NINE

Fairview Southdale Hospital in Edina was a half hour drive from Truhler’s town house yet it was the nearest health-care facility with an emergency room, so that’s where the paramedics took him. Nina and Erica were in the waiting room when I arrived. Nina looked angry, Erica looked frightened, and the young woman I had met earlier, she of the pearl necklace and high heels, looked like this was the best roller coaster ride she had ever been on. She giggled and waved when I entered the room.

“I know you,” she said.

She started to stand. I pointed at the chair, and she settled back down again.

“I’ll be right there,” I said.

She smiled. I thought she might giggle some more. She covered her mouth with her hand, though, and made no sound.

Nina and Erica were sitting on the other side of the waiting room from the girl and watching intently. Nina crossed the room to meet me. I thought she might need a hug, so I opened my arms to her. Instead, she grabbed the lapel of my jacket and pulled me close. She spoke in an urgent whisper.

“Did you do this?”

“Did I do what?”

“Put Jason in the hospital?”

Another man might have been angry at the question; another might have been hurt. I was neither. Given our history together, and her certain knowledge of the sort of things that happen when I involve myself in other people’s problems, I heard Nina’s inquiry not as an accusation but merely a request for information.

“No,” I said. “I did not. Of course I didn’t.” I spoke loudly enough for Erica to hear my answer. Afterward I dropped my voice so only Nina could hear. “Although the thought had crossed my mind.”

Nina gestured toward the young woman who was watching us from a chair on the other side of the room.

“Who’s your friend?” she asked. Her voice wasn’t nearly as low as mine had been.

“We weren’t formally introduced,” I said. “I met her briefly at Jason’s earlier.”

“Another one of Jason’s sluts. Why am I not surprised?”

“How long has she been here?”

“I don’t know. She was sitting there when I arrived. The police were talking to her earlier, so I thought she might have something to do with Jason, but when I went to say hello she blew me off.”

We made our way to the line of chairs positioned against the far wall where Erica was sitting.

“How are you doing, sweetie?” I asked her.

“What happened,” Erica said.

“I don’t know. I was going to ask you the same question.”

“We got a call from the hospital,” Nina said. “They said that Jason had been hurt. Apparently he listed me as his emergency contact.”

“Was he badly hurt?” I asked.

“We don’t know,” Nina said.

“The woman at the desk said that a doctor would tell us in a few minutes,” Erica said. “That was half an hour ago. She’s been ignoring us ever since.”

I glanced at the young woman. She was still wearing the pearls under a white shirt, but she had changed shoes. She looked like she wanted to come over and talk.

“Let me see what I can find out,” I said.

I crossed the floor to where she was sitting.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hi.”

“We haven’t been formally introduced.”

I offered my hand, and she shook it without rising from her chair.

“I’m Caitlin,” she told me. “Caitlin with a C. My friends call me Cait. That’s also with a C. You’re McKenzie.”

“How long have you been here?”

“A couple of hours. I came in the ambulance with Jason. The lady you were talking to, is she the other woman?”

“I think you’re the other woman.”

“I’m not,” Caitlin said. “Jason said there wasn’t anyone else. If he was lying, that’s not my fault, is it?”

“How old are you?”

“Does it matter?”

“Just curious.”

“I turn twenty next January.”

“Are you in school?”

She snickered as though she had never heard a sillier question.

“Jason isn’t seeing anyone else that I know of,” I said. “The woman”—I couldn’t bring myself to use Nina’s name—“is his ex-wife.”

Caitlin thought about it for a moment.

“That’s nice,” she said, “that they can still be friends.”

“Yeah, it’s wonderful. Can you tell me what happened?”

“You mean after you left?”

“Yes.”

She looked up at me and smiled. “I told the police—did I tell you that the cops questioned me?”

“What did you tell them?”

