Blood Red

“Oh, I got sympathy for you. I’m not even gonna tell the girls who give you the eye that your nuts are broken.” They stepped out of the hospital and into the parking deck. Boyd reached for a cigar.

“You’re all fuckin’ heart.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m an old softy.” He plunked the cigar into his mouth and ruminated on it for a few minutes as they walked.

“Something happened to him. He wasn’t like this last week.”

“You see his hand?”

“The bloody one?”

“Yeah, Danny, the bloody one. I watched when they changed the bandages.”

“I was a little busy trying to find my testicle.”

“You get that taken care of okay, did you?”

“Yeah, they’re both there now.”

“Anyway. He got the shit bit out of his hand. Either he was killing his wife or son and they bit him, or one of them went crazy.”

“He didn’t kill his wife or son. I’d put money on that and kiss Whalen’s husband.”

“You going all sweet on Nancy’s husband, Danny?”

“Not as sweet as you are on Nancy.”

“Shut your mouth. That sort of shit just causes troubles.”

“It’s mutual. I thought she was gonna crawl under the table and give you a hummer right in the fucken restaurant.”

“Nothing ever happened. Nothing ever will. Now shut up about it.”

“He still didn’t kill his wife.”

“He never let the doctors finish checking out his boy. What does that say?”

“That he wanted his son safe and at home and resting.”

“I dunno. Maybe, maybe not.”

“So let’s pretend that I’m a detective too, Rich.”

“Oh, you’re a detective.” He shot Danny a look. “You’re a damned good one, too. I just don’t know if I agree with you.”

“So we get some pictures of the hand wound, see if they took any before they started sewing it up, and see if the marks match any dental records for the kid or the mom. Maybe someone else broke into the house.”

“I’m pretty sure someone did.”

Danny looked at him and stopped moving. “So what makes you call him crazy?”

“He is crazy. He kicked a cop in the balls. That’s crazy.”

“But you don’t think he attacked his own family? Why?”

“Because I looked at the window while you were checking out the bedroom. Somebody big hit that glass hard, and he had glass all in his hair. I think he got pushed or thrown out that window.”

“Maybe it was his son. Maybe somebody drugged the kid with PCP or something.”

“Could be, he was gone for a couple of days. Anything could have happened to him.”

They walked the rest of the way to the car in silence, each lost in their own little processes for working on puzzles.

“We gonna bust Freemont today?”

“Only if the lab gets those results to us.” Danny started toward the driver’s side door of the car and Boyd pushed in front of him. “Uh, no. I got the driving.”

“What? I always drive.”

“Not when your balls are still recovering. I want you able to think and relax.”

“Careful, Richie. I might think you actually care.”

“Hey, I do care. You’re my buddy. You’re lousy in a fight, but you’re still my pal.” He sucked and puffed at his cigar until his head was surrounded by a halo of smoke. Then he climbed into the driver’s seat and started the engine. “I want to go to the Cliff Walk.”

“Yeah? Why this time?”

“They live right near there. I want to see if maybe you’re right and somebody is dumping bodies there.”

“Jelly. I’m telling you, Richie, they’re all dead and jelly on the rocks.”

“You’re sick and obsessed.”

“You’re short and a bitch.”

“Maybe, but I ain’t your bitch.”

“No. You’re Whalen’s bitch, and her husband’s if he ever finds out about you two.”

“There’s nothing to find out.”

“Yet.”

“Fuck you.”

“No way, my balls hurt too much.”

VI

Ben woke up with Maggie in the bed next to him. She was asleep, her face highlighted with shades of gold by the afternoon sun. His jaw hurt, his ribs ached, and his entire side felt like someone had parked a car on it, and he didn’t care in the least. He spent almost ten minutes looking at her, studying her, loving the way she looked while she slept.

Loving her. That was the problem here. He wasn’t supposed to love her. Even if he was, he sure as hell didn’t expect her to love him back.

That part he got right at least. It was sweet of her to stay, to make sure he was all right through the night, but he wasn’t about to read anything into it.

Her hair was a wild mess of curls, half of which fell across her face and hid the curves and edges of her cheek and jaw. Her lips were just slightly parted and he could see the white of her teeth as she breathed in and out softly.

There was a strong desire to lean over and kiss her awake. There was also a desperate need to drain his bladder. He let common sense override his desires and climbed carefully out of the bed.

Ten minutes later he was brewing coffee. Five minutes after that, he was whipping eggs into froth and chopping ham. He didn’t have any fresh mushrooms, so the canned ones would have to suffice.