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.”