I pull away from her.
“No hospitals. I don’t have time.”
“You look like you’re ready to die,” she says sternly.
“I’m fine.”
I look at her, wanting to remember her face.
“What’s your name?”
“Janet.”
“Thanks, Janet, for the donuts and the help.”
“You should really see a doctor.”
I give her a wave.
“Thanks for the help.”
“You helped me once,” she says.
Under normal circumstances I’d ask what the fuck she’s talking about, but this is now and the cane is the only thing keeping me on my feet. I stumble away from her into a shadow.
EVERYONE LOOKS UP when I get back to Vidocq’s. I hold my coat closed so they don’t see the new blood.
“How did it go?” says Candy.
“Great. By now, one of them is under arrest, the other is in a coma, and, with luck, Thomas Abbot is taking everyone else in.”
“That’s it then, you’re finished. You can relax while Vidocq, Ray, and Brigitte find a cure.”
I look at Kasabian.
“Could I have some of that whiskey I gave you earlier?”
He gets the bottle and pours me a tall glass. I drain it in one gulp.
He says, “I thought you said that was sipping whiskey.”
“Sipping is for people with time to kill.”
“Nice cane,” says Allegra.
“Yeah. It was a birthday present.”
“It’s not your birthday,” says Candy.
“I fibbed.”
Allegra says, “Why don’t you come over here?”
I lean against the wall.
“I’m fine where I am.”
“You can’t walk over here, can you? Not without the cane.”