It hurt me to see her.

“Thanks for coming by.”

I turned. It was Elmer Bond. He was entering the room, had a Styrofoam cup of coffee in his hand. He was wearing a charcoal gray suit this day, a colorful tie, a kind of off-color white shirt. He looked like what he was worth. Several million bucks.

“Elmer,” I said. We shook hands.

“She’s actually much better. They keep her pretty doped. The pain. Then she’s got to deal with the recovery, therapy, you name it. It could go on for a damn long time. Bless her heart. Her mother can’t even look at her. She goes into hysterics.”

“I just wanted to drop by and see her, you know.”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll be checking from time to time.”

“I kind of wish she was awake,” Elmer said. “I think she’d like to see you. I’ll tell her you came by.”

“Sure. Like I said, I’ll check back. Maybe when she’s out of the hospital. Now that I think about it, it’s best she doesn’t see me, anything to remind her of the other night might not be so good.”

“She’d want to see you.”

“Give her my best, will you?”

“Sure. You enjoying your time off?”

“Just starting. I’m going to pay off some bills and go on a cruise.”

“Something you’ve always wanted to do?”

“No, not really, but I got talked into it by a friend of a friend. I’m going to take Leonard with me.”

“Have the best time possible. And Hap…”

“Yeah.”

“You ever need anything. Anything. Come to me. I’ll do the best I can.”

“Thanks.”

“Enjoy every penny.”

“Sure.”

I took a last look at Sarah and went out of there, on down the elevator, out to my car, her shattered image in my head, tears in my eyes. In that moment I wished I had just gone on and shot and killed the cocksucker.