“What’d she say?”

“Just calling to say hi,” she said, mindful that her son had listened to every word of her end of the conversation. She waited for further questioning on the subject, but instead Eli asked:

“Did we bring Daddy dinner?”

“No.”

“Then why are we going to see him?”

She caught her son’s face in the rearview mirror, put on a smile. “It’s a surprise.”

You can say that again.

They got out, Eli holding her hand all the way to the entrance. The hospital’s flag was down but the cable clanged against the steel pole. Sarah didn’t realize that Eli had been imitating the noise, softly, under his breath, until they got inside.

4.

Mike found Walker by the vending machines next to the ground-floor elevator, struggling to feed a wrinkled dollar bill into a coffee machine. He watched him thumb the creamer button several times, apparently not realizing the machine had already spit his dollar back at him.

“I think it’s empty.”

The tall man in the white coat flinched, visibly startled, and removed the dollar from the slot with a sheepish smile that looked completely out of place on his face. He was in his mid-sixties, with the finely chiseled, almost aristocratic features that made Mike wonder, on more than one occasion, what the rest of the world must look like from up there. Army ants? Chess pieces? Or something even more impersonal, components that Walker constantly strove to align according to his vision?

“Mike.” He smiled. “Didn’t hear you coming.”

“You brought in Frank Snow on our last night of operation?”

The doctor’s eyes lit from deep within. “He’s here?”

“Jo’s putting him on the table right now.”

“I’ll have to examine him before he goes in.” Walker began walking quickly up the hall toward the MRI suite. “Apparently Mr. Snow’s been experiencing headaches and numbness.”

Mike found himself hurrying to keep up. “We could’ve waited until the Harrisburg scanner was up and running. Hell of a thing to spring on us on our last night.”

“Just a routine brain MRI,” Walker said, opening the door into the suite. “Thirty minutes and he won’t be our problem anymore.”

“Somebody should have told the ambulance drivers that,” Mike said, letting a hint of irritation creep into his voice. “They couldn’t wait to get out of here.”

Walker gazed at him placidly. In front of them, the man on the stretcher held up his arms so the police could remove his handcuffs.

“I’ve never apologized for making anyone do their job. I don’t intend to start now.” At length the doctor took a syringe from his pocket and began filling it from a bottle whose label Mike couldn’t read. “Mr. Snow’s other symptoms include generalized weakness, with multiple incidents of dizziness, lethargy—”

“My heart goes out to him.” Mike looked over at Jolie as she turned to the detainee and took another photo. It looked like one of the cops was about to move to stop her, but the officer with the sunglasses held him back. Guy must really think his chances are pretty good, Mike thought. The flash danced over the prisoner’s indifferent face, glinting off something deep and broken in his eyes, and a moment later Mike felt the emotional aftershock like a rumble of thunder after lightning.