Mickey Haller 4 - The Fifth Witness

my lids came open I saw Cisco sitting in a chair in the corner of the room, staring at me.
    “Hey, Boss,” he said gently, as if his usual booming voice might hurt me. “How’s it hanging?”
    I coughed as I came fully awake and that set off a paroxysm of pain in my testicles.
    “Feels like it’s still about a hundred eighty degrees to the left.”
    He smiled because he thought I was delirious. But I was lucid enough to know that this was his second visit and that I had asked him to do some sleuthing when he had come the first time.
    “What time is it? I’m losing track, sleeping so much.”
    “Ten after ten.”
    “Thursday?”
    “No, Friday morning, Mick.”
    I’d been sleeping more than I realized. I tried to sit up but the movement set off a burning wave of pain across my left side.
    “Jesus Christ!”
    “You okay, Boss?”
    “Whadaya got for me, Cisco?”
    He stood up and came to the side of the bed.
    “Not a whole lot but I’m still working it out. I got a look at the police report, however. Not a lot there but it did say that you were found by the night cleaning crew that came in about nine o’clock to work in the building. They found you out cold on the garage ramp and called it in.”
    “Nine o’clock wasn’t too long after. Did they see anything else?”
    “No, they didn’t. According to the report. I plan to be there tonight to interview them myself.”
    “Good. What about the office?”
    “Me and Lorna checked as best we could. It doesn’t look like anybody was in there. Nothing missing, as far as we can tell. And it was left unlocked the whole night. I think you were the target, Mick. Not the office.”
    The medication drip worked on a regulated feed system that parceled out the sweet juice of relief according to impulses sent from a computer in another room and programmed by someone I had never met. But at that moment that computer nerd was my hero. I felt the cold trickle of a boost moving through my arm and into my chest. I was silent as I waited for my screaming nerve endings to be calmed.
    “What are you thinking, Mick?”
    “My mind’s a blank. I told you I didn’t recognize them.”
    “I’m not talking about them. I’m talking about who sent them. What’s your gut tell you? Opparizio?”
    “It would certainly be the choice. He knows we’re coming for him. I mean, who else?”
    “What about Dahl?”
    I shook my head.
    “What for? He already stole my contract and made the deal. Why beat me up after?”
    “Maybe just to slow you down. Maybe to add intrigue to the project. This adds another dimension. It’s part of the story.”
    “Seems like a stretch. I like Opparizio better.”
    “But why would he do it?”
    “Same thing. To slow me down. Warn me off. He doesn’t want to be a witness and he doesn’t want to be dragged through the shit he knows I have on him.”
    Cisco shrugged.
    “Still not sure I’m buying it.”
    “Well, whoever it was doesn’t matter. This isn’t going to slow me down.”
    “What exactly are you going to do about Dahl? He stole the contract.”
    “I’m working on it. I’ll have a plan for that douche bag by the time I get out of here.”
    “When’s that supposed to be?”
    “They’re waiting to see if I’m healing all right. If not, they might take off my left nut.”
    Cisco cringed as though I was talking about his left nut.
    “Yeah, I try not to think about it,” I said.
    “Okay then, moving on. What about the two men? I’ve got two white guys, early thirties, leather bomber jackets and gloves. You remember anything else this time?”
    “Nope.”
    “No regional or foreign accents?”
    “Not that I can remember.”
    “Scars, limps or tattoos?”
    “None that I remember. It went down pretty quick.”
    “I know. You think you could pick them out of a six-pack?”
    He was talking about a photo spread of mug shots.
    “One of them I could. The one who did all the talking. I didn’t look at the other one too much. Once he hit me I wasn’t seeing anything.”
    “Right. Well, I’ll keep working on it.”
    “What else, Cisco? I’m getting tired.”
    I closed my eyes to accentuate the point.
    “Well, I was supposed to call Maggie as soon as you were awake. Her timing’s been off. Every time she’s been in here with Hayley you’ve been out.”
    “You can call her. Just tell her to wake me up if I’m asleep. I want to see my kid.”
    “Okay, I’ll tell her to bring her after school. Meantime, Bullocks wants