any prior experience?”
”With guns?”
”Uh-huh.”
”Military Police. Mostly forty-fives.”
He nodded.
”Weapon as finely balanced and maintained as yours would make anybody look better.”
Another nod.
I fired my next three strings single-action, two-handed, with my feet spread wide and my shoulders and trunk hunched down in what’s usually called the combat stance. My point total came to 289. We returned to the bungalow, and the officer certified my score in a logbook.
He handed me the necessary paperwork and shook my hand. ”Hope we’ll be seeing you again in five years, Mr. Cuddy.”
I said thank you and decided it was the first time he’d actually smiled since I’d met him.
After the second ring, I heard, ”Nancy Meagher.”
”As a watchful taxpayer, I’d like to know why you’re not guarding the common weal in court.”
”Oh, hi, John. As a matter of fact, I should be, but after I broke my neck to catch the dawn shuttle back from La Guardia, the judge I’m trying before was in a fender bender this morning and still hasn’t arrived.”
”Will this screw up dinner tonight?”
”No way. Just drop by a little after six-thirty and see the guard in the first-floor lobby. I’ll come down as soon as he tells me you’re here.”
”See you then.”
”Oh, John?”
”Yes?”
”Thanks for calling.”
”Don’t thank me. It’s good to hear your voice.”
”Bye, John.”
I hung up the receiver and looked at my watch. Plenty of time for a quick lunch and a visit before going in to the office.
I’m glad about Nancy, John.
”Me, too. I think.”
There’s always going to be some uncertainty, you know.
”I know.” I laid the baby tulips, mixed yellow and white, longways to her, just outside the shadow the marker threw.
You’ve seen enough of people who won’t move forward with their lives.
I thought of what Roy was doing to Hanna and Vickie and said, ”I’m working on a miserable case, kid. Divorce.”
I thought you didn’t do them.
”So did I. But it’s a favor for Chris Christides.” Chris. Chris and Eleni.
”Right. She’s no better, though. In fact, she’s much worse. In a wheelchair now and so old, old and worn.” I squatted down beside the flowers. The topmost bud had opened a little, and the wind off the harbor bent the petals, like a moistened finger on the page of a book. ”Remember how Chris used to revolve around her, spend all his time describing what new American thing she’d seen or learned?”
My mother used to say that.
”What?”
That you know you love people when you think of past times in terms of events in their lives rather than your own.
”I’m not sure Eleni and Chris qualify anymore.”
Oh, I’m sorry.
”Yeah, me too.”
I looked down the slope to the water. Two people with nothing better to do on a Monday than sail seemed to be racing each other as a low-slung, enormous freighter of some kind, black except for the rust patches, sloughed past them. The sailboats, probably twenty-five feet each, looked like tiny moths fluttering around a shambling old dog.
John, do you think Eleni is close?
She didn’t have to say close to what. ”I don’t know much about MS. Just that it takes a long time to take you.”
A minute passed, then: If there’s a time you think it would help, tell Eleni that afterwards isn’t so bad.
I backed and hauled, a half-turn of the wheel at a time, into the pitiful parking space in the alley behind my office building on Tremont Street . I could barely open the driver’s door because of the Dempster Dumpster and the fringe of near-miss trash around it. In downtown Boston , however, a manageable slot for a car is nothing to get mad at. Plus, with the Fiat there, I could drive to the condo to shower and change before picking Nancy up for dinner.
I used the stairs to my office, which smelled musty when I unlocked the door and scooped up the mail. I left the door open and pulled up one of my windows,
”With guns?”
”Uh-huh.”
”Military Police. Mostly forty-fives.”
He nodded.
”Weapon as finely balanced and maintained as yours would make anybody look better.”
Another nod.
I fired my next three strings single-action, two-handed, with my feet spread wide and my shoulders and trunk hunched down in what’s usually called the combat stance. My point total came to 289. We returned to the bungalow, and the officer certified my score in a logbook.
He handed me the necessary paperwork and shook my hand. ”Hope we’ll be seeing you again in five years, Mr. Cuddy.”
I said thank you and decided it was the first time he’d actually smiled since I’d met him.
After the second ring, I heard, ”Nancy Meagher.”
”As a watchful taxpayer, I’d like to know why you’re not guarding the common weal in court.”
”Oh, hi, John. As a matter of fact, I should be, but after I broke my neck to catch the dawn shuttle back from La Guardia, the judge I’m trying before was in a fender bender this morning and still hasn’t arrived.”
”Will this screw up dinner tonight?”
”No way. Just drop by a little after six-thirty and see the guard in the first-floor lobby. I’ll come down as soon as he tells me you’re here.”
”See you then.”
”Oh, John?”
”Yes?”
”Thanks for calling.”
”Don’t thank me. It’s good to hear your voice.”
”Bye, John.”
I hung up the receiver and looked at my watch. Plenty of time for a quick lunch and a visit before going in to the office.
I’m glad about Nancy, John.
”Me, too. I think.”
There’s always going to be some uncertainty, you know.
”I know.” I laid the baby tulips, mixed yellow and white, longways to her, just outside the shadow the marker threw.
You’ve seen enough of people who won’t move forward with their lives.
I thought of what Roy was doing to Hanna and Vickie and said, ”I’m working on a miserable case, kid. Divorce.”
I thought you didn’t do them.
”So did I. But it’s a favor for Chris Christides.” Chris. Chris and Eleni.
”Right. She’s no better, though. In fact, she’s much worse. In a wheelchair now and so old, old and worn.” I squatted down beside the flowers. The topmost bud had opened a little, and the wind off the harbor bent the petals, like a moistened finger on the page of a book. ”Remember how Chris used to revolve around her, spend all his time describing what new American thing she’d seen or learned?”
My mother used to say that.
”What?”
That you know you love people when you think of past times in terms of events in their lives rather than your own.
”I’m not sure Eleni and Chris qualify anymore.”
Oh, I’m sorry.
”Yeah, me too.”
I looked down the slope to the water. Two people with nothing better to do on a Monday than sail seemed to be racing each other as a low-slung, enormous freighter of some kind, black except for the rust patches, sloughed past them. The sailboats, probably twenty-five feet each, looked like tiny moths fluttering around a shambling old dog.
John, do you think Eleni is close?
She didn’t have to say close to what. ”I don’t know much about MS. Just that it takes a long time to take you.”
A minute passed, then: If there’s a time you think it would help, tell Eleni that afterwards isn’t so bad.
I backed and hauled, a half-turn of the wheel at a time, into the pitiful parking space in the alley behind my office building on Tremont Street . I could barely open the driver’s door because of the Dempster Dumpster and the fringe of near-miss trash around it. In downtown Boston , however, a manageable slot for a car is nothing to get mad at. Plus, with the Fiat there, I could drive to the condo to shower and change before picking Nancy up for dinner.
I used the stairs to my office, which smelled musty when I unlocked the door and scooped up the mail. I left the door open and pulled up one of my windows,
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