For an instant his narrow eyes tried to focus on me through the water that was gathering in them—a side effect of a broken nose. Then he lowered his head the way boxer’s do when they are stunned and want to buy time.
I gave him no rest.
I drove the tip of my knee hard into his right thigh then, tagging him in the sciatic nerve. He flinched and spread his legs slightly in response, opening a clear path to his groin. I took it and thrust my other knee upward, landing it deep between the legs. He doubled over, and I pried the gun from his hands as he went, holding it by the barrel in one hand like a club. I slammed it down over his right kidney. He twisted and tucked his elbows to protect himself from other such blows. I crouched then and drove the butt hard across his left knee. Then I shot upward as he began to slump and brought the butt down across the back of his head with all I had.
He dropped like dead weight to the floor. I tossed the empty shotgun aside and started after his partner. I feared he had spotted Tina waiting in my car. But when I reached the door I saw that he was tearing down Little Neck Road, heading in the direction of Montauk Highway.
I saw that Tina was looking at me, that she was confused and scared. And yet despite that, she was opening the passenger door, ready to come running toward me.
I held up my hand, telling her to stay put, then turned and rushed into the kitchen. The phone had been pulled from the wall, its cord torn out of the socket. I headed down the hallway, grabbed the boxer by the ankles and pulled him into Augie’s bedroom to get him out of the way. Moving into the study, I knelt beside Augie.
I knew I shouldn’t move him, not in his condition, but he was in bad shape, and maybe the two shotgun blasts had wakened the whole neighborhood and the cops were on their way. But maybe it hadn’t. Either way, I couldn’t just wait and hope for the best.
I skimmed my hands over Augie’s body—his neck and his spine, ribs and collarbone, up and down each arm and leg. I was feeling for breaks but found none. Then I lifted him into a more complete seated position against the wall, doing so as carefully as I could. After that I took his left arm and tucked my head under it, holding his wrist with my left hand and wrapping my other arm around his left thigh. Getting up to my feet, I hoisted him into the fireman’s carry, his stomach across my right shoulder.
I used the wall to support us, and to help keep my balance, and yet it still took all my strength to lift Augie. My legs trembled as I moved step by step down the hallway and through the trashed living room.
Finally, I was out the door and heading toward my car.
At the hospital, Tina struggled with the paperwork while I found a pay phone and dialed Frank’s pager number. After the beep I entered the number of the pay phone and hung up and waited. Less than two minutes later he called me back.
“Did you find him?”
“Yeah. We’re at the hospital.”
“What happened?”
“Two men ambushed him at home.”
“Where are they?”
“One took off on foot, the other is still there.”
“Alive?”
“Yeah. If you go, you might want to bring some help.”
“The cops are there now.”
I realized that someone must have heard the shotgun blasts.
“I just found out that you’ve had yourself a busy night.”
I said nothing.
“I think we need to talk.”
I hung up without saying anything more and went back into the waiting room and sat beside Tina.
She was visibly shaken. It took all I had to hide that I was, too. The clipboard with all the paperwork lay unfinished on her lap, the pen clutched tight in her hand. But she was ignoring it, staring instead at the double swinging doors through which her father had been wheeled on a stretcher.
I watched her for a moment, certain that she was not aware of me or anything else around her. I reached across and took the clipboard and pen. Her hand opened and relaxed once the pen was removed.
She sat silently, without moving, staring off across the room as I filled out the paperwork. When I was finished, I got up and handed the clipboard to the heavyset black woman in white behind the reception desk. Then I sat back down beside Tina. I didn’t say anything, just waited with her, watching her closely while being careful not to stare.
Eventually I looked through the sliding glass doors that led outside. I could see that the sky above the tree line was changing from black of night to dawn’s silver. Despite my surroundings, I could sense the stillness that was out there, that quiet moment that always comes when night bridges slowly into day.
The two shotgun blasts that had struck my ears like cupped hands had set off a ringing that was just now beginning to diminish. I felt myself emerging from a muted world to a more distinct one. I could hear Tina breathing, I could hear conversation around me, sneakers squeaking against tile, dolly wheels rattling as they rolled. I thought about Gale and wondered if she was somewhere in this building right now. I wondered if I would ever see her again.
It wasn’t long before I heard the sound of a siren approaching. It grew louder and more insistent as it came nearer. I watched through the sliding glass doors and waited for what I knew by the sound would be a patrol car. The siren grew more urgent till finally I saw it pass the doors and come to a stop just beyond them. I heard car doors open, then close. I glanced at Tina. She was staring at some point across the room, unaware of everything. I heard voices and looked back toward the double glass doors just as they parted automatically. Two cops entered with a handcuffed man between them. They held him by the elbows and walked past us without glancing at me. I didn’t realize till after they had passed that the man between them was the boxer. I’d been too busy looking for recognition in the cop’s eyes to notice.
The boxer staggered as they led him to the reception desk. There was blood caked on the back of his head. The cops wore latex gloves on their hands. The nurse stood up right away and escorted them through the swinging doors and into the emergency room. I watched the doors swing to a close in their wake.
