Vic nodded quietly, and Frank could see that his eyes were starting to turn red. Vic whispered. “I started drinking pretty good after that one. Danni told me to either get help or get out. Nobody here knows it, but I moved out of the house three months ago.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. Do you still get to see your kids?”
“One night a week, both days on the weekends. The only problem is that I’m on-call and when I have them, I need to scramble to find somebody to stay with them so I can go in.”
“Who do you use?”
“My mom. She doesn’t live too far away. She’s been pretty good about it so far, but I can tell it’s getting old.”
Frank nodded and looked at his fingers. The swelling had gone down. “I’m glad we got those little girls out.”
Vic looked at his own fingers and then turned to look at Frank. He took a deep breath and said, “There’s something I need to ask you. Did you watch Colors yet?”
“I did, when I was in the station, looking for ice to heal my ruined fingers. It was a good movie. I’m a fan of De Niro’s. He was good.”
“De Niro wasn’t in the movie.”
“Yes, he was,” Frank said. “Billy even said so. Bobby D. played the old head.”
“Robert Duvall. Different Bobby D.”
“Well the one I saw had all those guys in it, and it was a classic. Maybe you saw a different version.”
“You are an idiot,” Vic said. He opened the patrol car door and slid out of the seat.
“See?” Frank said. “This is good. I felt like we bonded just now.”
“Go away,” Vic said. “I don’t like you.”
“Oh, yes you do,” Frank said, hurrying after him. “We’re like Tango and Cash. Turner and Hooch. Cagney and Lacey!”
Vic stopped. “Am I Cagney or Lacey?”
“Which one was the lesbian?”
“One of them was a lesbian?”
“In the porno version, both were lesbians,” Frank said. “Sometimes, anyway.”
“There is something deeply, deeply wrong with you, Frank.”
Frank looked at the picture on the wall behind his desk and said, “All right, so give. What happened to her?”
Vic stared at his computer screen and said, “Maternity leave.”
“Bullshit.”
Vic shrugged and said, “Believe what you want.”
Frank kicked his feet up on the desk and said, “You know what you are?”
“What am I?”
“A not-even-promoted detective. You know what’s worse than that?”
“Not much.”
“Being a not-even-promoted detective’s bitch, Vic. Being stuck down in the basement with you all day and night, and you don’t even trust me enough to tell me what happened to your last partner.”
Vic turned around and said, “Come on, it isn’t that bad.”
“This year I’ve gotten shot, killed a kid, watched my partner die in front of me, and none of that compared to what you’ve put me through these past few days. I ate baby shit, Vic. Baby shit. You never even had the decency to say you were sorry.”
“I told you, I don’t say—”
“I know, I know. Victor Ajax doesn’t apologize. Whatever.”
Vic sighed and spun in his chair to face Frank, “What I tell you goes no further than this office, you understand?”
Frank turned around and faced him, completely straight-faced.
“I can’t take you serious when you look like that. I’m used to you looking goofy,” Vic said. “Two years ago we needed a young female undercover officer for a job I was working with the task force. I found Aprille when she was a cadet. She was hired here and immediately attached to me. I trained her. Kept her away from everybody. And we started building cases.”
“She went right to undercover work with no street experience?” Frank said.
“That’s right.”
“Was she any good at it?”
“She was the best. Better than anything I’ve ever seen, because she didn’t have any street cop experience, she didn’t have the attitude. She didn’t have the self-righteousness. She was just a kid. People sold her drugs like their hair was on fire.”
“So why did she leave?”
“She got pregnant.”
Frank rolled his eyes and said, “Whatever. I thought you were being serious.”
Vic leaned forward and folded his hands together. “I am.”
Frank nodded with understanding. “Was it yours?”
“No.”
“Another cop’s?”
“It was a person I thought I could trust. She thought he would do the right thing, he didn’t, and things got bad.”
“How bad?” Frank said.
Vic leaned back in his chair and said, “After she lost the baby? Pretty fucking bad.”
7
There was a soft knock at the door that made Vic jump off of the couch and turn off the television. He stood against the door and slowly turned the handle, backing up so that he stayed out of sight when it opened.
“Where is he?” his daughter’s tiny voice said.
“I don’t know,” Dannaid said. “Why don’t you go in and look for him?”
Penelope’s tiny head bounced past him, calling out, “Dad? Where are you?” She stopped and looked both ways, calling his name again. Vic reached down and poked her on the side, making her scream and giggle at the same time. He swept her up in his arms and buried his face in her neck, gobbling her up with kisses.
Jason unslung his backpack at the door and said, “Hey dad.”
“Come here!” Vic said. He pulled his son in close to his side and kissed the top of his head. “I’m so glad to see you guys.” He looked up to say hello to his wife, but stopped when he saw the short-skirt and tight shirt. Her hair was done up in curls and she’d put makeup on. “Going somewhere?”
“I have a girl’s night out,” she said quickly. She smiled at him with pursed lips and nodded, standing in his doorway. Lying her brains out.
Vic said, “Okay. Have fun.” He moved to close the door but Danni came through the door and started looking around the apartment.
“You have dinner for them?”
“I was going to order a pizza,” he said.
She walked around to corner to his tiny kitchen and opened the refrigerator, inspecting its contents like a child welfare worker. She looked up at the cereal boxes on top of his fridge and said, “I don’t want you giving them nothing but sugar.”
“I don’t always give them cereal,” he said. “Look, can you just go? I’d like to spend some time with the kids if you don’t mind.”
She closed the refrigerator door and walked past him toward the kid’s bedroom. “I have a right to know what conditions the kids are living in.” She opened the door to the bedroom, seeing the daybed for her daughter and the small single bed for Jason. “They need their own rooms.”
“No kidding. Right now, it’s all I can afford.” He could smell her perfume. He reached out to touch her bare shoulder with the tips of his fingers and said, “Or maybe I could just come home.”
Danni quickly stepped away from him and turned, hoisting her purse over her shoulder where he’d touched her. “Jason has a birthday party to go to tomorrow at noon.”
“No he doesn’t, I was going to take them to the movies.”
“I already told the kid’s parents you were coming!”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Dad?” Jason called out from the living room, “I really want to go.”
Vic sighed and said, “Okay.”
“And no drinking this weekend while you have them.”