Among Thieves

Porter was still screaming about the paintings. Hewitt was trying to calm him down. At one point Fi

He walked over to where two other paramedics were working on Sally and stood next to Kozlowski. The effort was going better there: they seemed satisfied that she was out of danger, and they were spending their energies making her comfortable as they clipped a pulse monitor to her finger and strapped an oxygen mask to her face to make her breathing easier. As they loaded her into the ambulance, she opened her eyes. It looked as if she was trying to talk.

“It’s okay,” Fi

She tried to talk again, and Fi

“Yeah.”

“You wa

She was looking at him, and her heart rate was settling slightly. “I’m not her family,” Fi

The paramedic looked back and forth between him and Sally. “Maybe not,” he said, “but you seem to be calming her down. We could use your help.”

Fi

The paramedics lifted the gurney into the ambulance, and Fi

“You can hold her hand,” the remaining paramedic said.

Fi

A moment later, she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Chapter Forty-One

Devon ’s funeral was at eleven on the Wednesday of the following week. There was no service, just a rectangular hole in the ground on a brown plot of grass off a dead-end street in Dorchester. The casket was suspended above the pit, ready to be lowered hydraulically into the ground. The cherrywood was polished to a shine that reflected the bright sun from above; it was the top of the line. Fi

It was a Catholic cemetery, so a priest was present, though when he asked Fi

Sally was quiet throughout the service; she’d said little since she’d been released from the hospital a few days before. She stood there, staring at the casket as if she was trying to unravel a riddle. Fi

When the service was over, a switch was flipped, and the casket descended into the ground. The four of them stayed until the process was over, but turned before the first shovelfuls of dirt were thrown on top. They didn’t need to see that.

They walked away silently, Kozlowski and Lissa holding hands, their heads down. Fi

“Who?” Fi

“My mother.”

Fi

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

“What do you want to do?”

“I don’t know.” Sally stood there for a long moment, just staring at the woman under the tree. “I should go over, I guess,” she said at last.

“If you want to.”

“Will you come with?”

“Yeah.” Fi

He and Sally climbed the short hill toward the tree where the woman stood. As they approached, Fi

“Sally!” she called. Her voice was shrill with forced surprise, as though a father’s funeral were the last place she would have expected to find a grieving daughter. She opened her arms as if she was expecting a big hug. Sally stayed next to Fi

“What are you doing here?”

“I read about your father in the paper,” she said. “I’m sorry. I thought you were better off with him than me. It’s over now, though; you can come home with me.” She was smiling, but tears were streaming down her face, and it had been long enough since she had bathed that they made tracks on her cheeks. Her eyes were glassy, and it seemed she was having trouble focusing.

“Where?” Sally asked.

The woman waved her arm. “Oh, I got a place, don’t worry.”

“Where?”

“I’m go

It took a long time for Sally to answer. “I think I’m go

“You sure?” The woman’s voice sounded sad. Relieved, too, though.

“Yeah, I’m sure. I’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”

“Okay, then,” the woman said. “You take good care of yourself, and I’ll come visit, okay?”

“How will you know where to find me?” Sally asked.

The woman waved her hand again. “Don’t be silly, a mother always knows.”

They stood there in silence for another moment, with Sally looking at her mother and her mother avoiding her daughter’s eyes. Fi

Fi

“Fine.” She was walking quickly, back to Lissa and Kozlowski, who were standing by the side of the car, looking back at them.

“You sure?”

“Fuck her,” Sally said. “I’m better off alone.”

Fi

Kozlowski bought the drinks at the pub back in Charlestown: a scotch for himself, a beer for Fi

“Doc said a glass of wine every once in a while wouldn’t hurt the baby,” she said. “Feels like a day when a glass of wine wouldn’t hurt anybody.”

“This doctor any good?”