The Thirteenth Skull (Alfred Kropp #3)(16)

He pulled a shawl from the valise and wrapped it around my shoulders. Then he stepped back and admired his handiwork. “See why the lavender was all wrong?” he asked Nueve. “The rose goes much better with the shawl. How’s he look?”

“Like an octogenarian on steroids,” said Nueve.

“How do we get past the cop?” I asked.

“Uh-oh,” Cinnamon-Breath said, winking at Nueve. “I guess we should have thought of that!”

He picked up his valise and knocked twice on the door. It swung open and he stepped out of the room. After the door closed, Nueve turned to me.

“Do you still have the little gift I gave you?”

I retrieved the poisoned pen from under the pillow and slipped it into the side of my orthopedic shoe.

“Why do I need it?” I asked, following him to the door.

He smiled without showing his teeth. “No, the question is why do you persist with stupid questions?”

“A teacher told me once there’s no such thing as a stupid question.”

“Your teacher is an idiot.”

He knocked on the door.

There was no policeman sitting outside. Bought off? Dragged into the stairwell and hit on the head by Cinnamon-Breath? I didn’t know and I didn’t dwell on it. I told myself all this clandestine crap would soon be a part of my past.

A wheelchair sat against the wall. I plopped down; Nueve tucked his cane under his arm and wheeled me to the elevator.

“Samuel’s room,” I said as Nueve reached to press the button for the first floor.

“You insist?”

“I do.”

They had moved him to a private room. Nueve left me sitting in the hall and went inside. I could hear the rise and fall of their voices as they argued. Occasionally a word or two made it through the thick door. A couple of times I thought I heard the name “Sofia,” but it also could have been “sofa,” only it was hard to imagine why they would be arguing about a piece of furniture. Samuel had said the “Sofia” in ICU, and I wondered again if she was his nurse. But why would they be arguing about a nurse? Maybe Sofia was someone from Samuel’s past that Nueve was trying to use against him: Watch yourself or we’re going after Sofia. I tried to imagine Samuel having a girlfriend, and failed.

Then Nueve came out and wheeled me inside the room. Samuel was sitting next to the window, a book open in his lap.

He took in the getup. “You look ridiculous.”

“It’s a disguise, Samuel.”

“The shoes are all wrong,” he said to Nueve. “You should have gone with pumps.”

“I tried,” Nueve said. “I was overruled.”

He took a long white envelope from the outer pocket of his doctor’s coat and laid it on top of Samuel’s book.

“What’s this?” Samuel asked.

“Your severance pay, courtesy of Senor Kropp.”

Samuel peered at the piece of paper.

“I thought you might prefer it in a Swiss account,” Nueve said.

“Twenty-five million ...” Samuel said softly. He looked up at me.

“Well,” I said. “I don’t really know how old you are, but I wanted you to have at least a million dollars for every year until you, um, died.”

“Alfred Kropp,” Nueve said. “Boy adventurer, actuary.”

Samuel shoved the paper toward me. “I don’t want it.”

“Of course!” Nueve murmured.

“I will not take it, Alfred.”

“Why not?”

He tore the certificate in half, then in quarters, and let the pieces flutter to the floor around his bare feet.

“You are letting your fear get the best of you,” Samuel told me.

“Well,” Nueve said. “You have made your noble gesture, Senor Kropp, and the driver is waiting.”

“Hiding solves nothing, Alfred,” Samuel said. “You have not thought this through.” He turned to Nueve. “Leave us.”

“I will not,” Nueve said.

“There is something I must discuss with him and I will not discuss it with you here.”

Nueve lost his ironical grin. “I give you five minutes.” He turned to me. “Five minutes, Alfred Kropp, or you may consider our contract null and void.”

He left, popping the butt of his cane angrily against the linoleum. Samuel gestured for me to come closer. He tugged on the flowery sleeve of my dress, and I went to one knee beside the chair so he could look me straight in the eye.

“Alfred,” he said softly. “Do you know why I refused your touch in ICU?”

“No. It was stupid.”

“There is a reason you have been given this power, Alfred. Do you believe that?”

I thought about it. “Well, it seems pretty accidental to me the way it happened.”

He placed his huge hand on my shoulder and squeezed. “You are the beloved of the Archangel Michael, Alfred Kropp. You have been chosen by the Prince of Light himself. Turn your back on that choice and you turn your back on heaven.”

I remembered my fall from the demon’s back, the feeling of warmth and light and someone’s arms around me as he fell with me from fire into fire, from darkness into darkness, and the voice whispering, “Beloved.”