twenty
Danny marked time by Saturdays’ arrivals. The day marked the end of his week, a sabbath of sorts on which he took the children to visit Ellen. He led Mandy and Petey into the hospital as he would a church, hand-in-hand and with reverence. He waved at the grey-haired matron who manned the reception desk and let the children veer him toward the elevator for the one-floor ride up to Ward 2B.
He tried not to think about the investigation. He’d spent half his work week wrangling the health care system. After Ellen’s fever retreated, he’d fought for a transfer to the bigger Limerick hospital for a full battery of tests. Going into battle mode hadn’t dented the system. Her temperature had returned to normal, hence, all was well again.
“I get to push the button this time,” Petey said.
Mandy elbowed him. “Then I get to step out of the elevator first.”
Marcus followed them into the elevator. On the second floor, the elevator shuddered to a stop with a grind of pulley wheels. Danny held the door as Mandy pushed Petey out of the way so she could exit first. “You go on,” he said to Marcus, “I’ll be back straight away.”
Danny backtracked toward Ward 1A, where Cecil Wallace sat up in bed. A tray with scrambled eggs, toast, and orange juice perched on his lap.
“You again?” He stabbed his fork into the eggs. “You’d better hurry. Two out of three of my demon seeds will be here soon, and they’re none too happy.” Cecil grinned. A bit wicked was old Cecil.
Danny pulled up a chair and straddled it with arms resting on the seat back. “We had a nice dose of them yesterday at the station.”
“Ay, and yer nothing but fecking useless according to my youngest.” He forked eggs into his mouth. “What’s the craic?”
“Now that you’re—”
“Fully functioning? You can say it. Got my bolts screwed in? All my brain cells aligned?” He chewed and swallowed. “Go on with you.”
“Now that you’re the full shilling again”—Cecil hooted—“I’m hoping you remember more about the voices you overheard in the room next to yours. You heard Joseph Macy talking with another man?”
Cecil nodded.
“Did you hear him mention the other man by name?”
“Can’t say that I did, but they knew each other well, I could tell that much.” He sipped juice, thinking. “Joe threw a proper wobbler, he did. The mouth on him like to make me blush if I were the blushing sort.”
Danny understood. We saved our best worst behavior for those we knew well. “About what?” he said.
“Couldn’t tell you that.”
“About your kids—”
“Those saints, yeah?”
“What do you think of the idea of one of them killing Joe to protect you?”
Cecil cackled with his hand in front of his mouth. “Oh, that’s brilliant. Right this second I wager they’re fighting over who’s to take me in until they dump me into a rat hole of a care home.” Tears of merriment streamed out of his eyes. “The choicest bit is that they don’t know that I’ve decided to use the rest of my money on a first-rate clinic. Fecking hell, yeah, no more of this pinching to provide the ungrateful little sods with an inheritance. I knew what Joe was about with my money, but that wasn’t going to happen. He contented himself with overcharging me for meals and physical therapy. The price I was willing to pay to keep my independence like.”
Danny grinned. “You old bastard.”
“You know it. Papers are signed and a car will pick me up later today. What my children deserve for taking their sweet time and for never visiting.”
“Last question.” Danny stood. “Nothing to do with the investigation.”
“Eh?”
“You were sedated when you first arrived in the hospital. Could you hear anything?”
Cecil bit into his toast. “I’m not following.”
“Did you hear people talking while you were under?”
“Odd kind of question, but, no, I don’t remember a thing.”
Useless question anyhow. Cecil’s sedation and Ellen’s vegetative state were very different breeds of unconsciousness.
He wrote down the name of Cecil’s new facility and left the room feeling lighter than when he arrived. Cecil was one of the lucky ones. There were few good moments within a murder investigation, and Danny would take them when they came.
He returned to Ward 2B, where Marcus met him in the corridor. Mandy and Petey hung onto Marcus’s hands. Petey’s chin quivered.
Danny’s heart clutched hard, a fist of a heart punching his chest wall. “What happened?”
By way of answer, Marcus nodded toward Ellen’s room. “Now you’re here, I’ll take the wee ones down to the grab-and-go.”
Inside the room, a doctor and a nurse stood over Ellen. A new machine on a trolley sat next to the bed. The doctor raised a tube while the nurse injected something into one of Ellen’s IVs.
Danny stepped up to the doctor and stayed his hand. Ellen’s face was flushed and her breathing labored. “Stop.”
“This is preventative. Her fever returned, and we think there’s fluid in her lungs. Possibly a lung infection. We’ll have to transfer her to Limerick.”
“Now you agree to transfer her, that’s bloody magnanimous of you.” Danny took a breath and switched to Garda mode. All business and authority. “Explain, please.”
“I’m putting her on a ventilator to give her lungs a rest.”
“Why? What are you preventing?”
A nurse crowded in on Danny in an attempt to usher him out of the room. “We’ll stabilize her and transport her to Limerick within a few hours.”
Danny stepped away from her. “Stabilize?”
“Nurse, escort him out,” the doctor ordered. “Now.”
The nurse directed Danny out the door ahead of her. Behind them, Ellen gagged as the doctor pushed the ventilator tube down her throat. All the Garda authority in the world meant nothing here.