The Fives Run North-South (34 page)

Walter nearly peed his pants.

“Five, six months ago,” Glass continued. “Seems the kid got tangled up in a road rage incident. Shook the kid up. So Rob hires me again to track down the other guy. Seems the other guy wouldn’t let it go, wanted his pound of flesh. Rob told me he simply wanted to help his grandson. Have a
man
-
to
-
man
with the other fellow. That was when I asked if he’d told Ben about finding his son. Rob told me that the grandson didn’t want that yet, but that it would happen soon. So when Ben came to me asking about finding his son, I was torn. I didn’t want to break the confidence of the other client, and since I’d already found the kid I wasn’t really sure how to proceed. It needed deep contemplation. You understand?”

Walter shrugged. Then said: “So the guy you found for Rob later…”

“Fred Spencer,” said Glass. “Real prick. Rich guy, thinks he runs the universe. He did his best to make that kid Edward’s life miserable. As if it wasn’t shitty to begin with.”

Cary returned with Edward’s Coke.

“Thanks,” he said. “I’m sorry about your
ex
-
husband
.”

She shook her head. “No need. It was rough to go through, but by then we were finished. I’m sorry for you, too. I understand he harassed you pretty badly.”

Edward shrugged. “I guess.”

“You have to understand,” she said. “I had no idea. If I’d have known…”

“It’s okay. I get that.”

“He was acting funny. I told your dad about it. Like once when he came home all freaked out.”

“He have a cut on his forehead?” Edward asked.

She nodded.

“I remember that time,” Edward said.

“I’m sorry,” Cary repeated.

“I’ve been through worse, but he was…I don’t know…I’ll say determined. He was determined.”

“That’s a good word for my
ex
-
husband
,” Cary said.

Then

Edward squinted as he opened his door and stepped outside. His head was light, and the brightness of the day didn’t help. He made his way to the concrete steps as he dug in his pocket for car keys. He looked at his watch. Damn. That late? Might not have time to pick up some food. He walked down to the parking lot and scanned the cars until he spotted his own. One of the nice things about having a tall, red vehicle. Easier to spot, particularly considering his total inability to remember where he parked. He approached the car, and as he did, his stomach fell out. There, parked beside
it
—
close
enough that he’d be unable to squeeze into the driver’s side
door
—
was
the BMW from the other week.

Great.

He stood looking for a few seconds. Lowering his head, he saw that no one was in the BWM. Standing straight, he started to turn around to look for signs of the driver, when he nearly bumped into him, and jumped when the driver said:

“Hey, roadkill!”

“Jesus, man…” Edward said.

The man shoved him into the side of the SUV. “So you think you own the fucking road?” he said.

“No,” Edward said. “I didn’t see you…”

“You got a good look while you were flipping me the bird, though, didn’t you?”

Edward shrugged.

“You know anything about respect, you stupid kid? Do you have any idea who I am? What I’ve done with my life? You’re a slug, a freeloader, and a nobody. You know that?” The man was stepping closer; close enough that Edward could smell his breath.

“Listen…” Edward said, raising his
hands
—
palm
out
—
to
the man. “I don’t know what you want…”

“Let’s start with an apology.”

“I already said I didn’t see you.”

“You call that an apology?”

“Okay. I’m sorry. I have to go, man…”

“Oh, in a rush? So you can get in that thing and cut someone else off? Maybe cause an accident next time? The road’s yours and yours alone, is it?”

“Dude…”

The man stepped forward and shoved Edward into the back of his car. “Don’t give me a ‘dude.’ I’m not a ‘dude.’ How about you learn some respect? How ’bout you call me ‘sir’? Let’s start there.”

Edward had had enough. He decided it was time to leave. “I don’t know what your deal is…”

“Where do you think you’re going?” the man put his hand on Edward’s arm.

“Let me go,” Edward said.

“Do you know who I am?”

“Let me go…”

“I asked you a question.”

