Cops with their suspicious minds might think Brazil had parked a street away, trying to fool everybody.
If word got back to Axel, he’d believe Brazil was stalking him, had a thing for him.
“Andy, let’s wind this up.” Hammer walked in.
“I sup pose it’s too late to get this in the paper for tomorrow.”
“Yes, chief. The city edition deadline was hours ago,” Brazil replied, glancing at his watch, and startled that she would want a word of this in the paper.
“I’m going to need you to help me, and have to trust that you will, even after what
happened with Channel Three,” she said.
There was no one Brazil would rather assist.
Hammer looked at the clock on the wall, in despair. It was almost three a. m. She had to
get to the hospital, whether Seth liked it or not, and she needed to be up in three hours.
Hammer’s body did not appreciate all-nighters anymore, but she would make it. She
always did. Her plan was the best she could devise under circumstances which were truly
extreme and upsetting. She knew tomorrow’s news would bristle with Seth’s bizarre
shooting and what it might imply. She could not preempt the television and radio
stations, but she could at least straighten out the facts the following day with a true,
detailed account by Brazil.
Brazil was silent and stunned as he sat in the passenger’s seat of Hammer’s impeccable
Crown Victoria. He took notes while she talked.
She told him all about her early life and why she had gone into law enforcement She
talked about Seth, about what a support he had been as she was fighting her way through
the ranks of what was truly a male militia. Hammer was exhausted and vulnerable, her
personal life in shambles, and she had not been to a therapist in two years. Brazil had
caught her at a remarkable time, and he was moved and honored by her trust. He would
not let her down.
“It’s a perfect example of the world not allowing powerful people to have problems,”
Hammer was explaining as she drove along Queens Road West, beneath a canopy of
great oak trees.
“But the fact is, all people have problems. We have tempestuous and tragic phases in
relationships we don’t have time enough to tend to, and we get discouraged and feel we
have failed.”
Brazil thought she was the most wonderful person he had ever met.
“How long have you been married?” he asked.
“Twenty-six years.”
She had known the night before her wedding that she was making a mistake. She and
Seth had united out of need, not want. She had been afraid to go it alone, and Seth had
seemed so strong and capable back then.
X* As he lay on his stomach in the ER, after X-rays and scrubbing and being rolled all
over the place, Seth wondered how this could have happened. His wife had once admired
him, valued his opinion, and laughed at his witty stories. They were never much in bed.
She had far more energy and staying power, and no matter how he might have wanted to
please, he simply could not carry her same tune, didn’t have as many pages, usually was
snoring by the time she’d returned from the bathroom, ready for the next act.
“Ouch!” he yelled.
“Sir, you’re going to have to hold still,” the stern nurse said for the hundredth time.
“Why can’t you knock me out or something!” Tears welled in his eyes as he clenched his fists.
“Mr. Hammer, you’re very fortunate.” It was the triage surgeon’s voice now, rattling X-rays that sounded like saw blades. She was a pretty little thing with long red hair. Seth
was humiliated that her only perspective on him was his corpulent fanny that had never
seen the sun.
The Carolinas Medical Center was famous for its triage, and patients were med-flighted in from all over the region. This early morning, helicopters were quiet silhouettes on red
helipads centered by big His on rooftops, and shuttle buses moved slowly from parking
lots to different areas of the massive concrete complex. The medical center’s fleet of