My Brother's Keeper (29 page)

Lou could see Sapphire clearly for the first time now. His face was narrow and hairless. His teeth were small, his breath was sour and his cheeks were hollow. His head was bald under the hat, his eyes cavernous and dark. But something burned in them, a red-hot fire in a black sky. He wasn't tall but he was wiry and strong and he was pushing hard on the knife, driving it closer by inches. He spun Lou around and drove him backward against the bus, the pointed blade entering his shoulder. Lou groaned from deep in his throat, the knife piercing the soft tissue just below his collar bone, the acid and blood rising up from his stomach and oozing from his open lips.

And just as the knife penetrated his flesh, his mind losing consciousness, a shot rang out. It echoed between the buses and it was difficult to tell from what direction it came. Lou wasn't even sure he'd heard it. It could have been a tendon snapping in his shoulder, the pain reverberating in his brain. The shot was followed by another. This time the bullet ricocheted off the steel of the fence, the shots coming from the other end of the lot.

Sapphire suddenly pulled the knife from Lou's shoulder and was running again, his steps crisp and flat in the renewed silence. Lou pressed his palm hard against the open wound, closing his eyes and sucking air. He pushed his back off the bus and opened his eyes to see Joey on the other side of the fence, the spotlight catching his silhouette. He had the gun in his hand, aiming at Sapphire's back as he retreated into the dark.

The outline of Joey's broad shoulders and round head faded in and out, Lou's blurred vision unable to focus, the fiery discharge from the gun lighting Joey's face for an instant. Joey had fired the first two shots as warnings. Now, with a clear target to shoot at and all the justification he'd ever need, he would shoot to kill.

Lou started to drag himself across the lot. The next shot seemed to miss its mark by mere inches. Joey got off one more, shattering the windshield of the first bus in the line before Sapphire disappeared again, climbing the fence behind the last row of buses and hitting the ground running.

‘You OK?'

‘I don't know.'

‘You're cut pretty bad.'

‘I don't think it's deep.'

‘Want me to call an ambulance?' Joey looked at him through the fence. ‘Your boy's getting away.'

‘I just need to catch my breath for a second.'

‘Jesus Christ! This kid runs like a goddamn rabbit.'

‘All right. I'm coming over.'

Lou hooked the fingers of his right hand into the chain link, his left arm tight against his side. His feet scrambled against the metal for a hold. He pulled himself painstakingly toward the top of the fence. He hung himself over the top rail and got a glimpse of Sapphire crossing Delaware Avenue into a freight yard filled with containers ready to be loaded onto waiting ships docked on the Delaware River. Lou braced himself with his good arm and dropped to the other side.

‘Lou, for God's sake. You're bleeding like a stuck pig.'

‘We can still catch him.' Joey followed Lou across Delaware Avenue. ‘There's nothing over here but the ships and the river. He's got nowhere to go.'

They split up, taking separate paths between the metal containers. They were getting closer to the river. They could hear it now and feel the cold breeze and the spray carrying over the docks. They emerged simultaneously to see Sapphire climbing onto a concrete ledge that seemed to be there for the sole purpose of keeping the river from crawling out of its bed and stalking over the land. Joey got off a quick shot.

Sapphire ducked at the sound. Joey leveled the gun, bringing it back on target. His finger tightened over the trigger, the slow pull coming in barely perceptible increments as the hammer lifted from its seat. Lou reached him just as the gun exploded, pushing his arm down at the last minute, the shot ringing out just as Sapphire dove into the icy water.

‘Are you crazy?'

‘Yeah, maybe.'

They ran to the water's edge, leaning over the concrete abutment and staring silently across the river at all that black water. It seemed impossible that anyone could enter it and come out alive. It would never stop for anything or anyone. It had a power fed by the ocean and the wind and the moon and it was enough water to swallow them and the whole city of Philadelphia as it had just swallowed Billy Sapphire.

‘Do you see him?'

‘No, I don't see him. There's nothing to see. He's gone.'

‘Goddamn it.'

‘What the hell were you trying to prove, grabbing my arm like that? I saved your ass from getting filleted like a cold fish. We could have ended it right here.'