“After you left, Jason came back to the bedroom and said he wanted to do it again, and I said, ‘Where’s your friend?’ because I was hoping you’d be joining us. I thought that would be fun, only Jason, he didn’t like the idea at all, the three of us, and then someone was knocking on the door, and Jason was like, ‘I wonder what that asshole McKenzie wants now.’” The girl put her hand over her mouth. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

“It’s okay,” I said.

“So Jason goes to the door, and I kinda follow him because I was hoping it was you, and Jason opened the door, only it wasn’t you.”

“Who was it?”

“I don’t know. Two guys. I never heard any names.”

“What did they look like?”

“They were icky. One was short and had long blond hair that looked like it needed a shampoo and a trim, and the other guy was tall and he had long brown hair that he had in a ponytail. They both had straggly beards, and they were both wearing leather biker jackets.”

“What did they want?”

“I don’t know. When I saw it wasn’t you I went back to the bedroom.”

“What happened next?”

“There was some shouting, and I heard Jason yelling, ‘Don’t kill me,’ and I’m like whoa! I crept back down the corridor, and I saw Jason lying on the floor and the two biker dudes standing over him. One of them was holding a pipe, it looked like a pipe, and he was holding it—there was a handle, like one of those grips that they put on the handlebars of a bicycle. And his partner pointed me out and said, ‘Whaddaya think?’ I knew what he was thinking right away, so I ran back down the corridor to the bathroom to lock myself in, except I stopped in the bedroom for my cell phone first and I called the cops, only the two guys, they never did anything to me, they just left.”

“Then what?”

“I stayed on the phone like the woman said, the woman at nine-one-one. She was really nice. I stayed on the phone until the police came, and then I answered their questions and got dressed and came on the ambulance here to the emergency room with Jason. I didn’t think it would be right to just leave him, you know? So I came here and talked to the cops some more, and now I guess I’m just waiting to see if he’s okay. You know, Jason said he was involved with dangerous people, but I thought he was just trying to impress me. Did I tell you that before?”

“Yes.”

“I thought I did.”

I took her hand and gave it a pat.

“It was good of you to stay with Jason,” I said. “It was a classy move.”

“You really think?”

“I do.”

She giggled as I patted her hand again.

*   *   *

I recrossed the waiting room and sat next to Erica. Nina was in the chair on the opposite side of her daughter.

“What did she have to say?” Nina asked.

“Her name is Caitlin,” I said. “With a C.”

“And?”

“Someone attacked Jason in his home; she doesn’t know why. She called the police and got Jason to the hospital.”

“How virtuous of her.”

“I thought so.”

If our conversation had any effect on Erica, she kept it to herself.

We sat, without speaking, for another half hour. Finally a doctor wearing blue scrubs beneath a white lab coat stepped into the room, a chart in his hand. He read from the chart as if he were calling passengers to a waiting bus.

“Truhler?” he asked.

“Yes,” Nina said.

The doctor couldn’t be bothered to move to where we were sitting, or to even meet us halfway. Instead, he waited for us to join him. He spoke to Nina.

“You’re Mrs. Truhler?”

Nina didn’t bother to correct his misassumption.

“Yes,” she said.

“Your husband suffered a concussion,” the doctor said. “However, a CAT scan indicated no swelling of the brain or bleeding. There is no apparent memory loss or confusion. His vision, hearing, balance, coordination, and reflexes seem normal. We will keep him twenty-four hours for observation.”

“Is he going to be all right?” Erica asked.

“I believe that is what I just said.”

The doctor turned to walk away.

“Wait a minute,” I said.

He stopped, but he wasn’t happy about it.

“Your shitty bedside manner aside,” I said, “can we see him?”

The doctor shrugged away the question. “Talk to the nurse,” he said.

As he walked down the hospital corridor, a man dressed in a black sports coat brushed past him. The jacket bulged beneath his left armpit where he carried his gun.

“I’ll be dammed,” he said. “Rushmore McKenzie.”

I stared into his face, trying to place him.

“John Brehmer,” he said. He offered his hand. “When we met a few years ago, I was a deputy with the Carver County Sheriff’s Department.”

