“I went there for a drink. Why do you go to bars?”
“Let’s just say I have barstools retired in my honor in eleven different states.”
“Well,” said Michelle, “I went for a drink.”
“And then what?”
“And then I got in a bar fight and got my ass kicked. That cover it for you?”
“And you’d been to that bar before?”
“No. I like to try new spots. I’m what you’d call daring.”
“I am too, but picking a bar in the middle of the highest crime area in the District of Columbia at eleven-thirty at night? Think that was a wise choice?”
She smiled and said politely, “Didn’t turn out to be, did it?”
“Did you know the brick wall you got in the fight with?”
“No. I’m not even sure how it started, to tell the truth.”
“Which I’d like you to start doing, Michelle, telling the truth, and I think you can.”
“What exactly is that supposed to mean?”
“According to the police report every eyewitness in the bar said you walked up to the biggest bastard there, tapped him on the shoulder and then sucker-punched him.”
“Well, eyewitness accounts are notoriously unreliable.”
“Sean talked to the man you attacked.”
Michelle visibly flinched at this news. “Really, why?”
Horatio didn’t bite on that. Instead he said, “The guy told Sean something interesting. Would you like to know what?”
“Well, since you’re obviously dying to tell me, go ahead and fire away.”
“He said you let him nearly kill you.”
“Well, then he was wrong. I made a bad move and he got hold of me, end of story.”
“Last night, the nurses said you kept shouting in your sleep, ‘Goodbye, Sean.’ Do you remember saying that?”
Michelle gave a brief shake of her head.
“Were you thinking maybe of leaving your partnership with Sean? If so, shouldn’t you tell him that? Or do you want me to?”
Michelle said quickly, “No, I—” She broke off, evidently sensing a trap. “How am I supposed to know what I meant? I was sleeping.”
“I’m a pretty good dream analyzer and I throw in nightmare interpretation for no extra charge. It’s a special I’m running this week because business is so damn slow.”
Michelle rolled her eyes.
Unperturbed, Horatio said, “You trust Sean, don’t you?”
“As much as I trust anybody,” she said tersely. “Which isn’t much these days.”
“These days. So has something changed for you?”