"What did you do?"

"I read."

"What did you do that got you those four years?" Viviase asked. "Overdue library books?"

"I almost killed a man," Stanley said evenly. "We had a political disagreement in a friend's house."

"Political disagreement?"

"Over drugs," said Stanley. "Neither one of us wanted them legalized, but for different reasons. Mine were libertarian. His were personal and economic."

"I don't care for your sense of humor, Mr. LaPrince," Viviase said.

"I don't think I have one," Stanley said.

"How did an ex-con get a license to carry firearms?" the detective asked.

Stanley looked at Hoffmann. Viviase turned to Hoffmann, who said, "With the support of some friends in the government and my persuasiveness, special dispensation was given after evidence was presented to show that Stanley was totally rehabilitated."

"Mind if I have a doctor look at Trasker?" asked Viviase.

"Yes," said Hoffmann. "I do. Bill Trasker and I have complete faith in Dr. Obermeyer."

"Any other questions for me?" Stanley asked, picking up his book.

"Later," said Viviase, letting Hoffmann lead us out of the room.

I was last. I glanced back at Stanley. When our eyes met, I felt cold. I was sure that was exactly what he was trying for.

"Anything else you'd like me to do?" Hoffmann asked.

"Get that lawyer we talked about," said Viviase.

"I'll do that. Normally, I'd offer you a drink or something I've baked. I was a chef for a few years, cordon bleu. Pastries are my specialty."

We were walking down the stairs.

"I'm watching my weight," Viviase said.

"And I am watching my back," Hoffmann answered. "That's why Stanley is in the house."

"You have that many enemies?" asked Viviase.

"I have that many people who either consider themselves my enemies or want something I have and are willing to do foolish things to get it."

There wasn't much else to say to him, so Viviase and I went through the front door and headed down the driveway. Hoffmann stood in the doorway watching us.

"You believe that c.r.a.p about his being a chef?" asked Viviase.

"No. You really think Ferlinghetti is c.r.a.p?"

"No," said Viviase. "I just don't like smug, pretentious sociopaths like Stanley LaPrince."

"They don't like each other," I said.

"Hoffmann and Stanley? You're right," Viviase said.

"Think you can get Trasker out of there?" I asked.

We went through the iron gate and it swung closed behind us.

"I'll check with legal, but I don't think so. I doubt if we can even get a doctor in there for a second opinion."

"So there's nothing you can do?"

I walked him to his car.

"I can check on Stanley LaPrince's story, find out Kevin Hoffmann's real name. I'm sure there's a federal law against using someone else's name and Social Security number even if you don't profit from it."

"Ident.i.ty theft," I said.

Viviase opened his car door.

"Something, but we're a long way from getting Trasker out of there, definitely not by tomorrow for a commission meeting. Even if we did get him out, he's not in any condition to vote. h.e.l.l, he's not in any condition to drink a chocolate shake."

"I guess not," I said.

Before he closed the door, Viviase looked at me and said, "Fonesca, I don't really care if he votes or doesn't vote tomorrow. I'm looking for Roberta Trasker's murderer and between you, me, and Derek Jeter, I think the killer is in that house."

Viviase drove away.

I stood for a few seconds looking back at the house through the gate. The front door was closed now. I got in my car and waited. I waited over half an hour before Obermeyer came through the front door, got into his Lexus, and hummed down the driveway toward the gate, which opened for him.

He turned right. I followed him.

He drove north on Midnight Pa.s.s Road and made a right turn at Stickney Point. He pulled into the mall on his right just before Tamiami Trail, parked, and headed for a bar. I got out of my car after he went through the door and followed him.

There was no music coming from inside when I opened the door. There was a hockey game on the television over the bar. The sound wasn't on. The place wasn't full but it wasn't doing badly.

I spotted Obermeyer. He was seated by himself in a booth toward the back near the rest-room sign. I found a seat on the other side of the room where I could watch him with no chance of his seeing me.

A waitress brought me a beer and a plate of nachos with salsa. I looked up at the television screen and watched two men on skates go after each other with wooden sticks. One of the men had a very b.l.o.o.d.y nose.

I had a beer and a half and two plates of nachos while Obermeyer had four drinks of something something dark and brown with no ice in the next forty minutes while he watched the hockey game. He watched, but I had the feeling he wasn't seeing it. When he put the fourth drink down and looked as if he were trying to decide to go for number five, get up and drive home, or asked for a designated driver, I decided it was time. I took my almost flat second beer and moved over to sit across from Obermeyer, who looked up at me. I could see he was trying to place me.

"You were at Kevin's," he said.