“That’s right.” I shook his hand. “Deputy Sergeant Brehmer. I remember. You helped me out. I never did thank you. Sorry about that.”

“That’s okay. I wasn’t looking for thanks.”

“You’re with Eden Prairie now?”

“The criminal investigations unit. I made the move a couple years ago so I could work plainclothes. So tell me, what’s your connection to all this?”

“Just a friend of the family.”

“Yeah? What do you know about what happened tonight?”

I gestured toward Caitlin. She was standing near her chair, watching.

“Only what the girl told me,” I said.

“Do you know the two men who assaulted Mr. Truhler?”

“Not at all.”

The smile on Brehmer’s face didn’t shift so much as a centimeter. Yet I knew he didn’t believe me.

“Ms.”—he glanced at his notebook—“Ms. Brooks said you left just before the two suspects arrived.”

“That’s true.”

“Did you see them when you left?”

“No.”

“See any vehicles lingering in the vicinity?”

“No.”

“Do you have any idea who they could be?”

“No.”

“Mr. Truhler didn’t mention that he was expecting guests?”

“No.”

“How about you, Mrs. Truhler?” Brehmer asked.

“I don’t know anything about it,” Nina said.

“Do you know any of Mr. Truhler’s associates?”

“Jason and I don’t live together,” Nina said. “We’ve been divorced for eighteen years. I’ve spoken to him just once in the past twelve months.”

Eighteen years, my inner voice said. That meant Jason divorced Nina while she was pregnant with his daughter. Or maybe it was Nina who did the divorcing. You really ought to get your facts straight.

“I don’t even know why we were called here,” Nina added.

Brehmer didn’t attempt to venture a theory. Good for him, I told myself. A cop needs to garner as much information from the family as possible, yet he doesn’t want to get involved with the family. There is nothing more dangerous than a domestic dispute.

“Did you interview Jason?” I asked.

“Just finished,” Brehmer said.

“What did he say?”

Brehmer held up his notebook for me to read. The page was empty.

“Apparently no one came to Truhler’s door and no one assaulted him,” Brehmer said. “It’s all been just one terrible misunderstanding.”

“I’ve come across misunderstandings like that myself over the years,” I said.

“Except they’re never really misunderstandings, are they? What’s going on, McKenzie?”

“I don’t know, John. I really don’t.”

Throughout the conversation, Erica had remained a silent bystander. Now she spoke up.

“Excuse me, Officer,” she said. “Do you believe we had anything to do with the attack on my father?”

“I have no evidence to suggest that.”

“Then please get out of the way.”

Brehmer gave Erica a hard look, but she held her ground. He switched his gaze to Caitlin, and she took a step backward. His eyes came back to me.

“You owe me one,” he said.

“I know I do.”

“I’ll be in touch.”

My inner voice spoke to me as I watched him heading for the exit.

You did it again, it said. You lied to a cop, lied to his face, without thought, without hesitation—the second time within twenty-four hours.

*   *   *

Nina and Erica headed down the corridor toward the room where Jason was being treated after assuring the woman at the desk that they were, in fact, family. I excused myself and went to where Caitlin Brooks was standing.

“I didn’t want to intrude,” she said. “I have to know, though. Is Jason all right?”

“He suffered a concussion.”

“Oh my God.” Caitlin’s hand came to her mouth. “That’s really serious.”

“Not necessarily.”

I must have had three concussions in the past couple of years, and they haven’t done me any harm. At least none that I’m aware of.

“Apparently it was a minor concussion,” I said. “The docs say Jason’ll be fine. They’re just keeping him overnight as a precaution.”

“Can I see him, do you think?”

“You’ll probably be better off coming back in the morning.”

“Because of what’s-her-name, the lady?”

“That’s one reason. Listen, do you have a ride?”

“I can call somebody.”

I glanced at my watch. It was past two thirty. I pulled a wad of cash from my pocket and peeled off two fifty-dollar bills.

“Here, Cait, why don’t you take this and get a cab home. It’ll be easier.”

