Chapter 9

It was getting dangerously dark already. Levon hadn´t stopped scanning the outside world below, but there was nothing except the vast white expanse of a snowy landscape.

He became aware that Matt was speaking to someone over his intercom. Then the ranger conversed with their pilot. The helicopter took a steep turn and totally changed its direction of flight, making Levon gasp as his stomach was painfully pressed against his ribs. He closed his eyes and swallowed hard. How could he ever have enjoyed a roller coaster ride, he asked himself now.

For some time the helicopter went straight forward and then meandered over the terrain as if searching for something. Matt used the binoculars. Then he made a motion with his hand. Levon looked ahead.

Into the darkening night sky a flaring red signal rocket erupted and slowly painted a fiery track of light into the blackness.

"There!" Hawkes shouted. The helicopter aimed directly towards the signal. They rapidly approached the light but Levon couldn´t make out anything in particular. But the others seemed to have spotted their target. The aircraft halted in midair and now Levon could see a figure down there, frantically waving its arms.

They descended and the figure took shelter as they touched the ground. They jumped off the aircraft as the rotors slowed and halted, making communication possible at last.

Matt was greeted by a young man in somewhat old-fashioned trapper attire.

"Cody, this is Mr. Lundy from the Houston Police, Mr. Lundy, my brother Cody Hawkes. He said he found something or rather someone."

Levon felt his knees go weak. "Is it Joe?" At once the absurdity of the question hit him. How should this stranger know if whoever he had found was Joe?

"I only got here myself," Cody replied. "But through the window I could see the outline of a figure lying on the cabin floor. I couldn´t get in yet, the door is blocked by a snowdrift.

They turned towards the cabin door in unison, trudging through the deepening snow. The pilot turned back and brought a shovel out of the helicopter, then burrowed into the drift. A few minutes later the door was cleared and could be opened.

Matt had produced a torch and shone it around the room. Levon stepped inside behind him, anxiously trying to adjust his eyes to the dim interior. The place smelled strange, of smoke and kind of sweet, almost as if someone had been smoking pot here. But that was probably an illusion.

Then they saw it, the curled up figure under a white partly torn sack of sorts. Levon crouched down. It was a human being. Holding his breath he lifted the cloth and looked into Joe´s face. It was white, with hollow cheeks and dark rings under his closed eyes. But his mouth was almost smiling.

Levon reached for a pulse in his neck. He couldn´t feel anything. His hand started to tremble and despite the cold he suddenly felt sweat on his forehead.

Matt Hawkes kneeled down beside him, turning Joe over. He lowered his ear to Joe´s mouth and nose, then he also searched for a pulse. He nodded.

"Is he…?" Levon whispered, not trusting his own voice.

"…alive, but just barely," Matt confirmed.

Behind them Cody and the pilot were bringing in a stretcher. Cautiously they lifted Joe onto it and carried him to the helicopter, heaving him inside. Levon had felt strangely detached from the activity that was going on. As they carried Joe out, he reached down for the items on the cabin floor: a lighter, a half smoked cold cigarette and the photograph of a woman. He slipped them into his pocket. Then he stepped outside, closed the cabin door behind him and boarded the helicopter.

Within minutes they were airborne, and Levon looked back as Cody remained standing in front of the cabin, waving.

While the aircraft rapidly headed back to South Lake Tahoe the pilot gave the news to Robin and she informed the hospital of the imminent arrival of an emergency patient.

Matt had again checked Joe´s vitals and at once put him on an IV. Then he covered Joe with a special blanket. The High Mountain Rangers were just as well trained as paramedics to deal with medical emergencies. But when Levon tried to ask about Joe´s condition, the ranger shrugged. They would have to wait and see. For now they couldn´t do anything else.

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Levon was alone. The waiting room in the hospital was only dimly lit.

After the rangers had delivered Joe into the hands of the doctors they had quickly said goodbye. They were on duty and other issues demanded their attention.

Levon had called Joanne and Michael LaFiamma with the news. But though they were all relieved to a certain extent, none of them had felt the much longed for easing of anxiety.

Levon passed an hour just sitting there, waiting. The emotional turmoil had left him drained and numb. He tried not to think of what could or could not be. At last he closed his eyes and tried to memorize the calming words his grandmother Minnie used to say whenever he hadn´t been able to sleep as a child.

He started up when someone touched his shoulder. A woman in a white lab coat looked at him worriedly.

"Mr. Lundy?"

"Yeah." Levon rubbed his eyes. She sat down on the chair beside him. There were no other people in the waiting room.

For a moment the woman tried to sort the words in her mind. "I´m Dr. Mariner."

The pause and her behavior made Levon expect the worst, he could hardly refrain from jumping up. "How is he?" he finally said with a hoarse voice.

"Mr. LaFiamma is very poor, I don´t want to give you any false hope." Her eyes were very sincere. "But on the other hand he is young and strong and he might have a chance after all."

Levon nodded. "What´s wrong with him, is it because of the exposure to the cold?"

"He sustained a fracture of the collarbone and was heavily beaten. But those injuries are minor. What worries us is the severe Pyelitis…"

"The what?" Levon had never heard that diagnosis before.

"That´s a severe infection of the kidneys, the bladder and the adjacent abdominal area. It goes along with very high fever and tremendous pain. It can, if it is not treated, cause failure of the kidneys and death. We believe that in Mr. LaFiamma´s case the fever was cushioned by the hyperthermia he suffered at the same time. But he is also severely dehydrated. We put him on a high dose of antibiotics, potent painkillers and we are pumping lots of fluid into his body." The doc was more businesslike now. Perhaps her patient´s fate had touched her more than she cared to let on.

