“We don’t get murders around here.” Donatti paced as he talked. “Or attempted murders. You should have left Talia out there to freeze. Feel what the fuck it’s like. Just wait with her until the bitch is taken away.”

“That’s exactly what I’m doing, Chris.” A pause. “You’re going in and out of reception.”

Donatti handed the phone back to Rina. She took it off speaker and said, “When are you coming here?”

“When the proper authorities get here. Am I still on speaker?”

“No.”

Decker said, “I need to explain everything. She’s just as much a psycho as he is, and I don’t want her talking her way into bail.”

“Do you need anything?” Rina asked.

“No, I’m fine. I even got fresh coffee. What about you?”

“We’re just waiting.”

“You seem to be holding back on me. Is that true?”

“Maybe.” She looked at Donatti. “I’ll call you when I know something.”

“I love you, Rina.”

“Love you too.” She hung up.

Donatti was still walking back and forth. “What do you think?”

“What do you mean?” Rina asked.

“What are they doing?”

“I’m not a doctor, Chris.”

“Yeah, but you once worked as a medic or something in Israel. You told me that when you fixed my bullet wound, remember?”

He had a good memory, although getting shot was probably one of those things that was forever etched in the brain. They had been walking in the streets of New York when gunfire broke out. He had taken a bullet in the chest protecting her.

“It was a long time ago,” Rina said.

“I won’t hold you to it,” he answered. “What do you think?”

Rina sighed. There was no way she was going to tell him what she was really thinking. “She was dehydrated and hypothermic. They’re probably getting her body temperature up with warm fluids.”

He stopped pacing and turned to her. “That’s no big deal, right?”

“I think she was in shock.”

“She recognized me.”

“Not shock as in surprise,” Rina said. “It’s a medical term when you lose a lot of liquid in your body. It throws everything off.”

“Like your kidneys?”

Rina sighed again. “Yes … mainly you worry about low blood pressure.”

“So, if they give her fluids, she should be okay, right?”

“Sometimes. But sometimes, it’s not that simple.”

“Jesus!” He sat down and clamped his hands over his face. “When will they know if she’s okay?”

“I can’t answer that because I don’t know.” She checked her watch. It had been about twenty-five minutes. “Can I get you anything?”

“How about getting me out of this hell?”

“I’m so sorry, Chris.”

“If this ends badly … God, I don’t want to think about it.”

She nodded.

“Probably better to keep positive,” he said.