Secret Prey

controlled. ‘‘You shut your fuckin’ pie hole or I will break all your teeth out,’’ she said. She pulled one hand back on her hip so the ill-tempered man could see the wooden butt of the .357. His eyes slid away from hers, and she pushed through the door to the car.
    A BALDING, HATCHET-FACED DOCTOR WALKED OUT of a back room, trailed by the reception nurse. He looked around, spotted Lucas. ‘‘Are you with Marcy Sherrill?’’
    ‘‘Yes. Elle Kruger—the nun—is my best friend.’’
    ‘‘This is Chief Davenport,’’ said the nurse.
    ‘‘Come on back,’’ he said. ‘‘Where’s Marcy?’’
    ‘‘Outside, moving a car off the ramp. How’s Elle?’’
    ‘‘Not good, but she’s better than the other one. We’ve got head injury but no direct brain damage, like the girl. We’ve got to manage the swelling and so on, which is gonna be a problem, but I’m more worried about blunt trauma to her kidneys and liver. Somebody beat the hell out of her with what looks like a baseball bat.’’
    ‘‘Baseball bat?’’
    ‘‘Yeah . . .’’
    Sherrill caught up with them and said, ‘‘Larry, how are you?’’ and the doc said, ‘‘I’d like to look at that leg of yours again.’’
    ‘‘I think it’s okay,’’ she said.
    ‘‘Oh, I know; I just wanted to look for aesthetic reasons.’’ And Sherrill snorted and said, ‘‘Aesthetic, my ass,’’ and he said, ‘‘That too . . .’’ and Sherrill said to Lucas, ‘‘Larry was one of the docs that took care of me after that thing with John Mail.’’
    ‘‘Ah.’’ Lucas said, and looked wildly at Simone, who said, ‘‘Through there.’’
    HE COULD BARELY SEE HER. SHE WAS FLAT ON HER back, under an operating drape, her head tilted back, her head already shaved and painted with iodine-colored disinfectant. A drip flowed into her arm, and her mouth was propped open. She looked like a saint who was about to be committed to fire.
    ‘‘Elle,’’ Lucas whispered.
    ‘‘She can’t respond,’’ Simone said. ‘‘She might hear you, somewhere in her head, but she’s too doped up to show it.’’
    ‘‘Gonna be all right,’’ Lucas said, his face a foot from her ear. She didn’t look like any Elle Kruger he remembered: separated from the habit and other paraphernalia of the church, she looked stark; and the disinfectant added a strange otherworldly touch, like an image from Heavy Metal. ‘‘Gonna be all right, we’re here with you; we’re waiting.’’
    ‘‘Come on,’’ Simone said. ‘‘They’ve got to finish getting her ready for the OR.’’
    LUCAS RELUCTANTLY FOLLOWED SIMONE OUT OF THE prep room, Sherrill a step behind him. ‘‘You want to look at the X rays?’’ Simone asked.
    ‘‘Can I see anything?’’
    ‘‘C’mon.’’
    The X rays were clipped to wall-mounted view boxes and a man in a tweed sportcoat was peering at them. Simone said, ‘‘Jerry, what do you think?’’
    ‘‘I’ve already called Jack Bornum in; we’re gonna have to do them both at the same time. I’ll take the kid, she’s gonna go if we don’t get in quick. Jack can have the nun.’’
    ‘‘How bad’s the nun?’’ Lucas asked.
    ‘‘Who’re you?’’
    ‘‘I’m a cop—and her best friend. Oldest friend.’’
    ‘‘Whoever hit her missed; looks like two or three blows, hard, but never quite brought it down over the top of her head, like with the kid. Everything sort of skidded off.’’
    ‘‘What about the blunt trauma?’’ Lucas asked.
    The tweed man shrugged: ‘‘I don’t know; I do brains.’’
    He glanced at his watch. ‘‘And I better go do this one.’’
    ‘‘How long before the other guy gets here?’’
    ‘‘Five minutes maybe. He’ll be here before she’s ready to go,’’ Tweed said gruffly. ‘‘He’s a good guy too—he’ll take care of her.’’
    THE OTHER DOCTOR, BORNUM, ARRIVED IN THE ALLOTTED five minutes, and disappeared into the back. Simone caught a knife wound to the liver area, and also disappeared. Twenty minutes later, Weather pushed through the door, with Andi Manette a step behind. She saw Lucas and Sherrill and said, ‘‘Lucas, my God, what happened?’’
    ‘‘Somebody beat her up. Almost killed her,’’ he said. His voice got shaky and she touched his arm.
    ‘‘How bad?’’
    ‘‘Pretty bad. They’re getting her ready for the OR. They’ve got a neurosurgeon working on her.’’
    ‘‘Oh, no . . .’’
    He wanted to wrap her up and hold