Chapter 24I drive to the hospital after work that evening and am told by Nurse Kelly that Steve is asleep. “He’s been in and out of sleep all day,” she says as I walk by the nurses’ station with an armful of cellophane-wrapped lilies and pink carnations. “His coughing is getting worse and his regular floor nurse will be in shortly with another round of antibiotics.”
I set the vase of flowers by his bedside and sit next to him for the remaining daylight hour, busying myself with a crossword puzzle. My mind drifts to work and the conversation with Chief Barnaby. Will I have a job tomorrow? Do I want to continue as a police officer? What would I do next? All of the loud empty noise dissipates, the chief’s voice and accusations from the other police officers fizzle and blur in the bleakest cr
