Timmy stopped and pushed away from the wall. “I’m hungry. Is that old lady who works in the kitchen still here?”
“She was given the rest of the day off.”
Timmy made a face. “Well, I’m gonna scrounge.”
“Not now. They may need us.”
“I’m hungry, man. I’ve been to Tennessee and back.”
Goliad considered it, then said, “Don’t be long.”
Timmy ambled off in the direction of the kitchen.
Through the wall behind her, Brynn could hear muffled conversation in the sitting room but couldn’t understand what was being said.
“Is that drug going to cure him?”
Goliad’s question surprised her. Up till now, he hadn’t expressed any interest in the outcome of all this.
“The prospect is very good,” she replied. “No one will know for certain how effective it is until it’s tried.”
Goliad nodded thoughtfully. “The little girl, is she going to suffer? At the end, I mean.”
“Not if I can help it. But there’s nothing I can do about her family’s suffering.”
He stared at Brynn, then glanced toward the kitchen. “
I’m going to check on him. Don’t go anywhere. I don’t want to have to hurt you.”
He left. Brynn checked the time. Only a few minutes had elapsed since she’d been banished from the sitting room, but it seemed much longer than the hands on her watch indicated. She wondered how far along Nate was in the process.
Had the syringe of GX-42 already been injected into the IV solution?
5:34 p.m.
When Goliad entered the commercial-size kitchen, Timmy was sitting on the countertop, bumping his heels against the cabinet door below, eating a banana. Goliad motioned him down. “Back to work.”
Timmy hopped off the counter and did a hook shot with the banana peel into the sink. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “You hang around ’cause you want to fuck her, don’t you?”
Goliad, who had already turned away, came back around. “What?”
“The boss lady.” Timmy made an obscene gesture with his tongue.
Goliad’s swollen face turned dark with anger.
Timmy chuckled and tapped the corner of his eye. “I see these things. I know.”
“You don’t know anything.” Goliad turned again to leave.
“There you’re wrong. I know you’re never going to get in Delores’s panties. And I also know where a kidney is. Right about here.”
He jabbed a stiletto into the right side of Goliad’s back all the way to the hilt. Goliad arched up and back. He staggered as he turned to face Timmy, who bugged out his eyes and whispered, “Boo!”
Goliad dropped to his knees in front of him, then fell facedown onto the polished tile floor. Timmy said, “Adios, amigo.”
Bending over Goliad, Timmy placed a hand in each of his armpits and dragged him across the floor, grunting. “Like a sack of cement.”
The walk-in pantry was enormous by most standards, but it barely accommodated Goliad’s large form. In order to get out after pulling Goliad in, Timmy had to carefully step around him.