9
I woke feeling poorly rested, and with a deep ache in my throat, my nose, and my lungs. My right hand wouldn’t stop shaking, and hot water spilled on my shirt when I tried to make a cup of coffee. In the end, it didn’t matter about the coffee: it tasted of filthy water anyway. I sat in a chair looking over the marshes; my rage from the night before had departed, to be replaced by a lassitude that was not quite deep enough to block out my fear. I didn’t want to think about Bennett Patchett and his dead son, or Joel Tobias, or containers filled with a rushing darkness. I’d experienced delayed shock before, but never like this. Added to the pain and the fear was the shame that I felt for naming Bennett Patchett. We’d all like to believe that, in order to protect another person, and to save a little something of ourselves, we might hold out against torture, but it’s not true. Everybody breaks eventually, and to stop myself from being drowned in stagnant water I’d have told them anything that they wanted. I’d have confessed to crimes that I hadn’t committed, and promised to commit crimes repugnant to my nature. I might even have betrayed my own child, and the knowledge of that made me curl in upon myself. They had unmanned me in the ruins of the Blue Moon.
After a time, I called Bennett Patchett. Before I could speak, he told me that Karen Emory hadn’t shown up for work that day, and he hadn’t been able to get a reply when he called the house. He was worried about her, he said, but I cut him off. I told him of what had happened the night before, and confessed what I had done. He didn’t seem troubled, or even surprised.
‘They were military?’ he asked.
‘Ex-military, I think, and they knew about Damien. For that reason, I want to believe that they’re not going to cause you trouble, not if you just go back to mourning your son in silence.’
‘Is that what you’d do, Mr. Parker? Is that what you want me to do? Are you going to back away from all this?’
‘I don’t know, sir. Right now, I need some time.’
‘For what?’ But he sounded resigned, as though no answer I could give would be good enough.
‘To find my anger again,’ I said, and maybe, somehow, I gave him the one answer that sufficed.
‘When you do, I’ll be here,’ he said, and hung up.
I don’t know how long I stayed in that chair, but eventually I forced myself to my feet. I had to do something, or else I would sink just as assuredly as if the men at the Blue Moon had released their grip and left me to fall headfirst to the bottom of a container of standing water.
I picked up the phone and called New York. It was time to bring in some serious help. After that, I showered, and I made myself hold my face up to the falling water.
Jackie Garner contacted me an hour later.
‘It looks like Tobias is moving out,’ he said. ‘He’s got a bag packed, and he’s out by his rig, giving it one last check.’
It made sense. They probably figured that they’d scared me enough to proceed with whatever it was they were planning, and they might almost have been right.
‘Stay with him for as long as you can,’ I said. ‘He’s making a run to Canada. You have a passport?’
‘It’s at home. I’ll call Mom. She can bring it to me. Even if Tobias gets on the road, I can stay with him until she catches up. Mom drives like a demon.’
That I could believe.
‘You okay?’ said Jackie. ‘You sound sick.’
I told him the basics of what had occurred the night before, and warned him about keeping his distance from Tobias. ‘When you figure out the route he’s taking, you can pass him and wait for him over the border. Any sign of trouble, you let him go. These guys aren’t screwing around.’
‘So you’re not dropping this?’
‘I guess not,’ I said. ‘In fact, company’s coming.’
‘From New York?’ asked Jackie, and he could barely keep the hope out of his voice.
‘From New York.’
‘Man, wait until I tell the Fulcis,’ he said, and he sounded like a child at Christmas. ‘They’ll be buzzed!’
I knocked three times, waiting a minute or two between each knock, before Karen Emory answered. She was wearing a robe and slippers, her hair was unkempt, and she looked as though she hadn’t slept much. I knew how she felt. She had also been crying.
‘Yes?’ said Karen Emory. ‘What do you—?’
She stopped talking, and squinted. ‘You’re the guy, the one who was at the restaurant,’ she said.
‘That’s right. My name is Charlie Parker. I’m a private investigator.’
‘Get lost.’
She slammed the door closed, and my foot wasn’t there to stop it. Sticking your foot in someone’s door is a good way to get maimed, or have your toes broken. It’s also trespassing, and I had enough of a reputation with the cops as it was. I was trying to keep my nose clean.
I knocked again, and kept knocking until Karen came back to the door.
‘I’m going to call the cops if you don’t leave me alone. I’m warning you.’
‘I don’t think you’re going to call the cops, Ms. Emory. Your boyfriend wouldn’t like it.’
It was a low blow, but like most low blows, it hit home. She bit her lip. ‘Please, just go away.’
‘I’d like to talk to you for a moment. Believe me, I’m taking more of a chance than you are. I’m not going to get you into any trouble. Just a few minutes of your time is all I ask, and then I’ll be gone.’
She looked past me, checking to make sure that there was nobody on the street, then stepped aside to let me in. The door opened directly into the living area, with a kitchen ahead and stairs to the right, and what looked like the entrance to a basement beneath them. She closed the front door behind me and stood with her arms folded, waiting for me to speak.
‘Can we sit down?’ I asked.
She seemed inclined to say no, then relented and led me to the kitchen. It was bright and cheerful, decorated in whites and yellows. It smelled of fresh paint. I took a seat at the table.
‘You have a nice house,’ I said.
She nodded. ‘It’s Joel’s. He did all of the work himself.’ She leaned against the sink, not sitting, keeping as much distance between us as possible. ‘You say you’re a private detective? I suppose I should have asked for some ID before I let you in.’
‘It’s usually a good idea,’ I said. I flipped my wallet and showed my license to her. She examined it in a cursory way without touching it.
‘I knew your mother a little,’ I said. ‘We went to the same high school.’
‘Oh. My mom lives in Wesley now.’
‘That’s nice,’ I said, for want of something better to say.
‘Not really. Her new husband is an asshole.’ She searched in the pocket of her robe and came out with a lighter and a pack of cigarettes. She lit one, then put the pack and the lighter back in her pocket. She didn’t offer one to me. I didn’t smoke, but it’s always polite to ask.
‘Joel says that Bennett Patchett hired you.’ I couldn’t really deny it but, if nothing else, it confirmed that the men at the Blue Moon had spoken to Tobias after last night, and he, in turn, had spoken of it to his girlfriend.
‘That’s right.’