Superbia (Book One of the Superbia Series) (10 page)

Frank grabbed the
top of the door, prying it away from the frame just as Vic lost his grip and
the door cinched shut on the tips of Frank’s fingers.
 
Vic immediately wedged his fingers into the
crease again and yanked, allowing Frank to free himself.
 
“I told you to wait for the goddamn Fire
Company!” Frank shouted, staring at his swollen fingers.

“No, goddamn it!”
 
Vic pulled like an animal trying to free
itself from a snare.
 
Each time he
pulled, the door tightened around his own fingers, crushing them, but he would
not give up.
 

Frank stuck his
fingers back into the top of the door, “Being your partner sucks!”

The two of them
finally wrenched the door open and were able bend the hinges enough to create a
foot wide gap.
 
Vic ducked his head into
the opening and said, “Can you girls come out of there on your own?”
 
Neither of them moved.
 
He held out his hand and said, “It’s
okay.
 
You’ll be safe out here.
 
Come on, honey.
 
It’s all right.”

The girl with the
glass in her cheek looked at her sister.
 
The sister began to cry.

***

Frank drove back
to the station, glancing down at the tips of his fingers every so often to see
how much more they’d swollen and turned purple.
 
He backed the patrol car into its spot and slammed the shifter into
park.
 
“This is just what I needed, Vic.
 
Thanks a whole hell of a lot.
 
I’m already dealing with my freaking knee,
and now all my fingers are probably broken too, all because you couldn’t wait
for the goddamn fire company!
 
Everything
everybody says about you is true!
 
You’re
a hot-shot, self-righteous, glory seeking bullshit artist!
 
I’m done!”

Vic did not
speak.
 
His own fingers were bloody and
raw as he reached for the glove compartment, scratching at some unseen spot on
the surface.
 
  

Frank threw up
his hands and said, “Whatever.
 
Just sit
here, then.”
 
He got out of the car and
threw the door shut.
 
He walked into the
station and headed for the emergency kit hanging on the wall to break open an
ice pack.
 
The cold stung his fingers,
but he pressed them into the squishy bag.
 
He waited a few minutes, then walked back to the rear door and looked
out to see that Vic was still sitting in the police car, not moving.
 

A few moments
later, Frank opened the driver’s side door and sat back down.
 
He held the ice pack to Vic and said,
“Here.
 
Take it.”
 

Vic took the bag
and pressed his fingers down into it, wincing.
 
“Thanks,” he said.
 

Frank waved his
hand and looked out at the parking lot.
 
“I missed a lot while I was out, I guess.
 
We had a dead kid?”

Vic nodded, but
did not speak.
 

“Do you want to
talk about it?”

Vic shook his
head.
 

“That must’ve
sucked.
 
I hate seeing bad things happen
to kids.
 
I guess you’ve seen a lot more
of that then most guys around here,” Frank said.
 

Vic nodded
quietly, and Frank could see that his eyes were starting to turn red.
 
Vic whispered.
 
“I started drinking pretty good after that
one.
 
Danni told me to either get help or
get out.
 
Nobody here knows it, but I
moved out of the house three months ago.”

“I’m sorry to
hear that.
 
Do you still get to see your
kids?”

“One night a
week, both days on the weekends.
 
The
only problem is that I’m on-call and when I have them, I need to scramble to
find somebody to stay with them so I can go in.”
  

“Who do you use?”

“My mom.
 
She doesn’t live too far away.
 
She’s been pretty good about it so far, but I
can tell it’s getting old.”
 

Frank nodded and
looked at his fingers.
 
The swelling had
gone down.
 
“I’m glad we got those little
girls out.”
 

Vic looked at his
own fingers and then turned to look at Frank.
 
He took a deep breath and said, “There’s something I need to ask
you.
 
Did you watch
Colors
yet?”

“I did, when I
was in the station, looking for ice to heal my ruined fingers.
 
It was a good movie.
 
I’m a fan of De Niro’s.
 
He was good.”

“De Niro wasn’t
in the movie.”
  

“Yes, he was,”
Frank said.
 
“Billy even said so.
 
Bobby D. played the old head.”

“Robert
Duvall.
 
Different Bobby D.”

“Well the one I
saw had all those guys in it, and it was a classic.
 
Maybe you saw a different version.”

“You are an
idiot,” Vic said.
 
He opened the patrol
car door and slid out of the seat.
 

“See?” Frank
said.
 
“This is good.
 
I felt like we bonded just now.”

“Go away,” Vic
said.
 
“I don’t like you.”

“Oh, yes you do,”
Frank said, hurrying after him.
 
“We’re
like Tango and Cash.
 
Turner and
Hooch.
 
Cagney and Lacey!”

Vic stopped.
 
“Am I Cagney or Lacey?”
  

“Which one was
the lesbian?”

“One of them was a
lesbian?”

“In the porno
version, both were lesbians,” Frank said.
 
“Sometimes, anyway.”

“There is
something deeply, deeply wrong with you, Frank.”

***

Frank looked at
the picture on the wall behind his desk and said, “All right, so give.
 
What happened to her?”

Vic stared at his
computer screen and said, “Maternity leave.”

“Bullshit.”

Vic shrugged and
said, “Believe what you want.”

Frank kicked his
feet up on the desk and said, “You know what you are?”

“What am I?”

“A not-even-promoted
detective.
 
You know what’s worse than
that?”

“Not much.”

“Being a
not-even-promoted detective’s bitch, Vic.
 
