Chapter Nineteen
New Orleans
Present Day
WALKER PULLED INTO the hospital parking lot and was directed to a spot by a uniformed police officer. There was something happening in front of the facility that had caused an increase in security and a crowd of press to gather.
“DA’s making an appearance,” he said.
“That would do it. Thank you.”
Walker approached the front of the hospital just in time to see Irene Isaacson duck into a black Suburban as press snapped photos and shouted questions. He couldn’t help but think that she looked like a movie star surrounded by paparazzi.
Walker weaved his way through the throng of reporters and entered the emergency room.
The smell of blood caught him off guard. He felt the familiar yet faint surge of dizziness that had plagued him since Afghanistan. The odors, the atmosphere, the noise of the ER reminded him of a combat hospital. For a moment it felt like his brain hit a pothole.
I’m worse than Paladin in a thunderstorm.
He stood to the side and took in the scene; reporters were interviewing some of the hospital staff while a few police officers remained behind in the DA’s wake.
He spotted Leigh Ann down a corridor. She was talking to a man in a suit and seemed to be on the receiving end of the conversation.
He waited until they parted and caught her eye.
She smiled and walked to him in the lobby.
“What happened here?” Chris asked.
“The DA stopped by for a photo op.”
“Because of the gang shooting?”
“What better way to make a point?”
“I guess that’s what they do.”
“Where are you parked?”
“Far end of the lot.”
“Give me a few minutes and I’ll meet you there.”
“So, this is home?” Leigh Ann asked, looking around the confines of the van.
The AC along with Paladin’s fan maintained the interior at a comfortable temperature compared to the heat beyond the doors.
“I guess so.”
“That’s what you have been doing the past few years? Traveling?”
“I spend most of my time in the Pacific Northwest. I like it up there.”
Leigh Ann sat in a padded chair on one side of the swing-out table in the van’s main space while Walker sat opposite on the fold-down couch atop his cache of weapons. Paladin stayed in the passenger seat up front, nose protruding around the side.
“Who was that guy in the suit you were talking with?”
“Hospital administrator. He was a little upset with me.”
“Why?”
“Well, as you saw, the DA was here.”
“Isaacson?”
“That’s her. People here call her Icy.”
“Icy?”
“Nickname, based on her initials. I think she likes it. She’s made her mark in local politics and is now taking the next step.
Her father was a judge, then mayor. She was a prosecutor who went to work in Washington, then came back to New Orleans to run for DA.
I’ll bet she’s going to be our next governor.
“The kids that came in were from Chalmette, downriver, outside Orleans Parish. Icy’s rise to prominence is tied to reducing the murder rate here in the city. She’s campaigning on the idea that she’ll work her magic outside it in the rest of the state too.
“In fairness, she didn’t stand around wounded kids. She interviewed the hospital staff. After all the noise made about the abandonment of hospitals during Katrina’s long flood stage, hospitals are a regular route for politicians.”
“What happened?”
“She wanted to speak to some of the staff. That’s one of the things that they do. It shows they really care.”
“Like a general sitting down with privates and sergeants at the mess hall in Afghanistan to get the ‘ground truth.’ ”
“Similar, I’d think.”
“Only to go back in front of Congress to say the same things as every other flag officer. Politicians. Sorry, you were saying?”
“She took a private audience with a group of nurses in the break room to discuss the gang shooting and some more general health-care-related issues. I scratched out a note as she was fielding questions.”
“A note?”
“It seemed like an opening, an opportunity to let her know about Connor.”
Walker raised his eyebrows. “What did you say?”
“Just that I had questions about my son’s case and suspected police involvement. I gave it to her as she was leaving. I told her it concerned my son’s murder and asked her to please read it as soon as she could.”
“How did she respond?”
“She handled it like a politician. She’s smooth. She said she was so sorry for my loss and that she would read it.”
“You believe her?”
“Who knows, but I had to do it.”
The pager clipped to Leigh Ann’s scrubs buzzed.
“I’ve got to go but I’m off tomorrow. How about you stop by the house for dinner, and we can go over next steps? And I can try to convince you to stay in the guest room, as nice as this van is.”
Her pager buzzed again.
“See you tomorrow,” she said as she reached over and pulled the handle on the sliding door.
Paladin lifted his head.
“Blijf,” Walker said as he followed her outside.
“And Chris.”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you.”
They embraced, and as he watched her walk away he found himself in another memory, watching someone else walk into the dust of Afghanistan, the weight of the past rising to meet him in the present.