"Yes."

"I just stopped for a drink," he said, as if there might be any other reason for being in a bar even if you did like nachos.

"Me too," I said, holding up my gla.s.s to show him. "Trasker's really sick," I said somberly.

"Very sick," Obermeyer agreed. "A very sick man. He's lucky to have friend like Kevin."

"Who needs enemies?" I said.

"What?"

"With a friend like Kevin Hoffmann, who needs enemies?" I explained.

"Oh," said Obermeyer, finishing his drink. "You're wrong."

Obermeyer held his liquor well, but I wondered what his blood-alcohol level was. Something was bothering him. The man had needed a drink. The man had needed four drinks and he looked toward the bar as if he might be considering number five.

"Trasker is dying," I said.

"Everybody is dying," Obermeyer said with a knowing doctor's smile. "It's the one fact my profession has to accept as a certainty. All we can do, if we don't screw up, is forestall the inevitable."

"Some of us take more time dying than others," I said. "Trasker..."

"Days, weeks, maybe even a month or more, but if I were one who bet on morbidity, I'd say he's closer than a few days to the end."

"He in pain?" I asked.

"Nothing we can't control."

"You mean shots?"

"We've got painkillers that could make you ignore a cannonball hole right through your stomach."

"That doesn't happen very often, though, does it? I mean a cannonball hole through someone's stomach."

He grinned and waved at the bartender, deciding another drink would be a very good idea.

"We're in Sarasota, Florida," Obermeyer said. "I've seen people who've lost their arms to sharks, had sunstroke that sent their temperature to one hundred and eight and survived, children hit by cars driven by ancient drivers who should have been declared legally blind."

"So Trasker is sedated."

"He is, to put it clinically, so far out of it that he can look back at the earth and see with clarity the floating eyeball of a corn snake."

"Colorfully put," I said.

"Thanks," Obermeyer said, looking up to hurry his drink. "Stanley recite any poetry for you?"

"Yes," I said.

"Smug little p.r.i.c.k," said the doctor as his drink was delivered.

"So if Trasker wasn't sedated, his pain could be handled with something, morphine maybe?"

"Maybe," said Obermeyer.

He took a large sip.

"Normally, I don't drink like this," he said. "Normally, I drink a h.e.l.l of a lot more when I've got something to drink about. But medical science is a wonderful thing. I've got a variety of options that keep me functional."

A group of people at the bar groaned. I looked back over my shoulder. The television was flashing the score. The Tampa Bay Lightning were losing to Boston, four to one.

"So, if you took Trasker off of sedation and gave him a shot or two, maybe one of your options, he could walk around, talk?"

"I wouldn't recommend it," he said.

"But..." I began as he lifted his gla.s.s again and held up his free hand to stop me.

"I'm drunk," he said. "I'm not a fool. Ask me now. Ask me in the morning. Ask me on the witness stand and I say I'm treating William Trasker properly. And given his condition, it would be the truth."

"Kevin Hoffmann's got a lot of money," I said.

"One h.e.l.l of a lot of money," Obermeyer agreed, holding his gla.s.s and looking at the contents he swirled in a small circle. "And he gives it generously."

"Any causes you're particularly interested in?"

"A campaign to build a center for state-of-the-art treatment of heart disease near the airport," he said. "A state-of-the-art center which I will have the honor of heading and for which I am already a leading candidate as first patient."

I dropped a five-dollar bill on the table to cover my two drinks and tip and stood up.

"You understand?" Obermeyer asked, as if he really needed understanding for whatever he was doing for Hoffmann.

"I understand," I said.

"I'll tell you a secret, Mr...."

"Fonesca."

"Mr. Fonesca. I'm really a good doctor, but that's not what I was going to tell you. I'm a little overweight. I drink too much, have a slight cardiac problem, and I've got an arthritic knee but I could come close to shutting Kevin Hoffmann out every time we get on the court. He has no backhand. His forehand has no power and my nearsighted eight-year-old niece could return his serve. I have to cover for him in doubles to keep us in most matches and I have to do it without letting him know. Now that, Mr. Fonseca-"

"Fonesca."

"Fonesca, sorry, that is hard work. Kevin Hoffmann is not the athlete he thinks he is and maybe, some day, when I think I have nothing left to lose, I'll wipe his a.s.s on the tennis court so badly that he'll realize I've been kissing that a.s.s for years and he...Enough."

I left him and went back out to the parking lot.

Stanley, hands folded in front of him, stood in front of my rented Nissan, watching me.

"You read?" Stanley asked as I stopped in front of him.

There was traffic in the parking lot and the lights were bright.