I could hear my heart pounding. Blood rushed in my ears, sounding to me like the echo of a thunderclap out over the ocean. We were all here, in this building—Augie and Tina, the ugly boxer who had beaten Augie, at least two Southampton cops, maybe even the three boys, one of them with his knee torn to shreds.
And maybe, too, the father of the boy was here, contemplating a future destroyed and entertaining thoughts of revenge.
What was it Augie had said to me when we’d first met?
We take care of the ones we love.
I had been thrown in the middle of something yet again, but not by Frank Gannon this time. It was the cruelty of an entitled son that had done that. And, too, the recklessness of my only real friend. A man who had once said to me, “My right arm is yours.” A man who had given me no reason since to doubt his pledge.
Regardless of what put me here, I had to start piecing things together. I had to catch up or be left behind. I needed to know what Augie was up to.
I turned to Tina and said, “I need your help.”
At first it seemed that she hadn’t heard me. She just stared ahead. But eventually she turned her head a little and looked at me. Her eyes were flat, and by her expression it appeared as though she were looking at someone she had never seen before.
I knew I had to break through that. “I need to know what your father was doing,” I said. “I need you to tell me what you know. And I need you to tell me now, okay?”
She looked away, saying nothing. I leaned closer and spoke in a whisper. “I’m in trouble, Tina. I’m in trouble and I need you to help me.”
She turned and gave me the same odd stare. Then her eyes lowered, her line of vision coming to rest on my chest. She reminded me of a bird that had stunned itself by flying into a window.
“Anything you can tell me, Tina. Anything.”
Her eyes shifted from side to side as if she were tr
ying to decide whether or not to say what was on her mind. I gave her time, watching her closely.
“There’s a boy in my school,” she said finally. Her eyes were still fixed on my chest. “We were in the same homeroom. Two weeks ago he overdosed on heroin and died. He’d bought the bag or whatever from someone on school grounds. My father didn’t take the news very well.”
“What do you mean?”
“He had moved us out here to get away from all that. Drugs, gangs. He used to say this was the last safe place on earth. He talked about coming back here for years. But when the boy at school died, Augie went kind of nuts.”
“You said he would leave the house at sundown and not come back till dawn. This was after he heard about the boy?”
She nodded. “He was very angry about the whole thing. It was like he was taking it personally.”
“You think he was trying to find out who was selling at your school?”
She nodded again, her eyes still on my chest. “People have seen him out there during the day, like he was watching the place or something. He’d be sitting in his car, watching the parking lot. It was embarrassing.”
“He must have felt like an old enemy had caught up with him,” I said.
Tina took a breath, let it out. “Do you think he found out who the dealer was? Is that why they did what they did to him?”
I realized then that she wasn’t aware of the condition their home was in. She had no idea that it had been torn apart. She didn’t know about the professional who had tried to kill me with a sawed-off shotgun. All she knew about was the guy she had seen bolt across the front yard in a hooded sweatshirt and baseball cap and the condition of her father.
“I don’t know,” I answered.
Her eyes lifted then, rising from my chest to my mouth. They held there for a moment. I could tell she wanted to say something.
It took her a while but finally she shrugged and said, “My life would be very different right now if you hadn’t shown up. In a lot of ways, you know. If you hadn’t stopped Tommy and his friends. And if you hadn’t taken me home.” She shrugged again. “I can’t imagine what would have happened if you hadn’t done what you did.”
“Everything’s going to be okay,” I said. I didn’t know what else to say.
She found my eyes then. “Promise.”
“Yeah.”
She looked at my mouth for a moment more, then leaned into me, resting the side of her head on my shoulder. I didn’t dare move. She stayed that way till a doctor came out of the emergency room and approached us.
His hair was dark and tightly curled. He had an early tan on his face and forearms. Tina and I stood to meet him. He was wearing green hospital scrubs and there were pockets of sweat under his arms.
He spoke to Tina and me equally, alternating eye contact between us. His voice was calm and certain, but there was a graveness in his tone.
“He’s unconscious still,” he told us. The three of us were together in a tight huddle. “He took a severe beating to the head. There is some blood clotting that’s pushing against the brain, which we can drain, but we’ll have to wait till he’s stronger. He’s listed as critical, but we’re hoping that will change soon. Our real concern here is in the long term. There may be some brain damage. We won’t know anything till he comes around. He’s a strong man, and he’s healthy. It’s just too early to know anything for certain. All we can do now is wait and see. If you come back this afternoon you should be able to see him.”
He left us alone then. Tears were in Tina’s eyes again. She seemed as angry by what she just heard as distraught. I wondered then what battles she and her father fought on a regular basis. I wondered if certain aspects of Augie’s nature required that this fifteen-year-old girl play the adult. I wondered if she was as much wife as she was daughter, tireless reason to his vast capacity for recklessness.
I knew it was time to get her out of there, away from this commotion. I knew she would need to be in a place where nothing else could happen to her for a while. The only place I could think of was mine. And that, for a hundred different reasons, wasn’t exactly the place for a fifteen-year-old girl to be.
