A Long Line of Dead Men (37 page)

"You're just going to leave me here?"

"That's right."

"Shackled like this? I'll fucking starve."

I shook my head. "You'll have food and water. Red Hawk Island is the property of Avery Davis. He comes here once a year to fish for smallmouth bass. The rest of the time there's nobody here except for the family of Cree Indians who live here and maintain the place. One of them will bring your meals to you."

"What about keeping myself clean? What about using the toilet, for Christ's sake?"

"Behind you," I said. "A toilet and a washbasin. I'm afraid you'll be limited to sponge baths, and you won't be changing your clothes much. There's another jumpsuit like the one you're wearing and that's the extent of your wardrobe. See the snaps along the inseam? That's so you can get the suit on and off without unfastening the ankle cuff."

"Great."

I watched his eyes. I said, "I don't think it'll work, Jim."

"What are you talking about?"

"You think you'll be able to get out. I don't think you will."

"Whatever you say, Matt."

"The Cree family has worked for Davis for twenty years. I don't think you're going to be able to bribe them or con them. You can't slip the shackle or open it, and you can't get the metal plate out of the concrete slab."

"Then I guess I'm stuck here."

"I guess you are. You can vandalize your cell, but it won't do you any good. If you break the glass out of the window, it won't be replaced- and it can get pretty cold here. If you wreck the toilet you'll get to smell your own waste. If you find a way to start a fire, well, Davis has instructed his employees to let the place burn down around you. No one's greatly concerned about saving your life."

"Why not kill me?"

"Your fellow club members don't want your blood on their hands. But they don't want any more of their blood on your hands, either. There's no appeal from this sentence, Jim. No time off for good behavior. You stay here until you die. Then you'll wind up in an unmarked grave, and they'll start reading your name again at the annual dinners."

"You son of a bitch," he said.

I didn't say anything.

"You can't keep me caged like an animal," he said. "I'll get out."

"Maybe you will."

"Or I'll kill myself. It shouldn't be too hard to figure out a way."

"It won't be hard at all," I said. I took a matchbox from my pocket, tossed it to him. He picked it up from the bed and looked at it, puzzled. I told him to open it. He picked up the contents, held it between his thumb and forefinger.

"What's this?"

"A capsule," I said. "Courtesy of Dr. Kendall McGarry. He had it made up for you. It's cyanide."

"What am I supposed to do with it?"

"Just bite down on it and your troubles are over. Or if that doesn't appeal to you-"

I pointed to a corner of the room. He didn't see it at first. "Higher," I said, and he raised his eyes and saw the noose dangling from the ceiling.

"If you drag a chair over there and stand on it," I said, "it ought to be just the right height. Then kick the chair out of the way. It should do for you as well as the belt in the closet door did for Hal Gabriel."

"You bastard," he said.

I stood up. "There's no way out," I said. "That's the bottom line, and it's the only thing you really have to know. Sooner or later you'll probably try to trick the Cree guard, figuring you can knock him out or overpower him. But that won't do you any good. You can't force him to release you because he couldn't manage it if his life depended on it. He doesn't have a key. There is no key. The cuff's not locked around your ankle, it's welded. You'd need a torch or a laser to get through it, and there's no such thing on the island."

"There has to be a way."

"Well, you could chew your foot off," I said. "That's what a fox or a wolverine would do, but I don't know how well it works for them, or how far they get before they bleed to death. I don't think you've got the teeth for it. Failing that, you can try the rope or the capsule."

"I wouldn't give you the satisfaction."

"I wonder. Personally, I think you'll kill yourself. I don't think you'll be able to stay like this for too long, not with a quick exit that close to hand. But maybe I'm wrong. Hell, maybe you'll get what you've wanted all along. Maybe you'll outlive everybody. Maybe you'll be the last one left alive."

When I got back to the main house, Davis and Gruliow were having a drink. I looked at the bottle and the two glasses of amber whiskey and it seemed like a perfectly wonderful idea. It was a thought I chose not to entertain. The pilot was drinking coffee, and I poured myself a cup.

Well before sunset we were on the plane and in the air. I closed my eyes for a minute, and the next thing I knew Ray Gruliow was shaking me awake and we were on the ground again in Westchester.

When the dust had settled I took Elaine to a high-style vegetarian restaurant on Ninth Avenue in Chelsea. The room was comfortable and the service thoughtful, and, remarkably enough, it was possible to spend a hundred dollars on dinner for two without having anything that ever crept or swam or flew.

Afterward we walked down to the Village and had espresso at a sidewalk cafe. I said, "I figured a few things out. I'm fifty-five years old. I don't have to knock myself out trying to be the next Allan Pinkerton. I'll go ahead and get my PI license, but I'm not going to rent an office and hire people to work for me. I've been getting by for the past twenty years doing it my way. I don't want to change it."

"If it ain't broke-"

"Well, I've been broke," I said, "from time to time. But something always turns up."

"And always will."

"Let's hope so. Here's something else I decided. I don't want to put off the things I really want to do. You've been to Europe what, three times?"

"Four."

"Well, I've never been, and I'd like to get over there before I have to use a walker. I want to go to London and Paris."

"I think that's a great idea."

"They gave me a nice bonus," I said. "So as soon as the check cleared I went to a travel agent and booked a trip. I figured I'd better spend the money right away."

"Otherwise you might piss it away on necessities."

"That was my thinking. Our flight leaves JFK a week from Monday. We'll be gone for fifteen days. That gives us a week in each city. It'll mean closing the shop, but-"

"Oh, screw the shop. It's my shop. I ought to be able to decide when to close up. God, this is exciting! I promise I won't pack too much. We'll travel light."

"Yeah, sure."

"You've heard that song before, huh? I'll try to travel light. How's that?"

