Unsympathetic Magic - Laura Resnick [68]
He beamed at her. “Thanks.”
It was a good thing that I hadn’t really expected a brush with death to change Nolan’s personality, since it took only a few seconds at his bedside to establish that this was indeed not the case.
He told me I looked like shit, then glanced at Jeff and Max and asked me, “Who the fuck are they?”
I introduced them to him. Jeff, a dedicated self-promoter, immediately tried to engage him in conversation. Nolan interrupted him, without apology, to shout for his assistant, demanding that she come straighten his pillows for him.
Jeff again tried to strike up a conversation. Nolan again interrupted him, asking me, “Are those for me?”
“Huh? Oh!” I realized he was nodding to the two books tucked under my arm. “No. This is some, uh, research I’m doing.”
They were books about Vodou. Puma had given them to me when I left the shop a little while ago, insisting I take them free of charge. She thought they might help me better understand the ritual we’d be attending soon.
So you didn’t bring me anything?” Nolan was looking at me as if he’d just learned I was a shoplifter. “Not even a card?”
“I was mugged after you collapsed last night,” I said wearily. “My purse was stolen.” It was as good an excuse as any.
“No shit? Jesus.” He shook his head. “The cops need to do a better job around here.”
That struck me as the sort of sentiment that the star of The Dirty Thirty should probably keep to himself.
Nolan looked weak and pale, but he certainly didn’t seem to be at death’s door. He also talked like he expected to be back on the set within a few days to finish shooting our final scene together. If he felt any curiosity at all about why I was wearing my costume while visiting him, he concealed it manfully.
I glanced at the clock on the wall, figuring that ten more minutes was a reasonable length of time for this visit. The next time I looked at the clock, I was appalled to find that only three minutes had passed since my previous glance. Could a voodoo curse slow down the passage of time inside this hospital room, I wondered?
Max questioned Nolan about his health, his symptoms, what he remembered about his collapse, and his diagnosis. After a few more minutes, during which time I kept my gaze fixed on the agonizingly slow revolutions of the clock’s second hand, Max fell silent. When I met his eyes, he gave me a cheerful little nod, indicating that he was satisfied.
Jeff started chatting with Nolan again, and for all his own self-absorption, he was smart enough to recognize by now that the way to Nolan’s heart was to pretend to be fascinated by him. A certain natural revulsion had prevented me from mastering this technique with Nolan myself, but Jeff was made of sterner stuff. Before long, Nolan was yammering away about himself in an animated manner, clearly delighted to have as attentive an audience as Jeff.
When I announced, with considerable relief, that it was time for us to go, Jeff’s face fell. So I added, “I mean, Max and I have to go. But if you’d like to stay . . .”
“Sure, he’ll stay,” said Nolan, not about to let his captive listener escape so easily.
The two men gave us a quick wave of farewell, and Max and I left.
As we exited the room, Nolan’s assistant tried to block our path. “You’re supposed to stay a half hour,” she hissed. “That’s the rule!”
“We can’t stay,” I said. “Places to go, bokors to stop.”
“What?”
“I want credit for this visit,” I said.
“You show up hours late and stay barely fifteen minutes, and you want credit?” she said incredulously. “You’re going to have to come a second time.”
“That’s not fair!” I protested.
Max said, “One of our party is remaining behind. Will that suffice?”
She blinked. “Oh! The cute bald guy is staying?”
“You like that look on him?” I said.
She picked up her pen to make a note on the visitation log. “Okay. How long is he going to stay?”
“Probably until Nolan gets well and checks out of the hospital,” I said.
I got credit for the visit.
As we rode the elevator back down to the main floor, Max said to me, ”Mr. Nolan clearly suffers from