I got Tina out of there, walked beside her and guided her toward my LeMans. The clouds had rolled off, and the morning sky was clear and bright. I squinted against the early sun as we got into my car and made the short drive from the hospital to the Hansom House.
I expected Elm Street to be filled with cop cars, but it wasn’t. I expected them to pull up as I was walking Tina up the pathway to the door, but that didn’t happen. I got her inside, put her in my bed, told her I’d be right outside and closed the door behind me. I walked to my living room windows and stood there.
Where the hell were they? Why was the Chief waiting so long?
It was just before noon when the knock came to my door.
Tina was still asleep in my bed. I was stretched out on my couch, exhausted but unable to rest. I got up quickly and hurried to the door. I didn’t want whoever was on the other side to knock again. I didn’t want to awaken Tina.
I was in jeans and a T-shirt, barefooted. When I opened the door I was once again face to face with Frank Gannon.
Despite the fact that it was high noon outside, it was dark in the hallway. Frank’s features were deeply shadowed, his expression, what I could see of it, austere. He didn’t make a move to enter and he didn’t offer a greeting. He was here on business, that was clear, and I got the feeling that it wasn’t going to be a long visit.
“I thought you’d like to know that there isn’t going to be any fallout for what you did behind the library last night.”
I didn’t say a word.
“You know who those boys were, right?” he asked. “And the one whose knee you busted. You know who he was, right?”
I nodded. “They were about to rape Augie’s daughter.”
“Hey, you don’t have to explain it to me. Tommy Miller has had quite a criminal career so far. Shoplifting, drunk driving, assault, you name it, he’s been there. Of course, he hasn’t been charged with anything. And he never will be. You’d be amazed what a choirboy the Chief thinks his son is, despite everything the kid has done. Christ, the Chief’s walls are covered with photographs of his pride and joy in action. Dozens of them. And you’ve put his pride and joy in the hospital. They say he’ll be lucky if he can walk right again, let alone run. He was college-bound, you know that. University of Michigan, full scholarship.”
Frank gave me a minute to think about all that, let it sink in, then said, “Now, the Chief has two eyewitnesses who picked out a photograph of the man they say attacked them and his son last night. Don’t suppose I need to tell you who that person is, do I?”
I said nothing.
“Of course, you can always just take off, right? Not much keeping you here. You could always do what your father did when things got tough—just up and disappear. I mean, the train station is right out your door. I’m sure that’s why you live in this dump, right? Frankly, I’m surprised you haven’t run already. I figured I’d knock on your door a few times and no one would answer.”
Frank paused, then said, “But you’re still here, and I have to admit, that says something about your character. You had to know what would be waiting for you over at the Village Hall. The holding cells are in the basement, at the bottom of a nasty set of cement stairs. A guy could spend all night falling down those stairs and no one would hear a thing.”
“Is there a point coming soon, Frank?”
“Augie has a living will, did you know that? I know about it because I notarized it for him. He’d had it drawn up only recently. It makes you Tina’s legal guardian, should anything happen to Augie. And since something has happened to him that means that, as his friend, I can’t let anything happen to you. So I met with the Chief early this morning. I caught him just as he and his men were on the way out the door, in fact. On their way here. I informed him that his two witnesses are clearly in error, because yo
u were with me at the time of the attack, working a case way the hell out in Montauk. I reminded the Chief of how dark it is behind the library, and that his two witnesses had been beaten up pretty badly themselves. Identifications such as those tend to shatter pretty easily against an alibi as rock-solid as the one I provided for you. I also reminded the Chief that if Tommy were to take the stand against you, he’d be open to cross examination by a DA who would be, let’s say, well-briefed. The tearful testimony of any number of girls would certainly lead to the public demanding an investigation. And should no such investigation materialize, the FBI would have no choice but to step in and take over.”
My life, I knew then, had changed in every way imaginable.
Even if I wanted to say anything, I wouldn’t have been able to speak. There was no air in my lungs.
“You’re free and clear, MacManus, but you might want to consider lying low for a while. Considering the way cops take care of their own, you wouldn’t want to get stopped for a broken taillight or because you ran a stop sign. And it might seem to you like a good idea to move, find a quiet place for you and the girl to hide. But I would prefer it if you stayed right where I can find you, if you get my meaning.”
Nothing in the world was clearer to me than what he meant. Nothing was brighter than the small circle of light Frank Gannon had caught me in.
“I don’t pretend to know you well, MacManus. I don’t pretend to understand you. But I’d be willing to bet you’re planning on finding out why Augie was almost beaten to death in his own home. Who knows, maybe you’re even thinking of taking revenge. Needless to say, I can’t allow you to do either of those things. Trust me, I’ll be doing what I can to look into the matter. Do you hear what I’m saying to you?”
I told him I did.
Frank reached into his pocket and pulled out the keys to his Cadillac. His hand closed into a tight fist around them.
“Stay put, MacManus,” he said. “Take care of Augie’s kid. And take care of yourself, too. I just may need you to return the favor one day.”
The Poisoned Rose Page 10