Chapter 16

They moved Susan over the weekend. Her body, I mean, the physical her that had been in the hospital. The rest of her, the real Susan as I'd come to think of the voice that was always in my head, stayed with me.

The way I found out about it, Brodine rang my cell and asked me to come in. When I got the call it was both Susan's and my idea that he, or they, were having belated second thoughts about the protection I'd asked them for. So I was reasonably enthusiastic about going to see him.

Traffic was down to a dull roar on a Saturday afternoon, and the parking lot at the Federal building was almost completely empty. But the building was open, Brodine had left my name with the guard at the front door, and I passed through the metal detector with no more than the usual hassle and went straight to his office. This time he was alone.

"Come on in, Larry," he said as soon as he saw me. I went and sat down, feeling fairly pleased at how things seemed to be working out. It didn't last long.

"Larry, I wanted to see you privately because, well, you're going to be hearing things that may be upsetting and frankly we don't want you to be making waves about this."

That wasn't quite how I was expecting things to go, and I guess it showed in the blank look I gave him.

"What you're going to hear," he continued, "is that Susan, uh, passed away last night. But it's very important that you make no effort to view her body, or claim it, or anything. Understand me?"

I did. They'd moved her. She was still alive, but she was gone from the hospital and probably the area.

"Has she regained consciousness?" I asked immediately. I didn't think so, since Susan, the real Susan, was still with me, but I wanted to be sure.

"Larry, I really can't tell you anything more than I just have," he said, stone-faced.

I glared right back. "You're asking for my cooperation," I said. "If you want it, jump down off that Goddamn high horse and give a little back."

He made a face. He clearly didn't like it, but neither did he want somebody going into the hospital—or the morgue or wherever—and kicking and screaming about where was dead Susan.

" ... No, not yet," he finally said.

"And her condition?" I persisted.

"Well, Larry, since she, uh, died—"

"Her condition?" I demanded. He still hesitated. "Jim, don't be a prick about this if you don't want me to be one. She's not at Mother of Mercy any more, I get it. I'm not asking you where she is now, but I know what's happened and you know that I know it. So for Christ's sake tell me how she was when you did it."

"Unchanged," he muttered.

"A little better than that, I hope," I said. "Stable enough that she could stand the move, anyway. OK, I guess that's about the best I could expect from you. I won't push anything about the body."

He coughed. "Uh, Larry, I'm sure you understand that you'll need to keep what's been said here completely quiet," he went on. "I mean completely. If you tell anyone, anyone at all, well..."

"I know, I know," I said sourly. "I'll keep it zipped. Is there going to be some kind of funeral?"

"No, she had no relatives here, of course, no friends really except..."

"Except me."

" ... Yes." He suddenly turned brisk. "Well, Larry, that was all. Thanks for coming in." He got up; clearly my audience was at an end.

But I sure wasn't done. "That's it? That's it? What happened to 'Hey, how you doin', Larry?' What happened to 'Oh Larry, you been havin' any trouble?' 'Larry, have there been any more attempts on your fucking life?' Where's all that shit?" I asked mockingly.

He was suddenly uncomfortable. "Umm... ," was all he could find to say.

In the back of my mind Susan was telling me "yay" again.

"I know you don't really give a rat's ass, but wouldn't it be polite to at least pretend?" I continued, getting more steamed as I did. "That's kind of the way things work out here in the real world, away from your bureaucratic bullshit. It's called fucking courtesy. Not just 'OK, Larry, we took your girlfriend away, you'll never know shit about what happened to her, shut up and take it like a man and don't rock the boat, you jerkwad, now go away.' And what are you going to do about the flash drive?"