Chapter 11: The Pharmacy

The whole Red had come down to the lobby behind me.

They stood on the stairs and in the hallways in their blankets and their hospital socks.

The Bondsman's ten men stood in a half circle around him with their guns up.

Outside the glass, twenty more leaned on the SUVs and watched.

Gloria was very still in his grip.

"Hon," she said to me, "don't you give this man anything on my account."

"Quiet, grandma," the Bondsman said.

"I'm not your grandma. Your grandma would be ashamed of you."

He laughed and tightened his hand on her arm.

I looked at him.

He was green, the same as last night, clean from his hair to his shoes.

An hour ago I would have bet my life on that.

Now I knew what a color was worth.

"Let her go," I said. "I'll take you down to the pharmacy myself."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that."

I walked across the lobby and held out my right hand to shake on it.

He looked at my hand and smiled.

Then he let go of Gloria's arm and took it.

His palm was wet.

The second his skin touched mine, I felt his body.

There was a bite low on his left calf, under the good wool of his trousers.

It was two days old and black at the edges, and it was burning up his leg toward his knee.

He was red.

He'd been red since Tuesday night.

I didn't let go of his hand.

"Collington Avenue," I said. "Tuesday night, the same night a crab took a piece of your youngest nephew's leg."

His smile stayed where it was, but his hand went tight.

"You're red," I said, loud enough for the stairs to hear. "You've been red for two days, and you knew it."

"Lady, I'm green. Look at me."

"I looked at you. You're green to the eye."

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