Who's sorry now?

could call somebody else to guard the emergency entrance.”
    ”No. I’ll be fine after I clean up. But please try to make somebody come tell me how he’s doing.”
    ”For Walker’s sake, I’ll do that.” Deputy Parker, sitting with Walker’s shoes and jacket on the chair beside him, waited a full two hours and fifteen minutes before a middle-aged man with a bloody face mask pulled back over the top of his head sat down on the other side of Parker and turned toward him.
    ”You’re Walker’s deputy, aren’t you?”
    ”I am. Is he alive?”
    ”He is. By the way, I’m Dr. McCoy and I did the surgery. Chief Walker has a good chance of recovering completely if an infection doesn’t set in. And I’m told that a piece of his shirt and the mallet are your work.”
    ”They were,” Ron said and told him about the Red Cross lessons. ”Would you explain what you did in there?” Parker asked, gesturing toward the room where the surgery had taken place.
    Dr. McCoy said, ”It’s like this—there is an artery that goes down the outside of your arm. For a short while, it’s fairly close to the surface, then it ducks under muscles and goes down the rest of your arm. It isn’t the main artery, but you need both. His attacker only cut halfway through it. If he’d cut clear through it, we couldn’t have found both ends of it and your boss would have had to have half of his arm amputated, even if he didn’t exsanguinate.”
    ”What does that word mean?”
    ”Bleed to death before he got here. Oh dear, put your head down between your knees. I don’t want you fainting on me,” Dr. McCoy said.
    Ron did so for a few minutes, then sat back up. ”Sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”
    ”You’re entitled to ask. You’re the hero here. We put him out, pulled back the skin and fat, let it bleed out a little to wash out any germs. Then we put our own tourniquet back on, to stop the blood flow. Blotted the blood all out, sewed up the cut in the artery with lots of little stitches, shook sulfa into the wound, sewed back the skin, and put gauze around it.”
    ”When can I see him?”
    ”Not until tomorrow at least. He won’t completely awaken until morning. Go home and get some rest.”
    ”I have no way to go home. I came in the ambulance.”
    ”In that case, I’ll write up an order to give you a room here tonight and a chit for the hospital cafeteria. It’s not very good, but it’s healthy. I’ll have a nurse show you to a room. There’s a shower room on each wing with towels, soap, and robes. I’ll walk you to the desk to find a nurse if you’re ready.”
    ”I’m fine now.”
     

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
     
    WHEN THEY GOT TO THE NURSING STATION, Dr. McCoy introduced Deputy Ron Parker to the head nurse. ”He’s a hero. He saved Chief of Police Howard Walker’s life.”
    ”No, I didn’t. God and you did, Dr. McCoy.”
    ”Don’t be so modest.”
    ”Deputy Parker,” the nurse said. ”I’ve had four calls for you from a Jack Summer, desperately asking to speak to you as soon as I could find you.”
    She looked around furtively for a moment. ”You can call him from back here if you make it a very short call.”
    ”I will.”
    He asked for the Voorburg exchange and was answered by one of the operators who never listened in. ”Connect me to Jack Summer, please,” he said.
    Jack picked up on the first ring. ”Ron! I’ve heard from Colling’s officers that Howard Walker’s been stabbed and you’re with him. Is he alive?”
    ”Yes, and likely to recover. I’m trapped here. Could you drive down around noon tomorrow? Someone has to be at the jail office while I’m gone.”
    ”That’s already taken care of,” Jack replied. ”One of Colling’s men who was there is here now. I’ll run over to the jail to tell him Walker’s alive. He’ll be relieved to hear it.”
    Ron said, ”I have to hang up fast. I’m long distance against the rules. Be here at noon. Maybe we can both see him. And I can explain a lot more.”
    He hung up quickly and the nurse thanked him for being so fast. ”I’ll claim I had to make that call when the bill comes.”
    Dr. McCoy said, ”Nurse Hawkin, brave Deputy Parker has no way to get back to Voorburg today, and he’s exhausted. I’m authorizing a room with a private bath for him and a free dinner and breakfast here.”
    ”The room will be a good one. I have two of the private ones available. But the food here is awful,” Nurse Hawkin said.
    ”But