Tanya is crying. “You have to come home,” she says, and Jerome has just long enough to think of something his grand­father used to say: bad luck keeps bad company.

It’s Barbie after all.

13

Hodges is in the lobby and headed for the door when his phone vibrates. It’s Norma Wilmer.

“Is he gone?” Hodges asks.

Norma doesn’t have to ask who he’s talking about. “Yes. Now that he’s seen his prize patient, he can relax and do the rest of his rounds.”

“I was sorry to hear about Nurse Scapelli.” It’s true. He didn’t care for her, but it’s still true.

“I was, too. She ran the nursing staff like Captain Bligh ran the Bounty, but I hate to think of anyone doing . . . that. You get the news and your first reaction is oh no, not her, never. It’s the shock of it. Your second reaction is oh yes, that makes perfect sense. Never married, no close friends—not that I knew of, anyway—nothing but the job. Where everybody sort of loathed her.”

“All the lonely people,” Hodges says, stepping out into the cold and turning toward the bus stop. He buttons his coat one-handed and then begins to massage his side.

“Yes. There are a lot of them. What can I do for you, Mr. Hodges?”

“I have a few questions. Could you meet me for a drink?”

There’s a long pause. Hodges thinks she’s going to tell him no. Then she says, “I don’t suppose your questions could lead to trouble for Dr. Babineau?”

“Anything is possible, Norma.”

“That would be nice, but I guess I owe you one, regardless. For not letting on to him that we know each other from back in the Becky Helmington days. There’s a watering hole on Revere Avenue. Got a clever name, Bar Bar Black Sheep, and most of the staff drinks closer to the hospital. Can you find it?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m off at five. Meet me there at five thirty. I like a nice cold vodka martini.”

“It’ll be waiting.”

“Just don’t expect me to get you in to see Hartsfield. It would mean my job. Babineau was always intense, but these days he’s downright weird. I tried to tell him about Ruth, and he blew right past me. Not that he’s apt to care when he finds out.”

“Got a lot of love for him, don’t you?”

She laughs. “For that you owe me two drinks.”

“Two it is.”

He’s slipping his phone back into his coat pocket when it buzzes again. He sees the call is from Tanya Robinson and his thoughts immediately flash to Jerome, building houses out there in Arizona. A lot of things can go wrong on building sites.

He takes the call. Tanya is crying, at first too hard for him to understand what she’s saying, only that Jim is in Pittsburgh and she doesn’t want to call him until she knows more. Hodges stands at the curb, one palm plastered against his non-phone ear to muffle the sound of traffic.