Mister X

56

It was almost three o'clock when Pearl got to Roosevelt Hospital at Tenth Avenue and West Fifty-ninth Street. She joined Quinn and Fedderman in a nicely furnished waiting room handy to Critical Care. On the opposite side of the long room sat two large black men with their heads in their hands. One of them appeared to be silently sobbing.

Quinn was standing holding a paper cup of coffee. Fedderman had a cup, too, and was slouched almost horizontally in a gray upholstered chair with wooden arms. On a TV mounted to a metal arm above Fedderman, a guy in jeans and a black T-shirt was silently leaping around, holding himself and making faces as if he'd just been injured in the testicles. There were occasional close-ups of people in the audience laughing hysterically. The Comedy Channel. Oh, yeah. Pearl noticed that a damp heap of material on the floor appeared to be Fedderman's suit coat. It had blood on it.

"You two look like you've had a hell of a night," Pearl said.

Quinn said, "You call Addie?"

"Damn it! I forgot."

He glanced at his watch. "Too late now. Let her sleep."

Let her sleep all damned day, Pearl thought. She said, "So what's the latest on this Lisa Bolt, private eye?"

"Condition critical but stabilized. Internal injuries, fractured skull. She's in a coma."

"Anything in her possessions that provides a way to contact family?"

"Nothing," Fedderman said. "She was traveling light. If she has family, she probably didn't want them getting mixed up in whatever it was she was doing." He sounded down, so weary he might doze off any second. But more than that, Pearl thought. He sounded depressed.

"Doctors say how long the coma's gonna last?" Pearl asked. Lisa Bolt's coma, not yours.

Fedderman used the tips of his forefingers to massage the corners of his eyes. "Not only can't they say, they're not even sure she'll ever regain consciousness."

"But they know we need to talk to her if she does regain consciousness," Quinn said to Pearl. "That's why you're here."

"Let me guess."

"That's right. Feds and I are calling it a day-a night. Somebody'll relieve you later this morning. Then if you want, take the morning off and catch up on your sleep. If Lisa Bolt does regain consciousness, call me immediately."

"Any news?" a voice asked.

Addie Price walked into the waiting room. She was wearing tight jeans and a soft cotton blue sleeveless sweater with a neck so wide it had slipped down over a shoulder, making one of her bra straps visible. Her thick blond hair was mussed but looked styled rather than slept on.

No bed head for this cutesy, Pearl thought.

"How'd you know we were here?" Fedderman asked.

"Mishkin phoned and let me know. Probably Renz told him to. You get that coffee out of a machine?"

"Down the hall," Quinn said, and motioned with his head. He looked over at Pearl. "Now you've got company. You can fill in Addie; then the two of you can sit watch in case Lisa Bolt comes around and talks. It'd be better if two people heard whatever it is she might say."

Pearl glared at him. Fill in Addie and make her job of spying for Renz easier.

Fedderman raised himself in weary sections from his chair, scooping up his wrinkled mess of a suit coat as he stood.

"We'll talk tomorrow," Quinn said.

He and Fedderman trudged from the waiting room. Fedderman was too weary even to throw a parting verbal jab at Pearl.

Addie said, "Those two look like train wreck survivors."

"No," Pearl said, "not the survivors."

"I'll go get some coffee," Addie said. "Then you can let me know what's going on. You want some?"

"Why not? We have to stay awake. At least one of us does."

While Addie was gone, a young nurse came in and picked up an empty glass coffeepot that Pearl hadn't noticed on a table over in a corner by the two black guys who were still silently fretting. She smiled brightly at Pearl as she flounced out with the empty pot, leaving a full one behind on the burner. It was probably better coffee than what Addie was getting out of the machine.

She and Addie could discuss that.

Pearl thought it was time that the two of them discussed a number of things.

Addie settled with her coffee into a leather chair and curled her long legs beneath her. Pearl was glad to notice that she had rather large feet.

