“I don’t care, Alex,” Bree said. “I’m taking you home. You can make a formal statement after you’ve had a good night’s sleep.”
I almost agreed, but then said, “Okay, I’ll leave. But can we stop by Sampson’s room before we go home? He deserves to know.”
“Of course,” she said, softening. “Of course we can.”
I stayed quiet during the ride away from the ambush and shooting scene. Bree seemed to understand I needed space, and didn’t ask any more questions on the way to GW Medical Center.
But my mind kept jumping to different aspects of the case. Where had Watkins and Soneji’s widow met? Through Kimiko Binx? And who was the other wounded guy? How had he come to be part of a conspiracy to kill me and Sampson?
Riding the elevator to the ICU, I promised myself I’d answer the questions, clean up the case, even though it was all but over.
As the door opened, I felt something sharp on my right arm and jerked back to look at it.
“Sorry,” Bree said. “You had a little piece of Scotch tape there.”
She showed me the tape, no more than a half inch long, before rolling it between her thumb and index finger and flicking it into a trash can.
I twisted my forearm, to see a little reddish patch, and wondered where I’d picked that up. Probably off Nana Mama’s counter earlier in the morning, left over from one of Ali’s latest school projects.
It didn’t matter because when we reached the ICU, the nurse gave us good news. Sampson was gone, transferred to the rehab floor.
When we finally tracked him down, he was paying his first visit to the physical therapist’s room. We went in and found Billie with her palms pressed to her beaming cheeks, and her eyes welling over with tears.
I had to fight back tears, too.
Sampson was not only out of bed, he was out of a wheelchair, up on his feet, with his back to us, using a set of parallel gymnastics bars for balance. His massive arm and neck muscles were straining so hard they were trembling, and sweat gushed off him as he moved one foot and then the other, a drag more than a step with his right leg. But it was incredible.
“Can you believe it?” Billie cried, jumped to her feet, and hugged Bree.
I wiped at my tears, kissed Billie, and broke into a huge grin before clapping and coming around in front of Sampson.
Big John had a hundred-watt smile going.
He saw me, stopped, and said, “’Ow bout that?”
“Amazing,” I said, fighting back more emotion. “Just amazing, brother.”
He smiled broader, and then cocked his head at me, as if he felt something.
“Wha?” Sampson said.
“I got him,” I said. “The one who shot you.”
Sampson sobered, and paused to take that in. The therapist offered him the wheelchair, but he shook his head slowly, still staring at me intently, as if seeing all sorts of things in my face.
“F-get him f-now, Alex,” John said finally, with barely a slur and his face twisting into a triumphant smile. “Can’t yah see I got dance less. . .sons ta do?”
I stood there in shock for a moment. Bree and Billie started laughing. So did Sampson and the therapist.
I did, too, then, from deep in my gut, a belly laughter that soon mixed with deep and profound gratitude, and a great deal of awe.
Our prayers had been answered. A true miracle had occurred.
My partner and best friend had been shot in the head, but Big John Sampson was not defeated and definitely on his way back.
Epilogue
Two days later, I awoke feeling strangely out of it, as if I were nursing the last dregs of the worst hangover of my life.