could get somebody to stay with me,” he said after a minute.
“Name somebody.”
“Mrs. Mallard. She comes to take care of the house three days a week anyway.”
“Mrs. Mallard’s sister had a heart attack. She’s gone to Dallas. I’ll bet she phoned to tell you, but you never check your telephone messages at home,” Coltrain said with some amusement.
Hayes was disconcerted. “She’s a good woman. I hope her sister does well.” He pursed his lips. “Well, there’s Miss Bailey,” he began, naming a local woman who made her living from staying with recuperating patients. She was a retired practical nurse.
“Miss Bailey is terrified of reptiles,” he pointed out.
“Blanche Mallory,” he suggested, naming another elderly lady who sat with patients.
“Terrified of reptiles.”
“Damn!”
“I even asked old Mrs. Brewer for you,” Coltrain said heavily. “She said she wasn’t staying in any house with a dinosaur.”
“Andy’s an iguana. He’s a vegetarian. He doesn’t eat people!”
“There’s a young lady you dated once who might dispute that,” Coltrain said with a smile and twinkling eyes.
“It was self-defense. She tried to hit him with a lamp,” Hayes muttered.
“I recall treating her for a sprained ankle, at your expense,” the other man returned.
Hayes sighed. “Okay. Maybe one of my deputies could be persuaded,” he relented.
“Nope. I asked them, too.”
He glowered at Coltrain. “They like me.”
“Yes, they do,” he agreed. “But they’re all married with young families. Well, Zack Tallman isn’t, but he’s not staying with you, either. He says he needs to be able to concentrate while he’s working on your case. He doesn’t like cartoon movies,” he added, tongue-in-cheek.
“Animation bigot,” Hayes muttered.
“Of course, there’s MacCreedy...”
“No. Never! Don’t even speak his name, he might turn up here!” Hayes said with real feeling.
“He’s your cousin and he likes you.”
“Very distant cousin, and we’re not talking about him.”
“Okay. Suit yourself.”
“So I’m going to be stuck here until I get well?” Hayes asked miserably.
“Afraid we don’t have space to keep you,” Coltrain replied. “Not to mention the size of the hospital bill you’d be facing, and the county isn’t likely to want to pick it up.”
Hayes scowled. “I could pick it up myself,” Hayes said curtly. “I may not look like it, but I’m fairly well-to-do. I work in law enforcement because I want to, not because I have to.” He paused. “What’s going on with finding out who shot me?” he asked suddenly. “Have they come up with anything?”
“Your chief deputy is on the case, along with Yancy, your investigator. They found a shell casing.”
“Nice work,” Hayes commented.
“It was. Yancy used a laser pointer, extrapolated from where you were sitting and the angle of the wound, and traced it to the edge of the pasture, under a mesquite tree. He found footprints, a full metal jacketed shell from an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle and a cigarette butt.”
“I’ll promote him.”
Coltrain chuckled.
“I’ll call Cash Grier. Nobody knows more about sniping than the police chief. He used to do it for a living.”
“Good idea,” Coltrain added.
“Look, I can’t stay here and I can’t go home, so what am I going to do?” Hayes asked miserably.
“You won’t like the only solution I could come up with.”
“If it gets me out of the hospital, I’ll love it. Tell me,” Hayes promised.
Coltrain stood and backed up a step. “Minette Raynor says you can stay with them until you’re healed.”
“Never!” Hayes burst out. “I’d live in a hollow log with a rattler, sooner than do that! Why would she even volunteer in the first place? She knows I hate her guts!”
“She felt sorry for you when Lou mentioned we couldn’t find anybody who was willing to stay in your house,” Coltrain replied. Lou was short for Louise, his wife, who was also a doctor.
“Sorry for me. Huh!” he scoffed.
“Her little brother and sister like you.”
He shifted. “I like them, too. They’re nice kids. We have candy to give away at the sheriff’s office on Halloween. She always brings them by.”
“It’s up to you, of course,” Coltrain continued. “But you’re going to have a lot of trouble getting me to sign a release form if you try to go home. You’ll end up back here in two days, from overdoing, I guarantee it.”
Hayes hated the idea. He hated Minette. But he hated the hospital more. Minette’s great-aunt Sarah lived with her. He figured Sarah would be looking after him, especially since Minette was at the newspaper office all day every day. And at night he could go to bed early. Very early. It wasn’t a great solution, but he could live with it if he had to.
“I guess I could stand it for a little while,” he said finally.
Coltrain beamed. “Good man. I’m proud of you for putting aside your prejudices.”
“They aren’t put away. They’re just suppressed.”
The other man shrugged.
“When can I leave?” Hayes asked.
“If you’re good, and you continue to improve, maybe Friday.”
“Friday.” Hayes brightened a little. “Okay. I’ll be good.”
* * *
He was. Sort of. He complained for the rest of the week about being awakened to have a bath, because it wasn’t a real bath. He complained because the television set in his room didn’t work properly and he couldn’t get the History Channel and the International History Channel, which appealed to the military historian in him. He didn’t like the cartoon channel because it didn’t carry the cartoon movies he was partial to. He complained about having gelatin with every meal and the tiniest cup of ice cream he’d ever seen in his life for dessert.
“I