"So you haven´t given up on him, have you?" Levon was grabbing for a lifeline.

"No, we won´t. We do everything possible to keep him alive." She paused. "The next twenty-four hours will be crucial."

"Can I see him?"

"Well, we took him to the ICU and you´re not next of kin…"

"He´s got no one here and to me he is next of kin…"

The doctor got up. "Ok, perhaps it will help him to have someone with him." She led the way and Levon followed her through a few doors and down a corridor to the ICU.

In the cubicle Levon could hardly see Joe under all the wires, drips and the oxygen mask. The monitor was reflecting Joe´s heartbeat in the form of frail beeps and the rhythm was disturbingly jumpy. The doc pointed at a chair and Levon sat down.

"Talk to him as much as possible. Perhaps he can hear you. We´ll see how things are in the morning."

"Thanks, doc."

Every now and again a nurse came in, checked something, hung up a new bag of fluid on the IV stand. The doctor returned as well several times during the night.

To talk to Joe was difficult. Levon felt awkward about it at first. He couldn´t think of a subject. Then, at last, he started to talk about their cases, just babbling away about every damn case they had solved or not solved during the last year. After a while he realized how frustrating it was to talk without getting a response. He had always thought that Joe´s habit to retort was unnerving. But now it seemed to be just the opposite. The lack of their usual banter and by now good natured verbal battles was much more annoying. And whenever a nurse or doctor passed by or entered the room, Levon stopped his barrage of words in embarrassment.

Levon felt helpless and useless. He ran his hands desperately through his hair. He walked the few steps from one end of the cubicle to the other. He sat back down and buried his face in his hands. Then he lay his head on his folded arms and closed his eyes. Sometime in the early morning hours he finally fell asleep in his chair beside Joe´s bed.

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It was again the doctor´s hand that woke him. But this time the doctor was a man.

"Mr. Lundy, don´t you want to go to the cafeteria for a coffee?"

"What? How is he?" Levon started up.

"We think Mr. LaFiamma is a bit better. His vitals are steadier." The doc sounded confident.

Levon got up and stepped up to the bed. He couldn´t see any difference in Joe´s face. But somehow even as a layman he could detect that the beeps of the monitor were no longer jumpy.

"We will put him on a dialysis session now, that should help his kidneys to recover and heal." While the doc spoke a nurse came in with a large machine in tow. It looked intimidating.

"I don´t really want to leave, I want to be here when he wakes up," Levon objected.

"It´s still a bit too early for that, I can assure you that you won´t miss anything if you go for breakfast."

Levon nodded.

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Before he went to have breakfast Levon called Joe´s family. His uncle was relieved to hear that Joe was slightly better.

"I´d like to come down there, but right now I can´t get away," Michael LaFiamma said thoughtfully.

The reorganization of his own business and its merger with the Disanto branch was too important to allow him to go away and see his nephew. The mob boss also had to take care at this stage that no rival would try to reach for the position he was about to take over as head of the two family businesses. The abduction and extortion had shown once again the dangers of becoming careless.

Levon had his own reservations about Uncle Mikey´s reluctance to leave Chicago right now. He would have hoped that Joe´s life and wellbeing were more important to the man than his criminal dealings.

"Will you let me know when anything new comes up, when Joey wakes up?" The mob boss sounded almost contrite.

"Yeah, I will," Levon conceded reluctantly.

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The dialysis left Joe unchanged at least as far as Levon could tell. But the doc said that it had helped. So Levon decided to think positive. The food had helped him to feel better and he had retaken his place at Joe´s bedside. No matter how long the wait, Levon was determined to stay at his partner´s side.

In the afternoon Joe started to toss and turn on the bed and the doc decided to tie his wrists so that Joe could not rip out the IV. Levon did not like it but he knew it was only for Joe´s good. The doc checked on Joe frequently and nodded. Finally life seemed to be looking up again.

Joe´s fever wasn´t as high as before but it was still high enough to cloud his perception. It was almost evening before he slowly came to. He turned his head from one side to the other and mumbled unintelligibly for a while and his eyelids flickered. All this time Levon´s gaze was glued to Joe´s face.

At last Joe´s eyed opened and started to scan his surroundings. They fell on Levon´s face, took it in and continued to wander around the room. Then Joe´s gaze returned to Levon´s face and came to a halt looking directly at him.

Joe´s lips moved, trying to form words, words that where at first unintelligible. Then at last Joe started to speak.

"Why are you dead, Levon?" Joe´s voice was croaking, hardly understandable.

The sentence gave a clear indication that Joe was delirious with the fever and thought he was dead too.

Levon took Joe´s hand and squeezed it. "Joe, you are not dead."

Joe blinked and seemed confused.

"Joe, we are not dead," Levon repeated. He loosened the restraint around Joe´s wrist and held Joe´s hand firmly in his. "You´re gonna be fine."

All of a sudden Joe´s gaze grew more focused. "Where is Jules?"

Levon sat up straight. What should he tell Joe?

At last Levon dared to utter the words. "I don´t know where Julia is." He wasn´t sure if the words registered.

Joe closed his eyes and Levon suspected that his partner had fallen asleep again. But after a while Joe mumbled: "Jules, Jules," his unrestrained hand trying to reach out for some imaginary object.

Levon realized that the female doctor was standing behind him and he looked up at her. She nodded encouragingly.

After a while it became evident that Joe had nodded off again.

The doctor cautiously got hold of Joe´s wrist and checked his pulse. She smiled. "He´s going to be alright." She picked up the chart and wrote something down.

Levon sighed. He felt so relieved that Joe had come around again that he covered his face with his hands and cried.