“Did you take care of them?”
“Vanilla Ride took care of them mostly. I took care of some of it.”
“Vanilla Ride? Our Vanilla Ride?”
“How many of them could there be?” I said.
“I’ll be damned,” Marvin said.
I told him all about it, everything Vanilla had told me, how it had all gone down.
He sat for a while when I finished. “So it was like Brett thought, Devil Red killed all those people for revenge. Twilla too?”
“Maybe. And then Leonard and I fell into their line of fire.”
Marvin considered for a moment. “They most likely arranged the hit on Godzilla in prison, don’t you think?”
“It’s possible,” I said. “They decided to kill us all, symbolically salt the earth. They couldn’t get rid of their grief any other way. And I doubt that did it.”
“What amazes me is to think they actually cared that much for their children, considering what they were, what they did to Vanilla,” Marvin said.
“I think for them it wasn’t child molestation or abuse in the way we think of it. I mean it comes down to the same thing, but I think for them it was just business. They were sharpening the tools of their business by making them willing and moldable. When Kincaid was away from there he was an accountant, a husband to his airhead wife, and a father to his children, who he loved. One life had nothing to do with the other.”
“That’s what you call compartmentalization,” Marvin said.
“Yeah, I suppose it is.”
“How do you feel?” he asked.
“My hand won’t quit shaking. I got a few minor wounds, but that’s what surprises me the most. In all the gunfire and knifing, I didn’t get a serious wound. Worst thing I got was back pain from falling out of a tree. Thing I’m wondering is how we tell Mrs. Christopher that the job is done without telling her how it was done, and without getting our dicks in a crack.”
“That’s my job,” Marvin said. “I’ll find a way to satisfy her without telling her everything. There’s some things she doesn’t need to know. Do you think you’ll see Vanilla again?”
“I don’t want to. She makes me nervous.”
At that moment, Brett came out of the waiting room and came over to me and grabbed me before I could stand and hugged me. I kissed her near her ear. She was crying. She fell into my lap.
“My God, I thought that was you I heard talking,” she said.
She kissed me several times. I wiped away her tears. I hugged her tight. I looked at Marvin, said, “You should go home, friend.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I should. Call me if there’s any news.”
He stood and clapped his hand on my shoulder. I reached up and touched it. “Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.”
We went back in the waiting room, and I told her all I had told Marvin.
“I don’t know how I feel about Vanilla Ride,” Brett said. “You’re my man.”
“You know it,” I said.
“Really now,” Brett said. “How pretty is she?”
“She’s all right.”
“Hap.”
“Okay. She’s real pretty.”
“Hap.”
“All right, goddamn it,” I said. “She’s stunningly beautiful.”
“Okay,” she said, “that’s enough.”
73
The next morning we got word that Leonard was out of the woods, and though not ready to see visitors, much better. We decided to go home and have breakfast and get some sleep.
About noon we woke up and made love, and when we were finished, we were ravenous. We ate a quick lunch and went to the hospital. We found Rogers, Leonard’s surgeon. He took us into the waiting room, where we were the only ones present. He said, “I can’t figure Mr. Pine. He not only should have died in that parking lot, he shouldn’t be awake and feeling as well as he is. He’s not going to jump up and run a marathon or anything, but he’s doing miraculously well.”
“Can we see him?” Brett asked.
“Shortly,” Rogers said.
About an hour later we were allowed into ICU to see him. I had hoped to have his deerstalker to wear, just to pick at him, but I didn’t. I guess the cops had it.
We sat in chairs on opposite sides of the bed. We each held one of his hands. He looked rough, but he had his color back, and that wicked look in his eyes.
“So, you’re gonna shit in my hat,” he said, looking at me.
“You actually heard that?” Brett said.
“Yeah,” Leonard said. “I wanted to answer, but couldn’t. I was a little under the weather.”
“I’ll say,” I said.
“You know,” Leonard said, “bullets hurt.”
“Yeah. Well, you know our motto.”
“If the dick’s intact, we’re all right.”
“That’s the one”
“You’re sitting funny, Hap.”
“I fell out of a tree.”
“Ha,” Leonard said, and then licked his dry lips. “Did anyone call John?”
I felt a little ashamed. “No,” I said.
“Good. I don’t want him to see me like this. I don’t want any goddamn sympathy from him. He comes back, I want him to come back because of the right reasons. Not because I got myself shot.”
“Your surgeon said it was small caliber, and your muscle tone had a lot to do with your survival,” I said. “You know what really surprises me, though?”
“What?”
“That you have any muscle tone.”
“Ha, ha,” he said. Then: “Brett, could you see if they would let me have a bit of soda pop? I’m craving a little something wet and sweet.”
“I can ask,” she said.
“Tell them I’ll try not to let it squirt out the holes in my chest.” Brett got up and went away.
Leonard squeezed my hand really tight. He said, “Do you know who shot me?”
I told him who as quickly as I could. I told him what had happened to them.
“Man,” Leonard said, “Vanilla is so cold and mean-”
“-her mean has to wear a hat and tie,” we said together.
Leonard laughed, and then winced. “Oh,” he said. “I think I shit myself a little.”
“What nurses are for,” I said. “Ask Brett to tell you how much she loves that part.”
He grinned at me, then gradually turned serious. “How do you feel, man?”
“It got done, and Vanilla got whatever it was she needed out of it. I figure eventually we’ll read about it in the papers. Someone will find them in time. They won’t show to work, and then they’ll go out there and find all those bodies. I don’t know what the law will think.”
“As long as they don’t think about you, it’ll be okay,” Leonard said.
“I think Vanilla and I did it pretty clean. I’m even going to get rid of the shoes and clothes I had on last night.