Pearl was sitting nearby in a corner of a sofa, feeling tired but edgy. Now and then a hushed bell tone would sound and someone-usually a doctor-would be summoned to one part of the hospital or another. The occasional nurse or custodian would pass nearby in the hall. The two despondent black men had conferred with a doctor in scrubs and then left. Pearl and Addie were pretty much alone.

Pearl was wondering how to broach the subject of Addie's obvious flirting with Quinn when Addie spoke up.

"Congratulations again on your engagement," Addie said. "Yancy Taggart must be an interesting man."

"To be engaged to me, you mean?" Pearl asked.

Addie smiled. "Well, yes, that is what I mean. I don't imagine that you give of yourself very easily, Pearl, or to just anyone."

"Just anyone?"

"I didn't mean that how it might have sounded, or how you might have interpreted it." Addie sipped her coffee carefully, knowing by the almost untouchable cup that it was still almost too hot to drink. "I don't imagine that you end a relationship easily."

"No," Pearl admitted, "I don't."

"There isn't any reason for you to worry," Addie said.

"Worry?"

"About Quinn. You're worried that I might hurt him."

Pearl held her hot cup with both hands and looked at Addie over the rim. "My, my, you are a psychologist."

"It's obvious that you're still fond of Quinn. Not to the point that you won't marry someone else, but he's a good man and you know it and don't want to cause him pain. Or for me to cause him pain." Addie sipped, less cautiously. "The instant he learned you were engaged he became jealous, and on a certain level, you had second thoughts. That's only natural, for both of you. Now you're afraid I might be taking advantage of Quinn, amusing myself by getting him on the rebound."

"I'll admit to all of that," Pearl said. "So what?"

"So I want us to be honest with each other."

"That would start with you being honest with me," Pearl said.

"Okay. I'm extremely ambitious, Pearl. Maybe more ambitious than anyone you ever met. I'm drawn to Quinn, but that isn't going to stop me from using him to advance my career. I'm using him. I freely admit that to you and to no one else. I'm leading him on, but I don't intend to let him get too close."

"Why not?"

"I don't want him hurt badly when I drop him. He'll feel despondent and betrayed, but not for long. He'll realize I was just a conniving bitch. He'll tell himself that his thinking I was doing anything other than stringing him along should be a lesson learned. He'll be right. Within a few weeks after I'm gone, he won't even give me much thought."

"Meanwhile you're going to continue teasing him. There was a term for women like you when I was growing up."

"Prick teaser?"

"That's it," Pearl said.

"That's what I am," Addie said. "I use the elusive promise of sex to manipulate men."

"But you never come across."

"There would go the elusive promise," Addie said. "You're a big girl. You understand manipulating men, using them as stepping-stones to get ahead in life. You're not above that kind of thing yourself."

"True enough, though I can't say I'm always successful."

"Nobody's perfect."

"Thus our professions," Pearl said.

"Quinn's a big boy. He'll understand just as you do, after he has a little while to think about it. I know you're fond of him, and I'm telling you not to worry so much about him. He might get bumped when I drop him, but he won't be bruised."

"What about you?"

"Me? I don't bruise easily."

"I didn't mean that. Women like you, it's your inaccessibility that attracts. And once you deliver, that's gone. So you're afraid to deliver. You continue to tease because you're insecure."

Addie nodded thoughtfully. "Oh, on a certain level, that's true. But we know it and are used to that particular rough road. Having the ability to tease our way through life is our compensation for our insecurity."

"Hell of a realization."

"It's a realization that comes to most women, in one form or another. If we too freely lend ourselves, we might not maintain our value."

"We're not Swiss francs," Pearl said.

"Aren't we?"

"Let's not think about the answer to that," Pearl said.

"However Quinn views us-me-I can promise you he won't be badly hurt when our relationship ends."

"When it isn't consummated," Pearl said.

"I can promise you that, too."

"Insofar as anyone can promise such a thing."

"Insofar," Addie agreed. She took a long sip of coffee and smiled. "I'm glad we had this talk, Pearl. It clears things up between us."

"Yes," Pearl said.

"You're an honest woman and I'm not."

"Just so we've got that straight," Pearl said.