House of the Rising Sun (Hackberry Holland 4)

“You’re Mike, aren’t you? Captain Holland’s friend?”

“I don’t call him ‘nigger lover.’”

“Pardon?”

“They say that’s why he’s getting out of the army. The army didn’t treat his outfit right. He says the French gave them the credit they deserve. It’s not what people like to hear.”

Mike had a high forehead and mousy hair and thin shoulders and a nicotine odor that made her hold her breath. She pulled him into a windowless alcove that contained two chairs used by visitors; unresisting, his arm was boneless and flaccid in her grasp. She pushed him down in one chair and sat in the other, taking his hand in hers.

“What’s going on?” he said.

“There’s a woman outside named Ruby Dansen. She claims to be Captain Holland’s mother. She’s not. She’s an aunt by marriage who treated him brutally when he was a child. She’s also a Communist and has been committed twice to an asylum.”

The smile left his face. “What’s she doing here?”

“Causing trouble.” Maggie leaned forward, her gaze fixed on his, rotating her thumb inside his palm. “You have to help me. We need to move Captain Holland now.”

“What for?”

“She’ll cause a scene. She’ll convince somebody at admissions that she’s his mother. He’s being discharged today. He doesn’t need a crazy woman screaming at him. He also doesn’t need to revisit his miserable childhood.”

“I don’t kno

w, ma’am. I don’t like the sound of this.”

She tightened her hand on his and leaned forward, her other hand settling on his thigh, the thumb working into the muscle. “Please.”

His gaze broke. “Tell me what you want me to do.”

“Put Captain Holland in a wheelchair and take him to the side door. My car and driver will be waiting. Hurry up.”

“You think we might meet up later? You and me?”

“It’s a possibility. But there’s something else you have to help me with.”

“Have to?”

She ignored the challenge. “You’re already aware Captain Holland has needs for certain medications the hospital doesn’t always provide.”

“No, I’m a blank on that.”

She opened her purse so he could see inside it. “I have to give him this. It’s perfectly safe. It will quiet his nerves.”

“Hypodermic needles are way above my skills, ma’am.”

She laid a twenty-dollar bill across his palm. “No, they’re not.”

“And we’re gonna see each other a little later, maybe tonight?”

“Yes, I would like that.”

“Even though you’ve got a driver and a motorcar and you’re probably going away somewhere?” His eyes crinkled at the corners.

“We’re staying close by,” she said, breathing audibly through her nose.

“I bet you forgot your fruit basket. You wouldn’t want to leave that behind, would you? The captain was sure fond of it. A couple of bites and I would have sworn he’d been on an opium pipe.”

“Well, you’re certainly an observant and enterprising little fellow, aren’t you?” she said. She took another twenty-dollar bill from her purse. “If this doesn’t work out, you’ll be visited by people who will do things to you that you thought happened only in nightmares.”