It was time now, Mary thought anxiously, grabbing her light jacket from behind the door. She looked at her pale face in the hallway mirror and it was not her face she saw, but Sofia's. Sofia, her darker sister, her opposite in so many ways. Although Sofia would not have this wan smile and tired clear eyes, so blue they were weird. Sofia was darker, darker hair, darker skin, but brighter too in some mysterious way, some mischievous light in her eyes. And she was fearless, oh so fearless,
Sofia. Mary sighed and closed her eyes for a second, the image of her sister so vivid in her mind's eye it hurt. She bit her lips and inhaled deeply, “be calm,” she muttered, “for once Mary, be calm, shake yourself, and just go!”

Outside, the day was ending sweetly. Her shadow was long in front of her as she walked on the large sidewalk. The air was still hot from the day, delicious. Some summerly breeze had the leaves of the high slim trees move lazily, and as she passed the corner, she smelled oregano and tomatoes along the Italian restaurant she and Sofia went to sometimes, before the accident. Such a beautiful summer evening, she thought bitterly.
She walked faster and caught the T just in time. She sat down close to an elderly woman and noticed a fat man passing her and slumping down the seat just behind hers. Poor guy, he was panting with the effort he had made to hop into the Green Line.
“Nice weather,” the old lady said.
Mary managed a smile. “Yes, we are lucky this year,” and rummaged through her purse looking for the rescue of her book. She began to turn the pages, searching the right one. But soon she just gave up and looked blankly ahead. She had that childish song coming into her head, “the wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round.” She heard she was humming it frantically in a low voice. The old lady looked at her with worried eyes and soon went to sit elsewhere. She must have thought she was crazy. “Oh Sofia, Sofia, will you please be here tonight?” Mary prayed.

***

Brown was getting nervous. What if the people after Sofia took advantage of tonight's rendez-vous to find her? He could not shake from his mind the image of Bobby Wilson, only yesterday, dragging at his cigarette, looking at him through the rear-view mirror. What had the poor guy done to deserve such a painful death? Anyone behind this was proving very efficient and dangerous. Of course, tonight’s rendez-vous was not of his initiative, as Grimes had hinted at, just a few minutes ago: he shouldn’t feel guilty if anything went wrong, but Brown knew better. He would see that nothing bad happened to Mary nor to her sister; he would not bear “the girls”, as he called them in his secret heart, to be hurt. It was his duty to protect and serve and Bobby's death was enough, not to speak of Sybil-Deirdre's. He checked his watch for the tenth times in as many minutes and Grimes told him, “She shouldn't be long now. Boylston Stop is right in front of here and she made it into the T about twenty minutes ago, Graham said on the phone.”

The two of them were seemingly waiting in front of the giant counter in Loews', in a line to buy some snacks. Finally Brown took possession of two chocolate treats - too much chocolate for one day indeed- with still no sign of Mary. They stood eating their bars; Grimes- always-the-organic-eater was certainly delighted, Brown thought, repressing a smile. They began a falsely animated conversation about which movie they would be seeing but soon, Grimes nudged his side, “Here, Mary’s arriving, with our man not far behind. My! He’s not too discreet,” she exhaled in a whisper.
The fat man nodded imperceptibly enough though, as he passed in front of them. Then he went straight to the line at the concession stand while Mary went ahead along the large carpeted hallway, with Grimes following her.
Brown remained where he was, frowning as if he were displeased with his girlfriend leaving. If anyone was looking at him, he would see no one but a tall desabused man, let down by his woman. He dropped the chocolate bar paper in a trash bin and busied himself, apparently looking at the huge pictures of actors hanging down the walls. His leg was aching and his back as well, and all in all he was just so tired...
He closed his eyes for a second and re-opening them, he felt rather than saw a couple pass in his field of view, had time to notice the very blond hair of the man. He tried not to look conspicuous, turning around to follow them with his eyes. Yes, it was Cooney, his tall lean figure striding purposefully along the hall, one protective arm around the waist of a slender woman. From behind, Sofia looked very much like Mary; her hair was a darker shade of chestnut, and her gait seemed still a little stiff, Brown could not help but notice. But when she moved a strand of hair behind her ear and turned her face to her companion, her profile was stunningly like Mary's.

