He didn’t acknowledge Mrs. Sinatra at all, but Roz didn’t care. She was terrified for Teddy. And so was Mick. “Where’s my son?” he asked anxiously.
“Right this way, sir,” the administrator said as they began walking swiftly toward the back side of the emergency room.
“How is he?” Roz asked just as anxiously as they walked. Mick realized she was struggling to keep up so he placed his hand on her lower back and moved her beside him.
“He has some bruises externally,” said the administrator, “but we’re running tests to make certain there are no internal injuries. Those test results will determine if any surgeries are needed.”
Mick and Roz both felt a sinking feeling in the pit of their guts. Teddy was the picture of health when they left him and Nikki at that restaurant. Now he might need surgeries? He might be fighting for his life? It was overwhelming to them.
But when they entered a hospital room on the backside of the ER and saw Nikki standing at the window wiping tears from her eyes, their sinking feeling only sank lower. “Nikki,” Roz said as she hurried to her.
Nikki hurried to Roz and they hugged each other tightly. Mick went over to Nikki too and rubbed her back. She was anguished. He’d never seen her so shaken.
“Nikki, what happened?” he asked her when she and Roz stopped embracing. He handed her his handkerchief. He needed to know if it was an accident or, given their line of work, an attempted assassination.
Nikki wiped her eyes. “I was heading to your house to take Roz’s car, I mean to take Mrs. Sinatra’s car home. Teddy was following me and I was constantly looking out of the rearview mirror. I saw when he was hit by an SUV as he tried to make it through the intersection and his car lost traction and went airborne and . . .”
She started dropping tears again and shaking her head as if she couldn’t continue. Mick rubbed Nikki’s back. He could feel her pain. He could just feel it! But he had to know. “Keep going.”
“And it flipped in the air and it landed upside down with such a hard crash. Then it started spinning. It was just terrible to see,” she said as she began sobbing again.
Mick pulled her into his arms and held her tightly. Roz had tears falling from her eyes too.
Then Mick pulled her back and held her by her shoulders. “Was he conscious at all, Nikki? Was he conscious?”
“They had to use the jaws of life to get him out of the car. And no, he wasn’t conscious. But I haven’t seen him since they put him in that ambulance. They wouldn’t let me ride with him.”
“Bastards,” Roz said.
“By the time I drove here,” Nikki continued, “they were already running tests.”
“Just an awful situation,” the hospital administrator said. Mick turned and looked at him. They had forgotten he was in the room. “From the looks of his car, it was just an awful accident.”
But Mick looked at Nikki. “Was it an accident?” he asked her. The administrator at first found that an odd question. Of course it was an accident! But then he remembered who he was dealing with. And his flippancy left. Fear replaced it.
But Nikki was nodding her head. “It was an accident, yes sir. The light was turning red when I was going through that intersection, so I knew it was red when Teddy drove through it and got hit.”
“What about the driver of that SUV?” asked Roz. “Did he stick around?”
“Oh yes.”
“How did he behave?”
“Devastated. He was certain he’d killed Teddy. But I was certain he couldn’t have.He couldn’t have.” Nikki’s voice cracked as tears returned. Mick ushered Nikki and Roz to the sofa in the room and they both sat down and hugged each other again.
Mick began leaving the room and motioning for the administrator to follow him.
Once in the corridor, Mick opened his suit coat and placed both hands on his hip. He was so tired he could barely stand up. “Was the driver of that SUV brought here too?”
“The police brought him here. He had a cut on his lip so they wanted him checked out. He’s being prepared for release. He’s fine.”
“Take me to him.” Mick wanted to eyeball that driver to determine for himself that it was as it appeared.
The administrator didn’t want any funny business in his hospital. “I assure you, sir, it was an accident,” he said. “The police interviewed the driver and your daughter-in-law as well. They said all the witnesses confirmed it was a red-light violation on the part of your son. It was an accident.”
Mick’s jaw tightened. He was unaccustomed to anybody lecturing him. “Take me to the driver,” he said again.
The administrator saw his jaw tighten. He remembered that his nickname was Mick the Ticking time bomb because of his explosive temper.
