waiting room with veterans of Korea, Vietnam, Kosovo, and various Middle East wars while Marquis saw the doctor. A WWII veteran in his late eighties, assisted by an oxygen tank and caregiver, sat waiting, too. Some of the patients had no visible ailments, some of them were amputees with prosthetics or no limb replacements at all, others were wheelchair bound, and one bore the unmistakable neurological damage of Agent Orange. Now middle-aged and elderly, they’d been treated in places like this one since they were young men and women. They’d continue to be under VA care for the rest of their lives. No one would ever film a Budweiser commercial here.
It was late afternoon when Marquis emerged from a treatment room. He had some ointment on his face from where the air-bag fuel had stung him, and he was walking a little more stiffly than usual.
“Everything in working order?” said Lucas.
“Doc said I’ll be pretty sore tomorrow. But I’m fine.”
“They give you anything good?”
“Vicodin. But you know I don’t like pills.”
“I’ve got some good smoke if you’re interested. It’ll take your mind off damn near everything.”
“Much appreciated,” said Marquis. “They had a fine nurse back in there, man. I was hoping she’d give me a thorough examination.”
“They don’t nut-check car accident victims.”
“A man can dream.”
Lucas had dropped Marquis off when they’d arrived. As they walked out the front doors of the hospital, he pointed across the lot. “There’s the car.”
“Can’t you get it and pick me up?”
“Don’t be a bitch.”
Lucas stopped at his apartment for some weed, then drove Marquis to the rental car agency and dropped him off at his Buick.
“I’m real sorry about this,” said Lucas.
“Ain’t no thing,” said Marquis.
They bumped fists.
Back in his apartment, Lucas checked his iPhone, which he’d left behind that morning in favor of a disposable. Charlotte Rivers had called to tell him that she was available in the early evening if he had the time. His heart pumped faster as he left a voice mail, telling her he’d be there. Tom Petersen had also called to give him an update on the Bates trial. Lucas hit him back. Reaching Petersen, he heard a car’s engine, wind coming through open windows, and Led Zep.
“I’m on Route Five, headed back from La Plata,” said Petersen.
“How’s it going?”
“I put Brian Dodson on the stand today.”
“The mechanic.”
“Him. Truthfully, I’ve got nothing on Dodson. The tire tracks are inconclusive, of course. There’s nothing else definitive that puts him down in Southern Maryland at the time of Edwina Christian’s death.”
“Did you ask him what kind of business he had that would take him to Barry Farms?”
“He said that his sister lives there. There was a present in that bag he was carrying into the units. A doll for his niece.”
“I guess I was wrong on that one.”
“Maybe she does live there. Doesn’t mean he was visiting her that day. He was cagey. But I was able to bring up his old criminal record. The prosecutor objected, and the judge instructed the jury to disregard. But I think I got their attention.”
“You planted a seed of doubt.”
“Yes, Jack, I did. By the way, Calvin Bates would like to speak with you.”
“What’s he want?”
“Something about a card game. He wasn’t making much sense, and frankly I wasn’t really listening. I was busy trying to keep him out of prison for life. He’s in the D.C. Jail until the trial ends.”
“I’m tied up right now.”
“It won’t be right away. I’ll get back to you on this and set up a meet.”
“Right.”
Lucas took a shower and dressed for his girl.
She was waiting for him in her suite, wearing a man’s wife-beater and a black thong. He kissed her as the door shut behind him, and she kissed him back. It felt familiar and brand-new.
“What’s that?” said Charlotte, reaching for the bottle of Barolo in his hand. He had bought it on the way over, but he didn’t really know wine and was hoping he’d done well.
“I wanted to contribute something for a change.”
“You’re here. That’s all I want.”
“I’ll put it on the dresser,” he said, and he placed the bottle next to the one she had ordered up.
She followed him into the bedroom, and as he turned she came into his arms and they kissed again.
“Maybe we should talk first?” said Lucas.
“About what?” she said.
Soon they were on the bed, naked, joined and moving fluidly, damp with sweat. Their lovemaking was nearly violent, Charlotte’s back arched, Lucas buried inside her. There had been little foreplay.
“God,” said Charlotte, after they came.
“When worlds collide.”
In bed, they drank some of the wine Lucas had brought. It wasn’t as good as the Barolo the hotel stocked, but neither of them mentioned it.
“They really take care of you here,” said Lucas.
“It’s nice.”
“You have an arrangement with the manager?”
“I told you, my firm spends a lot of money here on visiting clients.”
“What does the manager think you’re doing in these rooms?”
“I don’t know what he thinks. He’s smart enough not to ask.”
“You never sleep here...”
“I’d like to.”
“With me?”
“I’d love to spend the night with you. But you know I can’t. I have to go home at night.”
“When you go home... when you leave me, I mean...”
“Don’t.”
“Do you ever fuck your husband right after you see me?”
“Stop it, Spero. Just stop.”
“Sorry.”
“I’m frustrated, too.”
“I know you are.” But he wasn’t sure.
Charlotte put her glass on the nightstand, turned into him, and lay across his chest. She kissed him and held it for a long while.
“I’d watch you sleep,” she said. “Are you a sound sleeper?”
“I guess.”
“My grandfather was a marine in the Pacific. He fought in the Philippines. Grandma said he never had a good night’s sleep for the rest of his life. He suffered from nightmares.”
“It’s not uncommon.”
“Do you ever have nightmares?”
“Never,” said Lucas, and then told another lie. “I don’t even dream.”
“Noises would set my grandfather off. Once I was with him when I was a little girl. We were walking across a parking lot, and he was holding my hand. A car backfired in the street, and he hit the ground. I didn’t know what was wrong with him.”
“Those guys caught hell over there,” said Lucas. “Then they came home and quietly lived with whatever was crawling around in their heads. Only a few got treatment. There was no such thing as PTSD then. What I mean is, there wasn’t a name for it.”
“What about you? How do you deal with what you saw and did?”
Lucas, on his back, looked at her, her hair that smelled like rain, her lovely back, her breasts pressed against his chest.