The Black Witch of Mexico (28 page)

“They say you can’t take it with you. Fifty thousand is a lot not to take with you. That must have hurt.”

“Did you kill him?”

“He had a heart attack.”

“Just like that.”

“That’s the way they happen, just like that. Trust me, I’m a doctor.”

“While he was performing the
limpia
.”

“He was a big man, he probably wasn’t watching his diet.”

She handed him back the Pepsi. He swallowed some, grimaced and put the bottle on the ground between his feet. “How did you hear about it?”

“I went back to the hotel to look for you. It was all everyone was talking about.” They sat there for a while, watching the
lanchas
heading back across the lake from Monkey Island. “Did you try to revive him?”

“Revive him?”

“You’re a doctor.”

“I didn’t have any equipment. Besides, I didn’t feel inclined to try.”

“You want to sit here all day?”

“I feel very tired now.”

She stood up and put out her hand. “Then we should go,” she said.

* * *

They stayed overnight at the Novo Mar in Veracruz. She booked a double room.

He stood for a long time in the shower under the hot needles of water. He scrubbed his skin raw but whenever he closed his eyes he could still feel the
brujo’s
soft, filthy hands on him.

He didn’t know why they called it a cleansing; he didn’t think he would ever feel clean again. He shampooed his hair four times but he could still smell the stink on him.

What was he going to do now? Go back to Boston, maybe talk to Bill, see if he still had a job to go back to. It would be difficult to convince him that everything was all right now. He would probably have to find a job somewhere else; Boston was a small city, people talked, he might even have to move.

“Take away that spell from your obedient daughter and save her from the enchanted snakes that have been buried in the black graveyard...”

He had to stop thinking about that now, try to get his life back, forget everything that had happened here. And he couldn’t let anyone know about the money, especially Lynne.

But first there was Elena, and Oliver. He couldn’t really forget, not yet, whatever happened he would have to deal with it one way or another.

He got out of the shower, wiped the condensation from the mirror and peered at his reflection but he could barely see himself through the steam. He heard a buzzing; a flying beetle had somehow got into the bathroom. He flapped at it with his towel. It retreated to a corner of the ceiling and was lost in the steam.

How the hell did that get in? Perhaps Jamie had left the French windows open.

When he came out she was standing at the balcony window, in the dark, staring at the wine-coloured sea. She was wearing a white bathrobe. As she turned around it fell open.

“can I tempt you?” she murmured.

Chapter 77

She clung to him as if she was drowning, her arms and legs locked around him. It was fierce and brief. He fled inside her; there was sanctuary there.

Later, after the sweat cooled, he made love to her again, more slowly. The musky scent of her made him forget the reek of the
brujo
.

Much later, asleep in her arms, he heard a soft knocking at the door. He got up and peered into the corridor but there was no one there. He supposed he must have imagined it and went back to bed.

* * *

The next day she drove him back to el DF, out to the airport. He bought a standby ticket back to Boston.

They stood hand in hand at the departure gates.

“I rang my father yesterday,” she said.

“What did you tell him?”

“I told him you found the
brujo
.”

“Did you tell him what happened?”

“I don’t know what happened.”

He smiled at that.

“He said some drugs have gone missing.”

“Really? Who would steal from the clinic?”

“They were his words, too.” She waited for him to ask, and when he didn’t, she said: “He’s missing two doses of succinylcholine.”

“That’s a very dangerous drug. I hope it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.”

“What is it?”

“Anaesthetists call it Suc. They use it for intubation to totally relax the patient. It ceases all voluntary and involuntary muscle control. You administer it to someone, they can’t even breathe unaided.”

“How long does it take to work on an adult?”

“Intravenous, it’s very quick.”

“Intramuscular?”

“A little bit longer, a minute or so.”

They were silent for a long time. They announced the last call for his flight.

“If someone had a drug like that in their blood stream, would it show up on a toxicology report?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “If you were looking for it, I guess. Why, has someone died at the clinic?”

“I was thinking about the Crow.”

“You would have thought he would have picked a more original name. There were three Crows in Catemoco, you know. I did some research.”

“You’re changing the subject.”

“What is the subject?”

“You’re a big guy, you could probably hold him down, especially if you came up behind him and got an arm around him before he had a chance to call for help.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You’d only have to hold him long enough for the injection to work, clamp a hand across his mouth to stop him calling out. He’d struggle for a minute or so, and if anyone heard loud noises in the room they’d think it was part of the
limpia
. And it wouldn’t be long, would it, before he wasn’t able to fight you anymore.”

“I’d better go, I’ll miss the flight.”

“Was he still alive when you brought the others in? That would allay any suspicion, wouldn’t it? If they watched him die, why would they think you were the one that killed him?”

“I’ll call you when I get to Boston.”

“A little town like Catemaco, they probably wouldn’t even do an autopsy. The cops have enough to worry about with drug dealers and gang wars. You would have thought of that. ‘

“Like I said, he was carrying a lot of weight.”

