Chapter 4
Logan was his first concern. In the light, he could see the blood that was already seeping into the sheet from Logan's head wound. Bobby looked around the little cabin, and found a first aid kit on the wall by the door. He opened it and pulled out the things he would need to make a bandage.
"Mike, I need you to sit up," Bobby said. He tucked an arm underneath the man and pulled him to a sitting position. "Mike, can you sit that way on your own?" He asked.
Groggily, Logan affirmed that he could. As quickly as he could, Bobby packed cotton against the bloody spot and wound the bandage around his head. It was a sloppy job; Goren wasn't much good working without full use of his left hand. At last he lowered Mike back to the cot. Then he lifted Logan's eyelids one by one and registered that his pupils were dilated.
Bobby got his phone out of his pocket, but it was soaked and useless. "Do you have your phone?"
Mike reached towards his pocket, and Bobby dug it out. His was waterlogged, too. Bobby glanced around, but there was no phone in the room.
He shivered, and searched the room until he found some old wool blankets. He threw one over Mike and wrapped himself in the other. Bobby remembered the lighter and withdrew it from his pocket. Sitting down, he carefully took it apart, and found it contained a tracking device.
For a moment he entertained the thought that it was for Powers to find them. Bobby realized Powers could have killed them outright, that there was no need for him to track them. That meant that Devin was undercover, too. And now Devin was in danger. Bobby hugged the blanket tighter around him and slipped into sleep.
The invasion of officers, Eames and Ross among them, roused both men. "Call a bus!" Ross ordered his subordinates. He looked between Goren and Logan. Eames was talking quietly to her partner.
"Mike needs a hospital," he said.
"And you," she added.
He shook his head, but her stare let him know he didn't have a choice.
"There's another undercover, Captain. I called him Devin. He helped us, gave us that tracking device," Bobby said, gesturing to the dismantled lighter.
"He's ATF," Ross said.
"He's still inside," Bobby told him.
The paramedics arrived and quickly transferred Logan to a gurney and took him to the waiting ambulance. Eames walked with Bobby, and he got in, as well.
"I'll meet you there," she said.
He nodded, and the doors shut as he sat down.
Alex turned to Ross. "They're going to need some dry clothes."
"I'll call and have one of the boys bring something down. We need to sit down with Bobby, before the Feds do."
"I know."
"I just got it x-rayed," Bobby told them. "I was told it's sprained, not broken." They had removed the soggy splint and were looking closely at his hand.
"Without seeing the x-rays, I'm not convinced."
"I can bring them to you tomorrow. I kept them."
"All right. We'll wrap it and you take those x-rays to your doctor as soon as you can."
"That was my plan all along," Bobby agreed. He was feeling better now. Even though he was only clad in the hospital gown, he was dry and warm. Alex walked in, and handed Bobby a gym bag. He looked inside, saw the clothes, and smiled at her.
The nurse came in to wrap his hand, so he postponed getting dressed.
"You okay?" Eames asked.
He nodded, waved his left hand, forcing the woman to rewrap it. "Just sprained."
"Logan's staying overnight. Just a precaution."
Bobby nodded again.
"You up for a long night?" she asked him, gently, as if he really had the option to say no. Again, Bobby nodded. For Devin's sake, he needed to fill them in.
"I'll get you a coffee," she said.
Bobby, now in jeans and a sweatshirt, sat with his elbows on the table and his hands holding his face. The man was exhausted.
"You look like hell, detective. We can put this off until tomorrow," Ross offered.
Goren shook his head. He needed to give the information as soon as possible. It was the least he could do for Devin. Bobby drank the rest of his coffee and spoke. He gave the names and what he had gathered of their locations. He told about the failed arms exchange and wrote down the numbers he recalled that had been roughly scratched out on the rifle he'd examined.
"Are you sure Devin is the one?"
Goren nodded.
"How do you know?"
"He's the one who slipped us the lighter. I had no idea until then that he wasn't one of them. He's good, and he's well established. He's been in a long time."
"Get some sleep, Goren."
"The Feds-"
"I'll talk to the Feds. They can talk to you whenever you've had a long nap." Ross looked at Eames. "Take him somewhere they won't find him?"
"Yes, sir," she said with a smile.
At her gentle touch, Bobby got to his feet. He was surprised at the soreness that had already settled in his muscles.
He fell asleep in the car. Alex leaned over and put her hand on his arm. "Bobby," she said softly. "Let's get you to a bed."
After a couple more tries, he awoke and followed her through the garage of her father's house and inside. He saw no sign of John Eames as they walked down the hall and she pointed him to a bed in the guest room. Bobby wondered if the old man even knew he had guests.
He didn't have time to think that over. Once his shoes were off, he crawled in between the sheets and slept again.
Alex returned a few minutes later and found his large body curled on its side, half in and half out of the bedcovers. She quietly went inside and tucked him in.
When she came back out, her father offered her a beer. "Is he all right?" he asked quietly.
"Nothing a couple of days of rest won't cure."
"You?"
"I wasn't undercover."
"I know that."
"Yeah, Dad. I'm fine."
"You're relieved."
"You don't know," she said, and then she looked at him. She realized at once that he did know. She sank down into the easy chair and her father sat in the recliner, a magazine propped on his knee.
John Eames wondered if the two young people in his house would ever admit how much they loved each other.
