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Authors: Norah McClintock

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BOOK: Nothing to Lose
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“I need you to do something for me, Robyn,” he said before I could even ask how he was. “I need you to find out what they did with my clothes.”

“Nick, what happened? I saw this guy—”

“I need my clothes right now, Robyn.”

“But I saw—”


Now
, Robyn. Please?”

“Okay, but when I come back—”

“When you come back, we'll talk. I promise.”

Nick's aunt entered the room just as I was leaving. Glen was with her, but he stayed outside in the hall.

“How is he?” he said.

“Okay, I guess,” I said. “I just have to—”
Should I tell Glen that Nick had asked for his clothes?
I thought.
Would Nick want Glen to know?
“I'll be back in a minute,” I said. I hurried off to find someone who could tell me what had happened to Nick's clothes.

A harried-looking nurse referred me to an orderly, who hunted around behind the nursing station and then handed me a big brown paper bag. I thanked him and headed back to Nick's room. Glen wasn't standing outside anymore, and Nick's aunt was still inside the room with Nick. I didn't want to intrude, so I took a seat in the small waiting area just down the hall. While I waited, I opened the brown bag to make sure that none of Nick's things had gone missing. Boots. Jeans. T-shirt. Hooded sweatshirt. Wallet. The small paper bag Nick had been carrying when he'd been hit. Inside was a wooden train—hand-painted, according to the box. I guessed it was a present for his nephew. I was putting it back when I saw something else at the bottom of the big bag the orderly had given me. A thick envelope. It must have fallen out of Nick's hoodie.

I told myself that whatever was in it was none of my business. But I kept staring at it. Nick had been acting strangely all day. So had some of the people I had seen him with, like the girl in the bakery and the man at the food court.

I hesitated. I told myself it was wrong to snoop. But I couldn't help myself. I opened the envelope—and gasped.

The envelope was stuffed with money. I thumbed the bills. They added up to hundreds of dollars. There were also six thinner envelopes inside. Five of them were folded shut, but not sealed. I checked them one by one. They all contained money. The sixth envelope was sealed, so I couldn't look inside. It felt different from the others. Maybe there was more money in it, but there was also something else.

We had gone into a lot of stores that morning. In some of them, Nick had disappeared from sight for a few minutes, sometimes for longer. He must have ducked out of sight to collect envelopes and money. In other places, I had been able to watch what was happening even if I didn't understand it. At the bakery, I had seen the girl at the register reach under the counter for something that she had slipped into Nick's bag. At the food court, Nick had blocked my view of the register when he paid for our drinks, but I had seen him put something into his pocket. And I was pretty sure that the man in the last store Nick had been in had handed him something besides the wood train.

What was going on?

Someone said my name, and I jumped. Nick's aunt was walking toward me. I slipped the envelope full of money into my purse as calmly as I could and stood up.

“He wants to see you,” she said. “Glen went to tell the police that they can see Nick. They'll want to ask him some questions. I'll give you some time alone with him, Robyn. I'll be back in a little while.”

I went back into the room with the big brown paper bag containing Nick's clothes. Nick grabbed the bag from my hands, pulled out his hooded sweatshirt, and pawed through the front pockets. When he came up empty, he dumped the contents of the bag onto the bed and started to root frantically through them.

I pulled the thick envelope out of my purse.

“Is this what you're looking for?” I said.

For a moment, Nick looked relieved.Then he caught the expression on my face.

“It's not what you think,” he said.

“Y
ou have no idea what I think,” I said. “Are you kidding?” Nick said. “I know exactly what you think. Right now you look like every youth worker who's ever been assigned to me. You think I screwed up again,” he said.

“There's a lot of money in this envelope, Nick.”

“I didn't steal it, if that's what you're worried about.” He held out his hand. “Give it to me, Robyn.”

I put the envelope back into my purse.

“Most of the places we went today, someone gave you money, correct?” I said.

Nick made a face. “Now you look like your mother,” he said. “But you sound like your father.”

I crossed my arms over my chest and waited for an answer.

“Come on, Robyn. Hand it over.”

“No. Not until you tell me why people have been giving you money.”

“I can't.”

“Does it have anything to do with the guy who pushed you?”


What?
” He looked and sounded genuinely surprised. “What guy? What are you talking about?”

“There was a guy standing behind you when you were waiting for the light to change. There was something funny about the way he was looking at you. He pushed you, didn't he, Nick?”

“I felt something,” Nick said. He was frowning now. “Someone banged into me, hard. I lost my balance. But I thought it was an accident.”

“I got a good look at him,” I said. “He stuck around for a few seconds after that car hit you. And Nick? When he saw you lying in the street, he smiled.” I shuddered at the memory. “I told the police—”

He stiffened. “You talked to the cops?”

“You were hit by a car. Someone called 9-1-1. The cops showed up. They wanted to know what happened. Of course I talked to them. I told them about the guy I saw—”

“What exactly did you tell them?”

I repeated the information I had given to the police.

“What did this guy look like?”

“He was tall. Taller than you, anyway. He had blond hair.”


