“I need to speak to Dr. Carrick,” Lou said. “It’s very important.”
“I’ll see if he’s free.”
She left the room and I started to wonder how we should play this. That’s when the doctor came out. He stepped around the counter and came right up to us. He was wearing the standard white coat, and he had that same barrel chest that Buck had. He was a Carrick, all right. Maybe even a first cousin.
He took one look at Lou, saw that old LeBlanc face, and all of a sudden we had a new version of the eyeball test, one that told us everything we needed to know.
He put us in a back room, like we were a couple of dogs who needed our annual checkup. As we sat there, I couldn’t help wondering if the whole thing was a ploy to call the tribal police, no matter how much it seemed like the doctor was buying Lou’s story out in the lobby.
We waited and we waited, until finally the doctor came in and closed the door behind him.
“I apologize,” he said. “I had to finish up with some patients. But I don’t have any appointments now, so we should be able to talk.”
He sat down in the only remaining chair and smoothed his white coat over his knees. He looked rattled.
“Dr. Carrick,” I said. “We need to find Vinnie and Buck. They were here, weren’t they?”
He nodded, looking down at the floor for a moment.
“Buck must be your cousin, right?”
“One of many,” he said, smiling. “I barely remembered him.”
“They came to you for help,” I said. “Buck was injured?”
“Right here,” he said, pointing to his underarm. “In the axilla. He was shot once. The bullet passed right through. He was very lucky.”
“Did they say how it happened?”
“If I had any idea they were in serious trouble,” he said, “I would have acted differently. You have to believe me.”
“It’s okay,” Lou said. “You helped them. We understand, and we appreciate it. Please just tell us what happened.”
“Okay,” he said, taking a long breath. “I’m sworn to secrecy, but I figure if you’re really Vinnie’s father… And it’s not like I have any official doctor-patient confidentiality here… Anyway, this was what, three days ago? They came down here, it was late at night. Like really late. I live in the house just behind the practice here. They knocked on the door and I was thinking it must have been an animal emergency. A dog hit by a car or something. I get calls like that all the time, but usually they don’t come to the house. Anyway, I open the door and there’s my old cousin Bucky, holding his arm against his chest. I can see that he had been bleeding. Vinnie was with him. I recognized his name, but I don’t think I ever met him before. Although I guess technically Vinnie’s my cousin, too, like a second cousin or once removed, or whatever. I only went to college for eight years and I still don’t know how that works. Anyway, they came in and they told me that Vinnie was cleaning a gun at Buck’s house and it accidentally went off. And that they were afraid to go to the hospital because they’d have to report it and Vinnie would get in big trouble. I guess he’s been in jail before.”
“Is that true?” Lou asked me.
“No. Not really.” I was thinking of the one time Vinnie got charged with assault, when he went after somebody in the parking lot with his hockey stick. Somebody who definitely had it coming. But the charge was later dropped.
“It was just part of the story,” the doctor said. “I see that now. At the time it made a certain amount of sense. In a bumbling sort of way. But anyway, I told him I was a vet and he said he didn’t think it was serious, and fortunately he was right. The shell might have just grazed one of his upper ribs, but otherwise it was basically skin damage. I was able to patch him up pretty easily and I even had some antibiotics to give him. People pills, not animal pills. I thought it was the right thing to do.”
“When did that feeling change?” I said.
“Well, they stayed at my house overnight. Buck was just lying around the next day, resting, while Vinnie was outside cleaning his truck. I guess there was a lot of blood in it. That’s when I started wondering, I mean, it’s like three hours to get down here. If he was really bleeding that much, it was a really stupid thing to do, no matter how much trouble you thought Vinnie might get into. I even asked him, I said, ‘Is this really what happened?’ He said yes, but I could kinda tell he was lying.”
“Vinnie’s a terrible liar,” I said.
“Yeah, well, apparently he called somebody at the rez, told them everybody was okay and that they’d be home soon.”
“When was that?”
“That was the next day. He asked if he could use the phone in my office, instead of at the house. Which sorta seemed weird. It’s like he didn’t want Buck to hear it.”
“But you were there? You heard him on the phone?”
“I heard some of it. He just said, you know, we’re both okay. Tell our family. Tell somebody else. I don’t remember the name.”
“Alex.”
“Yeah, that’s it. He said, tell Alex not to worry. Tell him not to do anything stupid. We’re okay and I’ll explain everything when I get home.”
He stopped and looked at me.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “This was all kind of a shock when you came in. I know you told me your name, but I don’t think I caught it. So are you-”
“Alex, yes. Doing something stupid. But go on.”
“Okay, so, later that night, it was Buck’s turn to get on the phone. I don’t know who he was talking to, but it was all about these people who wanted Buck and Vinnie to come see them, how they were going to take care of everything.”
“That’s gotta be the Kaisers,” Lou said. “Harry and Josephine Kaiser. Do you recognize those names?”
“No, I didn’t catch the names, sorry.”
“But they said they were going to take care of everything? What were they going to do?”
“He didn’t say. I was thinking maybe they must have had a good lawyer or something. But then I was thinking, no, not if it’s just an accidental shooting. So I guess I really had no idea what he was talking about. They were just going to take care of everything, he said. That’s it.”
“Vinnie went along with this?”
“No, not at first. But I think Buck wore him down. They ended up leaving yesterday morning, and I know they weren’t going home.”
“What time did they leave?”
“Eleven thirty? Noon, maybe? They were just hanging around for a while, then Buck went to make a phone call. He came back and said they had to get going right away.”
“Did he say why?”
“No. But all of a sudden they were in a hurry, and off they went.”
I looked at Lou. I could tell he was thinking the same thing. Yesterday must have been the day when everybody involved in this situation got their wake-up call. It was time to run and not look back.
“So they left in a big hurry,” Lou said.
“Yeah, they did. I guess that’s when I sort of knew for sure. Not only was their story complete bullshit, but they were obviously in some kind of serious trouble. Vinnie kept saying they should just go home, but Buck was saying, no, these people were their only hope. Heck, I wanted them to stick around and have some lunch at least, but they just took off.”
“Well, they stopped at the Five Guys down the road for some hamburgers,” I said. “Something tells me Buck doesn’t go that long without eating, no matter how much of a hurry they’re in. But if you can think of anything else they might have said…”
Lou was pacing back and forth in front of the lab sink now. He pounded on the counter a few times before finally speaking again.
“If you were convinced they were in such big trouble,” he said, “why did you let them go?”
“Take it easy,” I said to him. “What did you expect him to do, tackle both of them?”
Lou put his hands up. “I’m just saying.”