Cal opened his eyes but it didn’t look like anyone was home.

“He hit his head pretty hard when he fell,” one of the nurses said. “We should get him checked out.”

Good thing it was his head, I thought. Not a big loss there if it’s broken.

It took six people to get Cal onto a stretcher and then they rolled him away in the opposite direction they’d gone with Valerie.

One of the nurses asked if I knew him. I said his name was Cal. That was about it. That was what I knew. I wasn’t allowed to use my cell phone in that part of the hospital, so I went outside to call Ranger.

“About Cal . . .” I said. “He’s sort of out of commission.”

“Used to be you destroyed my cars,” Ranger said.

“Yeah, those were the good old days.”

“How bad is it?”

“Valerie’s water sort of broke on him and he fainted. Bounced his head on the floor a couple times when he went down. Lucky, he was in the hospital when it happened. He was looking a little dopey, so they took him somewhere for testing.”

“St. Francis?”

“Yep.”

Disconnect.

I was making a shambles of the Merry Men. I suspected Tank was somewhere in the hospital, too. I’d stop in to say hello, but I only knew him as Tank. Probably Tank wasn’t the name listed on the chart.

Morelli called while I was still outside. “So?”

“I’m at the hospital with Valerie,” I told him. “It’s been pretty uneventful except for the birth and the concussion.”

“What, no fires or explosions? No shoot-outs?”

“Like I said, it’s been quiet, but it’s still early.”

“I hate to ruin my tough-guy image, but to tell you the truth, I don’t even like to kid about this stuff anymore.”

I didn’t know how to tell him . . . I wasn’t kidding. “I should get back to Valerie,” I said.

“Television sucks tonight. Maybe I’ll come over to the hospital.”

“That would be nice.”

The sky was overcast and a fine mist was settling around me. Streetlights popped on in the gloom. A block away, headlights glowed golden on cars cruising Hamilton. I’d exited the emergency entrance on Bert Avenue to make the call. I’d walked toward the back of the building, going just far enough to avoid activity. I had my back pressed to the brick wall of the hospital while I talked, trying to stay dry, trying to keep my hair from frizzing. Used to be there were houses across the street, but several years ago the houses were torn down and a parking lot was created.

A kid walked out of emergency and turned toward me, moving with his head down against the light rain, hugging a small gym bag to his chest. From the brief look I’d caught of his face I’d put him somewhere in his late teens to early twenties. Not really a kid, I guess, but he dressed like a kid. Low-slung baggy homeboy pants, gym shoes, short-sleeved shirt unbuttoned over a black T-shirt, spikey green hair. Probably had multiple piercings and tattoos, but I couldn’t see any from this distance.