"Pack all you want," I said. "It's your honeymoon, so why shouldn't you have whatever you want with you?"

She looked at me.

"We keep saying we're going to get married," I said, "and we keep not quite getting around to it. Trying to figure out where to have the wedding and who to invite and every other damn thing. Here's what I want to do, if it's okay with you. I want to go down to City Hall Monday morning and have the standard three-minute ceremony. Twenty-four hours later we'll be landing at Heathrow."

"You're full of surprises, aren't you?"

"What do you say?"

She put her hand on mine. "In the words of Gary Gilmore," she said, " 'Let's do it.' "

In Paris, drinking the same kind of coffee at the same sort of cafe on the Rive Gauche, I found myself talking about James Severance. "I keep seeing him sitting there," I said. "Sitting on the edge of his bed with a chain on his leg, and over his shoulder I could see the noose dangling from a hook in the ceiling beam."

"Rumpelstiltskin," she said. "The evil dwarf. What did that mean, anyway? Did he tell you?"

"He probably would have, if I'd thought to ask him. I forgot. But I think I know what he meant. In the story, the dwarf told the girl he'd let her off the hook if she guessed his name. In other words, if you know my name then you have the power. If I looked at all the names he used over the years I'd see the pattern of the initials, and then I'd know who he was."

"But you got there backwards, didn't you? First you learned who he was, and then you figured out what the clue meant. Some clue."

"I don't think it was supposed to lead me anywhere."

"Why do you think he gave it to you?"

"To feel powerful. The man in control, handing out clues like alms, and feeling superior to the beggars standing around with their hands out."

"I suppose," she said. "What do you think he'll do?"

"I don't know. Kill himself, I guess. How long can you stay there before you stick your neck in the noose and step off into the air?"

"It seems so cruel," she said.

"I know, and if there'd been a more humane alternative I would have argued for it. The noose was my idea, that and the cyanide capsule. If you're going to lock a man up for life, it seems to me he should have the option of shortening that life. I've never been able to understand why they have suicide watches on death row. Why stop a condemned man from killing himself? Hasn't he got the right?"

"I guess so."

"Gruliow's completely opposed to capital punishment. I can't say I agree with him. That doesn't mean I want to lead parades in favor of it."

"It's like my position on abortion," she said. "Strictly middle-of-the-road. I don't believe it should be illegal, but I don't believe it should be compulsory, either."

"You're a moderate."

"You bet." She gave me what I believe they call a sidelong glance. I don't know what the French call it, but I'm sure they've got a word for it. "All this talk about death," she said. "You wouldn't want to go back to the hotel for an affirmation of life, would you?"

A while later she said, "Wow. You really, uh, made me see les etoiles. That means stars."

"No kidding."

"You old bear. God, what you did to me."

"Well, when in France-"

"That's right, they invented that particular activity, didn't they? Or at least they get the credit. You want to hear something ridiculous?"

"It wouldn't be the first time."

"I was afraid it might not be as good after we were married."

"And here we are, acting like a couple of newlyweds."

"Newlyweds, at our age. Who'da thought?" Her fingers moved to toy with the hair on my chest. She said, "I like being married."

"So do I."

"But it's really just a piece of paper. It doesn't have to change anything."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean our life works. We don't have to fool with it just because we're wearing wedding rings. They're on our fingers, not in our noses. We can have just as much space in our lives as we had before. I think you should keep your hotel room across the street."

"Think so?"

"Definitely. Even if all you do is go there when you feel like watching a ball game and staring out the window. That doesn't have to change." Her hand found mine, squeezed. "Nothing has to change. We can still go to Marilyn's Chamber once in a while. I can still wear leather and look dangerous."

"And I can wear my guayabera and look ridiculous."

"Nothing has to change," she said. "Do you hear what I'm saying?"

"I think so."

"Your private life is your business. Just don't stop loving me."

"I never have," I said. "I never will."

"You're my bear and I love you," she said. "And nothing has to change."

Early in December I had lunch with Lewis Hildebrand at the Addison Club. Our conversation ranged far and wide in the course of the meal, and over coffee he said, "I have something to propose to you, and I'm not quite sure how to begin. As you know, our little club has a member who's no longer able to attend meetings. In point of fact, he resigned his membership years ago, but we were under the impression that he had died. Is he still a member? Shall we resume reading his name when he does in fact pass on?"

"Those are interesting questions."

"And there's no need to answer them now. But in addition to having this member who's not a member, we also have for the first time in our history a nonmember who is intimately acquainted with the club. You've met most of our members, you know our history. As a matter of fact, you've been a part of our history. Some of us were discussing the rather special status you enjoy, and someone suggested that perhaps you ought to be a member."

I didn't know what to say.

"We have never taken in a new member before," he said, "and we've never replaced members who have died, because that would be contrary to our whole design. But this would be a case of replacing a member who has not died, and it seems curiously appropriate. Obviously a step of this nature would require the unanimous endorsement of the entire membership."

"I would think so, yes."

"And it has received it. Matt, I've been authorized to invite you to take up membership in the club of thirty-one."

I took a breath. "I'm honored," I said.

"And?"

"And I accept."

This year the first Thursday in May fell on the fifth. I was there in the upstairs banquet room at Keens with the other thirteen surviving members. I listened as Raymond Gruliow, our chapter's senior member, read the names of the deceased members, starting with Philip Kalish and ending with Gerard Billings. He did not read James Severance's name, but the omission did not require a policy decision. Severance is still alive, still chained to the floor of the cabin on Red Hawk Island.

Maybe he'll outlive us all.

Three weeks and a day after our annual dinner, Ray Gruliow called me. "You'd know this," he said. "Do they still have AA meetings at the little storefront on Perry Street?"