Recoil

“Particularly Merle. Edward Merle.”

“Particularly him, Frank.”

“I want all four of them. But the other three are just window dressing compared to him.”

“We know that.”

Frank turned his head. He was eyeing C. K. Gillespie. The younger man met his glance. She saw the flicker of a smile at the corner of Gillespie’s thin mouth.

Frank said, “What about you? What are you doing about it?”

“Well I have an idea, Mr. Pastor.”

“You do? Let’s hear it.”

“Sir, I wouldn’t want you to take this the wrong way. Right now it’s just kind of a wild idea I’m trying out. I’d just as soon not go into the whole thing before I find out whether it pans out.”

Ezio said, “Mr. Pastor doesn’t like smartass young lawyers, Charlie.”

Gillespie spread his neat small hands openly. “Look at it this way, Ezio. If the idea works we’ll all benefit from it. But if it’s a dud, then I just raise Mr. Pastor’s false hopes and I make a fool out of myself by bragging about it at this point. All I can say is I’m working on something and I think it’s got a pretty good chance of producing results.”

“You coy little—”

“Let it go,” Frank said. “C.K. may have a point. In the meantime you get on the phone to Los Angeles and build some fires under those people.”

2

They walked together along the shore; she held Frank’s hand. With the toes of her canvas shoes she kicked at seashells. Out on the Sound little sailboats wheeled like butterflies. Frank said, “You’ve done a job with the kids. I mean a fabulous job, A

“Forty lashes a day keeps them in line.”

“I’m serious about this. I married you—let’s face it, I married you because you had good brains and good looks and a body that just won’t quit. I wasn’t looking for a mother for my kids; I wasn’t even thinking that straight in those days. Nobody around me wanted this marriage. They all hated it. They put you through hell, I guess. And then those four gentlemen sending me away for eight years. But you’re still here and you’re the one that got me out of there, you more than anybody else—”

“Now that was Ezio, Frank; he’s the one who reached the board.”

“Just between us and the seashells, little A

But then it went both ways and he knew that. All she’d had before she’d met him was her wits and her looks. She was a coal-dust brat from a rancid miner’s shack thirty miles from Hazleton, Pe

She didn’t remind him; he became a

3

For an hour she and Nora played badminton against Sandy: Sandy was the athlete and won more games than she lost to the two of them. They were going inside to clean up when Gillespie drove down the driveway from the road. A

The girls raced inside; A

“The girls keep me hopping.”

“They’re a great pair of kids,” he said. “I’ve got some good news for Frank.”

“In that case let’s not keep him waiting.” She led him through the parlor and knocked on the door of the office. When she heard Frank’s voice she opened it and stepped back and Gillespie went past her into the office.

Ezio and Frank were at the table leaning over a litter of blueprints. Gillespie stopped two paces inside the room. “That idea paid off.”

Over the back of Gillespie’s shoulder she watched Frank’s face. One eyebrow went up inquisitively. Ezio glanced at her disapprovingly but she stayed where she was.

Gillespie said, “I think it’ll lead us to Edward Merle.”

Ezio said, “Shouldn’t this be private, Frank?”

“A

She stepped into the room and pushed the door shut behind her.

Gillespie was opening his briefcase on the arm of a chair. The room had been built for a nineteenth-century millionaire; it was all deep rich woodwork—glass-enclosed bookcases, wainscoting, Dutch doors onto the garden, an Italian Renaissance chandelier. It was huge for a study; Frank was not a large man but he dominated it, and very few men had that quality.

Gillespie drew a single sheet of paper from the briefcase. “Name, vital statistics, fingerprints. Photograph in here as well.”

“On Edward Merle?”

“No, sir,” Gillespie said. “They’ll probably be changing his name again, giving him a new identity, relocating him, all that. It would take quite a while to get that information. I think this is faster.”

Ezio said, “Then spill it.”

“The government knows the four witnesses are targets. They’ve put all four of them under wraps.”

Ezio’s voice became sharp. “We know that, Charlie.”

Gillespie smiled. “Sure. The government assigns caseworkers to look after these witnesses, shepherd them along, get them resettled. You know how it is. Now I managed to get this information from our contact in the Witness Security office because I asked for it. She wouldn’t have volunteered it—I don’t imagine it would have occurred to her.”

Ezio spoke through his teeth: “You don’t imagine what would have occurred to her, Charlie?”

Gillespie put the sheet of paper on the desk and put the photograph on top of it. “The name and picture of the agent who’s assigned to take care of Merle. His name’s Gle

She looked at Frank. He was walking forward, a hard shine on his eyes. He took the photograph gently out of Gillespie’s hand. “I like a man who uses his head.”

“Yes, sir. I’m glad it worked out. I wasn’t sure she’d be able to get us the name but she came through.”

“You’re all right, C.K.” Frank turned to Ezio and put the photograph in his hand. “Find him.”

CHAPTER FIVE

California-Arizona: 3–6 August

1

EXPLAINING IT TO RONNY WAS THE WORST PART. RONNY SAT on the motel bed watching both of them. Mathieson said, “I know it sounds kind of comic book. But it happens all the time. Gle

Ro

The boy’s puzzled eyes searched him: Ro