The Night Crew

don’t know anything about television,’’ Anna said, interrupting. ‘‘You look at anybody in this place’’—she waved at the emergency room in general—‘‘and I could do a story on him—or her—and I could sell it. Anybody. You, me, the nurse guy, the guy with the cut. A serial killer? Everybody would take it, if it was done right. And I’ll tell you what—the cops don’t want to chase him, I’ll put them on CNN tomorrow morning. Then they’ll chase him.’’
    Harper was shaking his head: ‘‘All right. Maybe you could do that, but . . .’’
    ‘‘You’d just start a cluster-fuck,’’ Glass said, interrupting him. ‘‘They’d bring in the nine patrolmen with the flattest feet and put them in suits and have them go around with notepads, playing investigator, and nothing would get done. I mean, you’d just panic them—us—and piss ’em off.’’
    ‘‘I’ve dealt with a couple of these guys, the fruitcakes,’’ Harper said intently. ‘‘They’re crazy and screwed up but most of them are . . . sort of smart. Twisted, but not stupid. You sic the cops on him really heavy—you put him on TV— and he’ll love it. And then he’ll kill somebody else just to keep things going. One of your friends, maybe. And he’ll be looking for you, too. He’ll be out there—and if the cops don’t get him, he’ll get you, eventually.’’
    ‘‘Are you trying to scare me?’’ Anna asked coldly.
    122 john sandford
    ‘‘Yes. ’Cause you should be scared. Now what I’m suggesting is, we get a little proactive . . .’’
    ‘‘Proactive? You sound like the Long Beach chamber of commerce.’’
    ‘‘What I’m saying is, you talk to me: about your friends, about Creek’s friends, about the dopers you’ve known, about weird shit you’ve seen the last couple of months. . . . Creek must know some dopers, living where he does, there’s dope coming through the Marina all the time, and with your job . . .’’
    ‘‘You’ve been down to look at Creek’s place?’’ Glass asked.
    ‘‘Sure. Looked at his boat, looked at his house . . .’’ He turned back to Anna. ‘‘But getting back to the point: talk to me. Let me debrief you. The shooter—you know him. We can work out a few ideas together, and I’ll check them out.’’
    Anna said, ‘‘Look, Jake, I don’t know what’s going on, but I really think you’re wasting your time. This can’t have anything to do with your son. If you think about it . . .’’
    He spread his hands, then touched her knee: ‘‘So maybe it doesn’t. I’d like to find out for sure, though. That’s the only thing I’ve got—I want to know what that dope was about.’’
    ‘‘If you find the dealer, what’re you gonna do?’’ Glass asked.
    ‘‘I don’t know,’’ he said.
    ‘‘Kill him?’’ asked Anna.
    He looked away from them, down the hall. ‘‘I don’t know. I doubt it. But I won’t know for sure until I get there.’’ They were still talking when a doctor came down the hall, surgery gown showing a half-dozen blood spots, his mask pulled down under his chin. He pulled off his cap as he came up, looked at Anna and asked, a little doubt in his voice, ‘‘Are you Mr. Creek’s relatives?’’
    Anna and Glass were on their feet: ‘‘How is he?’’
    ‘‘You don’t look like sisters.’’
    ‘‘Different mom,’’ Anna said. ‘‘Tell us . . .’’
    Again, their intensity banished doubt about the connection and the doc smiled gravely and said, ‘‘Unless there’s something we didn’t find, he should be okay.’’
    ‘‘Oh, thank God,’’ Anna said, and Glass started to leak tears again.
    ‘‘But he’s hurt badly,’’ the surgeon continued. ‘‘The lung will repair itself fairly quickly, but there’s muscle damage in the chest wall and the back muscles, and that’ll take a while.’’
    ‘‘When’s he gonna be able to talk?’’ Harper asked.
    ‘‘Tomorrow, probably. He’s going to be pretty sleepy for a couple of days, at least. Then he’s going to hurt—but I doubt he’ll be in here a week.’’
    ‘‘Did the police tell you about the circumstances of the shooting?’’ Harper asked.
    The doc nodded: ‘‘Yes. We’ll list him under an alias—we do it all the time in battering cases. If somebody doesn’t know exactly where to find him, they won’t.’’
    ‘‘Aw, that’s great,’’ Anna said.
    Glass started sniffing again, and then turned to Anna and said, ‘‘I