The small smile on Sarkar’s face seems to broadcast friendship and trust. Yes, I think I should share the information. Then, immediately, I don’t know why, I change my mind. Then I think that time is passing—what have I got to lose? Why not?

But then Sarkar speaks before I can say anything. “Why don’t we go up and visit our celebrity couple and their new baby? Okay? Maybe we’ll get our picture on the internet.”

The moment passes. I won’t tell him. But I will say something else. “Listen, there’s something I want to ask you about.”

He looks vaguely confused. “Yes?” he asks. Then he smiles.

“Last night I saw another side of you, an angry, impatient, sort of ugly side. Okay, it was only for a second, I know. But when I left your car—or should I say when I was thrown out of your car?—it was just…I don’t know what to call it. Confusing?”

The smile vanishes from his face. He even turns away from me. “I know what to call it,” he says. “I would call it disgusting, reprehensible, the uncontrollable anger of a disappointed man, a man who is used to getting what he desires.”

“Take it easy, Doc. Even I wouldn’t go that far in the evaluation,” I say.

“You don’t understand, do you, Lucy? I wanted you to be with me. And you did not want to do so. I was angry.”

I am, of course, just a little confused. Maybe a bit of romance was in the air but surely not enough to cause disappointment and anger like that. Now I’m not even sure how to discuss the matter with him.

“Uh, okay,” I say. “I guess that clarifies it. It was, well, just surprising. I’d never seen you like that before.”

“And you will never see me like that again,” Sarkar says.

This time as he leans toward me I know that he intends to kiss me. I turn away slightly. I reach and brush my hand against his face.

“Now, don’t be angry, Rudi. This is not rejection,” I say. “But…I think we should go up and see the new baby right now.”

He laughs. “You are, as always, absolutely correct.”

Then he opens the door and gestures for me to walk through. We’re off to visit the three Waldrens.

Chapter 26

Chapter 26

THE GENERAL HOSPITAL AREA outside Greta Moss’s birthing room is strangely quiet and almost eerily vacant. Where are the NYPD officers, the GUH guards, the nurses, the photographers, the reporters who turned this area into a wacky circus minutes ago? Where’s that lady with the cameras? The rent-a-cops in cheap suits?