“It must have been an agonizing way to die.”

“Probably. Do you feel sorry for him?”

“So you didn’t do it?”

“No, of course not.”

She curled her arms around his neck and kissed him. “You don’t have to say you’re coming back. It can just be that one night if you want, I don’t mind. It’s something we both wanted.”

“But I do want to come back. I want to work with your father at the clinic.”

“Sell your fancy apartment and your nice car?”

“There’s nothing for me back there anymore, Jamie.”

“Please don’t say it.”

“I thought that’s what you wanted.”

“I’m worried that something will happen. I’d rather you just came. I won’t believe it until you’re here. I don’t want to hope.”

“There’s nothing that will stop me.”

She put a finger to his lips. “You’re not god, Adam. If it’s meant to be it will be.”

He hated drawn out goodbyes. He kissed her one last time and headed for the departure gates. He looked back once but she was gone.

Chapter 78

Elena had an apartment in Beacon Street in Back Bay. Adam sat in his car and watched her as she came down the stoop with Oliver. He wore a trench coat and a woollen hat pulled down over his ears, even though the weather was mild. He shuffled like an old man.

Elena held his arm, even though she was still walking with a cane. They looked like an old couple going to the park to feed the pigeons and reminisce about their great-granchildren.

But she’ll get stronger, he reminded himself; another two weeks she’ll be able to throw away the cane, she’ll still have a limp for a while, but she’ll heal. Construction workers will whistle again as she walks past, she’ll get back her bounce, and life will move in one direction or the other.

The only certain thing was she would not have to help Oliver along the street too much longer. And the funny thing was, that old-looking man she was holding onto, stick thin and breathless and dying, somehow he was still jealous of him.

Chapter 79

It was unsettling to be back here and not in scrubs, no stethoscope around his neck, without his security pass around his neck and his parking sticker on his X5. He felt like an alien visiting from another planet, everything appeared curious. For five years this had been his other home and the sirens only sang for him. Now he was an outcast.

Fiona and two other nurses form the ER saw him in the car park and stopped to say hello, but he avoided their questions or was deliberately vague. He promised he would come back and visit them soon, but he knew he never would. He had even avoided Jay and the rest of the guys since he had come back from Mexico. He supposed in a way they had also avoided him.

He took the elevator to Bill’s office on the second floor.

“You look good,” Bill said to him when he saw him. “You’ve lost those shadows under your eyes.” He shut the office door.

“I’ve been sleeping better lately.”

“Well, that’s good.”

“I think I have everything sorted in my mind now.”

“You know I can’t take you back.”

“I know that. I’m sorry about what happened. I gave you no choice, Bill.”

“What’s been the problem, Adam? Is it drugs? Booze? There’s something going on, right?”

Adam wondered about the best way to rationalise it. “I lost my head over a woman. I know I wasn’t married twenty years like Frank but it really threw me for a while.”

“You can’t let your personal life affect your work. You know that. This isn’t an office where you can pretend to shuffle paper and hide for a few months while you get over it.”

“I know that.”

“What are you going to do, Adam?”

“I’m going back to Mexico.”

“To do what?”

“I’m going to help out at the clinic again. I’ve spoken to the pastor down there, he’s very happy about it.”

“I’m sure he is. But how are you going to survive?”

“I’m selling up here. My apartment’s on the market. I’ll have enough to live on for a while and then we’ll see. I need to go right away, Bill.”

“But Mexico? I sent you down there for a sabbatical, but it’s not a place for a man of your talent.”

“Well, the people in the village don’t think so.”

“You never cease to astonish.”

“I’m burned out, Bill. Maybe that was the problem all along.”

“Have you seen...someone?”

“A shrink, you mean?” He laughed. “It’s not that bad.”

“Well, you know, if you change your mind, I can still sort some things out for you. There’s a job coming up in a couple of months at Massachusetts General. I know the head of trauma there, I can put in a word for you.”

“How will you explain firing me?”

“I’ll say you had some family issues that were affecting your work and that it’s all sorted out. And it is sorted out, right?”

Adam nodded.

“When you’re on your game, you’re the best there is. If I give them the nod, they’ll snap you up. Forget about Mexico. Have a couple of months off, go down to the beach, read some books, and then you can start over.”

There was a moment’s temptation; everything neat and tidy and back the way it was. He would find a certain numbing comfort in the predictability of long shifts and heavy workloads. When you saved someone else’s life you didn’t have to think about your own.

He could start dating again. There would be more weekends at Cape Cod, beers with Jay and the boys at an Irish bar in South End. He could pick up one of those sleek shiny brochures from the BMW dealership, they always smelt so good and reminded him of how far he had come. He could go looking for a new apartment.

“Thanks, Bill. But I don’t think so.”

He got up to leave.

“Well, if you change your mind. By the way, I spoke to Charlie Evans the other day. He was asking about you.”

“What did he say?”

“He wanted to have a word with you. Apparently you were asking about a friend of yours a few weeks ago, one of his patients.”