The Sandman Read Online Free PDF Page B

three feet long, and a huge scalpel, big enough to cut open a giant. Harry Gardner picked up his Heineken’s with his hairy hand and looked at the scalpel.
    “Well, Julio, my lad,” he said in a W. C. Fields voice, “when you see that scalpel, just what comes to mind?”
    Dios, still smarting terribly from his disastrous morning, was able to give only a token laugh.
    “It’s not funny, Harry,” he said. “I tell you, that Cross. There is not a doubt in my mind that he did something to that lady.”
    Harry looked doubtful.
    “Now, come on, Julio,” he said. “I don’t like Cross any better than you do. And I’ve known him a hell of a lot longer.”
    “And?”
    “And though I am loath to admit it, he’s one hell of a smart dude. He knows his business better than any of us. That’s the God-honest truth.”
    “That’s not what I’m arguing about,” Dios said, drinking his beer with a furious motion and spilling some of it down his chin. “Nobody’s doubting his competency.”
    “Competency?” Harry said, incredulous. “I’m afraid he’s a lot more than competent. The boy is a fucking genius. He blew everybody else out of the water at Cornell. I spent four—no, make that five—years in Ithaca with him and he was the whiz of every goddamned class. It got a little dull. Look, he’s a cold bastard and the original Spaceman. I mean I wouldn’t be surprised if he weren’t some kind of goddamned closet case. Maybe he goes home all alone and eats boot polish, but the fact is, the guy is too good to make the kind of mistake you’re talking about. Though I hate to stick up for him.”
    “You don’t understand,” Dios said. “I’m not talking about a mistake.”
    Harry stopped cold and looked up at the big needle on the wall.
    “How do you mean?”
    “I mean he was sweating, the same way I was sweating this morning. But unlike me, he had no reason to sweat. It was just a routine case. But he kept staring at that lady. It was weird.”
    “Well, you have to stare at the patient. You know that … just to see if her vital signs are okay.”
    “Hey,” Dios said, lighting a cigarette, “whose side are you on?”
    “Yours, boss,” Harry said. “Just playing the devil’s advocate. But I think you’re dead wrong about Cross.”
    “You wouldn’t be so sure if you had been there,” Dios said. “There was something strange about it. He seemed to be fixated on her.”
    “And?”
    “That’s all. Admittedly it’s not much, but I just have this feeling …”
    Harry smiled. “Julio, old man,” he said, running his hand through his muttonchops, “I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll help you watch the creep. But between you and me, I think he’s just got you psyched. As far as greasing somebody, Cross isn’t the type. He doesn’t have the guts it takes to wipe somebody. Hey, man, I know … I was in ‘Nam for a year and I saw that kind of shit go down a lot.”
    “Saw what?” said Dios, looking shocked.
    “I saw medics let people go,” Harry said. “I saw worse than that. I saw them help people go, but it’s not as bad as it sounds. These were boys with their balls shot off … no legs … with no fucking hope.”
    Harry sipped his beer and watched Dios’s eyes. They were wide open in surprise.
    “I saw it,” Harry said, “and I never said shit”
    Dios shook his head.
    “I could never condone that, Harry.”
    “That’s because you are a good, moral Catholic,” Harry said, smiling. “But you weren’t in ‘Nam. In a place like that, you are playing by a whole new set of rules. Anyway, that’s all water over the dam. What I’m saying is, I know Cross. He’s weird. He gets obsessed with stuff, gets all caught up in it. But he would never have the guts to hurt anybody, much less grease somebody. No way.”
    “I hate that word ‘grease,’ “ Dios said.
    Harry called for two more beers, and when they came, he raised his glass and tapped Dios’s.
    Dios toasted and smiled and