The next hour was just plain weird. Two cops took me in their car to a moderately upscale hotel. Brendan went with Gardner, saying he was going to pick up clothes from my house, and would meet me shortly at the hotel.
The hotel room felt claustrophobic. I fidgeted. I paced, I turned the TV on, then off again. I looked at the bandage on my face in the mirror, then paced some more. One of the officers was stationed outside the door. It was probably a good thing he couldn’t see me about to crawl out of my skin.
Eventually, the door opened and Brendan came in. He carried his own black bag and he had obviously found my gym bag; it appeared to be fairly full.
“You okay?” he asked, shutting the door behind him.
“Yeah, I guess.” I walked to the window and back.
He set both bags on the floor a
