“I can’t believe you would do that to Lotty. Put her life at risk in that way.”
I leaned back in the couch and squeezed my forehead with my left hand. “I don’t want to hear about it, Max, at least not in that angry way. You must know I wouldn’t have traded cars with Lotty if I thought there was a physical risk attached. And if you think I would do such a thing, then there’s no point in talking.”
“Why’d you do it, then?”
“I was being tailed. I wanted to move around with some freedom. Lotty agreed to trade cars with me. I see now I shouldn’t have done it—but I couldn’t have known it then.”
Whoever had been following me didn’t know me by sight or they wouldn’t have jumped Lotty. Would Chamfers have used his own men instead of a detective agency? I thought of the guy I’d met on the loading dock last week. Bruno, I’d called him. What name had Chamfers used? I couldn’t remember—my brain was scraping at the edges, like a needle on a record that wouldn’t lift itself clear.
“I’ve known Lotty since she was fifteen,” Max said abruptly. “She’s sometimes the most infuriating person in the world. But I can’t imagine the world without her.”
“I’ve only known her since she was forty, but I can’t imagine it without her either. Anyway, you can’t blame me more than I blame myself.”
Max finally moved his head, an almost-nod of not-quite assent. He went to the cupboard where Lotty keeps her brandy and poured some out. I took a glass from him, but set it down beside me untasted. We sat without speaking until Audrey came back out.
“She’ll do. I’d like to send her in for X rays—I think her arm is cracked and should be in a cast, and just to be on the safe side she should have a CAT scan of her brain. But it’ll keep till morning. I wrapped the arm up and gave her something to make her sleep. The only thing is, she wouldn’t take it unless I promised her that Vic would stay here tonight. Okay with you, Warshawski?”
I nodded. Max, hurt that Lotty hadn’t chosen him, offered to stay with me.
“Fine with me. You can have the spare bed—I’m going to pull the mattress off the daybed here and sleep on her bedroom floor in case she needs me.”
Audrey’s teeth showed momentarily, white against her mahogany skin, as she gave a snort of laughter. “No need to be a Victorian damsel, Vic. She’s really going to be all right. You don’t need to sponge her with lavender water or whatever they used to do for fever victims.”
“It’s not that—it’s just that she was badly frightened. If she wakes up disoriented I want to be there for her.” It was the least I could do, after all.
“Whatever you want… How about a snifter of that brandy before I head back into the rain?”
Chapter 20 - Bedside Watch
Before Audrey left she reminded me that she needed to report the assault to the police. She spoke belligerently, as though expecting me to try to conceal it.
“No, I agree,” I said. “In fact, I want to call the local station and see what they know about it. You want to wait while I do that? They might send someone around.”
Audrey went to the kitchen to make coffee. Like Lotty, she’s an abstemious drinker—one glass of brandy would tide her over for the rest of the month. Max was on his second snifter, but then Lotty only buys Cordon Bleu for him.
I was in luck when I called the district station. Conrad Rawlings, a sergeant I know and like, was working the four-to-midnight shift. He promised to look up what they had on the assault and send someone over to talk to Audrey and me. Half an hour later, as Audrey, Max, and I were making laborious conversation, Conrad showed up in person. He had another officer, a young woman whose head barely cleared his armpits, in tow in case Lotty was up to making a statement.
“Absolutely not,” Audrey said firmly. “She’s sleeping now and I hope she’ll keep on doing it until morning.”
“Skolnik and Wirtz—the officers who interrupted the attack—got a sketchy statement from her,” Rawlings said. “So I guess it can wait until tomorrow. But she wouldn’t let them take her to a hospital—kept telling them she was a doctor and she would make decisions about her health care. They thought she was in a pretty good state of shock, maybe concussed besides, but her car was drivable and she could drive it, so they couldn’t force her.”
He waved an arm at the young woman. “This is Officer Galway. She’ll be keeping some notes as we talk. Since we can’t ask the doc, you tell us what happened, Warshawski, and why.”