Page 67 of Born for Starlight

Two hours too late.

Chapter Twenty-One

The second the door clicked shut behind Matthew, I shot up out of my chair.

Then my brain caught up with my feet. He could come back. He’d been rattled. Rattled enough to forget a phone, a wallet, a gun, and come back for it. If he walked in and found me in the middle of the room with my ears on fire, this plan died before it had a chance to start.

I sat my happy ass back down.

The table still held the ruins of our feast. Cold fish stew, the brigadeiro glasses scraped clean, the bottle of Blantons that he’d never touched. I stared at the door and waited. Two minutes. They felt like two hours.

The door stayed shut. Good, he was well and truly gone.

I ran for the bedroom, our bedroom, and grabbed my phone off the charger.

First things first. So, Luzia was in the ICU, was she? Yeah. And the moon was made of Swiss cheese.

I had Sister Beatriz’s number ever since she sent me the original video, I tried her cell first. It rang forever and went nowhere. Fine. Nuns had jobs. I found the main number for the orphanage and dialed that instead.

It took a couple of transfers to reach her. Portuguese, then a young man's careful English, after that a hallway's worth of children's voices that made me happy, and finally the voice I wanted.

"Alô?"

"Sister Beatriz. It's Angelica Drakos."

"Senhorita Drakos!" Pure delight, straight down the line. "Inês! Inês! Is the movie star!"

I laughed even with my stomach in knots. What a skill she had. She was wonderful. "I'm sorry to bother you, Sister."

"Bother. Pfft. Is best call of the week."

"I wanted to ask about Luzia. Have you heard anything new?"

A pause. "New?"

"An update. From the hospital. About how she's doing."

"No. No update." Her voice lost some of its shine. "When we call, they say she rest, she is same, cannot visit. Always same words. Why you ask this? You hear something?"

"No. No, nothing like that," I rushed to say. "I'm going to visit her today. I just wanted to know what to expect."

"You visit our Luzia?" The joy came back so strong it hurt to hear. "Oh, Senhorita Drakos. She will not believe. She no talk much, our Luzia, but she watches all things. She will watch you like television. You give our love. All our love. Tell her Sister Beatriz says she must to eat everything they give. Even all the beans."

"Even the beans. I promise."

"And after? You call me? Tell me what she looks?"

"The minute I know anything, Sister. I promise that too."

We said our goodbyes. I sat down on the edge of the bed with the phone in my lap.

The hospital had told the sisters nothing. She rests, she's the same, the identical words every time. If a seven-year-old from their house got moved into intensive care, that phone call gets made first, before any other call in the building.

What the fuck, Matthew? Why lie about this?

I looked up Hospital São Marcos and dialed the main number before I could think better of it.

"Hospital São Marcos, boa tarde." A woman, quick and tired.