“No,” he said. “I do a lot of my business on the Web now, and I don’t have any readings scheduled for this week. I brought my laptop and my cell; that takes care of me. What am I looking for?” The sense of fun faded from his face, and I was looking at an older person than the Manfred I was used to.

“You’re looking for whatever you can tell me about these people,” I said. “Someone shot Tolliver. Someone shot Detective Powers, though I guess they were trying to hit me. And I think it was one of these people. I want to know why.”

“Not who?”

“Well, of course that, too. But the ‘why’ is pretty important. I need to know if I’m the target or not.”

He nodded. “I get it.”

We drove back to the hospital, and Manfred dropped me off at a side entrance, the closest to providing concealment that the hospital offered. I scooted inside and made my way to the bank of elevators off the lobby. I didn’t think anyone was paying any particular attention to me, and no one seemed to be loitering. Everyone I looked at seemed to have a purpose, and no one spoke to me.

When I got back to Tolliver’s room, I found him sitting up in the chair. I felt a wide smile spread across my face.

“Oh, you got adventurous,” I said, beaming at him.

“Hey, I’m no slacker,” he said, but he smiled back. “Hearing I might get out made me feel better than any of the drugs. How was your trip across the city with the amazing Manfred?”

I told Tolliver about our visit to Detective Powers. “Once they all understood I wasn’t sleeping with him, they were all relieved,” I said.

“When he gets better, you can tell him his fellow officers thought he was a real dog.”

“I don’t think he’s going to get better,” I said. “I think he’s going to die.”

Tolliver took my hand. “Harper, that’s not up to us. All we can do is hope he pulls through.”

That was such a sweet thing to say; maybe not the words so much as the way Tolliver said it. I could tell he loved me. I cried a little, and he let me without saying anything patronizing, and then I helped him back into bed because he was tired. We should have been talking about who shot him, but at the moment we were simply too flattened.

Mark and Matthew came in together an hour later.