Caitlin took the bills.

“What do you want for it?” she asked.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean what do you want me to do for the money?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all.”

She looked from the bills to me, back to the bills, and then to me again.

“Amazing,” she said.

*   *   *

Jason was sitting up in bed and smiling at Erica, who was holding his hand, and Nina, who was standing at the foot of his bed.

“My best girls,” he said. Nina looked like she didn’t care for the label; Erica didn’t seem to mind at all. “And McKenzie, too,” he added, when he saw me enter his room.

“You and I need to have a conversation,” I said.

“Not now, McKenzie.” Truhler touched his forehead. “I have a terrible headache.” He touched his stomach. “I have some nausea, too. The docs said to watch for nausea.” He put his hands behind his head and settled against the pillow. “Besides, it’s so late.”

“Now,” I said.

“It is awfully late,” Erica said.

“Sweetie, I need five minutes to speak to your father. Alone.”

I didn’t say “Now.” She heard it just the same. Erica kissed her father’s cheek and said she’d be back to see him in the morning. Nina followed Erica out of the room. She never said a word.

“What do you want, McKenzie?”

There was a clip resembling a clothespin attached to Truhler’s index finger. A thin cord ran from the clip to a monitor that flashed his heart rate—71 beats per minute. When I approached the bed, the number increased to 74.

“Let’s talk about the men who hit you upside the head,” I said.

“I never saw them.”

I pointed my finger at him like a gun. His heart rate jumped to 80.

“Don’t even think of lying to me again, you sonuvabitch,” I said. “The guys who hit you are the same ones that jumped me at Rickie’s. Probably they’re the ones who tried to shoot me out on Highway 61, too, so you better start talking and you better talk fast.”

“Don’t yell at me, McKenzie. This isn’t my fault. It’s your fault. It’s your fault for flushing the coke. If you had turned it in like a good little citizen, none of this would have happened. Now they think you stole it; they think I’m in on it. They saw you leaving my house.”

“Who are they?”

“My suppliers, I guess you’d call them.”

“You’re dealing coke?”

“I’m not dealing.” Truhler’s heart monitor hit 84. “I wouldn’t call it dealing.”

“What would you call it?”

“I give most of it away. I give some to friends, but mostly I give it to business associates, to clients.”

“You give it away?”

“You have no idea how business works these days.”

“What are we talking about? A dozen grams a week?”

“Something like that. Maybe two dozen. Maybe a little more.”

“You’re a fucking ounce dealer.”

“Dammit, McKenzie. I’m not a dealer. I’m not making any money from it, if that’s what you think. Whenever I charge anybody, I only charge what it costs me. Eighty dollars a gram.”

The heart monitor flashed 88.

“All right,” I said. “Take it easy. Relax.”

Truhler’s heart rate slowly dropped to 78.

“Tell me about the two guys who attacked us,” I said. “Why did they conceal the coke on my car?”

“I’m really sorry about that, McKenzie.”

“I bet you are.”

“I am. I am sorry. What happened, they were my suppliers, like I said. Only because of the blackmail I was paying, I ran short of cash. I couldn’t pay them for the coke. They said maybe they could work something out, like if I arranged to transport the coke across the border for them, they’d give me a piece.”

“You sent me to Thunder Bay to mule your shit?”

His heart rate increased again.

“The blackmail thing is real,” Truhler said. “It is. When you said you were going up there, though…”

“You thought you’d take advantage of the situation,” I said.

“I thought it was harmless. You shouldn’t have known anything about it.”

“Unless I got busted at the border.”

“I said I was sorry.”

“Jeezus, Truhler.”

I stepped away from the bed. Truhler’s heart rate decreased.

“Tell me about these guys,” I said. “Who are they?”

“Big Joe and Little Joe.”

“Last names, please.”

“That’s how they were introduced to me—Big Joe and Little Joe. I don’t know their last names.”

“Who introduced you?”

“Roberta.”

