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She looked at him and smiled.

“You told me you weren’t coming back,” Matt said.

“I go where the money is. They were shorthanded, probably because of the lousy weather, so they called me.”

“I’m delighted,” Matt said. “But we’re going to have to stop meeting this way. People will start talking.”

“How’s the pain?” she asked, pushing a rolling cart with bandaging material on it up to the bed.

“It’s all right now. It hurt like hell last night.”

“It’s bruised,” she said. “But I think you were very lucky.”

“Yeah, look at the nurse I got.”

“Have you ever used a crutch before?”

“No. Do I really need one?”

“For a couple of days. Then you can either use a cane, or take your chances without one. When I finish bandaging this, I’ll get one and show you how to use it.”

“That’s not a bandage, that’s a dressing.”

“I’m bandaging it with a dressing,” Lari said, and smiled at him again.

It was, he decided when she had finished, a professional dressing. And she hadn’t hurt him.

“What happens now?”

“I get your prescription to the pharmacy, get your crutch, show you how to use it, and presuming you don’t break your leg, then—I don’t know. I’ll see if I can find out.”

Charley McFadden, in civilian clothes, blue jeans and a quilted nylon jacket, came in the room as Matt was practicing with the crutch.

“Hi ya, Lari,” he said, obviously pleased to see her.

“Hello, Charley,” she said. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m going to carry Gimpy here to the Roundhouse. Can he operate on that crutch?”

“Why don’t you ask me?” Matt asked.

“You wouldn’t know,” Charley said.

“He’ll be all right,” Lari said.

“Are you here officially?” Matt asked.

“Oh, yeah. Unmarked car—Hay-zus is downstairs in it—whatever overtime we turn in, the works. Even a shotgun. And on the way here, I heard them send a Highway RPC here to meet the lieutenant. You get a goddamn—sorry, Lari—convoy.”

“When?”

“Whenever you’re ready.”

“When is that going to be, Lari?” Matt asked.

“As soon as you get dressed,” she said. “I’ll go get a wheelchair.”

Matt was amused and touched by the gentleness with which Charley McFadden helped him pull his trouser leg over his injured calf, tied his shoes, and even offered to tie his necktie, if he didn’t feel like standing in front of the mirror.