The stairwell spilled out into the lobby, awash in light and people milling about. Knowing as a kid he must’ve looked ridiculous in a doctor’s lab coat, labeled PAYNE, no less, Alex quickly shed the garment, squeezed it into a ball, and grasped it in a single hand as if it were a football. At that point, the exit felt very much like the goal line, promising at least temporary respite until he could get his parents on the phone.
The same parents who’d forbade him to play football. The same parents who’d secretly researched prep schools for a possible fifth year of high school. He’d been so angry at them over that. Now it seemed so small and petty.
Eighteen years old and all I can think of is calling my parents.…
There was a café called Rigolo just up the street from the hospital he’d eaten at a few times with them. So, pinched by Dr. Payne’s clothes and sneakers, Alex headed there in search of a phone.
25
911
“I’LL CALL YOU BACK,” Sam said to her father.
“Take your time. The trimming waits for no man.”
“But you’re telling me the truth, right? Everything’s really okay?”
“What’s gotten into you?”
Her “call waiting” buzzed in again. “Gotta go. Call you back.” She switched to the new call. “Hello?”
“Sam!” Alex’s voice screeched. “Sam!”
“Alex, what—”
“I need you. I need you to pick me up. Now! Please!”
Thoughts coursed through her mind, so many and so fast she couldn’t keep track.
“At the hospital?” she managed.
“No, not there. I can’t reach my parents!”
“This number, I don’t recog—”
“I’m at a restaurant called Rigolo down the street from the hospital. I’ve got to stay out of sight.”
Sam felt something sink in her stomach, thinking of the men with the strange voices who’d attacked the Chins. “Out of sight from what?”
“Never mind. I just need to get home, think this through, talk to my mom and dad.”
She swallowed hard. “Alex…”
“Not now. Whatever it is can wait. Too easy to see me from the street where I’m standing. You know the place?”
“Yes. Sure. But—”
“Hurry, Sam, please.”
Sam thought she might pass out, by the time she reached the old Volkswagen Beetle’s door.
“Sam!”
“I’m here. Sorry, I—”
“You’ve got to hurry! I can’t stay here. Something’s—”
Alex’s voice cut off suddenly. Sam looked down at her phone, which felt oddly cold in her hand, figuring the battery had died for real this time. But the icon was almost all filled in.
“Alex,” Sam managed. “Alex!”
“Hurry,” he responded, his voice returned. “Please.”
“Alex, listen. I really need to tell you—”
A click sounded before Sam could say another word.
26
RIGOLO
HIS CALL TO SAM on the old-fashioned pay phone completed, Alex might have called the police then and there, if he hadn’t seen the men enter. All dressed in identical dark suits, which seemed odd for a Saturday night. Looking dapper, polished but focused. One of them spoke to the hostess while the others seemed to be glancing about the restaurant.
He stopped peering around the alcove wall for fear of being spotted. Whoever these men were, they didn’t look right for the surroundings, totally out of place. He figured it would take Sam at least fifteen minutes to get here and once he left the restaurant, he’d have no way to reach her by phone.
Leaving Rigolo was the problem now. From the alcove of the bright and cheery café that catered to families as well as CPMC doctors and nurses, he glimpsed the four black-suited men being seated at a corner table on the far left offering a complete view of the floor. No way he could reach any of the exits without them spotting him. The only thing preventing that now was the slight angle that kept him from their view when he pressed his shoulders against the wall. Move just a few inches and he’d be in their sights.
Alex had no choice but to wait, taking several deep breaths to calm himself. No clock was in view and he had neither a cell phone nor a watch to check the time until Sam’s expected arrival.
Where were his parents?
And something else: Why hadn’t he called Cara when he couldn’t reach them? Why had he called Sam instead?
He stood there pressed against the wall trying to remember the last time he’d had a really good time with Cara. Couldn’t think of a single one, at least not sober, except when they’d had plenty of fun in large groups over the summer, before football camp started in August and then it was all business. This wasn’t a new thought, just one he’d passed off as his own fault, given the demands on his time and energy by the season and a championship run. He thought Cara was leaving him alone because she thought that’s what he wanted.
I’m an idiot, he thought.
Alex glimpsed the hostess lead a pair of men past the alcove toward a nest of tables out of sight from it, uniformed men.
Cops.