Startled, Will’s surgeon’s mind and reflexes instantly kicked in. His hand remained virtually motionless but tightened around hers. He bowed his head, shaking it in apparent frustration as he shifted his weight, checking to see if the sheet moved. There was little if anything to be seen, and certainly neither Gold nor the other two seemed alerted to the change. Once again, as if to be certain he knew, Patty’s hand tightened just a bit, then relaxed. Watching the sheet as much as he dared, Will returned the pressure.
I know, I know. Just be careful.
“I need some time,” he said.
“Time for what?” Gold asked. “I think I’ve made myself perfectly clear.”
“I need some sort of guarantee Patty will be returned to the hospital unharmed.”
“I gave you my word.”
“Gold, cut the crap. You kill people. Ten minutes. Give me ten minutes to see if I can come up with something better than your word.”
“And if you can’t?”
Will looked down at Patty and gently brushed his hand across her forehead. Again, immediately, there was pressure from her hand. She was not only awake, she was wide awake.
“If I can’t, I’ll have to decide if there’s even a chance you’d make a promise not to harm this woman and actually keep it.”
“What do you think, Dr. Krause? Should we give Grant his ten minutes, or just go ahead and see what he’s really made of?”
“You know my answer to that,” Krause said, surveying Patty from head to toe.
“Ten minutes,” Gold said. “After that, either we’re on our way to Roxbury or I turn her over to the good doctor here.”
Will’s stomach turned at the notion.
“Bring me a chair so I can sit here,” he said.
“No problem. Wat, bring Dr. Grant a chair and bring one in for yourself. It’s okay to stay over there by the door. Just keep an eye on him. Make sure he behaves under that sheet there.”
Krause snickered. Will ignored him. He was processing the fact that Gold had probably been telling the truth about there being no hidden surveillance camera, although a hidden microphone of some sort remained a possibility. As Krause and Gold moved through the door, and Watkins moved past them, Will bent down and kissed Patty on the temple.
“One is yes, two is no,” he whispered. “Understand?”
One squeeze.
“Ten minutes,” Gold said, tapping his Rolex, then following Krause out of the room.
“If you were me, what would you do, Watkins?” Will asked. “Should I go out to Roxbury and get those X-rays?”
One squeeze.
“Huh? Oh, sure. I would do whatever Mr. Gold says. He’s not a person to mess with.”
Will scanned the narrow room for anything that might have been a bug. There didn’t seem to be one, but if he screwed up now and Gold realized Patty was awake, they would have lost the only advantage they had. From what she had said before her injury, it seemed possible she had already figured out that Excelsius Health was behind the murders. That had to be why she wanted him to cooperate. If they somehow got out of this, there was other evidence besides the X-rays that they could use to nail Gold and his boss.
There was slight pressure on his hand, pushing it a half an inch at a time down the thin stretcher mattress until it hit against the catheter.
“You want out?” he asked.
One squeeze.
“What’s that?” Watkins asked.
“I asked if you wanted out of all this. You don’t seem like such a bad guy.”
“I do my job,” Watkins said. “Whatever it is. If Mr. Gold tells me to be bad, I can be real bad.”
The catheter was kept from being accidentally pulled out by a round balloon blown up just before the tip. It was inflated not with air but with water inserted by a syringe through a port on the near end. Will found the small syringe taped to the drainage tubing, carefully deflated the balloon, and then slid the catheter out. The corners of Patty’s mouth turned up slightly. Not only was she awake, but now she was more mobile.
“Gold says he’s the one who shot her,” Will said. “Did you hear him say that?”
One squeeze.
Impatiently, Watkins checked his watch.
“If Mr. Gold says something, it’s generally true. You got three minutes.”
“Is there anything you need?”
“From you?”
One squeeze. Lying virtually motionless, Patty hooked one finger around the IV tubing and touched it to Will’s hand. He stood, lifting the sheet enough to see that the IV catheter in her wrist had clotted off. He loosened the tape holding it in place, slid it out of the vein, and kept pressure on the puncture site with his finger. Still more freedom of movement for her.
“I meant is there anything I can do for you that might convince you to let me go?”
Two squeezes.
“Not likely.”
“Suit yourself. I could do a stapling procedure on that stomach of yours. You’d be out modeling bathing suits in no time.”
“I’d rather eat.”
Watkins was checking his watch again when the door flew open. Marshall Gold, showered and now dressed in dark slacks, a sports jacket, and a tangerine turtleneck, strode past the giant to stand across from Will, just inches from the stretcher. With a final tightening on Patty’s hand, Will withdrew his from under the sheet.
Don’t move, baby, his mind was screaming. Don’t move a muscle.
“So, I gave you two extra minutes, Grant. What’s it going to be?”
“I want your promise again that you’ll get her back to the hospital unharmed.”
“You’ve got it.”
You’re lying, you son of a bitch.
“Okay. But I also want your word that the guy with the X-rays won’t be hurt, either. He hasn’t done anything. I want Watkins there to hear you promise.”
“You really have brass balls to be ordering me around like this in your situation. Okay, okay. If the guy is not a danger to me, I won’t hurt him.”
Will hesitated as if he were still considering. He felt sick at the notion of putting Lionel in harm’s way, but there really was nothing he could do.
“I gave the films to the man who gave me directions.”
“At the very end of the street, where I lost you for just a couple of seconds.”
“That’s right. I gave the envelope to him and told him to take it home and I’d buy it back for a thousand dollars.”
“Then you ran across the street in the other direction.”
“Exactly.”
Gold’s expression was absolute glee. In that instant, what little hope remained in Will vanished. He and Patty were dead, and poor Lionel would likely fare no better.
“I knew it was something like that,” Gold said. “How are you going to find him again?”
“I’m not sure. I know his first name and the area he lives in. I didn’t have time to get his last name. I planned to bring as much cash as I could come up with and bribe as many people as necessary until someone told me where he lives. I would guess a lot of people know him. He seemed like a real character.”
“What’s his name?”
“I’d prefer-”
Gold whipped a bone-handled switchblade from his pocket, flicked open the five-inch blade, and grabbed Patty’s little finger.
“What’s his fucking name?” he roared.
“L–Lionel. It’s Lionel.”
Gold’s fury instantly vanished and he smiled across at Will benignly.
“Lionel. Nice name. Well, let’s you and I go and find this Lionel.”
“Marshall, you’re not going anywhere. We have business to attend to.”
Will recognized the voice after the first word. He flashed back on the Faneuil Hall debate that had started everything, as Boyd Halliday strode into the room and took up a place at the foot of the stretcher.