Chapter 10: Back Room

By six that evening, Pippa was back in the same hospital bed with a new set of wires on her chest.

The defibrillator had fired twice more in the ambulance.

She slept with her mouth slightly open and one hand curled on the blanket.

I sat beside her and could not stop watching the monitor.

At half past six, her eyes opened and found me.

"Did I miss the part where the mob takes me away?" she said, thick with sleep.

"Not yet."

"Good. I want a lawyer and a milkshake."

"You're getting a doctor."

She smiled with half her mouth, and then she was asleep again before I could answer.

The trial director came in at seven with a folder.

She stood at the foot of the bed with her grey bob tucked behind her ear.

She looked at the numbers on the screen for a long time.

"Her heart has stepped down," she said quietly. "In the last week, it has lost a great deal."

"Down how far?"

"We can talk in the corridor."

I followed her out and eased the door almost shut.

Domenico was already in the corridor.

He stood against the far wall with his hands in his coat pockets.

He had stood there for the last three hours and had not sat down once.

He was as white as the wall.

He had carried my sister down four flights of stairs to the ambulance because the elevator was slow.

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