Grave Secret - Charlaine Harris [53]
It was a pleasure to tell his cohorts how brave he had been, and a pleasure to see the pride they took in that. The fact that they thought he’d been pretty much of an idiot to go running with me—well, that was left on the back burner.
I had a few speckles of blood on my face, and I went into my hotel room to scrub them off. The female officer, Kerri Sauer, went with me, and she also volunteered to follow me over to God’s Mercy, a gesture I appreciated.
“You ever watch Parker play?” she asked, as she watched me scrub his blood off with a washrag.
“No,” I said. “Did you? You must have been a kid.”
“I was. He was great. Him getting hurt, that was a terrible thing for the team. He did—still does—all kinds of stuff for kids at risk. He’s a great guy. You had his location when you called. That saved his life. He’s got a chance to make it.”
It seemed counterproductive to point out that Powers probably wouldn’t have gotten shot if he hadn’t been with me. I nodded and buried my face in towel so she couldn’t read my expression.
After I parked at the hospital and walked to the door, I waved to the patrol car, and it pulled out into the traffic. I had a crazy idea: if I couldn’t make money finding bodies anymore, could I be a police officer? I wondered if I could even pass the physical. Usually my right leg was okay, but every now and then it gave me fits. And I got awful headaches. So probably law enforcement wasn’t a career option for me. I shook my head and saw the movement reflected in the shiny walls of the elevator. I was just being silly.
I went through the hall on silent feet and opened Tolliver’s door carefully. It was dark inside, though the light in the bathroom was on and that door had been left open a crack.
“Harper?” he said, his voice thick with sleep.
“Yeah, it’s me. I missed you,” I said, keeping my voice down.
“Come here.”
I went to the bed, and I crouched to take my shoes off. “I’m going to sleep in the chair,” I said very softly. “You go back to sleep.”
“Climb in with me, on my good side.”
“Are you sure that’ll be comfortable for you? That bed’s mighty small.”
“I’m sure. I’d rather be crowded with you than have lots of room without you.”
I felt tears begin to trickle down my cheeks, and I suppressed the sobbing sound that went with them.
“What’s wrong?” He put his good arm around me after I’d crawled into the bed. I lay on my side to give him enough room.
“Nothing we need to talk about now,” I said. “Sleep now. I just didn’t want to be by myself.”
“I didn’t either,” he said. And he fell back to sleep. After a few minutes, so did I.
The nurse who came in at five thirty in the morning was fairly surprised to find me there, in bed with Tolliver. Once she saw that we were both clothed and she could assume that Tolliver hadn’t done anything to hurt his mending shoulder, she relaxed.
Tolliver looked a lot better in the morning light. Being with him had done me good, too. I felt a lot more confident. After he’d been bathed and shaved and he’d eaten breakfast, I told him the story of the night before.
He said instantly, “I have to get out of here,” and actually began to sit up to get out of the bed.
“No, you aren’t,” I said sharply. “You’re going to stay right here, where no one can get at you, until the doctor says you can go.”
Tolliver said, “You’re in danger, baby. We’ve got to find somewhere to put you, somewhere safe.” He’d abandoned the idea of leaving, I was relieved to see, mostly because the movement had been enough to make him cold and sweaty.
“That sounds good,” I said. “But I just don’t know where that would be.