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WALKED out into the hall, Ronnie was approached by two uniformed cops.
    “Hold on,” one of them said.
    “Captain,” Gideon complained. “My client has done nothing wrong. He’s been sorely treated and now he just wants to take a walk with his friend.”
    Briggs was stoic. He glared at Ronnie with some secret knowledge. But he was in a bind because his officers had misread the situation with Lorraine Fell. The coed had been missing nearly a month when she was found in the company of this criminal. They followed unwritten procedure.
    This procedure was wrong.
    “Let him go,” the captain said.
    The uniforms stood back, and with the help of Lorraine and his lawyer, Ronnie walked into the elevator car and watched the chromium doors close on the overlong and sordid first chapter of his life.
    *   *   *
    O N THE SIDEWALK outside the hospital, Roland Gideon said, “You don’t look too steady, Mr. Bottoms. I can understand why you would want to get away from police custody, but maybe we could put you in a private clinic somewhere.”
    “We need to do something, Mr. Gideon,” Lorraine explained. “The fact that Mr. Festerling hired you means that he wants to see us. After the meeting, maybe we’ll take you up on that clinic.”
    “All right. But remember we’ll have to do more work together. Your parents won’t stop trying to commit you, and the police want Ronnie here behind bars.”
    “We’ll call by tomorrow morning,” Lorraine promised.
    The lawyer watched them walk away, the slight black man leaning upon the rail-thin girl. He didn’t understand anything about them or their benefactor, but understanding human nature was not his job.

 
    NINE
    “H OW ARE YOU feeling?” Lorraine asked Ronnie when they finally staggered into the park.
    “Dizz,” he said, “but that okay. Jaw hurt a little.”
    “It’s not too far now.”
    “Yo’ mama mad?”
    “She was scared when she saw my skin and my eye. I told her that I got sick in the park, that I fell unconscious and that for a while I had a fever and forgot who I was.”
    “’he belie’e that ’hit?”
    “She wants to. But Daddy said that I had to be committed because I wouldn’t press charges against you. He got so mad that he almost hit me. I never knew how much he hated black people until the things he said about you.”
    Ronnie sniggered behind his wired teeth.
    “What’s so funny?” she asked.
    “Hey, you,” a man called from behind.
    Lorraine turned around, bringing Ronnie stumbling along with her.
    The little man was still wearing the baggy clothes from days earlier. He walked toward them with short fast steps, his left hand held up to the level of his shoulder, as if trying to make sure that the two didn’t disappear.
    When Ma Lin reached them, his face looked strained while his eyes were urgent.
    “What did you do to me?” he asked the space between their two heads.
    “You remember?” Lorraine asked.
    “I remember a girl’s voice in my head,” he said, “your voice. Ever since then, I’ve been stuck here in the park, looking for what happened.”
    “I…” Lorraine was at a loss for words.
    “We took ’oo monk, monk-ee ca’e…’oo,” Ronnie said, lying out of reflex upon hearing a certain dissonance in the retired killer’s voice.
    “The zoo?” Ma Lin asked excitedly. “The monkey cage at the zoo?”
    When Ronnie nodded, his jaw felt like it was on fire. “We go ’oo now,” the ex-thug said.
    Without another word, Ma Lin took off running.
    “You lied to him,” Lorraine said.
    “That not him,” Ronnie managed to get out before genuflecting to the pain in his jaw.
    *   *   *
    C LIMBING UP INTO the nest of boulders was difficult for Ronnie, but Lorraine got behind him and pushed until they tumbled down into the grotto of stone. While they made their way up, Lorraine noticed that passersby didn’t seem aware of the off-white girl and the staggery black man scaling the rock so