The Goodbye Look

chapter 23

Mrs. Chalmers and I walked back to the visitors’ room, where Dr. Smitheram and his wife were talking to Larry Chalmers.

The doctor greeted me with a smile that failed to touch his dubious, probing eyes. “Moira tells me you took her to dinner. Thanks very much.”

“It was a pleasure. What are my chances of talking to your patient?”

“Minimal. Nonexistent, in fact.”

“Even for a minute?”

“It wouldn’t be a good idea, for both physical and psychiatric reasons.”

“How is he?”

“He has a giant hangover, of course, and he’s depressed both physically and emotionally. That’s partly the overdose of reserpine. Also he has a bit of a concussion.”

“What caused it?”

“I’d say he was hit on the back of the head with a blunt object. But forensic medicine is not my line. Anyway, he’s doing surprisingly well. I owe you a vote of thanks for getting him here in time.”

“We all do,” Chalmers said, and shook hands with me formally. “You saved my son’s life.”

“We were lucky, both of us. It would be nice if the luck continued.”

“What do you mean, exactly?”

“I think Nick’s room should be guarded.”

“You think he might get away again?” Chalmers said.

“That’s a thought. It hadn’t occurred to me. What I had in mind was protection for him.”

“He has round-the-clock nurses,” Dr. Smitheram said.

“He needs an armed guard. There have been several killings; we don’t want another.” I turned to Chalmers: “I can get you three shifts for about a hundred dollars a day.”

“By all means,” Chalmers said.

I went downstairs and made a couple of phone calls. The first was to a Los Angeles guard service with a San Diego branch. They said they would have a man named Maclennan on duty in half an hour. Then I called Conchita’s Cabins in Imperial Beach. Mrs. Williams answered in a hushed and worried voice.

“This is Archer. Has Randy Shepherd been back?”

“No, and he probably won’t be.” She lowered her voice even further. “You’re not the only one looking for him. They have the place staked out.”

I was glad to hear it, because it meant I wouldn’t have to stake it out myself.

“Thanks, Mrs. Williams. Take it easy.”

“That’s easier said than done. Why didn’t you tell me Sidney Harrow was dead?”

“It wouldn’t have done you any good to know.”

“You can say that again. I’m putting this place up for sale as soon as I get them out of my hair.”

I wished her good luck, and went out the front door for some air. After a while Moira Smitheram came out and joined me.

She lit a cigarette from a fresh pack and smoked it as if she was being timed by a stop watch. “You don’t smoke, do you?”

“I gave it up.”

“So did I. But I still smoke when I’m angry.”

“What are you angry about now?”

“Ralph again. He’s going to sleep in the hospital tonight so he can be on call. I might as well be married to a Trappist.”

Her anger sounded superficial, as if it was masking some deeper feeling. I waited for that feeling to show itself. She threw her cigarette away and said: “I hate motels. You wouldn’t be driving back to the Point tonight?”

“West Los Angeles. I can drop you off on the way.”

“You’re very kind.” Under the formal language I could sense an excitement echoing mine. “Why are you going to West Los Angeles?”

“I live there. I like to sleep in my own apartment. It’s just about the only continuity in my life.”

“I thought you abhorred continuity. You said at dinner you liked to move in and out of people’s lives.”

“That’s true. Particularly the people I meet in my work.”

“People like me?”

“I wasn’t thinking of you.”

“Oh? I thought you were stating a general policy,” she said with some irony, “to which everyone was expected to conform.”

A tall, wide young man with a crew cut and wearing a dark suit emerged from the shadows of the parking lot and headed for the hospital entrance. I called to him:

“Maclennan?”

“Yessir.”

I told Moira I’d be right back, and took Maclennan up in the elevator. “Don’t let anyone in,” I told him, “except hospital personnel – doctors and nurses – and the immediate family.”

“How do I know who they are?”

“I’ll get you started with them. The main thing I want you to look for is men, wearing white coats or not. Don’t let any man in unless he’s vouched for by a nurse or a doctor you know.”

“You expecting a murder attempt?”

“It could happen. You’re armed?”

Maclennan pulled back his jacket and showed me the butt of the automatic in his armpit. “Who do I look out for?”

“I don’t know, unfortunately. You have one other duty. Don’t let the boy run away. But don’t use a gun on him, or anything else. He’s what it’s all about.”

“Sure, I understand that.” He had a large man’s calmness.

I took him to the door of Nick’s room and asked the private nurse for Smitheram. The doctor opened the door wide as he came out. I caught a glimpse of Nick lying still with his eyes closed, his nose pointed at the ceiling, his parents sitting on either side of him. The three of them looked like something in a frieze, a ritual in which the raised hospital bed served as a kind of sacrificial altar.

The door closed on them silently. I introduced Maclennan to Dr. Smitheram, who gave us both a bored and weary look:

“Are all these alarms and excursions really necessary?”

“I think so.”

“I don’t. I’m certainly not going to let you plant this man in the room.”

“He’d be more effective there.”

“Effective against what?”

“A possible murder attempt.”

“That’s ridiculous. The boy’s perfectly safe here. Who would want to murder him?”

“Ask him.”

“I will not.”

“Will you let me ask him?”

“No. He’s in no condition–”

“When will he be?”

“Never, if you plan to bullyrag him.”

“ ‘Bullyrag’ is a loaded word. Are you trying to make me sore?”

Smitheram let out a clever little laugh. “If I were, I appear to have succeeded.”

“What are you sitting on, doctor?”

His eyes narrowed and his mouth talked very rapidly: “I’m standing – standing on my right and duty to protect my patient. And no junior G-men are going to talk to him now or ever, if I can help it. Is that clear?”

“What about me?” Maclennan said. “Am I hired or fired?”

I turned to him, swallowing my anger. “You’re hired. Dr. Smitheram wants you to stay outside in the corridor. If anyone questions your right to be here, tell them you’re employed by Nick Chalmers’s parents to protect him. Dr. Smitheram or one of the nurses will introduce you to the parents when it’s convenient.”

“I can hardly wait,” Maclennan said under his breath.