‘I want him alive.'

‘Yeah, well, I hope he can swim. Maybe he'll wash up in Jersey.'

‘And maybe he'll swim back home.'

‘Like those salmon you were talking about?'

‘Yeah, just like the salmon.'

TWENTY-SIX

L
ou lowered himself onto the concrete wall, sitting with his back to the river. A faint glow of morning light seemed to be hovering in the east, taking its good old time coming across. No reason to hurry now. The cold sunlight that washed across that river every morning was still somewhere out over the Atlantic, just beginning to cast its gray light onto the Jersey shore. But the water would stay cold, even through the summer. The water would always be cold.

‘You want me to call Mitch?'

‘No.'

‘I'm calling an ambulance. You don't look good.'

‘Don't bother. It's only a flesh wound.'

‘It's worse than that.'

‘I'll survive.'

Lou had started to shiver. It had started as a shudder up his spine but had quickly spread and now his hands were shaking and his knees were knocking and his teeth were rattling in his head. Huddled against the wind coming off the river, with his arms tight around his body, he shivered like a half-drowned dock rat, one of those bums that had spent the best years of his life humping freight on the Philadelphia dockyard and drinking whiskey until there was nothing left of them but a haggard shell. They still sat along the waterfront, like prehistoric birds, flightless and half-blind and waiting to die.

‘I'm taking you to the hospital.'

‘Good. Maggie's over there, keeping Betty company on the night shift. I think she wants to be a nurse when she grows up.'

‘Then you'll be her first patient.'

‘I think Catherine Waites might have that distinction by now.'

Joey had grabbed Lou by the arm and Lou was leaning heavily on him.

‘Want me to get the car? You can wait here.'

‘I'll make it.'

It was a long, slow walk back to the car. Joey helped Lou into the passenger seat. He got the car moving and the heat going and Lou's head fell back against the headrest. It was the closest thing to sleep he'd had in a couple days.

They found Maggie and Betty sipping coffee in the first-floor visitor's lounge. Betty helped Joey with Lou, getting him into the empty emergency room. She peeled him gingerly out of his jacket and the doctor used a pair of scissors to cut him out of his shirt. Lou didn't notice at first that it was the same doctor from the night before.

‘Long shift, huh, Doc?'

‘You do seem to have your share of trouble, Mr Klein.'

‘It's my middle name.'

‘I'll note that on my report.'

‘Glad you haven't lost your sense of humor. Lack of sleep will do that.'

‘I'm not laughing. I told you before, you should leave police work to the cops. If you want to get yourself killed I can't stop you. I'd just hate to see you endanger someone else.'

Betty got an IV going as the doctor began to suture Lou's shoulder. He stuck Lou with a few long, ugly needles first and then he began to sew it up with what looked like a fish hook and black thread, patting away the blood with gauze pads soaked in peroxide. Maggie was holding his hand, trying to warm it in hers.

‘What happened, Dad?'

‘Cut myself shaving.'

‘That's the official story.'

‘Joey!'

‘Your dad decided to chase a murder suspect down a few dark alleys. Only he forgot to ask him if he still had the murder weapon on him. A nice, dirty carving knife with a six-inch blade and a lot of other people's blood on it.'

‘Hope the other guy looks worse than you do, Lou.'

‘Nice try, Betty. He got away. Dived into the Delaware River after I took a few shots at him. Would have got him too if he hadn't stopped me.'

The doctor put in a last stitch and tied it off. Lou grimaced. He looked ready to throw up. Betty dressed the wound with a lot of tape and suggested Lou keep the arm immobilized in a sling for a while. The doctor wrote out a couple of prescriptions on a pad and tore them off one at a time. He suggested Lou spend the rest of the day in the hospital under observation. Joey yawned and they all walked out into the lobby together.

‘Where do you think Sapphire is headed, Joey?'

‘You don't think he's dead?'

‘Something tells me it's going to take more than a little swim in the Delaware to kill this guy.'

‘I know what you mean. Unless, of course, he has a bullet in him.'

