“Did you take him out of the hospital?”

“No. I had a delivery to make. I turned him over to the doctor.”

“You don’t know when he left?”

“No.”

“You don’t know how seriously he was hurt?”

“Sure. He was just banged up a bit. I stuck around until I was sure there was nothing wrong with him.”

“Was he suffering from amnesia — loss of memory?”

“He was punch-groggy, if that’s what you mean.”

“How did the accident happen?” Mason asked.

Trader adjusted the piece of tobacco between his molars, chewed with a barely perceptible motion, his facial muscles bunching into little knots as his jaws clamped shut. His eyes were cold and uncordial. On the wall, a clock clacked off the seconds.