John Sandford - Heat Lightning

“Ah, jeez. Not Bob. Bob was…” Bunton had a wrench in his hand, and he dropped it into an open steel toolbox and interrupted himself to say, “Hand me that other wrench there, will you?”

Virgil was standing beside the truck fender a couple feet from the old man, and he turned and looked at the hood and realized that there wasn’t a wrench there, and then he was hit by lightning.

The impact was right behind his ear, and he went down. No pain, no understanding of what had happened, it could have been an electrical shock. He hadn’t quite understood that Bunton had sucker-punched him, and he tried to push up to his hands and knees, and then Bunton hit him again.

There was a confused space.

He heard the motorcycle start up, he remembered later, and then it was quiet, and then there was some talk, and then he tried to get up and there was another old man there, who said, “What happened, buddy? What happened?”

And he fell down again and he heard the old man shout, “I think he’s having a heart attack or something. Call 911.” And the old man asked Virgil, “Where’s Ray?”

THE AMBULANCE took him to Hennepin Medical Center, and he woke up in a bed with a bunch of cops around, including Shrake and Jenkins. Virgil asked, “What happened? Was it that fuckin’ Bunton?”

Jenkins looked at Shrake and said, “He’s back.”

Maybe he was back, but Virgil’s head felt like it was in New Jersey. “What do you mean, I’m back?”

“For the past hour, you’ve been asking, ‘What happened?’ and we’d tell you, but the needle was stuck, and after we told you, you’d say, ‘What happened?’”

“Ah, man,” Virgil groaned. “That goddamned Bunton. Did he get my gun?”

“Nope. You’ve got your gun, you’ve got your wallet, got your ID-which is why we’re here,” Shrake said. “You got a lump on the back of your head and a contusion and a bruise, like you were sapped.”

“What happened to my truck?” Virgil asked.

“I don’t know,” Shrake said. “Where’d you leave it?”

“Ah, man…”

A nurse stuck her head in. “He’s back?”

“He’s back,” Jenkins told her. “Get the doc.”

“I’ve been out?” Virgil asked.

“Not exactly out,” Shrake said. “The lights were on, you know, but nobody was home.”

“Not the first time you heard that, huh?” Jenkins asked. “So: who do we kill?”

“Hey-I’m naked under here,” Virgil said, peering under the sheet that covered him.

“That’s cool-don’t have to show us,” Jenkins said.

The doctor came and told him that he’d suffered a concussion of modest severity-“Not terrible, but not nothing, either. You got hit pretty damn hard. You remember the MRI?”

“No.”

“Well, we did an MRI,” the doc said.

“I remember a loud noise…”

“That was it. Anyway, there’s no fracture, and we didn’t see any real organic damage, no bleeding, but you took a hit and got your circuits scrambled. We want you here overnight, to make sure that everything continues to work. Make sure that a clot doesn’t pop out of the woodwork.”

“Is that likely?” Shrake asked.

“It’s getting less likely the longer it goes, but he doesn’t want to be out in a canoe somewhere if it happens,” the doc told Shrake. To Virgil: “So, stay overnight, and we’ll look at you tomorrow morning and then you can go home.”

“My head hurts…”

“We can fix that,” the doc said. “You could use some sleep, too.”

HE WOKE EARLY, feeling tired, drugged, and disoriented. A nurse looked in on him, gave him a piece of paper, and asked him to read the small type. He did. She said, “What do you want for breakfast?” He ate and went back to sleep.

Davenport called from Washington and said, “Sounds like you’re making progress. I told you that you’d find him.”

“Is that what you thought when you got your ass shot? That you were making progress?”

Davenport laughed, then said, “Wasn’t my ass, it was my leg. Anyway-are you okay? You sound okay.”

“Got a headache, but I’m not gonna die,” Virgil said. “Can’t say the same for fuckin’ Bunton when I find him.”

“Don’t shoot him right away,” Davenport said. “Ask him some questions first. Find out if he did Sanderson and Utecht.”

“Ah, I don’t think he did-but I think he knows why they were killed. I gotta get outa here, he could be anywhere by now.”

“Jenkins and Shrake called me last night after they talked to you. They’ve been tracking him-or trying to. They oughta be coming by to tell you what they’ve got. You still got your cell?”

“Yeah.”

“All right. You’re doing good, Virgil,” Davenport said. “Keep it up. I want this cleared out before I get back there.”

TEN O’CLOCK: he had to wait until the doc got to him before he could check out, and the doc took his time. After a perfunctory check, he told Virgil to take it easy for a couple of days and to stay away from aspirin for a few more.

“What happens if I don’t take it easy?” Virgil asked.

“Probably nothing, except that your head will hurt more,” the doc said.

Virgil was getting dressed when Jenkins stuck his head into the room. “You okay?”

“I’m good to go,” Virgil said. A headache lingered, but he ignored it. “Just signed the insurance papers. What about Bunton?”

“That house you were at? It belonged to Bunton’s father’s step-brother, so he’s like a step-uncle, if there is such a thing. He’s the guy who called the ambulance. We landed on him pretty hard, and what we got is, Bunton is running around somewhere on a Harley. We’ve got the plates, we’ve got the description, we’re stopping half the Harleys in the state. Haven’t found him yet.”

“What about my truck?”

“Shrake and I moved it up here, across the street in the parking garage. I’ll walk you over.”

“Thanks, man.” Virgil pulled on his boots. “That fuckin’ Bunton. Wonder what the hell was going through his head?”

“Maybe nothing,” Jenkins said. “I looked at his file-he ain’t exactly a wizard.”

“He’d know better than to whack a cop,” Virgil said, standing up, tucking in his shirt. “If he goes to Stillwater for ag assault on a cop, he might not get out.”

“So what’re we doing?”

“I’m gonna go back and talk to this uncle; make some things clear,” Virgil said.

BUNTON’S STEP-UNCLE, whose name was Carl Bunton, had been laid off by Northwest Airlines, Jenkins said, and was working as a clerk in a convenience store. Virgil got his truck and followed Jenkins out of the parking garage, down south through the loop, to a no-name food shop on Franklin. A kid, maybe twelve, came running out of the shop, carrying a pack of Marlboros, as Virgil and Jenkins crossed the parking lot. A man’s face floated behind the dark glass, looking out at them; saw them checking out the kid.

“He didn’t buy them,” the man said to Jenkins as they came through the door. He was standing behind the cash register, worried. “His pa is handicapped. He just came to pick them up.”

Jenkins poked a finger at the guy and said to Virgil, “Carl Bunton.”

Virgil nodded and said, “I wanted to thank you for helping me out last night.”

“Glad to do it,” Bunton said. “But I don’t know where Ray went-he’s a goof, and I’m not responsible.”

“He’s got to be hiding somewhere,” Virgil said.

“Up at the res,” Bunton said.

Jenkins shook his head. “It’s six hours up there. We were looking for him an hour after he left here. He didn’t get to Red Lake without being seen. There’s not enough roads.”

“He knows every one of them, though,” Bunton said. “Once he gets back on the res, you ain’t getting him out. They got their own laws up there.”