feel about Phil, it’s still a damn shame. I mean, a kid ought to know his dad.”
“Yes,” Frank said, thinking of the sugar in the fuel tanks of Lefebvre’s plane.
“Tell me what you want me to do for them,” Pete said.
So Frank had asked him to keep secrets. Knowing Pete, it was the most difficult of requests, simply because he would honor it, contrary though it was to his talkative nature. Being trustworthy meant something to Pete, and realizing that, Frank said, “I knew you wouldn’t want to hear any of this or be involved in it. I’m sorry. I’m glad you’re willing to do this for Seth and Elena.”
“I’m doing this because you’re my partner,” Pete said. “You know what pisses me off, Frank? How easily you forget that.” He walked away.
Frank thought of shouting after him that Pete’s own memory hadn’t been so great lately, but held back. For all the satisfaction that might give him, he had to consider Seth’s and Elena’s safety.
Frank spent two hectic hours helping Seth and Elena before they were settled at his house. Because of the damage to the stairs and the beams above the garage, the fire department had declared the condo out-of-bounds. Responding to Elena’s pleas and the careful description of where she had left it, one of the firefighters had brought her wallet out to her.
Frank drove Seth and Elena to a pet store, where they bought a cage and some food for the guinea pig. Next to a drugstore for basic toiletries. Frank dropped off the roll of film from the funeral, then came back for it when they finished shopping at a department store for a few articles of plain but essential clothing. Both Elena and Seth changed out of their clothes at the store — Frank, still reeking of smoke, envied them.
Neither Seth nor Elena had taken long to make their purchases. Soon they were on their way to the house — where the cage proved useful in saving the guinea pig from the attentions of Irene’s cat, Cody. Seth and the dogs formed an immediate mutual admiration society. The boy was given the guest room; Elena said she would opt for the couch. Frank showered and changed clothes, but he could still smell nothing but smoke.
The strain of the day was telling on all of them, but on Seth especially, who fell asleep sitting next to Elena on the couch. Frank carried him into the guest room and tucked him in.
“You sure your wife won’t mind our staying here?” Elena asked as he prepared to go back to the office.
“No,” Frank said. “She’ll be happy we’re able to do something for Phil Lefebvre’s son.”
He had tried several times to call Irene to warn her about their guests and had ended up leaving a message on her voice mail at work.
Back at his desk, he quickly sorted through the paperwork that had accumulated on it during the day. He was leaving to go down to the property room when Reed dared to speak to him.
“Going to play hockey tomorrow night?” he asked.
“I’m not sure,” Frank said, thinking of his houseguests and all the work that lay before him.
“You sick?” Reed asked. “You sound awful.”
“Mild laryngitis. I’m fine.”
“Our team doesn’t mean shit to him,” Vince said, and no one thought he was talking about hockey.
“Vince…” Reed said in a warning tone.
“I’ll be there if I can,” Frank said.
“No, do what you want to do on your own,” Vince said. “Besides, you’re a lousy fucking defenseman. We won’t miss you.”
It was true, Frank thought. He’d only been playing a year.
“Make up your mind, Vince,” Pete said. “Is he fucking up all your beautiful teamwork or can you manage defense all by yourself?”
“What’s with you?” Vince said, obviously feeling betrayed.
Pete glanced at Frank, then said, “Nothing. Lieutenant’s been chewing my ass out. But what’s new with that? I swear, if I’m ever killed by a bomb, just go looking through the rubble for an ass. If the bite marks on it match Carlson’s dental records, it’s mine!”
The others laughed, but Vince said, “Jesus, Baird, what the hell are you dreaming up? Who’d want to look for you, let alone hunt for your ass?”
“I see you eyeing it all the time, Vince. In fact, from now on, I’m putting my hockey gear on at home.”
Frank shook his head and made his way out of the room as Vince did his best to recover lost yardage. Frank figured that after fifteen years of this kind of exchange, Vince should have realized that he didn’t stand a chance. If they stayed true to form, they would ridicule each other unmercifully for another twenty minutes or so.
He revised this thought — not unmercifully, really. If the subject was sexual prowess, stature, physique, hair loss, or nationality, virtually no insult was forbidden. But there were certain taboos. While Pete’s first wife was fair game, Rachel was not. Neither was Vince’s current — and fifth — wife, Amie. Vince’s kids were never the subject of a joke Vince didn’t make himself. Three of Vince’s four ex-wives could be joked about, but not his second one, Lisa, the one who had spent the last twelve years in a psych ward. Lisa was totally off-limits.
Lisa was so seldom mentioned, Frank had almost forgotten her. If he remembered the story correctly, Vince had married her on the rebound, shortly after the breakup of his first marriage. This second marriage had lasted only a few weeks. Rumor said that she was a cop groupie and had bedded a couple of other members of the department — he’d heard varying stories as to whether this occurred before or after they split up. But she ultimately found life on the other side of the law more exciting — or so she told Vince on one of the many occasions when he had bailed her out. She began using drugs and soon was living on the streets. Among the uniforms, she earned the nickname “Old Faithful,” not because she was either, but because any time you saw her, you could be certain of being able to make an arrest — she never failed to have illicit drugs on her person.
Pete had told Frank that Vince — against his own better judgment and experience — had tried to save her from herself again and again. She only got into deeper trouble. She ended up involved with a man who took her along with him to a bank one day — five people, including four members of one family, were dead by the time they left. Witnesses said she didn’t seem to be an accomplice so much as a shocked onlooker. She had covered her ears and
