Read The Devil in Silver for Free Online Page B

hear?”
    Those keys, that tone, the direct but disinterested stare, that’s how Pepper knew she was an employee and not a patient.
    And Pepper nodded at her as he sat up. He almost said,
Yes, ma’am
.
    “Now you take this,” the woman said. She opened a clenched hand. Two pills sat in her palm: a light green pill and a little white gelcap.
    He looked at them with horror. As if she’d offered him poisoned Flavor Aid.
    Remember who you are
! he thought.
    Pepper unfurled himself and stood, knowing he was a big old banner of a man. People tended to crane their necks and read the sign: STEP BACK .
    But not this time.
    The woman didn’t move. The pills in her palm didn’t even tremble as his body took up so much space. She simply tilted her head back and cut her eyes at him. She was old but her face still remarkably smooth. She had that power. You could see it in the way her lips drew down now, her lower jaw jutting out like the Don Corleone of the West Indies. Her eyes went from mildly cloudy to suddenly, strikingly clear.
    “You going to give Miss Chris the business, heh? Trust me, you a big man but a small potato! And if I have to leave here and get a doctor, I promise you I coming back to make
mash
potato.”
    What was it about that accent and that set of the chin? That aura of threat and premonition? Miss Chris had struck fear into badder men than Pepper, he felt sure of that.
    What was Pepper going to do anyway? He’d had a grandmother of his own. Different color, different country of origin, different personality, but just as fearsome. Nearly everyone could be undone by an old woman’s displeasure.
    Miss Chris held her hand above her head, so the pills hovered just below Pepper’s chin. “I won’t make another request.”
    Pepper plucked both pills and Miss Chris dropped her arm.
    “At least tell me what these are,” he said.
    “I’m your psychiatrist or your nurse? Because if I’m you’re psychiatrist I’m due a better paycheck.”
    The light green pill was Haldol. The white gelcap was lithium. Miss Chris actually knew this, but was too vexed by the big man’s attitude to explain.
    Pepper said, “I need to make a phone call.”
    Miss Chris raised her eyebrows. “That’s a phone in your hand or two pills? Deal with what’s in front of you first. Then if you want to make a phone call, you go make your phone call. I’m here to dial the numbers for you? No! No!”
    Miss Chris continued talking but she wasn’t actually addressing Pepper, so he stopped listening. He brought his lips down to his hand and slurped up both pills. They sat on his tongue. His mouth hung open as if the pills were scalding hot.
    “I’m a Verizon employee?” Miss Chris continued. “Put your eyes to my ID and it will tell you different.”
    He wasn’t getting past Miss Chris, out of this room, toward that phone call, if he didn’t swallow the pills.
    Pepper finally closed his mouth and gulped. He felt the dry taste of the pills at the back of his tongue as Miss Chris wound down her rant.
    Once Miss Chris had seen him swallow the meds, her job was done. She turned and left the room without even a wave.
    Pepper didn’t want to run out right after her. He didn’t want to follow behind her down the hall. So he went into the bathroom where he found two sets of towels and washcloths on a rack by the shower. One set looked used, the other set clean. Pepper undressed and took a warm shower. There was a soap dispenser on the wall here, just like the one by the sink. Pepper squeezed out a few dollops of Pepto-Bismol-pink soap. He tried to wash off the moment with Miss Chris. He stood under the showerhead with his eyes closed and wondered what effect those two little pills would have. They’d been so small.
    He dried off, dressed again, and left his room.
    The hallway gave the feeling of a community college. Institutional.Low-budget. But now he noticed the wooden railing running alongside either wall. It ran about waist height.