Chapter 76

Chapter 76—Big Hands quizzes Jack

10:55 p.m., Thursday, December 29

For a long moment the two men just stared at each other.
“I think we have a mutual friend,” Big Hands said. “You do know Reginald Black, don’t you?”
Jack did not like getting bullied, and it was obvious to him that was exactly what was going down. His adrenaline-induced inclination was to sucker punch Big Hands in the groin. But he thought better of it for a couple of reasons. First of all, even though he was thoroughly convinced that Big Hands was a bad character, he was equally certain that the man did not pose a serious threat on this stage. Besides, no one who really knew what he was doing would leave himself so open to attack. “Might be a cop,” Jack reasoned. “Or a private dick. ... Whatever the case, this guy is not who he purports to be, and he is likely a minor player.”
But there was a stronger reason Jack wished to avoid an altercation—he needed to behave himself if he wished to stick around for his daughter. Besides, for some reason he could not immediately figure out, there seemed to be something vaguely familiar about Big Hands—perhaps in the way he looked, his mannerisms, or in the way he talked.
I don’t have time for this now, Jack thought. So, he glanced over to the nurses’ station as though being summoned, and started to get up. “Excuse me,” he said to Big Hands, uncrossing his legs and driving his heel heavily into Big Hands’ instep. “Sorry about that,” Jack said, as he rose to his feet and walked toward the desk.
After taking a half dozen steps, he turned back to address Big Hands. However, the big fellow had already disappeared.
“Now that was very strange,” Jack thought, taking another moment to fully survey the entire area. But the big fellow was nowhere to be seen. “Damn strange. … First I almost run into that Kurt fellow. Now this guy asking about Reg.”
Jack continued over to the nurses’ station, and asked, “Is there a coffee machine around here?”
“Sure is, Mr. Handler,” the nurse in charge said. “Right over there by the telephones and the elevators,” she said, pointing toward a couple coin-operated machines.
Jack had noticed them when he initially got off the elevator, as he stood waiting for Kurt to emerge. He really did not want any stale machine coffee, but he needed an excuse to quickly extricate himself from Big Hands.
Jack did proceed over to the concession area, inserted a dollar bill into a machine, and pulled the lever on a Diet Coke. The can clunked down loudly. He retrieved it, and popped the top open. “Better figure out where the toilets are now. … It’s only a matter of time.”
Just then he caught sight of a man approaching quickly to his right. Jack’s head snapped around, just as the chief surgeon finished slipping on a fresh surgical jacket. “Mr. Handler?” the doctor asked.
“Yes, I’m Jack  Handler.”
“I’m Dr. Phillips,” the Doctor said. “I believe you are Kate Handler’s father. Is that right?”
“I am,” Jack said. “How’s my daughter?”
“We’ve located the bullet,” the doctor said. “And we’ve stopped the bleeding.”
“Well,” Jack said. “That would have to be good news. Right?”
“That is good news,” the doctor said. “But there are complications.”