Superbia (Book One of the Superbia Series) (15 page)

Frank leaned
forward to see Vic pacing back and forth with the phone stuck to his ear.
 
“Really?
 
So I can do what?
 
Work
construction?
 
And who are the kids going
to get health benefits from, you?
 
Bullshit.
 
I can’t take them
tonight because I am working!”

Vic’s face grew
red and he held the phone up to his face and started screaming, “Do not tell
them that I don’t want to see
them!
 
Fuck you, Danni! Fuck you, you
fucking bitch.”
 
He looked at the phone
and saw it was disconnected.
 
He quickly
redialed, waited, and it went to voicemail.
 
He dialed again.
 
It went directly
to voicemail.
 
He dialed again, and took
a deep breath.
 
“You piece of shit.
 
If you tell my fucking children that I’m not
coming to get them because I don’t want to see them, I swear to God I will—”
 

Frank snatched
the phone out of his hands and closed it.
 

Vic grabbed for
the phone and Frank pushed him back.
 
“Give me my phone, asshole!”

“No!” Frank
said.
 
He kept the phone away from Vic by
swatting his hands.
 
“You leave her the
wrong message and she’s going to use it to get you locked up or keep you away
from them permanently, Vic.
 
You’ll be
threatening her on her voicemail and they will come here and put you under
arrest.
 
If she’s the vindictive bitch
she seems to be, she’ll do it.
 
I’ve seen
it happen.”

Vic gritted his
teeth and groaned.
 
He backed away and
put his hands against the wall to catch his breath.
 
When he looked back up, his eyes were
red.
 
“You think the kids believe her
when she says those things?”

“No, I’m sure
they don’t.
 
Kids believe what they see
for themselves, not what people tell them.”
 

Vic wiped his
nose.
 
“You think so?”

“I do.”

Vic picked up the
phone and said, “Thanks.
 
You’re a good
partner.”

“It’s what Sean
Penn would do for Robert Duvall any day of the week,” Frank said.

“You finally saw
it?”

Frank grinned, “No.”

Vic looked at him
for a moment, about to say something, but then both men were too busy
laughing.
 

10.
 
It was midnight by the time they cleared the
house and transported the evidence back to the station.
 
Frank could barely keep his eyes open.
 
He helped Vic carry the bags of evidence down
to the office and by the time they’d placed the last one on the floor, Frank’s restless
legs felt like they were crawling with bugs.
 
“I need to go home, man.
 
Let’s do
this shit tomorrow.”

“Go ahead,” Vic
said. He sat down at his desk and started clicking the computer mouse.
 
“I’ll finish up here and see you tomorrow.”

“It’s late, Vic.
 
Come on.
 
Let’s shut it down for tonight and come back fresh in the AM.”

“I’m fine.”

“Do you want me
to stay with you?”

“No.
 
Go home to your wife,” Vic said.
 
“She probably misses you.”

“You sure?”

“Okay, I don’t
know for certain if she misses you or not.
 
I was trying to make you feel good.”

“I meant are you
sure it’s cool if I leave?”

“Yup.”

“You’re not going
to call me a sissy for leaving?
 
You’re
not going to make jokes about how my vagina hurt too bad for me to stay and
work late?”

“Your
gynecological problems are none of my concern, Frank.”
 
Vic looked up from the computer screen, “Go
home.”

Frank was about
to walk out of the office when he stopped and leaned against the door frame.
 
“I keep thinking about that dead guy.”

“The dead guy
that hanged himself or the dead guy in the car?”

“The one in the
car.”
 

“What about him?”
Vic said.

“I have a
theory.
 
He wasn’t supposed to die.
 
One of the kids was.”

Vic stopped
typing and leaned back in his chair, folding his hands over his belly.
 
“Okay, you win.
 
I’m all ears.”

“One of those
little girls was supposed to die, if not both, and just as Death showed up, the
Dad intervened.
 
He cut a deal.
 
He made such a heartfelt plea that Death agreed
to take him instead of the kids.
 
That’s
how I look at it.
 
That’s how I am
wrapping my head around the fact that some fucking guy was just driving down
the street with his little girls one second, and the next, he was dead.”

Vic saw tears
forming in Frank’s eyes and he looked down, giving him the respect of not
watching him cry.
 
“I never even thought
about you having two little girls, man.
 
I should’ve asked if you were all right.”

“There’s nothing
to ask,” Frank said.
 
He wiped his nose
and said, “The doctors thought I was a suicide risk.
 
How funny is that?
 
They thought after Heck’s funeral I might
think about trying to end it all.
 
Cops
have one of the highest suicide rates already, but apparently ones who’ve been
in shootings are even worse off.
 
I bet
nobody would have covered it up like we did, though.
 
Nobody would care that much.”

“I didn’t do it
for him,” Vic said.
 
“He’s dead.
 
Fuck the dead.
 
They don’t count.
 
No matter who you were, what you did, once
you check out, it’s over.
 
Whatever
fucked up, selfish reason he had for killing himself ceased to matter the
moment he made that decision.
 
Why should
Heck’s widow and kids pay a penalty for that?”
 

“It was illegal,”
Frank said.
 

“It was right.”

“I can live with
that, I think,” Frank said.

“Good.
 
So can I.”
 

“I’m gonna go
home, kiss my kids, and try to sleep.
 
Why don’t you give it a rest for tonight?”

Vic turned back
to the computer and said, “You ever think that the dead are the lucky
ones?
 
I do.
 
All the time.”

“Go home, Vic.”

