Last Run (18 page)

And Grace, still in pieces, had gone straight to Sam and repeated every word to him, verbatim. All she could do right now. Too little, too late.

He had not actively rejected her again, not in the same painful way, since that moment outside the ICU early that first morning, but neither was he sharing his innermost feelings with her as he
usually did, and sometimes when he looked at her she noticed that he swiftly looked away again, and she was terribly afraid that it was because he no longer loved what he saw.

As frightened for Saul as she was, Cathy was feeling guilt, too.

She felt so caged, the long hours of vigil in the hospital, the bad atmosphere between the others – only David seeming at all himself, and he, of course, was consumed with fear for his son
– taking their toll on her.

She wanted – needed – to do what she always did under stress. Run, keep on running.

She wanted Kez, too, was utterly certain of that now. To talk with, be with. To be close to her, have her strong arms around her, and not only for comfort.

She made the call on Tuesday afternoon, went outside to the hospital driveway, checked her voicemail for the umpteenth time, found nothing and, steeling herself against further rejection, keyed
in Kez’s number again.

‘I can’t take your call right now . . .’

Kez’s voice, but no warmth in it, a message spoken swiftly, perhaps recorded in a rush, and if Kez didn’t like cell phones, maybe she disliked telephones altogether.

But Cathy
needed
her.

‘Kez, it’s me, Cathy,’ she said. ‘I really, really need you to call me.’

The whole thing, she had to tell her what had happened to Saul, throw it all in, let Kez understand how much she meant to her.

‘Saul was attacked, in Naples, and he’s in really bad shape, and we’re all over here together, all the family, but there’s only one person I really want to be with, to
talk to, and that’s you, Kez, and I miss you so much, and you told me to make up my mind about how I feel about you, and I have, I really have.’

Pitiful.

Cathy hated herself already.

Kez would despise her even more.

‘Please call,’ she said.

Needs must.

‘I’ve said it before,’ Grace told Lucia on the phone, late on Tuesday evening, ‘but it’s never been quite as true. I do not know what I’d do
without you.’

‘You’d cope,’ Lucia said.

She had left a message for Grace, wanting primarily to check on Saul, but also to let her know that she had cleared her entire list for the next week so Grace didn’t need to worry about
her patients, and yes, Lucia had remembered that the more fragile would need to be seen by Dr Shrike (Magda Shrike, Grace’s old mentor, and one of the best psychologists she knew).

‘So all you have to think about is Saul and your family and yourself,’ Lucia went on. ‘And please, Dr Lucca, promise me you will take care of yourself and the baby. And
Tina’s not at People’s Hospital, of course, but if there’s anything you think she could help with, just tell me and I’ll get in touch with her.’

Grace had forgotten, in the horror, all about Lucia’s favourite niece.

‘That’s so kind,’ she said, ‘but I can’t think of anything right now.’ She wanted to get back upstairs to Saul, but Lucia deserved consideration too.
‘If Tina has something that she’d like us to bring back to you, or if you think of . . .’

‘You can stop that this instant, doctor,’ Lucia chided her. ‘Didn’t I just tell you to take care of yourself?’

Grace mustered a smile, felt the baby move, thought of him as an anchor in all the dark distress; thought, too, of the incomparable value of good friends.

‘I almost forgot,’ Lucia said, ‘to tell you that Claudia called yesterday.’

A new wave of guilt jogged Grace.

‘You haven’t told her about Saul,’ Lucia said.

‘No,’ Grace said. ‘Did you . . . ?’

‘Of course not,’ Lucia said. ‘Not my place to interfere and I know you feel your sister has a lot on her plate, but I do still think it’s time you let her know. Problems
or not, she’s family. She should at least be given the option of getting on a plane.’

‘You’re right,’ Grace said.

‘I know I am,’ Lucia said.

Grace made the call right away, but the instant she heard her sister’s voice, heard the dullness she’d been noticing far too often lately, she knew she still
wasn’t going to tell her the whole truth.

‘What’s going on?’ Claudia asked. ‘Where are you?’

‘We’re in Naples,’ Grace told her. ‘Saul’s in the hospital.’

‘What happened?’ Distress replaced the dullness. ‘Is he OK?’

‘He will be,’ Grace said. ‘He was attacked, sis, and we had some scary moments, but he’s going to be fine.’

