Storm Prey

with Virgil isn’t keeping you awake.”
    “No. I know how to prioritize,” Weather said. “I even understand what he’s doing, but you’ll never get me to approve of it. You know, officially.”
    “Gods of correctness,” Lucas said.
    “Mmm.”
    “Thinking about the babies?” Lucas slipped under the blankets.
    “They’re just like us, but they don’t understand,” Weather said. “They’re alive, they have emotions, they have intellectual processes, they are learning, they know some words ... they’re physically underdeveloped because they haven’t been able to walk or crawl, but they’re like us. They’re lying there, maybe in some pain, wondering what’s happening, and tomorrow, by this time, one or both of them might be dead, because of what we’re doing.”
    “Weather—”
    “I know. I wouldn’t want to do anything else, or be anywhere else, but: it’s a load.”
    “Did you take a pill?”
    “No. I’ll be fine. Maybe if we could just do a spoon for a few minutes,” she said.
    “Listen,” Lucas said. “It’s gonna work out. That’s the karma here ... it’s going to work.”
    “You don’t believe in karma.”
    “Snuggle up,” he said. “Close your eyes. It’s gonna work.”
     
     
    WEATHER LEFT at six, got to the hospital fifteen minutes later, bodyguards fore and aft. Maret was gathering the team together for a pep talk: “This time we must keep going. We are close, but still several hours away. Everybody must resolve to work quickly. If we can save five minutes here or there, it’s worth doing. We’re in a race. We are not sloppy, but we are quick.”
    Weather went down to the separation lounge and found the Rayneses talking to a stress counselor. “You okay?” she asked them.
    “Gabriel says that one way or another, we’ll finish today,” Lucy Raynes said.
    Weather nodded. “We will. The babies look better, but they can’t take much more. We’ll finish.”
    “God willing,” Larry Raynes said.
    She left them, went to the women’s locker room, changed into scrubs; when she came out, the babies were being rolled into the operating room.
     
     
    LUCAS STAYED UP just long enough to see her off with Virgil, Jenkins, and Shrake, then went back to bed, looking for another hour or two of sleep. It came hard: his mind wouldn’t stop churning, looking for strings that might lead to the doctor. He finally rolled out of bed at eight, cleaned up and headed down to his office. He was just turning into the parking lot when he got a call from Virgil.
    “Your pal Marcy’s all over me,” Virgil said.
    “Because of the Arab thing?”
    “That’s ten percent of it,” Virgil said. “The other ninety percent is, an Arab doctor from Lebanon was murdered down in south Minneapolis last night. He used to live in Paris. They’re taking some unusual drugs out of his apartment, and some wrappers for more drugs they haven’t found. Like, a lot of drugs.”
    “You’re serious.”
    “She should be calling you in about two minutes,” Virgil said. “I probably got in first because you’re on my speed dial.”
    “Where’s this at? The murder? You got an address?”
    “No, but like I said, she’ll be calling. Jenkins and Shrake are still here. I’m gonna run down there and take a look.”

    LUCAS’S CELL PHONE booped, and he said, “There she is. Talk to you later.” He pressed the flash button, and Marcy came up. “You know what your guy Virgil did yesterday?”
    Lucas asked, “So what’s the address? You there yet? What kind of drugs ... ?”
     
     
    THE MINNEAPOLIS cops were all over the scene, Marcy standing in the hall talking to the lieutenant in charge of the homicide unit. She saw Lucas and walked down toward him and said, “That fuckin’ Flowers. They were talking all over the hospital yesterday about how he was looking for an Arab, and see what happens?”
    “The dead guy is an Arab?”
    “Yes. Adnan Shaheen, from Lebanon,” she said. “Decent rep, far as we can tell, but we’ve got some dope containers and other stuff, and it looks like it might have come out of the hospital pharmacy.”
    “This didn’t happen because of Virgil,” Lucas said. “He didn’t kill anyone. We’ve got a stone killer who’s cleaning up the mess left from the hospital holdup.”
    “Pretty goddamn far-out there, though ...”
    “Don’t get on his case. He’s coming by in a few minutes,” Lucas said.
    “Already been here and gone. And I did get on his case.