“Roberta? Roberta who runs the My Very First Time online prostitution ring, that Roberta?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, this just keeps getting better and better.”

“They used to drive the girls around, drop them off, pick them up; protect them, I guess. I found out they were dealing on the side, so … Roberta found out, too. She fired them. Roberta thinks drugs, that’s trouble she doesn’t need.”

“Roberta is right.”

“What are we going to do, McKenzie?”

“There’s that we again.”

“The Joes, they think we’re in it together. They think we ripped them off. I told them what a Boy Scout you are, that it’s all just a misunderstanding, only they don’t believe it. They said they want their money or the dope. They said they’ll be back. McKenzie, what if they—what if they go after Rickie or Nina next?”

I had to give Truhler credit. He knew exactly which of my buttons to push.

“Do they know about Erica and Nina? Did you tell them that you have a daughter and an ex-wife?”

“No, but…”

“But what?”

“They can find out, can’t they?”

Yeah, they can.

“How do I contact these people?” I asked.

“I don’t know.”

“How did you get your girls? How did you get Vicki Walsh?”

“The only way is through the Internet, through my account, only they don’t work for Roberta anymore.”

“Did they say they would contact you again?”

“Well, yeah. Big Joe did. He said he’d let me think about what we had done for a while, then he’d come back. That was when he hit me with the pipe. ‘Call it a convincer,’ he said. He used those exact words; said it was in case I thought to try something smart. He didn’t need to do that, McKenzie. He didn’t need to hit me.”

No, he didn’t, my inner voice said. Which means he probably wants to hit you, too, McKenzie. You shoved a gun in his face; you stomped on his knee. It’s unlikely he’ll accept an apology.

“When he contacts you,” I said, “tell him you’ll pay the money. I figure the amount at thirty-five thousand. If he thinks it should be more, let me know.”

“I don’t have the money,” Truhler said.

I didn’t believe him. I said, “I’ll pay the money,” just the same.

“You will?” Truhler asked.

Hell no, my inner voice said.

“That should work,” Truhler said. “What about Vicki? Oh, no, I just had a thought. What if they’re working with Vicki?”

“We won’t know until we find her. Until I find her.”

“Thanks, McKenzie.”

“One thing.”

I moved to his bed and leaned in close. His heart monitor started racing.

“Listen to me,” I said. “Listen to me very carefully. I’m going to say this slowly, so there’s no confusion. If anything happens to Nina, if anything happens to Erica, if their hair is so much as mussed because of this bullshit, you are the one I’m going to take it out on. Understand?”

By the time I had finished, Truhler’s heart was pumping over 90 beats a minute. An alarm rang, and a nurse dashed into the room.

“What’s going on here?” she wanted to know.

If Truhler had an answer for her, I didn’t wait to hear it. Instead, I brushed past the nurse and stepped into the corridor.

*   *   *

Nina and Erica were waiting for me. If they had heard any of my conversation with Truhler, they didn’t show it. Erica crossed her arms when I approached.

“Don’t you have school tomorrow?” I asked.

“I keep telling her,” Nina said.

“I’m going to take the day off,” Erica said. “I doubt I could concentrate properly anyway.”

“Rickie…”

“I have a four-point-oh average, Mom. You don’t think I can afford to take one lousy day off?”

“I could kill your father for getting you involved—”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Erica said. She stepped past her mother, effectively shutting her off. If she had been my daughter I would have called her out for her rude behavior, but she wasn’t. Instead, I stood there, my feet apart, my shoulders squared, looking like a gunfighter waiting for his opponent to make a move.

“What are you going to do?” Erica asked.

“I don’t know.”

“You made me a promise. Are you going to keep it?”

“What promise?” Nina asked.

“He promised that he would help Daddy. Are you going to help him, McKenzie?”

“I keep all my promises, Erica.”

She stared at me for a few beats while her eyes welled up with tears.

“My father doesn’t,” she said.

She turned and reached for her mother. Nina pulled Erica close and hugged her fiercely.