Claudia began firing questions: what exactly and when had it happened, why hadn’t Grace told her right away, because she would have flown across, could have been with her through such a
dreadful time. There was nothing she could have done, Grace told her, and quite frankly the last few days had been a blur.

She did not tell her how bad Saul was, told Claudia that the reason she couldn’t speak to him was because he was sleeping much of the time.

‘I’m going to book a flight,’ Claudia said.

‘There’s no need,’ Grace said. ‘They’ll probably be moving Saul soon.’

‘Discharging him?’ Claudia jumped on the words.

‘Moving him first, I expect,’ Grace said, ‘back to Miami.’

‘Why can’t they discharge him, if he’s OK?’

‘Because he’s been concussed, and he’s going to need some surgery.’ Grace was fighting to blend truth with white lies. ‘He has a fractured shoulder.’

‘Oh, poor Saul,’ Claudia said. ‘He must be in such pain.’

‘Anyway – ’ Grace took the subject back to Claudia – ‘it’s not as if you can just jump on a plane.’

‘I can find a sitter for the boys,’ Claudia said, ‘or Daniel will just have to work from home for once – he used to be happy enough doing that.’

‘Before he had the new practice,’ Grace said. ‘Not just himself to look after now, sis, a whole bunch of responsibilities.’

‘Me and the boys, most of all, I’d have thought,’ Claudia said.

Grace’s heart sank a little deeper, as it tended to whenever she spoke to her sister these days.
Not
her imagination that things had been difficult between Claudia and Daniel since
the move, and maybe after the baby was born she was going to have to be the one to stir herself and fly up there to see if there was anything she could do.

For now though, her hands were more than full, and frankly, the way Claudia was sounding, having her here was unlikely to be any help at all.

She told Claudia that she loved her and missed her, told her that she and the baby were fine, but that she didn’t want to have to stress about creating upheavals for her and Daniel and the
boys, and that she had Sam and Cathy and David to take care of her, so there was no need to worry. And Claudia sounded a little aggrieved, but a little relieved, too, no question about it.

‘Promise you’ll call if anything changes, or if you need me,’ she said.

‘The instant,’ Grace said.

‘Nothing new,’ Martinez told Sam early Wednesday morning.

‘Nothing?’

‘Nothing you don’t already know. Dirtbag dad and drunken mom, grandma saved the day, like you said. And maybe that could all have been the start of some screw-up psychosis, but I
don’t buy it because the kid hauled herself up and became a cop like her grandpa, didn’t she?’

‘Yes, she did,’ Sam said.

‘So, can I stop this now?’

‘I guess,’ Sam said.

‘Fuck’s sake, man, do you
want
her to be a serial killer?’ Martinez sounded exasperated. ‘Would you rather she’d been the one to beat the shit out of your
brother?’

‘No,’ Sam said. ‘Of course not.’

‘So now you can focus on Saul and Grace and Cathy and your dad, and you can leave the investigation to the Naples guys, right?’

‘Sure,’ Sam said.

‘Why don’t I believe you mean that?’ Martinez asked.

‘Have I done something to upset you?’

Cathy asked Grace the question as they took a walk outside in the hospital gardens early that afternoon. All kinds of gorgeous trees and flowers, a typically, beautifully cared for Naples
setting, the kind of grass that looked as if every blade had been hand-trimmed, carved memorial benches at intervals along the pathways.

Neither of them noticed the loveliness, both had too much on their minds.

‘Why would you think that?’ Grace asked.

‘I don’t know,’ Cathy said. ‘I mean, we’re all feeling so bad about Saul, but you seem—’

‘What do I seem?’ Grace stopped walking, looked at Cathy. ‘Sweetheart, tell me, please, what have I done to make you think you could have upset me?’

‘Nothing terrible.’ Cathy took her hand and squeezed it. ‘Except ever since we got here you seem as if you’re a thousand miles away from us.’ She shook her head.
‘Not just from me, either. I can see David feeling it too, and I can’t tell about Sam, because he’s half crazy about Saul anyway.’

‘I’m so sorry.’ Shame heated Grace’s cheeks. ‘I swear to you, Cathy, this has absolutely nothing to do with you. I’m just not dealing with things as well as I
ought to be, that’s all.’

