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cause pain to people in passing cars. What happened?
I gotChutsky back, I said. But Dr.Dancogot away.WithDoakes .
Where is he?
I don t know, Debs, he got away in an airboat and
Kyle, you idiot.Where is Kyle? Is he all right?
I dropped him at the Mutiny. He s, um . . . He s almost all right, I said.
What the fuck does that mean?!? she screamed at me, and I had to switch my
phone to the other ear.
Deborah, he s going to be okay. He s just he lost half of his left arm and
half the right leg. And all his hair, I said. She was quiet for several
seconds.
Bring me some clothes, she said at last.
He s feeling very uncertain, Debs. I don t think he wants
Clothes, Dexter. Now, she said, and she hung up.
As I said, no rest for the wicked.I sighed heavily at the injustice of it
all, but I obeyed. I was almost back to my apartment, and Deborah had left
some things there. So I ran in and, although I paused to look longingly at my
bed, I gathered a change of clothing for her and headed for the hospital.
Deborah was sitting on the edge of her bed tapping her feet impatiently when
I came in. She held her hospital gown closed with the hand that protruded from
her cast, and clutched her gun and badge with the other. She looked like
Avenging Fury after an accident.
Jesus Christ, she said, where the hell have you been? Help me get
dressed. She dropped her gown and stood up.
I pulled a polo shirt over her head, working it awkwardly around the cast. We
just barely had the shirt in place when a stout woman in a nurse s uniform
hurried into the room. What you think you re doing? she said in a thick
Bahamian accent.
Leaving, Deborah said.
Get back in that bed or I will call doctor, the nurse said.
Call him, Deborah said, now hopping on one foot as she struggled into her
pants.
No you don t, the nurse said. You get back in the bed.
Deborah held up her shield. This is a police emergency, she said. If you
impede me I am authorized to arrest you for obstruction of justice.
The nurse thought she was going to say something very severe, but she opened
her mouth, looked at the shield, looked at Deborah, and changed her mind. I
will have to tell doctor, she said.
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Whatever, Deborah said. Dexter, help me close my pants. The nurse watched
disapprovingly for another few seconds, then turned and whisked away down the
hall.
Really, Debs, I said. Obstruction of justice?
Let s go, she said, and marched out the door. I trailed dutifully behind.
Deborah was alternately tense and angry on the drive back over to the Mutiny.
She would chew on her lower lip, and then snarl at me to hurry up, and then as
we came close to the hotel, she got very quiet. She finally looked out her
window and said, What s he like,Dex ? How bad is it?
It s a very bad haircut, Debs. It makes him look pretty weird. But the other
stuff . . . He seems to be adjusting. He just doesn t want you to feel sorry
for him. She looked at me, again chewing her lip. That s what he said, I
told her. He wanted to go back toWashington rather than put up with your
pity.
He doesn t want to be a burden, she said. I know him. He has to pay his
own way. She looked back out the window again. I can t even imagine what it
was like. For a man like Kyle to lie thereso helpless as She shook her head
slowly, and a single tear rolled down her cheek.
Truthfully, I could imagine very well what it had been like, and I had done
so many times already. What I was having difficulty with was this new side of
Deborah. She had cried at her mother s funeral, and at her father s, but not
since then, as far as I knew. And now here she was practically flooding the
car over what I had come to regard as an infatuation with someone who was a
little bit of an oaf. Even worse, he was now a disabled oaf, which should mean
that a logical person would move on and find somebody else with all the proper
pieces still attached. But Deborah seemed even more concerned withChutsky now
that he was permanently damaged. Could this be love after all?Deborah in love?
It didn t seem possible. I knew that theoretically she was capable of it, of
course, but I mean, after all, she was my sister.
It was pointless to wonder. I knew nothing at all about love and I never
would. It didn t seem like such a terrible lack to me, although it does make
it difficult to understand popular music.
Since there was nothing else I could possibly say about it, I changed the
subject. Should I call Captain Matthews and tell him thatDoakes is gone? I
said.
Deborah wiped a tear off her cheek with one fingertip and shook her head.
That s for Kyle to decide, she said.
Yes, of course, but Deborah, under the circumstances
She slammed a fist onto her leg, which seemed pointless as well as painful.
GodDAMNit, Dexter, I won t lose him!
Every now and then I feel like I am only receiving one track of a stereo
recording, and this was one such time. I had no idea what well, to be honest,
I didn t even have an idea what to have an idea about. What did she mean? What
did it have to do with what I had said, and why had she reacted so violently?
And how can so many fat women think they look good in a belly shirt?
I suppose some of my confusion must have showed on my face, because Deborah
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unclenched her fist and took a deep breath. Kyle is going to need to stay
focused, keep working. He needs to be in charge, or this will finish him.
How can you know that?
She shook her head. He s always been the best at what he does. That s his
whole it s who he is. If he gets to thinking about whatDanco did to him She
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