‘Which might make him even more dangerous if he thought he didn't have much more time.'

They stopped at the coffee machine, Lou digging in his pocket for loose change. Betty pulled a few coins from her purse and dropped them through the slot. There were too many buttons to choose from. She ran her hand over the various selections as if they were written in Braille. Joey reached over her shoulder and pushed the one that had
black
next to it in bold letters. The cup dropped down and a weak stream of brackish fluid filled it while they all watched.

‘Where do you think he's headed?'

‘Home.'

‘Back to Grays Ferry.'

‘Nah. Home to see Grandma.'

Lou slowly lifted the cup to his lips with his one good hand. And though it burned his fingers he was glad for the warmth. He was about to take another sip when Donny Weeks came around the corner jingling a handful of quarters in his hand. The dark circles under his eyes made it look like he'd been in a fight. Apparently he'd had the same idea as Lou – a cardboard cup out of a machine filled with scalding hot coffee that tasted like gasoline.

‘Your girlfriend's up. She's asking for you.'

‘I could use a smoke.'

They all walked outside. Lou's jacket was draped over his shoulder and Joey slid his hand inside one of the pockets to extract a pack of cigarettes. The men smoked while Betty warmed up her car. Joey slipped the keys to the Cadillac into Lou's jacket.

‘Betty said I could catch a ride home with her, Lou. I'm going to bed. I'll make sure Maggie gets in safe. You take your time.'

Lou looked at his daughter. She looked worried.

‘Hey, how's your patient?'

‘If you mean Catherine Waites, she's still in a coma.'

Franny was sitting up in bed sucking ginger ale from a straw, the crushed ice crackling in the cup. Her eyes rolled upward as he came in. She was still pale but the shadow of death seemed to have passed, her face regaining some of its original color. Her eyes seemed brighter. Maybe that was because Lou was there. And maybe she just hadn't given up yet, wasn't quite ready to follow her brother into heaven.

‘I call your name and you're here. My errant knight.'

‘Donny told me.'

‘Told you what? That I needed a shoulder to cry on? That one of my brothers is dead and the other one blames me for it?'

‘None of this was your fault, Franny.'

‘You're the only one who thinks so.'

‘Since when did you care what anyone else thinks?'

‘You don't have to lie to me, Lou. Not now. And I promise I won't lie to you. Is it a deal?'

‘It's a deal.'

She took the last few sips of soda and it sounded like rainwater trickling down the rusted gutter at his mother's house. Whenever it rained the water would roll off the roof and into the leaky gutters and then on to the driveway where it ran into the street. Around this time of year it would form a thin sheet of black ice. Philly was known for it. And more than once Lou had found himself on his ass because of it.

He refilled Franny's cup from the green can on her tray.

‘I'm not going back to Brian, you know.'

‘That's not what he says.'

‘He says a lot of things. Most of it is bullshit so people will feel sorry for him. About how hard it is living in the shadow of William Haggerty. And his domineering mother who won't cut the apron strings. The purse strings, more like it.' She paused to catch her breath. She took another drink. Lou sat quietly watching the monitor, watching Franny Patterson's heart rate climb. ‘I never met the father but the mother is enough to drive anyone crazy.'

‘You talking about Brian Haggerty or Billy Sapphire?'

Franny's face reddened. The monitor above her bed kept time with her rising pulse, ticking like a clock on the wall. She slid a piece of crushed ice from the cup into her mouth and started chewing it.

‘You know about Billy?'

‘You told me.'

‘If I did I don't remember. I must have been delirious. What did I say?'

‘Not much. I was hoping you could fill in some of the missing pieces for me.'

‘Do the police know?'

‘Not the whole story.'

‘I'll give you one piece of the story. Billy didn't kill my brother.'

Lou stood and walked to the window. It was developing into a bright morning with the sun beating down on the growing number of cars in the lot below. The glare hurt Lou's eyes. They were tired, bloodshot eyes.

‘But he has hurt a lot of people, Franny. You know that. He's hurt you.'

‘A lot of people. Who? Girls from Brian's stable? Some pervert in a public park?'