The Quiet Game

DNR.”

The alarms go on ringing with relentless insistence.

“Do you know that for a fact?” asks Carelli, standing anxiously over the cart with a laryngoscope in his hand. “Tom, you know the rules.”

“This woman is eighty years old, she’s got third-degree burns over sixty percent of her body, and a broken hip.”

“Tom, for a DNR we need it on paper.”

“She also has carcinoma of the lung,” Dad says softly. “No one knows that but me. There’s nothing on paper, but she’s discussed it with me on several occasions. No extraordinary measures. Do not resuscitate. Turn off those alarms.”

The whole apparatus of technology stands poised on the edge of action, and my father has ordered it to stand down.

“Tom, are you sure?” asks Carelli.

“I take full responsibility. Turn off those goddamned alarms.”

One by one the alarms go off. Dad looks at me, his eyes weary. “Go on out, Penn. Check on Annie and your mother. You don’t want to see this.”

“Not until she’s gone.”

He nods slowly. “All right.” He turns to the assembled staff. “Thanks for the effort, everybody. We’d like to be alone with her.”

I squeeze Ruby’s good hand, kiss her forehead, and wait for the end. Looking at this ravaged shell of a woman, I find it hard to believe that she was the towering figure who saved me from that German shepherd. But she was. She is. As the last nurse files out, the drumbeat of rotor blades descends over the hospital, announcing the helicopter that will return to Jackson without its scheduled passenger.

Ruby Flowers is leaving Natchez by another route.

Our family has gathered in the small chapel provided by the hospital for patients and their families. It’s a small, dim room, with electric candles, two pews, an altar, and some “new” Bibles full of undistinguished prose. I’m not a believer myself, but in time of death you can do a lot worse than the King James Bible for comfort.

My mother is praying quietly at the altar. Dad sits beside me in the front pew, with Annie on his lap. This is the first time we have been together in anything like a church since Sarah’s funeral. My older sister was with us for that, but she’s been teaching in Ireland ever since. Today was a good day to be there and not here.

I have never seen my father this angry. Not even during the malpractice trial. He is by nature a gentle and even-tempered man, and his medical experience has taught him to be calmer as situations deteriorate. But right this minute he has blood in his eye, and I understand the feeling. If I knew with certainty that Ray Presley set that fire, or that Leo Marston had ordered it, I would shoot them both without a second thought.

Mom rises to her feet, then walks over and takes Annie from Dad. “We’d better check into a motel,” she says. “And we need to think about getting some clothes. I’m sure everything is ruined.”

“The insurance will cover most of it,” Dad replies. “The police are waiting to talk to me in the ER.”

Mom looks at him and shakes her head. “The things I cared about in that house, no insurance can replace.”

“I know that, Peggy.”

“Mom, I’m sorry,” I say uselessly. “I know this happened because of me.”

She reaches out with her free hand and squeezes my arm. “Let’s just get checked in somewhere. We need to take care of this little girl.”

Dad follows her to the door, then shuts it and comes back to me. “We’re going to need some protection, son. Real protection. Off-duty cops aren’t up to this. Who do we call?”

“I know some people in Houston. Serious people. An international security company. I’ll call the CEO right now.”

“I want them here tonight. I don’t care what it costs.”

“They’ll be here. And I’m paying.”

He sighs and looks at the altar. “Who do you think set that fire?”

“First guess? Ray Presley. I called his trailer while the house was burning. He wasn’t home. Could he have managed it after that poisoning attempt? After his heart attack or whatever?”

Dad nods. “Physically, he could do it. He’s a lot more able than I am. What about Marston?”

“Leo Marston knows everything that goes on in this town. He wouldn’t dirty his hands with the actual deed, but he’d order someone to do it.”

“I hate to think Ray would go that far. Kidnapping Annie… my God. What do you want to do?”

“Let’s get settled somewhere first, get the security in place. Then we’ll talk about it.”

He opens the chapel door and nearly walks over Livy, who’s standing in the hall. She backs up so that we can exit, and as we do I see my mother and Annie waiting at the end of the hall, by the wide ER doors.

“Tell me what I can do,” Livy says. “Your mother said you’re going to a motel.”

“For now. We need to get Annie settled. She-”

Suddenly the ER doors swing open, and Caitlin Masters runs up the corridor with a camera swinging around her neck and her black hair flying behind her.

“I just came from your house,” she says. “Penn, I’m so sorry.”

“Caitlin-”

“I need to talk you and your father. Right now.”

“What is it?”

She looks at Livy. “Could you excuse us for a moment, Mrs. Sutter?”

Livy bristles and looks at me, expecting me to tell Caitlin she can stay.

“Why don’t we go in the chapel?” I suggest. “We’ll just be a minute, Livy.”

Livy starts to say something to Caitlin but doesn’t. Instead she bites her bottom lip and watches us walk into the chapel.

Caitlin’s energy is like a flame inside the little room. She can’t remain still, and her eyes simmer with anger. “Someone kidnapped Annie?” she asks. “Is that right?”

“Yes.”

“And they brought her back? With a warning note?”

“Yes.”

“The same person who set the fire?”

“Almost certainly.”

“Okay… okay.” She nods furiously, then paces out a tight circle. “That’s all I wanted to know.”

“Caitlin, what’s going on? Why are you so worked up?”

“I’ll print the story.”

“The story. About the fire?”

She blinks in confusion. “The fire? Hell, no. The slander. Marston being behind the Payton murder. You say it, I’ll print it. In type big enough to give him a coronary over breakfast.”

I simply stare at her.

“Maybe that’s the answer,” Dad says. “Last night we thought it was.”

“Last night you had a house,” I remind him. “What changed your mind?”

Caitlin stops pacing and looks me dead in the eye. “Annie, for one thing.”

“This girl is good people,” Dad says, squeezing her shoulder.

“For another, my instincts have started humming. Don’t ask me why, because I don’t know. Maybe because this happened two days after we went to see Stone, and Stone says Marston was behind Payton’s death. Maybe because John Portman threatened you, and we know he worked the Payton case in sixty-eight. And we know Marston and J. Edgar Hoover were friends. Maybe it’s because I get a funny vibe from Marston’s daughter. All I know is that I’m not sitting still while these bastards go after people I care about. They want to play hardball? They’re going to get the game of their goddamn lives.”

My father looks like he wants to kiss her.

“What time is your deadline?” I ask.

“Just call me after you guys get settled somewhere. I’ll come to you.”

“I don’t know what to say. Just… thank you.”

When we leave the chapel, Caitlin walks past Livy without a word. She hugs my mother by the ER doors, kisses Annie, then slips through the doors and disappears.

Livy keeps pace with Dad and me as we walk down the hall and join my mother and Annie.

“Where do you think we should go, Tom?” Mom asks.

“The Prentiss Motel is right up on the highway. Let’s stay there tonight. We’ll worry about the long term tomorrow.”

As Dad opens the ER doors, Mom follows him through with Annie on her hip, leaving Livy and me alone on this side. The awkwardness between us is palpable. Two hours ago we were in each other’s arms. Now…

“What can I do?” she asks. “I’ll help with Annie, go out for food. Whatever you need.”

“I think it better just be family tonight,” I say gently. “Thanks for offering, though. Thanks for today too.”

Her eyes cloud with frustration and confusion. “Penn, for God’s sake… what’s happening here?”

“Maybe you should ask your father.”