“This is all the
home I have left.”
 
 

***

Dawn was sleeping
on the couch when he walked in the door.
 
Frank turned off the television and kissed her on the forehead.
 
“Everything okay?” she said.
 

“Everything’s
fine.
 
I need to take a shower and go to
sleep though.”

She put her arms
around his neck and sniffed him.
 
“You
don’t smell
that
bad.
 
Just come to bed.”

He thought about
Al Charon’s body and said, “I have the funk.”

“Me likey you
funky.”

Frank smiled and
kissed her.
 
“Me likey you funky too.”

***

He dreamt he was
on a dark river like the Congo, floating downstream in a skiff with Vic
standing at the front of it, holding a paddle.
 
Vic was bare chested and wearing a necklace of ears.
 
Strange symbols were carved into the thick
coat of dried blood covering his skin.
 
Vic
looked back at him and nodded, “We’ll be there soon.”

“Where are we
going?”

“To see the Snake
God,” Vic said.
 
Something hit the boat,
and Vic laughed sharply.
 
Tiny hands
grabbed the side of the skiff, and the heads of children emerged from the
water, trying to pull themselves up to join them.
 
“No passengers!” Vic said, smacking their
fingers with the edge of his oar.
   

“Why?”

“Because that’s
the last thing I have left to show you.
 
Once you look into the Snake God’s eyes, you’ll understand
everything.
 
Until you see him, you don’t
realize he’s there.
 
Once you see him,
you realize he is actually everywhere you look.”
 

A red mist rolled
in from the shore, covering the surface of the water, blinding him.
 
“I don’t
want
to see him, Vic!
 
I don’t want to be like
you!”

Vic reached
through the mist with a clenched hand and said, “If you’re upset take
these.”
 
He dropped a dozen pills into
Frank’s hands and said, “Now
that
is
the good stuff.”
 
Vic’s eyes turned
yellow with vertical black slits, and a forked tongue poked out of his mouth,
flicking rapidly.
 

Frank startled
awake at the touch of his wife’s hand.
 
“You’re having a nightmare,” she said.
 

He got up and
swung his legs over the bed, still seeing Vic’s serpentine face in front of
him.
 
He stumbled into the hallway and
followed the wall toward his daughters’ room.
 
He poked his head up to see the older one sleeping on the upper bunkbed
and recovered her with the comforter, then dropped down to the lower bunk and
tucked the younger one’s stuffed bunny into her arms.
 

Dawn came into
the room and sat down next to him, watching Frank wipe the hair out of his
little one’s face and kiss her forehead over and over.
 
“Do you want to talk about it?” she said.
 

“No.”

She grabbed one
of the stuffed animals off her daughter’s bed and laid her head down on it,
curling up on the floor beside him.
 
“What are you doing?” Frank said.
 
“Go back to bed.”

“I don’t
understand whatever it is you’re going through, but I’m staying right here
while you do.”
 

Frank looked down
at his wife as she closed her eyes and tried to get comfortable on the
floor.
 
She reached out for his leg and
he took her hand, holding it tightly in the darkness.

***

The station’s
side door popped open and Jim Iolaus stuck his head out, blocking the
door.
 
“Good morning, sunshine!
 
Did you bring enough coffee for everybody?”

Frank looked down
at the single cup in his hand and said, “Not unless you all want to share this
one.”

“How’s life in AID?”

“What’s that?”

“The Rat
Squad.
 
AID.”

“Isn’t AID the city’s
Accident Investigative Division?”

“What’s Internal
Affairs then?”

“I’m guessing IAD.”
 

“Fucking
anagrams.”
 

Frank paused,
about to correct him, then deciding not to bother.
 
“Can I come in now, or do I need to know the
secret word?”

“Staff Sergeant
wants to see you.”

“For what?”

“Probably about
the new child sex case we got this morning, but don’t tell him I told you
that.”
 
Iolaus pushed the door open to
let Frank pass.
 
He laughed as Frank rolled
his eyes and sighed, “What’s the matter, Frankie, they finally making you two
work a little down there?
 
Who’s gonna
sit around drinking coffee all day and yanking the Chief’s dick now?”

There were three
people sitting in the station’s lobby.
 
Two parents flanking a young girl.
 
“Son of a bitch,” he whispered.
 
He turned down the hall toward Erinnyes’s office, coming around the
corner and snapping a quick salute, “New case?”

Erinnyes folded
his beefy hands on the desk and said, “Unless your plate is too full.”

“I’m like you,
Staff Sergeant.
 
My plate is never
too
full.”
 

Erinnyes looked
at Frank’s earnest expression for a moment, unable to unravel the meaning
behind it.
 
“I figure that as long as we
are devoting so many resources to the detective division, we might as well get
some use out of you for once.”

“Anything you
say, sir.
 
Do you know anything about the
case?”

Erinnyes’s eyes
narrowed, “I’m sorry.
 
Do I suddenly work
for you now?
 
Do you want me to write the
fucking report too?”

Frank held up his
hand and said, “Sorry, sir.
 
My
mistake.
 
I’ll keep you posted on how we
make out.”

“See that you do.”

Frank turned the
corner and headed for the stairs.
 
He
grabbed the handrail and eased himself down, feeling the pinch in his knee. By
the time he reached the hallway, he could already hear snoring coming from the
back office.
 
He switched the cup of
coffee into his other hand and gently opened the office door, walking around
the bags of evidence littered on the floor.
 
Vic’s head was buried in a crumpled up coat on his desk.
 
Frank crept around his desk and sat
down.