‘I don’t buy that.’ Cathy’s clear blue eyes were challenging. ‘Grace, if this were the other way around, you’d want me to share my problems with you,
wouldn’t you?’

‘Of course I would, but—’

‘So why won’t you do the same?’

For just a moment Grace was tempted, because Cathy was right, of course, and she wasn’t a kid any more, she was an adult with more life experience under her belt than most of them.

Still, she could not tell her, could not share this with her. Neither her doubts about Terri, nor Sam’s anger with her for keeping them from him. She had finally handed her anxieties over
to Sam and they had, necessarily, to be kept private for everyone’s sake, especially Saul’s. As to the trouble between her and Sam, that was just as private, and it was up to her to
find the right way to bridge the gap between them.

‘Because there is nothing to share,’ she said. ‘Except what you already know about, which I think is more than enough, don’t you?’

Cathy gave it up, and they walked on in silence, Grace not the only one with guilt loading her down; Cathy aware of more than a touch of hypocrisy in herself, given that she had not exactly been
sharing her own emotional problems with Grace.

‘OK now?’ Grace asked her, gently.

‘Fine,’ Cathy answered.

They walked back inside the hospital.

Two hours later, taking another break, by herself this time in the cafeteria, Cathy checked her phone and saw Kez’s home number on her missed calls.

Voicemail, too. From
her.

‘I only just got your message about Saul – I’ve been at a meet up in Jacksonville, thought I’d told you about it, but anyhow that’s not important. I hope your
brother’s OK, and if I’d known, I’d have called right away.’

Warmth and the greatest relief coursed through Cathy.

‘So anyway,’ the husky voice went on, ‘what can I do to help? Would you like me to drive across to be with you or is this strictly family?’ A pause. ‘Whatever you
want, just call me.’

Cathy left the cafeteria without finishing her juice, went out of the hospital, walked around to the parking lot, made the call from there, and Kez picked up right away, her voice filled with
concern, listening as Cathy brought her rapidly up to date.

‘So there’s no need for you to drive across, because they’ve been talking about moving him to Miami if he stays stable for another twenty-four hours.’

‘Oh,’ Kez said. ‘OK, that’s good.’

‘But just knowing you’re going to be there for me – ’ Cathy forged right on – ‘is already helping, because I do know now just how badly I need you.’

‘That’s all I’ve been waiting to hear.’

Cathy heard pleasure colouring Kez’s voice.

Felt the same.

David noticed the change in her instantly, said that she was looking better, then noted her flush, and took her aside.

‘Would this have something to do with Kez, by chance?’ he asked softly.

‘How d’you know?’ Cathy felt awkward, but impressed.

‘I’m happy for you, honey.’ David gave her a gentle hug. ‘I found Kez quite a special young person when I knew her.’

Cathy drew away, and smiled at him. ‘Thank you.’

‘My pleasure,’ he said.

Sam arrived then, Grace right behind him, and just watching Sam stroking Saul’s cheek, so much tenderness in his big strong hand, got Cathy all choked up. But then Terri walked in, less
than a minute later, and Cathy saw Grace’s eyes shift to her, her expression suddenly wary. Not like Grace at all.

Something was going on there, Cathy thought. Something bad.

Chapter Twenty

September 11

It was early Sunday morning before they transferred Saul, still under heavy sedation, to Miami General, the plan to give him time to settle down before allowing his levels of
consciousness to rise; after which the first of the remaining operations would begin.

The Naples police had been hoping to have some form of communication with Saul before his departure, hoping that he might at least have been able to give some small clue, even ID his
assailant.

No one wanted that more than Sam.

‘Only when the doctors say he’s ready,’ he told Joe Patterson. ‘Not a minute earlier.’

They were Joe and Sam now. On good terms, all things considered, not withstanding Sam’s frustration and sense of powerlessness into which he had managed, somehow, not to rub the noses of
the Naples PD. He’d stuck like glue to Saul’s bedside, especially when his dad had gone to get some rest, even when – especially when – Terri had been there, which had been
most of the time.

He couldn’t fault her devotion – if that was what it was.

Though even if she did love her man, Sam knew all too well that didn’t mean she might not be capable of savagery in the
name
of love.

Not his kind of love, God knew, and maybe – he hoped with all his heart – not Teresa Suarez’s kind either.