Edward felt the man’s grip tighten. Pinching. Edward reached over with his free hand and grabbed his assailant’s wrist. Gripping it tight, he yanked as hard as he could. The man lost his footing and went flying across the pavement, landing forehead first. Edward watched as the man’s head bounced up after impact and landed again on the ground. The man half grunted, with a slight scream of pain mixed in. Without waiting, Edward circled around to the passenger’s side of his car and jumped in. Crawling across the parking brake, he settled into the front seat and started the ignition. From his side mirror, he saw the man stand shakily. The man brought his hand to his forehead and wiped blood from a gash. Lowering his hand, he stared at the blood with a look of disbelief. Edward put his car in drive and pulled away. As he pulled out of the parking lot they locked eyes and Edward knew this wasn’t over. But for now, he just wanted to get out of there.

That night when he got home, he saw that his large window had been smashed. A rock had gone through it, and it lay amid smashed glass and the dirty clothes he’d
left
—
as
he usually
did
—
on
the floor.

“As you can imagine, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what happened to Fred at the end,” Cary said.

“He always asked me: ‘Do you know who I am?’” Edward said. “Like he was famous or something. I don’t know…”

“He liked control,” Cary said. “And he was losing it. He’d lost his job and didn’t even tell me. I think the more he lost, the harder he fought to get some level of control…even if it was only over you, I guess,” she said. “He took it all out on you, it seems. And I am sorry.”

“The last person I would have blamed would have been the guy’s wife,” Edward said. “If anything, even though I didn’t know you then, I’d have felt bad for you having to deal with him.”

Cary smiled thinly, thinking back to her time of healing at her sister’s in Florida. Seeing what had happened to Ben reinforced her decision to live life looking forward rather than behind, and she was encouraged by how surprisingly easy it
was
—
even
in instances like now where she was forced to recall and discuss Fred.

“Well,” said Edward, after taking his final swallow of Coke. “I’m sorry for how it ended for him, but I have to say I was glad when he stopped bugging me. Thanks to Granddad.” He looked at Ben. “I went to his funeral.”

Ben gasped. “You were there?”

Edward nodded.

Ben sat back, working his memory to see if he should have recognized his son, if he remembered him from the crowd.

“I hid in the back row during the service and left the reception pretty quickly,” Edward said, looking down at his hand.

“Oh?”

“He was good to me,” Edward said. “Better than…Well, he was good to me. I wasn’t happy at first. That he found me. I didn’t want to be found.” Edward looked straight at the table. Ben looked away, swallowing hard.

“But he didn’t push,” Edward said. “He was good about that.”

“You told him to keep it secret from me?” Ben said.

Edward nodded. “He agreed. About a week after he found me, I was on a bus. One way. But for some reason I turned around. That’s when he bought me the SUV. Said it was free and clear, and if I chose to take it and never come back, well, that’d be okay.”

Ben sat silently. Cary reached up and put her hand on his arm, giving it a gentle rub before pulling back to grab and drink her coffee.

“He obviously wanted me to reunite with you,” Edward said. “But didn’t push. And if I’m honest, I probably stayed around because of his money more than any family reunion event. At first, I laughed about him with my friends. If I stuck my hand out, he’d put money in it. I called him a silly fool. My sugar daddy,” Edward said, with a slight chuckle. “Then…well, then the shit with Fred Spencer happened. I was shaken up a bit, and Granddad knew it. He finally got me to tell. And he got mad. I mean, really mad. He asked me if I’d mind if he tried to help.”

“So he hired an investigator to find out who Spencer was,” Ben said.

“All I had to do was give him the tag numbers.”

“So what happened?”

Edward laughed. “He had his lawyer write a scary letter, pretending to be my attorney. A cease and desist with threat of legal action. It more or less stopped things. Until the book started coming out.”

“So you read the book?”

“I loved that fucking book. First one I ever read, I think. It made me laugh so much, how Granddad turned that into a cool story. Except the regular guy was abusing the rich prick, and I was the
bad
-
ass
. Man, I laughed. Granddad did me right there.” Edward grew quiet. “I was really liking him.” Then he looked at Ben. “And he about had me convinced to meet you. At the end.”

Ben nodded, unable to think of what to say.

“And now I’m reading my second ever
book
—
Flier
,” Edward said. “I hear it’s doing pretty good…”

Three nights
ago
—
the
release party for
Dented
, the complete novel
.

Paul raised his glass: “To Ben Keaton, who
will
—
by
this
weekend
—
have
a book at both the number one and number two positions on the
New York
Times
best seller list!”