She shrugs. “No idea. But he wouldn’t be the first doc to experiment on someone the world doesn’t give shit one about. Ever hear of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment? The US government used four hundred black men like lab rats. It went on for forty years, and so far as I know, not a single one of them ran a car into a bunch of defenseless people.” She gives Hodges a crooked smile. “Investigate Babineau. Get him in trouble. I dare you.”

“It’s Hartsfield I’m interested in, but based on what you’re saying, I wouldn’t be surprised if Babineau turned out to be collateral damage.”

“Then hooray for collateral damage.” It comes out clatteral dammish, and Hodges deduces she’s not on her first drink. He is, after all, a trained investigator.

When the waitress brings his Coke, Norma drains her glass and holds it up. “I’ll have another, and since the gentleman’s paying, you might as well make it a double.” The waitress takes her glass and leaves. Norma turns her attention back to Hodges. “You said you have questions. Go ahead and ask while I can still answer. My mouth is a trifle numb, and will soon be number.”

“Who is on Brady Hartsfield’s visitors list?”

Norma frowns at him. “Visitors list? Are you kidding? Who told you he had a visitors list?”

“The late Ruth Scapelli. This was just after she replaced Becky as head nurse. I offered her fifty bucks for any rumors she heard about him—which was the going rate with Becky—and she acted like I’d just pissed on her shoes. Then she said, ‘You’re not even on his visitors list.’”

“Huh.”

“Then, just today, Babineau said—”

“Some bullshit about the DA’s office. I heard it, Bill, I was there.”

The waitress sets Norma’s new drink in front of her, and Hodges knows he’d better finish up fast, before Norma starts to bend his ear about everything from being underappreciated at work to her sad and loveless love life. When nurses drink, they have a tendency to go all in. They’re like cops that way.

“You’ve been working the Bucket for as long as I’ve been coming there—”

“A lot longer. Twelve years.” Yearsh. She raises her glass in a toast and swallows half of her drink. “And now I have been promoted to head nurse, at least temporarily. Twice the responsibility at the same old salary, no doubt.”

“Seen anybody from the DA’s office lately?”