The iron in his grip was at complete odds with the drugged smile on his face. Andrew wasn't bluffing. If Neil didn't let go fast enough Andrew would break his arm. Neil loosened his grip but spread his fingers as he did so. He felt the slight dip and bump of destroyed skin beneath his fingertips and felt his stomach drop. Andrew wrenched Neil's hand off his arm, but he did it in a way that kept his bared forearm turned toward himself.

"Get rid of those," Andrew said. "Pigs don't like it when people like me carry weapons."

Neil didn't have pockets deep enough to hide Andrew's discarded arm bands, so he leaned over and stuffed them between the box spring and the frame. He looked from Aaron to Nicky, but neither of them had noticed that exchange. Aaron was watching the door like he thought Luther might come back. Nicky was staring at Andrew's face, but his shuttered expression said he was a thousand miles away from all of this. They were Andrew's family but they were as oblivious as everyone else when it came to Andrew.

"Andrew," Neil said again.

"Do us a favor," Andrew said. "Let's no one talk for a while."

There was nothing else Neil could do but wait for the ambulance and police to arrive.

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER TWELVE

The emergency room at Richmond General Hospital was a crowded, roiling mess of resentment and sickness. The attendants at the desk tried regulating the mess as best they could, but there were too many people to be seen and nowhere near enough doctors. Neil was too far away to hear the attendants' words but he could hear their fraying patience in their tone. The strident protests and arguments of the would-be patients carried easier. Neil listened because he needed something to distract him from his thoughts.

Things had gone from bad to worse when Columbia's finest showed up at the Hemmicks' house. The first responders and paramedics arrived at almost the same time, but they were followed by two more sets of officers. Neil didn't know if they had nothing better to do on a Sunday night or if they'd come following the slip of Kevin Day's name over the police radio. Neil seriously doubted it took six cops to rule Drake's death as a justified case of self-defense. He wanted them to take statements, eyeball the obvious details of the gruesome scene, and shake Aaron's hand on their way out. The last time Neil saw Aaron, though, he was being led down the stairs in cuffs. Shortly afterward the police loaded an amused Andrew into the back of an ambulance and shipped him here.