High Noon

muscle.”
    “How old?”
    “Goodness, I didn’t get a good, close look.” Maggie patted her hair as if it might help her think. “Thirty-five? Maybe a little more.”
    “Would you recognize him if you saw him again?”
    “I’m not sure. He was wearing sunglasses. Well, my God, Phoebe, do you think he had anything to do with what happened to David?” Her hand slapped to her heart. “Why, he could’ve killed me on the street! I was only a dozen feet away.”
    “I don’t know, but I’m going to want you to work with a police artist. I’m going to have an officer take you into the station house, and the police artist will meet you there. You sit here with Duncan while I take care of this.”
    Maggie sat blinking while Phoebe sprang up and hurried away. “Well, sweet baby Jesus. I sure wish you had some bourbon to go with this coffee.”
    “Next time,” Duncan promised, “I’ll bring a flask.”
     
    Once she’d arranged for the police artist and Maggie’s transportation, Phoebe rode up to the surgical waiting area with Duncan. “There were no new carriers on that route today,” she told him. “And no deliveries on that block until after two this afternoon. She saw him, she spoke to him. But he wasn’t worried about that.”
    “A guy can grow a beard or shave it off.” Thoughtfully, Duncan rubbed his own chin. “Changes his look.”
    “We’ve got a good artist. He’ll reconstruct both ways. He had to know we’d get a witness. If not Maggie, someone else on the block could easily have seen him. He’s smart enough to know that, but he’s not that worried about it.”
    She walked straight to the nurses’ station when she got off the elevator. She showed her badge. “I need to know if there’s any word on Captain David Mc Vee.”
    “He’s still in surgery.”
    “I need someone to go in and check, to give me his status. Please.”
    “I’ll see what I can do. If you’d go into the waiting area, we’ll let you know.”
    There were half a dozen cops she recognized already in the waiting area. She made the rounds quickly, then positioned herself in a corner where she could see the door. “I need to make calls,” she told Duncan.
    “You want coffee? You didn’t drink any downstairs. I’d ask you if you want some food, but you’re going to say no, so I won’t.”
    “I could use a cold drink. Apparently being scared makes everything hot inside me. I could use something cold. And, Duncan,” she said before he stepped away. “When I can think straight again, there are a whole bunch of things I have to say to you.”
    “Would that include any comments or complaints about me not falling in line when so ordered?”
    She worked up a smile, widened her eyes. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
    “Good.” He touched her lips with his. “Then I’d like to hear them. Be right back.”
    She had to call Sykes first and arrange for the canvass of Dave’s neighborhood to add in the fake UPS deliveryman. She wanted, badly, to talk with the bomb squad and crime-scene supervisors herself, and had to remind herself she’d sent Sykes for a reason.
    And since she couldn’t will a nurse or doctor to come in and tell her everything was going to be just fine, she steadied herself, pulled out every ounce of optimism and made the next call.
    “Ava.”
    “God. Phoebe. Is he—”
    “Dave’s in surgery, and from everything I know it’s going well.”
    “Surgery! Oh my God, what happened? How did it happen?”
    “I can’t get into that now, but I want you to know, and to tell everyone, he’s being taken care of.”
    “I want to come down there. I want to see for myself. Carter, we had an awful fight about it. Phoebe, you can’t expect me to stay here while Dave’s hurt.”
    “I have to expect it. I’m sorry. He’d expect it, too. He’d insist on it. Ava, I promise you, I promise you, you’re the first person I’ll call when he’s out of surgery. I need you to take care of Mama. I need you to take care of everyone there. I’m depending on you.”
    “That’s an awful thing to say to me.” Tears drenched Ava’s voice. “You know I will. But…please, tell him, tell him when you can that I’m—we’re—praying for him.”
    “I will. I’ll call you as soon as I know anything more.”
    Nearly another hour passed before they were given the stingy report that the surgery was going well.
    An hour later, Sykes came in to give her a more inclusive one. “Trip wire