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“Tell me he’s alive.”
Sampson said, “Your alibi’s in a medically induced coma, hanging on by a thread.”
The writer gaped at us for several moments as if suddenly overwhelmed by this newest twist in his predicament.
He shook his head, said, “I couldn’t make this shit up if I tried.”
CHAPTER 94
Manhattan
ON MONDAY AFTERNOON, BREEclimbed out of a taxi in front of NYU Medical Center. She’d slept fitfully at Phillip Henry Luster’s place but had felt well enough that morning to go to Salazar’s precinct and make a detailed statement about the previous evening’s events to the detectives there, including Rosella’s partner, Simon Thompson.
Thompson, who’d been cold to her before, had taken her aside and thanked her for saving Salazar’s life. Bree was still feeling good about that when she exited the elevator on the maternity ward and asked the nurses where she could find Rosella.
Room 302, she was told. “She’s having a party in there,” the nurse said.
Bree went to room 302 and found Salazar in bed, an IV in her arm and a newborn in a pink blanket on her lap. She was surrounded by family: her four-year-old daughter, her husband,her sister, her mother, and two men who turned out to be the detective’s brothers.
They were all bantering in Spanish when Bree knocked on the open door.
“Chief Stone,” Salazar called, sounding weak but smiling. “Come in, come in.”
“I’m not interrupting?”
“Never,” she said. “You’re family now.” She introduced the people around the bed.
One of her brothers stared at Bree suspiciously and said something sharp in Spanish.
The detective’s brows knit. “Because she saved my life, fool!” Salazar looked back at Bree and grinned. “Come, come see my little one.”
Bree smiled as she went to the bed, and the family made room for her.
“A baby girl?”
“I’m as surprised as you are,” Salazar said. “I was sure it was a boy. And you know how they were worried that the baby was in distress? Turns out that her head was in the wrong position and she almost got wedged in the birth canal.”
“Wow. She’s tough!”
“She is,” Salazar’s mother said. “With a little help from the doctors, they got her out, and she’s fine now.”
Salazar said, “Better than fine. Six pounds, six ounces of pure beauty.”
“What’s her name?”
Salazar’s older daughter, Elaina, said proudly, “Analisa Bree Salazar!”
“What?” Bree said, looking at the detective in wonder. “That’s so sweet.”
“You saved my life.”
“You saved mine first.”
“I still owe you.”
Bree grinned so wide it hurt. “Well, I’m honored, Rosella and Debo. When do you get out of here?”
“Tomorrow,” Salazar’s mother said. “Rosella was running a fever earlier and they want to make sure she and the baby are okay.”
