‘I appreciate your concern,’ Pete says in that same polite robot voice. He opens the car door. ‘But there’s nothing wrong. Really.’
‘There is, though,’ Hodges says. He takes one of his cards from his breast pocket and holds it out. ‘Take this. Call me if you change your mind. Whatever it is, I can hel—’
The door closes. Hodges watches Pete Saubers walk swiftly away, puts the card back in his pocket, and thinks, Fuck me, I blew it. Six years ago, maybe even two, I would have had him.
But blaming his age is too easy. A deeper part of him, more analytical and less emotional, knows he was never really close. Thinking he might have been was an illusion. Pete has geared himself up for battle so completely that he’s psychologically incapable of standing down.
The kid reaches City Drug, takes his father’s prescription out of his back pocket, and goes inside. Hodges speed-dials Jerome.
‘Bill! How did it go?’
‘Not so good. You know City Drug?’
‘Sure.’
‘He’s getting a scrip filled there. Haul ass around the block as fast as you can. He told me he’s going home, and maybe he is, but if he’s not, I want to know where he does go. Do you think you can tail him? He knows my car. He won’t know yours.’
‘No prob. I’m on my way.’
Less than three minutes later Jerome is coming around the corner. He nips into a space just vacated by a mom picking up a couple of kids that look way too shrimpy to be in high school. Hodges pulls out, gives Jerome a wave, and heads for Holly’s position on Garner Street, punching in her number as he goes. They can wait for Jerome’s report together.
22
Pete’s father does take Vioxx, has ever since he finally kicked the OxyContin, but he currently has plenty. The folded sheet of paper Pete takes from his back pocket and glances at before going into City Drug is a stern note from the assistant principal reminding juniors that Junior Skip Day is a myth, and the office will examine all absences that day with particular care.
Pete doesn’t brandish the note; Bill Hodges may be retired, but he sure didn’t seem retarded. No, Pete just looks at it for a moment, as if making sure he has the right thing, and goes inside. He walks rapidly to the prescription counter at the back, where Mr Pelkey throws him a friendly salute.
‘Yo, Pete. What can I get you today?’
‘Nothing, Mr Pelkey, we’re all fine, but there are a couple of kids after me because I wouldn’t let them copy some answers from our take-home history test. I wondered if you could help me.’
Mr Pelkey frowns and starts for the swing-gate. He likes Pete, who is always cheerful even though his family has gone through incredibly tough times. ‘Point them out to me. I’ll tell them to get lost.’
‘No, I can handle it, but tomorrow. After they have a chance to cool off. Just, you know, if I could slip out the back …’
Mr Pelkey drops a conspiratorial wink that says he was a kid once, too. ‘Sure. Come through the gate.’
He leads Pete between shelves filled with salves and pills, then into the little office at the back. Here is a door with a big red sign on it reading ALARM WILL SOUND. Mr Pelkey shields the code box next to it with one hand and punches in some numbers with the other. There’s a buzz.
‘Out you go,’ he tells Pete.
Pete thanks him, nips out onto the loading dock behind the drugstore, and jumps down to the cracked cement. An alley takes him to Frederick Street. He looks both ways for the ex-detective’s Prius, doesn’t see it, and breaks into a run. It takes him twenty minutes to reach Lower Main Street, and although he never spots the blue Prius, he makes a couple of sudden diversions along the way, just to be safe. He’s just turning onto Lacemaker Lane when his phone vibrates again. This time the text is from his sister.
Tina: Did u talk 2 Mr Hodges? Hope u did. Mom knows. I didn’t tell she KNEW. Please don’t be mad at me.
As if I could, Pete thinks. Were they two years closer in age, maybe they could have gotten that sibling rivalry thing going, but maybe not even then. Sometimes he gets irritated with her, but really mad has never happened, even when she’s being a brat.