“Yeah…” After a second he added, “Maybe.”
“OK.”Mendoza must have realized, as I had, that this wasn’t getting us any forwarder.“Have some rest.I’ll be back tomorrow.”
“Me, too,” I said.“Everything at the office is fine.Rachel is taking care of the dog.I’ll take her home with me.Edwina, not Rachel.”
The corners of Zachary’s lips turned up.At least I’d made him smile.
“You’ve missed some things while you’ve been laid up here,” I added.“Tonight Diana’s supposed to bring a hundred thousand dollars to the Arena downtown, in exchange for Steven.The ransom note came this morning.”
Zachary’s mouth dropped open.
“I’ll stop by in the morning and tell you all about it.”
He nodded.
“Get some rest,” Mendoza told him.“We’ll be back.”
Zachary nodded and closed his eyes obediently.We tiptoed toward the door and out.
Back in the parking lot, Mendoza said, “I’ll go see to the arrangements for tonight.”
“I’ll go pick up the dog and check in with Diana,” I said.“And if she wants my company, I guess I’ll see you later.”
“Hopefully that won’t happen,” Mendoza said, dashing all my hopes, “but if you’re there and you see me, pretend you don’t know who I am.”
Seriously?Was I that much of an embarrassment?“Why?”
He looked at me as if the answer was obvious.“Because I don’t want to be made for a cop.Just another hockey fan.”
Ah.Yes, that made sense.
“If I see you, I won’t bat so much as an eyelash,” I said.“You’ll be dead to me.I promise.”
His lips twitched.“You don’t have to go that far.Just ignore me.And tell Diana to do the same.”
I promised I would, and we went our separate ways.He headed for downtown to make arrangements, and I headed for the office to update Rachel and rescue Edwina.
Rachel was shocked and appalled, of course, when she heard what had happened to Zachary, and stated her intention to stop by the hospital later to spend some time with him.“I can’t believe his own mother wouldn’t be there with him.Why, if he was my baby…!”
I nodded.“It’s horrible.Did you know that his mother kicked him out?Did he tell you?”
“I wondered,” Rachel said.“I saw all the clothes in the back of his car.And his computer.And some other belongings.It looked like he was carrying most of his life around in that car.But I didn’t want to ask and make him feel bad.”
I nodded.I’d noticed the clothes, too—I had assumed he was planning to do laundry, so I hadn’t even been as quick on the uptake as Rachel—as well as the pizza box in the office: the same pizza box he’d taken home for dinner two nights ago.I should have figured it out sooner than I did.“We’re going to have to work something out.He’ll be in the hospital for another day or two, but when he gets out—with cuts and bruises and a punctured lung—we can’t have him sleeping in his car.”
Rachel agreed.“That wouldn’t be good for him.”
“He can stay here, I guess.Once we figure out what’s going on with Steven and the Russian girl, and there’s no danger in it.Although I’d prefer for him to be somewhere safer.And more comfortable.”More comfortable than both the car and the office couch.
Rachel nodded.
“I can’t take him to the Apex with me,” I said.“If his mother had a problem with him working for me, she definitely wouldn’t appreciate it if he moved in with me.And anyway, I only have the one bedroom.”
“I have two,” Rachel said.“I could take him in, if he wanted.But he’s a grown man.He’d probably prefer his own place.”
He probably would.“We’ll have to talk to him about it, I guess.Once he’s out of the hospital and he can think straight again.Right now, he’s too out of it to string more than a couple of words together.”
Rachel tsked.
