The Garden of Betrayal - Lee Vance [84]
“Where’s my friend?”
“The big guy or the little guy?”
“The little guy.”
“Came in a few minutes before you. Hold still. I need to get the shrapnel out of your head.”
“Is he okay?”
“No clue,” he said flatly, probing near my hairline with forceps.
“You’re lying to me, aren’t you?” I asked, studying his face.
He hesitated a moment and then nodded.
“Yes.”
“Is my friend dead?”
He grabbed hold of something with the forceps and pulled. I felt blood trickling down my forehead; he mopped at it with a swab.
“Instantly. No pain. Big guy was less lucky than you, but he’ll make it. I’m putting a butterfly bandage on this wound. You don’t need a stitch.”
“I’m going to be sick.”
He held a cardboard basin for me while I threw up. When I was done, he eased me down to a prone position again and covered me with a blanket. My head was throbbing, but I knew I had to get in touch with Claire and Kate immediately.
“Do me another favor?” I said.
“What’s that?”
“Bring me a phone.”
“Can’t. No phones in the ER. And you need to rest.”
“Then call a cop named Reggie Kinnard for me and tell him where I am,” I said, not wanting anyone else to know where Claire and Kate were.
“Got a dozen cops here already.”
“Please.”
He took a pad from his pocket and wrote down Reggie’s cell number.
“Thanks,” I said. “For everything.”
“No problem. Now rest. You’re still shocky. I’ll be back in a minute.”
I must have drifted off, because when I opened my eyes again, Reggie was standing over me.
“How you doing?” he asked.
“Not so good.” I pushed myself up to a seated position and my vision swam. “Where are Claire and Kate?”
“Here. In the lobby down the hall. I was with them at the Meridien when I got the call from the doctor.”
“I want to see them.”
“Have to wait a little bit. You’re still in a restricted-access area—no visitors.”
“You have someone watching them?”
“Uniform keeping them company. Why?”
I heaved myself backward eighteen inches, so I could lean up against the headboard. Every muscle protested. I felt as if I’d been hit by a car.
“These people killed Rashid right in front of me.” I choked back an involuntary sob. “I don’t want to take any more chances.”
“What people?”
“I don’t know. I’m not sure of anything anymore. The people who bugged my house, maybe.”
“We’re talking about an Arab diplomat,” Reggie said skeptically. “Could be any number of reasons for someone to hit him.”
“No. No more coincidences. Everything that’s happened recently is tied together somehow, and tied to Kyle as well. I can feel it. I just …”
A nurse entered through the curtain and gave Reggie a hostile look. He flipped open his coat to display the badge on his belt.
“Would you like some water?” she asked, offering me a plastic cup with a straw.
“Please,” I said, suddenly realizing how thirsty I was.
I drained the cup while she checked my blood pressure and fussed with my bedclothes.
“He has to go,” the nurse said, jerking her head toward Reggie.
“Soon,” I promised. “We just have a few more things to cover.”
She left, muttering unhappily.
“You have any details from the hotel?” I asked Reggie.
“You sure you want to hear?”
“Yes. I need to know.”
He sighed.
“Had a quick word with a guy on the scene. Best our people can figure, someone rigged a phone with a shaped charge inside the earpiece. Rashid put it to the side of his head, and they detonated it by remote control.”
I closed my eyes for a second, overwhelmed by a sense of unreality.
“You like to take a few minutes?” Reggie asked.
“No. I’m okay. What’s a shaped charge?”
“Explosive designed to project force along a single axis. You were at a right angle to the axis because of the way Rashid was holding the phone, so you didn’t catch much of it. Bodyguard was at a less oblique angle, so he caught more.”
“So, Rashid was the only target?”
“Seems like. Else they would have used something with a bigger spread.”
“Anybody get a good look at the guy who handed him the phone?”
“Security camera grabbed a decent shot of him.