Brown had not moved yet. The hallway was long enough and he decided to take the chance not to follow right away. The place wasn’t crowded. People were passing by, heading towards the theaters on the first floor, some of them with big boxes of pop-corn, a noisy group of teenagers, a lonely woman, a couple of lovers hand in hand, and two large men walking quite fast and passing the lonely woman right now. Something in the pair had Brown's neck hair standing. Those two didn’t look like peaceful spectators at all, his policeman's gut was screaming. He began to walk briskly ten yards behind the out-of-place men. Sofia and Cooney were not far from the door to the stairs, when one of the men began to open his jacket in a swift move Brown couldn’t mistake for anything else than threatening. He freezed only for one second; his mind was racing; would they just shoot at Sofia right now, in a theater?
No, for he saw something glistening in the hand of the man, something the man almost completely hid in his sleeve, a knife maybe... The detective strode behind the two guys as fast as he could without running, not wanting any panic to arise around. Sofia and Cooney were pushing the door.

“Gentlemen!” Brown said cheerily, his long arm sliding from behind between the two guys, his big hand holding his badge for them to see. They stopped, startled for only the fraction of a second, then the guy with the knife turned like in slow motion and slashed Brown's arm nastily before pushing him down and running away towards the exit, his accomplice in front of him. Brown stood up to chase them, holding his wounded arm, and the fat man in the line started to run as well, but to no avail. The two men split and melt quickly into the crowd outside. Brown saw the guy who had stabbed him turn the corner but felt he was about to faint for the throbbing in his arm.
“It's okay, Graham, there's nothing we can do,” he said to the fat man once he got his breath back. “At least they didn’t hurt the girls.”
“Yeah,” Graham answered, panting, his two hands resting on his knees.
Brown patted his back. “Need some training, don't you?”
“You're wounded, are you okay?” Graham asked kindly, nodding at Brown's arm, mindless of his words.
“Nothing bad, let's go see how the girls’re doing,” Brown said over his shoulder, holding his arm but half running anyway. A siren was shrieking, someone in the theater must have called the police when he had been wounded, Brown thought annoyed. So much for any discretion now. The car stopped and a police officer jumped out, followed by another one. Brown held up his badge and so did Graham.
“See with them, Graham, I'm going back inside,” Brown said without stopping.

The hallway had been deserted and most of the people had run outside after the small commotion Brown's move had set on. He pushed the door through which Sofia and Cooney had disappeared since how long? he wondered; five, seven minutes at most. He rushed towards the restroom where the meeting was to take place.

“Grimes?” He called. “Mary? ”And then he saw her. His partner was laying on the ground, her face whiter than the tiles of the wall. “Grimes?” He called again, his hand reaching for her pulse. He sighed, here it was, steady, good and she was opening her eyes.
“My, Grimes, you scared the hell out of me!”
“Where’s Mary?” she said in a weak voice.
He looked around and called again, checked every place in the restroom. “She's not here, what the hell happened, Grimes? Wait, wait...” He held his hand, silencing her and called for some medical help through his cellphone.
“I'm fine, it's okay, let's go find her!” Grimes said, struggling to stand up.
He put a hand on her arm to help her from getting on her feet, wincing with pain at this simple move. “Just tell me what happened, Chris.”
“I don't know. I only had a few seconds in here with Mary. I said hello, a few words, she smiled at me and then... then I saw her opening her mouth, like if she was surprised. I think someone knocked me down, that's all. That's all I remember,” she said. “I'm sorry, Peter, I should’ve been more careful. I had my back to the door, I should’ve known better. Damn, it happened so fast!”
“Sofia and Cooney must have been frightened when they heard the commotion in the hallway. They acted on instinct. I doubt it was Sofia knocking you down. This guy, Cooney, he seems to know how to handle bad things.” Brown's voice trailed, his arm was throbbing this much he felt he was about to vomit.“We need to know more about him.” He looked at her closely, “ How are you, Chris? No, don’t move, the medics will be here soon.”
“Just dizzy, that's all,” she said, “ How about you? What's wrong? You look pale.”
The door opened; two people wearing white outfits entered and took charge of her. They had her on a stretcher and rolled her away and out. Brown followed pressing his hand hard on his arm. The blood began to show through his jacket. One of the medics had him climb into the ambulance and sit close to Grimes.

“We messed up,” the young woman said with a tired smile before closing her eyes again.
Brown nodded and shook his head in frustration. The doctor helped him remove his jacket and cut through his shirt quickly.

His arm was hurting big time but that was not the worse of all. Now they had lost track of the two sisters, and he didn’t have a clue about where they would be going.