Living Witness(127)

He got his legs out onto the side of the bed and counted to ten. He needed a shower. He needed a shave. He needed to move. He especially needed to contact Molly Trask and Evan Zwicker and see if they had found out anything for him. He got his cell phone off the table and opened it. Bennis was number two on his speed dial. Number one was voice mail. There was a reason Bennis had set up the phone that way, but that was just another in the long list of things Gregor couldn’t remember this morning.

A second later, Bennis picked up on the other end and said, “Hello?” She didn’t sound sleepy.

“You sound wide awake,” Gregor said. “I’m not, but I’m supposed to be.”

“I’ve got some stuff to do this morning, and I’m meeting Donna at the Ararat,” Bennis said. “Are you all right. You sound frazzled.”

“It’s a frazzled kind of situation,” Gregor said. “I thought you’d want to know, I’ve had a call from the hospital, and your Annie-Vic is out of her coma! She’s not talking yet, and she’s not moving much, but she seems to be definitely awake and alert and able to answer at least simple questions by blinking yes or no. It doesn’t sound like much when I say it, but the doctor was really excited.”

“It sounds wonderful,” Bennis said. “The woman is in her nineties and she got bludgeoned. By all common sense, she ought to be dead. I’m glad she isn’t.”

“So am I. I’m going to be especially glad if she starts talking and it turns out she can remember who beat her up. Because I’ve got an idea who it has to be, but I don’t know that I can prove it, and there are two younger women who weren’t as lucky. Are Leda and Hannah and Sheila still mad at Tibor?”

“Well,” Bennis said, “they’re talking to him again. He might not find that an improvement. Don’t worry about it, Gregor. Really. It’s just their way. They’ll get over it on the day of the wedding and it will be like it never happened. Concentrate on what you’re doing.”

“I am concentrating on what I’m doing,” Gregor said.

“I’ve got to go take a shower,” Bennis said. “Janet sent some new chocolate samples from Box Hill. I’m going to weigh a ton and a half by the time we’re actually married. Oh, and I’ve firmed up the honeymoon. Liz Toliver called and I ended up not being able to withstand the force of her arguments, if you know what I mean.”

“You mean she badgered you.”

“Well, yes,” Bennis said, “but in a nice way, and it’s a really spectacular house, and I like Montego Bay. So we’ll do that.”

“All right,” Gregor said. “I don’t really care. I’d hole up for two weeks at the local Holiday Inn, if that’s what you wanted.”

“I want to go take a shower,” Bennis said. “Call me if there’s any more news about Annie-Vic. It would be nice if she made it through this thing.”

“It would be nice,” Gregor said.

And that was all. Bennis was gone. He put his phone down. It wasn’t just that he never told her he loved her. She never told him she loved him, either. He wondered what it meant, not that he found it difficult to say—he didn’t find it difficult to say, it just never occurred to him to say it. In movies, couples seemed to express their love all the time. In real life—Gregor wasn’t sure what went on in real life. He’d never noticed. It bothered the Hell out of him that he was the age he was, and getting married for the second time, and still hadn’t figured out any of this.

He got up from the bed and picked up the clean towel Sarah Albright had left for him. It was easier to figure out who had murdered whom, and he thought he would stick to that.





2




Gary was dressed and standing next to the dinette table when Gregor got upstairs, but he didn’t look as eager to get started as he had the day before.

“I got a call from Eddie Block,” he said. “The hospital called the station, and Eddie said he gave them your number.”

“He must have. Dr. Willard called me,” Gregor said.

“He didn’t want to wake me up,” Gary said. “What is that? He’s never cared about waking me up before. Is there news? Is Miss Hadley dead?”

“No,” Gregor said, “quite the contrary. She’s out of the coma. According to Dr. Willard, she’s not talking and or moving, but she’s awake and responsive and she can answer simple questions by blinking.”

“And they’re sure that’s real?” Gary asked. “I’ve heard about people, you know, in comas, and in persistent vegetative states, who look like they’re doing that, but they aren’t really. It makes people think, well. That they’re getting better, when they’re never going to get better.”