“I’m the exception? Just out of nowhere he turns into a rapist?”
“At least that we know about.”
“That’s a grand explanation. You’re not responsible for information you’re too lazy to find out about. Lovely.”
“Jimmy Nightingale has no history of abusing women. His problem is ambition and besting his father.”
“Who, I understand, was a walking penis. This gets better all the time. Would you please get the fuck out?”
I left without saying good-bye. I couldn’t blame her for her anger, but I wasn’t sympathetic with it, either. She seemed to nurse it as a friend at the expense of others. I believed Rowena Broussard might take up residence in a black box for the rest of her life.
Out in the corridor, I heard the elevator door open, then found myself looking at the last person I expected to see at Iberia General that particular day. He looked fresh and radiant, as though he had just wakened from a good night’s sleep and was ready to start a new day. A bouquet of flowers in an electric-blue vase was cradled in his arms.
“Are you going where I think you’re going?” I said.
“I couldn’t find anybody to bring the flowers up, so I brought them myself,” Jimmy Nightingale said. “Will you take them the rest of the way?”
“I just got eighty-sixed. I wouldn’t advise going in there.”
“That bad, huh?”
“What do you expect?” I said.
“She knows what happened or, rather, what didn’t happen. I think she’s a bit of a thespian. Is Levon here?”
“No!”
“I’ll toggle in and toggle back out.”
“Leave her alone, Jimmy.”
“Sorry.” He started to walk around me.
“I’m speaking to you as an officer of the law. You’re not going into that room.”
“You’re showing poor form, Dave.”
“If you go in there, you’re going to be under arrest.”
“Then you’d better get your handcuffs out.”
The elevator door opened again. Levon Broussard stepped into the corridor. He remained motionless, staring at us, his lanky frame backlit by a window. His face was as empty as a bread pan. He walked toward us, his eyes never leaving my face, completely ignoring Nightingale. “Why is this lizard standing in front of my wife’s hospital room?”
* * *
PEOPLE ARE WHAT they do, not what they think, not what they say. But I think we all have moments when we realize we never quite know a person in his or her totality.
“I brought your wife flowers,” Nightingale said. “I’d appreciate your not referring to me in a derogatory way.”
Levon didn’t take his eyes off me. “Get him out of here, Dave.”
“Everything is under control here,” I said, raising my hand.
“Only a psychopath would do something like this,” Levon said.
“Give us a minute here,” I said.
“No, I will not,” Levon said.