Blond
hair?” He reacted as if this was the last thing he'd expected me to say. “So he wasn't Chinese?”

“No. He had blond hair and blue eyes and a long, thin face.” I was pretty sure I saw a flicker of recognition. “Do you know who he is, Nick?”


You're
the one who saw him, Robyn.”

He was being evasive—not a good sign.

“You're telling me that you don't know anyone who looks like the guy I just described?”

“There must be thousands of people in this city with blond hair and blue eyes,” Nick said.

“So the answer is no, you don't know any blond-haired, blue-eyed people who would want to push you into traffic?”

“No.”

Nick isn't always cooperative. He doesn't always volunteer the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Sometimes he even lies. But he didn't fool me. Not in his hospital room, anyway. I had seen too much.

“Nick, what's going on? Tell me.”

He looked at me for a moment. “Okay,” he said in a low voice. He glanced toward the door and waved for me to come closer to him. As soon as I was beside the bed, he snatched my purse and dug out the envelope. He opened it and checked to see that everything was still there.

“Fine, have it your way,” I said. “The police are on their way here to talk to you. They're going to ask you about that guy.”

“And I'll tell them that I didn't see any guy and I don't know anything about being pushed. Someone bumped into me and I lost my balance, that's all.”

“What if I tell them about all that money—”

I heard footsteps behind me and turned to see Nick's aunt entering the room. “There are two police officers here to see you, Nick,” she said. “Can I bring them in?”

“In a sec,” Nick said. “Just give me another minute with Robyn.”

Nick's aunt nodded. As soon as she left the room, Nick began to stuff his clothes back into the big paper bag. He paused and looked at his jeans. One of the legs was ruined—it looked as if it had been cut open so the doctor could get a good look at his ankle or maybe get his jeans off over the swelling. Nick shook his head as he folded the pants and put them back into the bag. He started to put the envelope in too, then changed his mind.

“I need you to do something else for me, Robyn,” he said.

Right. He felt free to ask me for favors, but he refused to tell me anything.

“Hang onto this,” he said. He handed me the envelope. “I don't think it'll be safe in here, and I don't want anything to happen to it.” I stared at it, but didn't take it. “Please, Robyn?” he said. “Trust me, okay?”

Trust someone who had been looking over his shoulder all day? Someone who, for some reason he wouldn't tell me, had been collecting money from storekeepers all day? Someone who was pretending he didn't know anything about a guy who had pushed him into traffic? Trust someone who was begging me with purple-blue eyes that made me go weak in the knees? Someone who had held me and kissed me and whispered how much he had missed me?

“How about
you
trust
me
?” I said.

“I do trust you. I wouldn't be asking you to keep this for me if I didn't.”

“What I mean is, how about trusting me enough to tell me what's going on?”

“As soon as I can, I will,” he said. “I promise.”

When I reluctantly reached for the envelope, he took my hand and pulled me gently toward him. He continued to tug until my face was close to his. Then he kissed me. “I promise,” he said.

“When I saw that car hit you—”

“I'm fine.” He kissed me again and didn't stop until someone rapped on the doorframe. It was his aunt. “Just a second,” Nick said. He looked at me again. “Do me a favor?”


Another
favor, you mean.”

“There's something at my place that I need. It's in a plastic bag on the kitchen counter. Can you get it for me? And while you're there, can you also get me another pair of jeans?”

“Sure,” I said. “I'll bring them tomorrow.”

“I need them now.”

“What for? The doctor said they were keeping you here overnight. They want to make sure you don't have a concussion.”

“Please, Robyn? The plastic bag on the counter. And some jeans. There's a pair in my closet.” He dug into the bag and pulled a set of keys from his pants pocket. “Right away, okay?”

I glanced at the door, where his aunt was waiting. Then I took the keys and tucked the envelope back into my purse.

“I'll be back as soon as I can,” I said.

He grinned for the first time since the accident. “I'm not going anywhere,” he said.

As I left his room, two police officers went in. They were the same two who had arrived on the scene after Nick had been struck by the car.

 

 

Morgan sounded groggy when she said hello.

“Did I wake you up?” I said.

I heard silence at the other end of the line. Morgan was probably yawning. “I hear traffic,” she said. “Where are you?”

“Downtown.” I was outside the hospital, waiting for a bus back to my father's building so I could get the things Nick wanted.


Ohmygod
,” she said.

“What's the matter?”

“What time is it, Robyn?”

“It's nearly three.”

“Oh my god!”

“What's the matter, Morgan?”

“I'm late. I promised Billy.” I heard what sounded like drawers opening and closing. “I can't even believe I agreed to this.”

“Agreed to what?”

“I went down there with him two days ago.
And
this morning. I'm doing my best, Robyn. I love Billy, I really do. But this bird thing—”

“Agreed to what, Morgan?”

“I'm supposed to meet Billy at the DARC office. They're getting ready for the end-of-migration-season get-together tomorrow. Can you believe it? My whole Saturday has been devoted to dead birds, and he wants me to go to their wrap-up meeting too.”

BOOK: Nothing to Lose
2.33Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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