“For fuck’s sake,” Chutsky said as I turned around, and I saw Brian raise an eyebrow.
“Such language,” my brother said.
“I need the key,” I said.
“Back pocket,” Chutsky said. It gave me just a moment’s hesitation, which was silly. After all, I was quite well aware that he had been living with my sister for several years. But still, I was surprised at the thought that he knew her this well, that he automatically knew where she kept her car keys. And it occurred to me that he knew her in other ways that I never would, too, knew other small domestic details of her life, and for some reason the thought made me hesitate for just a second, which was not, of course, a very popular choice.
“Come on, buddy, for Christ’s sake, get your head out of your ass,” Chutsky said.
“Dexter, please,” Brian added. “We need to get out of here.”
Clearly, I was going to be everybody’s whipping boy tonight, a complete waste of protoplasm. But raising any objection would just take more time. Besides, anything that could get the two of them to agree was almost certainly inarguable. I stepped over to Deborah, where she lay across Chutsky’s shoulder, and slid the keys out of the back pocket of her pants. I opened the back door of the car and held it wide as Chutsky put my sister down on the seat.
He began to go through a quick paramedic’s exam of Deborah, which was harder than it should have been with his one hand. “Flashlight?” he said over his shoulder, and I got Debs’s big police Maglite from the front seat and held it as Chutsky thumbed up her eyelids and watched her eyes react to the light.
“Ahem,” Brian said behind us, and I turned to look at him. “If you don’t mind,” he said, “I would like to disappear?” He smiled, his old fake smile again, and nodded toward the north. “My car is a half mile away in a strip mall,” he said. “I’ll just ditch the gun and this corny robe, and I’ll see you later—tomorrow for dinner, perhaps?”
“Absolutely,” I said, and believe it or not I had to fight down a very real urge to give him a hug. “Thank you, Brian,” I said instead. “Thank you very much.”
“You’re very welcome,” he said. He smiled again, and then he turned away and walked off into darkness.
“She’s gonna be okay, buddy,” Chutsky said, and I looked back to where he still squatted beside the open back door of the car. He held her hand, and he looked overwhelmingly weary. “She’s gonna be all right.”
“Are you sure?” I said, and he nodded.
“Yeah, I’m sure,” he said. “You should still take her to the ER, get her checked out, but she’s okay, no thanks to me and—” He looked away from me and for a very long moment he didn’t say anything, long enough that I began to feel uncomfortable; after all, we were agreed that we needed to get out of here. Was this really the time and place for quiet contemplation?
“Aren’t you coming along to the hospital?” I said, more to move things along than because I wanted his company.
Chutsky didn’t move or speak. He just kept looking away, off into the park, where there were still scattered sounds of revelry and the mindless thump of the music wafting toward us on the night breeze.
“Chutsky,” I said, and I felt real anxiety growing.
“I fucked up,” he said at last, and to my very great horror, a tear rolled down his cheek. “I fucked up big-time. I let her down when she needed me the most. She could have been killed, and I couldn’t stop them, and …”
He took a deep and very ragged breath. He still didn’t look at me. “I’ve been kidding myself, buddy. I’m too old for her, and I’m no fucking good to her or anybody else. Not with …” He held up his hook, and thumped his forehead against it, resting his head there and looking down at his fake foot. “She wants a family, which is stupid for a guy like me. Old. A mess, and a cripple—and I can’t protect her, or even—It’s not me she needs. I’m just a useless, old fuckup—”
There was a shriek of female laughter from inside the park, and the sound brought Chutsky back to the here and now. He snapped his head around to the front, took another deep breath, a little steadier, and looked down at Deborah’s face. Then he kissed her hand, a long kiss with his eyes closed, and stood up. “Get her to the ER, Dexter,” he said. “And tell her I love her.” And then he marched to his car.
“Hey,” I said. “Aren’t you going to …”
Apparently, he wasn’t going to. He ignored me, got into his car, and drove away.
I did not linger to watch his tail
lights flicker off into the night. I secured Debs in the backseat the best I could with a seat belt around her middle, and got in. I drove two miles or so, far enough to be safe, and then pulled over. I reached for my phone, then thought better of it and instead picked up Chutsky’s phone from the seat where Debs had thrown it. His phone would be shielded from little things like caller ID. I dialed.
“Nine-one-one,” the operator said.
“You all better get a whole lotta boys over to that ol’ Buccaneer Land right fast,” I said in my best Bubba voice.
“Sir, what is the nature of this emergency?” the operator asked.
“I’m a veteran,” I said. “I done two tours in Eye-rack and I know gunfire when I hear it and that’s sure as shit gunfire in Buccaneer Land.”
“Sir, are you saying you heard gunshots?”
“More than jes’ heard it. Went and took a look in there, and they’s dead bodies everywhere,” I said. “Ten, twenty dead bodies, and folks dancin’ ’round ’em like a party,” I said.