Bloody River Blues

"Your sister," Pellam said, and finally he understood. "She was the woman with Vincent Gaudia, the one who was killed that night."

Nina said, "All the papers talked about was the cop who was shot and about Gaudia. Nobody said anything about Sally A

"And you met me instead. Your mother wasn't really in the hospital?"

"No. My sister was my only family. She was the relative who died I told you about in the camper, the funeral-when we were looking for that field. Not my aunt. That's why I started to cry."

"You overheard Do

She nodded. "I'm sorry, Pellam." There was sadness in her voice. But contrition? None at all.

"Why the job with the film company?'

"I knew he'd be looking for you. I thought sooner or later he'd find you."

"You had that gun with you all the while?"

"Some of the time."

That was why she had been so upset when she was attacked at the factory, she explained. She hadn't had the gun with her then; she regretted missing the chance.

The chance to shoot an FBI agent. Pellam didn't tell her this. "But her name wasn't the same as yours. Your sisters, I mean."

"No. Sally A

Pellam doubted whether going out with Vince Gaudia qualified you as a totally i

Nina was wrong at all to do what she'd done. Why, he himself had been wandering the barren streets of Maddox with a gun for exactly the same reason-to get revenge for Stile s death.

"I wanted to kill him," she said. "I didn't want him to just go to jail. I had to do it myself."

Pellam said nothing.

He leaned forward and put his arm around her. He smelled the sour cordite in her hair from the gunsmoke. He rocked his head against hers. But this gesture was halfhearted. Pellam's thoughts were elsewhere.

They drove up the street for a short ways until they found a pay phone. Pellam stopped, climbed out of the car.

"Are you going to tell the police about me?" He looked at her for a long moment but said nothing. Her reaction was to pull down the car's visor, flip it open, and begin to brush her wispy blond hair.

Pellam consulted a card in his wallet then dialed a number.

In a slightly accented voice a man said, "Hello?"

"Mr. Crimmins, this is the friend that spoke to you last night." Pellam had called the man to tell him not to panic when he heard Peterson a

"Ah, well, yes. How are you?"

"Fine. You?"

Crimmins chuckled at the etiquette. "I'm great. I assume things've worked out."

"There's been a slight complication."

"Serious?"

"No, not really."

'That's good."

"But I wonder if your associate Mr. Stettle's free to help me for about an hour."

"I think that could be arranged."

"Tell him to meet me at the corner of Main and Fifteenth in downtown Maddox in half an hour."

"Is this a possibly risky situation?"

"I don't think so. But could you ask him if he'd bring some garbage bags?"

"Garbage bags?"

"He'll understand."

They went to the lounge and meeting her there, rather than in his room, replaced the evening with Nina as the best thing that had happened to Do

"You shouldn't smoke," he told Wendy Weiser as she lit her cigarette.

"I know." She inhaled three times and stubbed it out. That's all I smoke anyway. And just twice a day. Well, three times."

He nodded at the lie and looked her over. She was off duty today and had come in solely to meet with him. She wore tight, faded blue jeans and a leather jacket over a T-shirt imprinted with a slogan. He made her pull the jacket aside to reveal the words: "Once I thought I was mistaken. But I was wrong." He liked her earrings: A tiny gold fork hung from one lobe and a matching di

What was so good about the meeting was that he was no longer a prisoner. Or rather, he was not the same degree of prisoner. He had been in maximum security and now he had been upgraded to minimum. It wasn't yet straight time but that was okay. For the first time in almost two weeks he had a sense of motion-Buffett moved past things rather than being the stationary object. The breeze was stale and it smelled of antiseptic and steam-table food but it moved nonetheless and that was wonderful.

His maiden voyage in the wheelchair. He had insisted on piloting himself and Weiser hadn't objected though j she said it was against the rules. He had a feeling that Weiser knew what the hospital could do with their rules and probably told them so frequently. Buffett shoved off hard from the doorway of his room. But his arms were stronger than expected and he had lost control, caroming off a water cooler and a candy striper's backside before he got the feel of the chair.

They had wheeled, and walked, down the corridor, Buffett considering whether to tell Weiser about the night with Nina Sassower. It was the sort of thing that she probably ought to know; it might help with his therapy. But he kept mum. He hardly wanted Nina to get into trouble. Anyway, if he didn't blow the whistle there was always the chance she might come back again.

He wondered if he could do it three times in one night.

The lounge consisted of a dozen Formica tables, bright blue and chipped. Against one orange-painted wall were old, battered vending machines, for coffee and hot chocolate, for candy, for soda. Some bulbs in the soda machine were burned out. The front said, OCA OLA.

She asked what he wanted.

Buffett said he'd have an 'oke.

Laughing hard, she said, "I'll have an 'iet 'oke."

"How come? You got a great 'igure."

They laughed some more and she walked over to the snack machine. She bought a pack of peanut butter crackers. "Di

He was slightly disappointed when she took a manila folder out of her attache case. This made the meeting more professional, less social. She set it in front of her but did not open the file.

"Do

I think bladder and rectal control will be almost normal. And, as I told you, there's no reason that I can see that sexual functioning won't ultimately be fine…"

Buffett was clamping down on the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling. "Ultimately."

"It's clear now that the most serious and permanent damage will be to your legs. There may be some improvement but most likely it'll be along the line of faint response to external stimuli. As far as walking again, on your own, well, it's the way I told you before, Do