Delusion in Death

more victimized.
    Thin casting encased her right arm and hand. Angry scratches and freshly treated wounds showed above her sadly floral hospital gown and along her unbroken arm.
    Tribido signaled the nurse as he stepped toward his patient. “CiCi? It’s Dr. Tribido. Do you remember me?”
    “I …” Her right eye slitted open, tracked nervously back and forth under its purpled lid. “Yes. I think. Hospital? I’m in the hospital.”
    “That’s right, and you’re doing fine.”
    “Macie? Is Macie here?”
    “I’m going to check on that.” His voice, edged with exhaustion, managed to convey a soft, steady gentleness. “There’s a police officer here to talk to you. Are you okay with that?”
    “Police? The police? Because of the accident? The police came, or maybe I dreamed it. The policeman said I was going to be okay.”
    “That’s right. You’re going to be okay. I’ll be right outside if you need me.”
    “Macie.” Her voice pitched up, sounded strangled. “Is Macie going to be okay? And, and Travis. And—I can’t remember.”
    “It’s all right. You just take it easy.” Tribido turned to Eve, spoke quietly. “She’s asked for Macie every time she’s come around. And she’s mentioned Travis and sometimes someone called Bren. She came out screaming a couple times. We’ve got her on a mild sedative for the pain, and to keep her as calm as possible. She’s lucid, as I said, but she’s spotty on everything that happened after she went in that bar. She’d feel better if we could locate this Macie.”

    No, Eve thought, she doubted the woman would feel better knowing Macie Snyder was on her way to the morgue. “We’ll take it easy on her” was all Eve said.
    She stepped to one side of the elevated table. “I’m Lieutenant Dallas, and this is my partner Detective Peabody. What happened to you, CiCi?”
    “I got hurt.”
    “I know. Who hurt you?”
    That single eye began its fearful tracking. “I don’t know. You have to find Macie.”
    “She’s your friend,” Peabody said in her soothing way.
    “Yeah. We work together at Stuben-Barnes. And we hang.”
    “You went to On the Rocks with Macie,” Eve asked, “after work?”
    “Um.” Her good eye wheeled again, then focused on Eve. “Yes. That’s right. We work together, and we hang. Me and Macie. She’s going out with Travis. They’re tight. Macie thinks she might move in with him.”
    “So you and Macie went to have a drink after work. Hang.”
    “I think so. Yes. Me and Macie, for a drink. It’s a nice bar, and they have a mag happy hour. I like the nachos especially. You have to use a fork because they’re so …”
    Her voice shook, and something like terror gleamed in her eye. “It’s close to work. Is Macie okay?”
    “It’s nice to have a friend to hang with,” Peabody commented.
    “She’s fun. Macie. Sometimes we go shopping on our day off.”
    “But tonight you went for a drink at On the Rocks,” Eve prompted.
    “Travis met us there, with his friend. It was kind of a blind date for me.”
    “Can you give us Macie’s and Travis’s last names?”
    “Oh. Oh. I didn’t think. You need to have their whole names tofind them. Macie Snyder and Travis Greenspan. I have pictures on my ’link! I can show you pictures. I don’t know where my ’link is.”
    “Don’t worry about that right now. So the four of you hung for a while, had a couple drinks.”
    “A second round. Bren’s really cute. Bren!” Her eye widened then closed, and a single thin tear leaked out of the corner. “I remember now. Brendon Wang. He works with Travis, and Travis and Macie were kind of setting us up. I can’t see him very well in my head now.” She gave Eve a weary, pitiful look. “I’m sorry. My head hurts. I feel sick.” She closed her eye again.
    Eve leaned in. “CiCi, look at me. Look at me now. What are you afraid of?”
    “I don’t know. I’m hurt.”
    “Who hurt you?”
    “I don’t know! Did we go for dinner?” Her fingers tried to pluck at the sheets, twist them. “We were going for dinner. Macie wanted Nino’s, but … Did we go for dinner?”
    “No. You were in the bar.”
    “I don’t want to be in the bar. I want to be home.”
    “What happened in the bar?”
    “It doesn’t make sense.”
    “It doesn’t have to.” Peabody again, soothing, soothing, even taking CiCi’s good hand in hers. “Tell us what you think happened, and that’ll help. We’re here to help you.”
    “She’s a