Right to Die

thin, but this Manolo leaves the front door open, maybe he expected a guest for the execution.” Neely looked from Murphy to me to Murphy. “Aw, fuck. You mean this ain’t the end of it?”

    The next time I opened my eyes. Dr. Paul Eisenberg and Nancy Meagher were standing over me. “Don’t tell me I slept until visiting hours?”
    Nancy shook her head. “Ever the adolescent.” Eisenberg said, “I was coming up to check on you anyway. I heard Ms. Meagher threatening the nurses’ station with dire legal consequences if she wasn’t permitted to see you, so I included her on my rounds.”
    I said, “How did I draw you, Doctor?”
    “I was on duty last night. Heard about a private investigator shooting someone, getting shot himself, and being rushed here as the closest facility. A nice change of pace from the ordinary, if you’ll forgive my saying so.”
    “So you’re not on the case as my specialist for internal medicine.”
    “Oh, no. No problems that way.”
    “The slug missed all the vital stuff?”
    “Completely. Just gouged a wormtrail through the bit of fat you’ve got over that left hip. You’re in pretty good shape.”
    Nancy said, “He was training for the marathon.”
    “Am training for the marathon.”
    Nancy said, “No.”
    I said, “Yes.”
    Eisenberg said, “You mean, to run the Boston Marathon this Monday?”
    “Any reason I can’t?”
    Nancy turned away and began pacing. “I can’t be hearing this right.”
    The doctor combed his beard. “It’s not my call medically, but physically, it’s certainly not a good idea.”
    Nancy said, “Listen to the man.”
    “I didn’t even take any stitches.”
    Eisenberg came over, lifted my johnny coat. “We let a gunshot heal from below. If we closed it over with sutures, an abscess might form.” He dropped my coat.
    “So it’s not that bad, right?”
    “A bullet makes a dirty wound, Mr. Cuddy. The slug itself, fibers it introduces from your clothes.”
    “But you washed all that out.”
    “We used a saline solution to irrigate the area, yes.”
    I said, “If I run, what’s the worst that can happen?”
    Nancy said, “John, you’re a dunce.”
    Eisenberg looked skeptical. “The wound could weep through the dressing, perhaps even break open. You’d lose some blood and risk an infection.”
    “So if I run and the worst happens, I won’t die before I finish the race, right?”
    “Right. But you could be very sick thereafter.”
    “Which means I might be on antibiotics and maybe in bed for a while?”
    “Probably.”
    “If the wound breaks open.”
    “Yes, but you’ll also be rather weak to start with.”
    “Any weaker than if I’d had a bout of the flu?” Eisenberg said, “Honestly? Probably not as weak as the flu would make you.”
    I looked at Nancy and shrugged. She crossed her arms and stalked out.

    I was saying good-bye to Room 309 when I heard a knock. “Come in.”
    Inés Roja opened the door a little. “You are all right?”
    “Come on in, Inés.”
    She closed it behind her. “I wanted to thank you.”
    “I’m the one who should thank you.”
    When Roja looked puzzled, I described her hitting Man-olo’s arm and throwing off his aim.
    A shake of the head. “I do not remember doing that.”
    “Things were happening pretty fast.”
    “After I called you, I heard a noise downstairs. I searched for something, anything, as a weapon, but there was nothing I could see. Then Manolo was coming up the stairs with a rifle. I tried to talk to him, to sign to him, but he kept moving toward the professor’s room, pushing me away. I didn’t know what to do. I was shouting, but she wouldn’t wake up. Then I heard you and... and the rest you saw.”
    “Are you all right?”
    “Yes.” Roja lowered her eyes. “No. No, I am not. I cannot seem to do anything to please the professor.”
    “She’s probably upset too.”
    “No, no. She was like this before... Manolo. From the time she came in the door from the plane. Nothing can please her, everything makes her angry. I think the reason Tuck left so soon for the tournament is because even he cannot stand to be around her.”
    “She’ll ride it out.”
    Roja bit her lip. “Today the professor said she would not need me for a while. That I could just as well leave.”
    “What are you going to do?”
    “I don’t want her to be alone in that house, but that is what she wants.”
    “Can’t Hebert come home early from the tournament?”
    “The professor