Osterman could be heard yelling on the staircase. «What the hell happened?» He came into the room. «Oh, Jesus! Oh, Jesus Christ!»
Tanner regained consciousness and looked around. MacAuliff stood next to the doctor; Ali sat on the bed. Bernie and Leila were at the footrail, trying to smile at him reassuringly.
«You’re going to be fine. Very superficial,» said the doctor. «Painful, but not serious. Shoulder cartilage, that’s what it is.»
«I was shot?»
«You were shot.» MacAuliff agreed.
«Who shot me?»
«We don’t know that.» MacAuliff tried to conceal his anger, but it surfaced. The captain was obviously convinced he was being ignored; that vital information was being withheld from him. «But I tell you this, I intend to question each one of you if it takes all night to find out what’s happening here. You’re all being damned fools and I won’t permit it!»
«The wound is dressed,» said the doctor, putting on his jacket. «You can get up and around as soon as you feel like it, only take it easy, Mr. Tanner. Not much more than a deep cut. Very little loss of blood.» The doctor smiled and left rapidly. He had no reason to remain.
The moment the door was closed, MacAuliff made his abrupt statement. «Would you all wait downstairs, please? I want to be left alone with Mr. Tanner.»
«Captain, he was just shot,» said Bernie firmly. «You can’t question him now; I won’t let you.»
«I’m a police officer on official business; I don’t need your permission. You heard the doctor. He’s not seriously hurt.»
«He’s been through enough!» Ali stared at MacAuliff.
«I’m sorry, Mrs. Tanner. This is necessary. Now will you all please …»
«No, we will not!» Osterman left his wife’s side and approached the police chief. «He’s not the one who should be questioned. You are. Your whole Goddamn police force should be put on the carpet… I’d like to know why that patrol car didn’t stop, Captain! I heard your explanation and I don’t accept it!»
«You continue this, Mr. Osterman, I’ll call in an officer and have you locked up!»
«I wouldn’t try that…»
«Don’t tempt me! I’ve dealt with your kind before! I worked New York, sheenie!»
Osterman had grown very still. «What did you say?»
«Don’t provoke me. You’re provoking me!»
«Forget it!» said Tanner from the bed. «I don’t mind, really… Go ahead downstairs, all of you.»
Alone with MacAuliff, Tanner sat up. His shoulder hurt, but he could move it freely.
MacAuliff walked to the end of the bed and held the footrail with both hands. He spoke calmly, «You talk now. You tell me what you know or I’ll book you for withholding information in attempted murder.»
«They were trying to kill me.»
«That’s still murder. M-u-r-d-e-r. It doesn’t make any difference whether it’s yours or that big Jew bastard’s!»
«Why are you so hostile?» Tanner asked. «Tell me. You should be begging at my feet. I’m a taxpayer and you haven’t protected my house.»
MacAuliff made several attempts to speak but he was choking on his own anger. Finally he controlled himself.
«Okay. I know a lot of you don’t like the way I run things. You bastards want to put me out and get some fucking hippie from a half-assed law school! Well, the only way you can do that is if I louse up. And I’m not gonna louse up! My record stays clean! This town stays clean! So you tell me what’s going on and if I need help, I’ll call it in! I can’t do that without something to go on!»
Tanner rose from the bed, at first unsteadily, and then, to his surprise, firmly.
«I believe you. You’re too frantic to lie… And you’re right. A lot of us don’t like you. But that may be chemical, so let’s let it go… Still, I’m not answering questions. Instead, I’m giving you an order. You’ll keep this house guarded night and day until I tell you to stop! Do you understand that?»
«I don’t take orders!»
«You’ll take them from me. If you don’t, I’ll plaster you across sixty million television screens as the typical example of the outdated, uneducated, unenlightened threat to real law enforcement! You’re obsolete. Get that pension and run.»
«You couldn’t do that …»
«Couldn’t I? Check around.»
MacAuliff stood facing Tanner. The veins in his neck were so apparent the news director thought they would burst. «I hate you bastards!» he said coldly. «I hate your guts.»
«As I do yours… I’ve seen you in action… But that doesn’t matter now. Sit down.»
Ten minutes later MacAuliff rushed out of the house into the diminishing July storm. He slammed the front door behind him and gave cursory orders to several police deputies on the lawn. The men acknowledged with feeble salutes, and MacAuliff climbed into his car.
Tanner took a shirt from his bureau drawer and awkwardly put it on. He went out of the bedroom and started down the stairs.
Ali was in the hallway talking to the police officer and saw him. She rushed up to meet him on the staircase landing.
«There are police crawling all over the place. I wish it were an army… Oh, Lord! I’m trying to be calm. I really am! But I can’t!» She embraced him, conscious of the bandage beneath his shirt. «What are we going to do? Who are we going to turn to?»
«Everything’s going to be all right… We just have to wait a little longer.»
«What for?»
«MacAuliff is getting me information.»
«What information?»
Tanner moved Ali against the wall. He spoke quietly, making sure the policeman wasn’t watching them. «Whoever was outside those basement windows is hurt. One I know is badly wounded—in the leg. The other we can’t be sure of, but Bernie thinks he hit him in the shoulder or the chest. MacAuliff’s going out to see the Cardones and the Tremaynes. He’ll phone me then. It may take quite a while, but he’ll get back to me.»
«Did you tell him what to look for?»
«No. Nothing. I simply asked him to follow up their stories about where they were. That’s all. I don’t want MacAuliff making decisions. That’s for Fassett.»
But it wasn’t for Fassett, thought Tanner. It wasn’t for anyone but him any longer. He’d tell Ali when he had to. At the last minute. So he smiled at her and put his arm around her waist and wished he could be free to love her again.
The telephone rang at ten-forty-seven.
«John? It’s Dick. MacAuliff was over to see me.» Tremayne was breathing hard into the telephone, but was keeping his voice reasonably calm. His control was stretched very thin, however.
«… I have no idea what you’re involved with—intended murder, for God’s sake!—and I don’t want to know, but it’s more than I can take! I’m sorry, John, but I’m getting the family out of here. I’ve got reservations on Pan Am at ten in the morning.»
«Where are you going?»
Tremayne did not reply. Tanner spoke again. «I asked you where you were going.»
«Sorry, John … this may sound rotten, but I don’t want to tell you.»
«I think I understand… Do us a favor, though. Drop by on the way to the airport.»
«I can’t promise that. Good-bye.»
Tanner held his finger down on the phone and then released it. He dialed the Saddle Valley police station.
«Police Headquarters. Sergeant Dale.»
«Captain MacAuliff, please. John Tanner calling.»
«He’s not here, Mr. Tanner.»
«Can you reach him? It’s urgent»
«I can try on the car radio; do you want to hold?»
«No, just have him call me as soon as possible.» Tanner gave his telephone number and hung up. MacAuliff was probably on his way to the Cardones. He should have arrived by now. He’d call soon. Tanner returned to the living room. He wanted to unnerve the Ostermans.