Being stuck down in the basement with you all day and night, and you
don’t even trust me enough to tell me what happened to your last partner.”
 

Vic turned around
and said, “Come on, it isn’t
that
bad.”

“This year I’ve
gotten shot, killed a kid, watched my partner die in front of me, and none of
that compared to what you’ve put me through these past few days.
 
I ate baby shit, Vic.
 
Baby shit.
 
You never even had the decency to say you were sorry.”
   

“I told you, I
don’t say—”

“I know, I
know.
 
Victor Ajax doesn’t
apologize.
 
Whatever.”

Vic sighed and
spun in his chair to face Frank, “What I tell you goes no further than this
office, you understand?”

Frank turned
around and faced him, completely straight-faced.

“I can’t take you
serious when you look like that.
 
I’m
used to you looking goofy,” Vic said.
 
“Two years ago we needed a young female undercover officer for a job I
was working with the task force.
 
I found
Aprille when she was a cadet.
 
She was
hired here and immediately attached to me.
 
I trained her.
 
Kept her away from
everybody.
 
And we started building
cases.”

“She went right
to undercover work with no street experience?” Frank said.
 

“That’s right.”

“Was she any good
at it?”

“She was the
best.
 
Better than anything I’ve ever
seen, because she didn’t have any street cop experience, she didn’t have the
attitude.
 
She didn’t have the
self-righteousness.
 
She was just a
kid.
 
People sold her drugs like their
hair was on fire.”

“So why did she
leave?”

“She got
pregnant.”

Frank rolled his
eyes and said, “Whatever.
 
I thought you
were being serious.”

Vic leaned
forward and folded his hands together.
 
“I am.”

Frank nodded with
understanding.
 
“Was it yours?”

“No.”

“Another cop’s?”

“It was a person
I thought I could trust.
 
She thought he
would do the right thing, he didn’t, and things got bad.”

“How bad?” Frank
said.
  

Vic leaned back
in his chair and said, “After she lost the baby?
 
Pretty fucking bad.”

7.
 
There was a soft knock at the door that made
Vic jump off of the couch and turn off the television.
 
He stood against the door and slowly turned
the handle, backing up so that he stayed out of sight when it opened.
 

“Where is he?”
his daughter’s tiny voice said.
  

“I don’t know,”
Dannaid said.
 
“Why don’t you go in and
look for him?”

Penelope’s tiny
head bounced past him, calling out, “Dad?
 
Where are you?”
 
She stopped and
looked both ways, calling his name again.
 
Vic reached down and poked her on the side, making her scream and giggle
at the same time.
 
He swept her up in his
arms and buried his face in her neck, gobbling her up with kisses.

Jason unslung his
backpack at the door and said, “Hey dad.”

“Come here!” Vic
said.
 
He pulled his son in close to his
side and kissed the top of his head.
 
“I’m so glad to see you guys.”
 
He
looked up to say hello to his wife, but stopped when he saw the short-skirt and
tight shirt.
 
Her hair was done up in
curls and she’d put makeup on.
 
“Going
somewhere?”

“I have a girl’s
night out,” she said quickly.
 
She smiled
at him with pursed lips and nodded, standing in his doorway.
 
Lying her brains out.
 

Vic said,
“Okay.
 
Have fun.”
 
He moved to close the door but Danni came
through the door and started looking around the apartment.
 

“You have dinner
for them?”

“I was going to
order a pizza,” he said.
 

She walked around
to corner to his tiny kitchen and opened the refrigerator, inspecting its
contents like a child welfare worker.
 
She looked up at the cereal boxes on top of his fridge and said, “I
don’t want you giving them nothing but sugar.”
 

“I don’t always
give them cereal,” he said.
 
“Look, can
you just go?
 
I’d like to spend some time
with the kids if you don’t mind.”

She closed the
refrigerator door and walked past him toward the kid’s bedroom.
 
“I have a right to know what conditions the
kids are living in.”
 
She opened the door
to the bedroom , seeing the daybed for her daughter and the small single bed
for Jason.
 
“They need their own rooms.”

“No kidding.
 
Right now, it’s all I can afford.”
 
He could smell her perfume.
 
He reached out to touch her bare shoulder
with the tips of his fingers and said, “Or maybe I could just come home.”

Danni quickly
stepped away from him and turned, hoisting her purse over her shoulder where
he’d touched her.
 
“Jason has a birthday
party to go to tomorrow at noon.”

“No he doesn’t, I
was going to take them to the movies.”

“I already told
the kid’s parents you were coming!”

“Why didn’t you
tell me?”

“Dad?” Jason
called out from the living room, “I really want to go.”

Vic sighed and
said, “Okay.”

“And no drinking
this weekend while you have them.”

Vic looked at her
in disbelief, “Excuse me?
 
Are you
suddenly my mother?”

“I just don’t
want you drinking around my children.
 
I
don’t think it sets a good example.”

“A couple beers
isn’t drinking,” Vic said.

“I said no
alcohol.
 
Period.”

“And I said who
the fuck are you to tell me how to behave?”

“Curse at me again,
and I’ll take them home with me right now.”

He looked at her
evenly and said, “I doubt that.
 
Whoever
you’re dressed up for would be disappointed, I bet.”

“Kids, get your
coats on.
 
We’re going home!” Danni
announced.
 

Both children
protested as she swooped into the living room and started picking up their
jackets.
  
“Daddy doesn’t want you to
stay here tonight.”