“I’ve seen the teeth out there, ” Andy said. “And all I have to do is look at Fonny Boy’s teeth, too. How many fillings, root canals, crowns, and extractions has he performed on you, Fonny Boy?”
Fonny Boy couldn’t recall or count that high. He squeezed a pocket of his jeans and felt the piece of metal. Realizing he was in big trouble because the dentist had just ratted on him, Fonny Boy thought it wise to give the trooper what he wanted. The metal probably wasn’t worth much, anyway, and all that mattered was that Fonny Boy get out of here so he could return to the crab pot and find the sunken ship and the treasure.
Andy reverently held the old, irregular, rusting bit of iron, studying it in amazement as if it were a priceless antique.
“We need to carbon-date this, ” he said to Hammer. “It could be very important. ”
Twenty-seven
The day was running out on Andy, and there was still much to do. Next on his agenda was to pick up Moses Custer at the hospital and make sure he got home safely. Then he had that waterproof suitcase to deliver to Canal Street, where Captain Bonny–a. k. a. Major Trader–had agreed through e-mail to show up so he could get what was coming to him.
You’ll get what’s coming to you, all right, Andy thought as he packed an old, battered aluminum suitcase full of weights from his cramped, makeshift gym in the basement of his row house. How about getting your ass arrested for murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to murder, obstruction of justice, and whatever else I can think of, you son of a bitch?
Andy threw the suitcase, a disguise, and fishing gear into the trunk of his car and hurried downtown to the hospital.
“I’m sorry I took so long to get here, ” he apologized as he walked into Moses Custer’s room, a large private one the governor had ordered him moved to, even though Moses was on his way out.
“He’s all ready to go, and it’s about time you showed up, because we need the room, ” said a nurse whose nametag read A. CARLESS.
“Do you pronounce your name Careless or Car-less?” Andy politely inquired of the woman, who was built like a wrestler and had eyes that looked in two directions at once.
“People pronounce it both ways, ” she replied as she began to help Custer out of the bed and into a wheelchair.
“I don’t need no wheelchair, ” Custer nervously said. “Ouch! You just hit my mouth with your elbow! Hold on. My gown ain’t closed in the back! Lord help me, Mr. Trooper! Please get this woman away from me! I’m more banged up now than when I got here!”
Moses Custer was a pitiful sight. His head was black and blue, one eye was swollen shut, and he was missing teeth, although it was unclear how much of it was related to the assault. One arm was in a cast that Nurse Carless managed to knock against the bedside table as she tried to force him from beneath the covers into the wheelchair that she had forgotten to secure with the brakes. Before Andy could intervene, she lifted Custer off the bed and set him down hard in the wheelchair, which took off on its own and crashed into a chest of drawers. Custer shrieked as the chair bounced backward and slammed into the bed, his bandaged right foot catching the handle of the bedpan on the floor and sending it flying as the chair spun uncontrollably and threw Moses out.
“Don’t touch me!” he screamed as the nurse lifted him up by the front of his gown, thereby exposing his backside and other parts that were nobody’s business but his own.
“Whoa!” Andy said, gently taking Custer by the elbow, closing the gown and blocking Nurse Carless to prevent further physical harm to the patient. “Where are your clothes, so you can get dressed?”
“My son brought me over some. In that drawer there, ” Moses said. “Don’t you get them!” he snapped at the nurse. “Let the trooper get them!”