John Verdon - Let the Devil Sleep

“Perhaps I was misinformed. I was told you’d expressed a strong interest in the case.”

“That’s true. The case fascinates me. I’d like to understand it better. I’d also like to understand why you’re calling me.”

There was a pause, as though the man had been jarred by Gurney’s brusque tone. “Dr. Holdenfield told me that you wanted to see me.”

“That’s also true. Is there a time that would be convenient for you?”

“Not really. But convenience is an irrelevant issue. I happen to be on a working vacation at our family lodge in the Adirondacks. Do you know where Lake Sorrow is?”

“Yes.”

“That’s surprising.” There was something snobbish and disbelieving in his tone. “Very few people have ever heard of it.”

“My brain is full of useless facts.”

Trout did not respond to the not-so-subtle insult. “Can you be here at nine tomorrow morning?”

“No. How about Sunday?”

There was another pause. When Trout finally spoke, it was in a tightly controlled way, as though he were forcing his mouth into a smile to keep the sound of anger out of his voice. “What time Sunday can you be here?”

“Anytime you want. Earlier the better.”

“Fine. Be here at nine.”

“Be where at nine?”

“There’s no posted address. Hold on and my assistant will provide directions. I advise you to write them down carefully, word for word. The roads up here are tricky, and the lakes are deep. And very cold. You wouldn’t want to get lost.”

The warning was almost comical.

Almost.

By the time he’d copied down the Lake Sorrow directions and returned to the kitchen, Kim and Kyle were on their way down through the low pasture on the BSA. A pale sun was breaking through the thinning overcast, and the bike’s chrome was glittering.

Gurney’s mind shot off into a branching pattern of anxious what-ifs-interrupted by the sound of a hanger dropping on the floor in the mudroom.

“Maddie?”

“Yes?” A moment later she appeared at the mudroom door, dressed more conservatively than usual-which is to say, less like a rainbow.

“Where are you off to?”

“Where do you think I might be off to?”

“If I knew, I wouldn’t have asked.”

“What day is today?”

“Friday?”

“And?”

“And? Ah. Right. One of your group things at the clinic.”

She stood there looking at him with one of her complex expressions that seemed to contain elements of amusement, exasperation, love, concern.

“Do you need me to do anything regarding the insurance?” she asked. “Or do you want to take care of it? I assume we have to call someone?”

“Right. I guess our broker in town. I’ll find out.” It was a simple chore that had come and gone from his mind several times since the previous evening. “In fact, I’ll do it now before I forget.”

She smiled. “Whatever is happening, we’ll get through it. You know that, don’t you?”

He laid the directions to Lake Sorrow on the table, went over and hugged her, kissed her cheek and neck, then just held her tightly. She returned the hug, pressing her body against him in a way that made him wish she weren’t leaving for work.

She stepped back, looked in his eyes, and laughed-just a small laugh, an affectionate murmur of a laugh. Then she turned and went through the short hallway to the side door and out to her car.

He stared out the window until her car was well out of sight.

It was then that his gaze fell on a piece of notepaper that had been Scotch-taped to the wall above the sideboard. There was a short sentence written on it in pencil. He leaned closer and recognized Kyle’s handwriting.

It said, “Don’t forget your birthday card.” Under this was a little arrow pointing downward. On the sideboard directly below it was the blue envelope that had been attached to Gurney’s gift. The distinctive Tiffany blue brought back his uncomfortable feeling about Kyle’s need to spend that kind of money.

He withdrew the card from the envelope and once again read the words on the front: “A Birthday Melody Just for You.”

He opened the card, still expecting that its embedded device would produce an irritating rendition of “Happy Birthday.” But for three or four seconds there was no sound at all-perhaps to allow time for reading a second message on the inside: “Peace and Joy on Your Special Day.”

And then the music began-nearly a full minute of a remarkable melodic passage from the “Spring” segment of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons .

Considering the size of the sound device, smaller than a poker chip, the tonal quality was wonderful. But it wasn’t the quality of it that stunned Gurney-it was the vividness of the memories it brought to life.

Kyle was eleven or twelve and still coming every weekend from his mother’s house on Long Island to Dave and Madeleine’s apartment in the city. He was starting to show an interest in the kind of music that to a parental ear sounded criminal, crude, and downright stupid. So Gurney made a rule: Kyle could listen to whatever music he chose, so long as he gave equal time to a classical composer. This had the dual effect of limiting his exposure to the dreadful music his junior-high ears seemed drawn to and exposing him to masterpieces he would never otherwise have listened to.

The arrangement was not without tension and disputes. But it also produced a happy surprise. Kyle discovered that he liked one of the classical composers whose works Gurney made available. He liked Vivaldi. He especially liked The Four Seasons . And of the four, he liked “Spring” best. Listening to it became the price he willingly paid for listening to the cacophonous garbage he claimed to prefer.

And then something happened-so gradually that Gurney hardly noticed. Kyle began listening, on and off, not only to Vivaldi but also to Haydn, Handel, Mozart, Bach-not as the price he had to pay for listening to junk but because he wanted to.

Years later he mentioned casually, not to Gurney but to Madeleine, that “Spring” had opened a magic door for him and that exposing him to it was one of the best things his father had ever done for him.

Gurney remembered Madeleine passing the comment along to him. He remembered how odd it had made him feel. Glad, of course, that he’d done something that had generated such a positive reaction. But also sad that it was such a small thing-a thing that required so little of himself. He wondered if the reason for its high ranking in his son’s mind was that there were so few paternal gestures competing with it.

That same collision of emotions filled him now, as he held the open card in his hand, as the lovely baroque melody faded. His vision blurred, and he realized with some alarm that once again tears were about to flow.

What the hell is the matter with me? Christ, Gurney, get a grip!

He went to the kitchen sink and wiped his eyes roughly with a paper towel. He’d come close to crying more often in the past couple of months, he thought, than in all the years of his adult life put together.

I need to do something-anything. Movement. Accomplishment .

The first action that came to mind was to take inventory of the main items lost in the fire. The insurance company was sure to ask for that.

He didn’t feel like doing it, but he pushed himself. He got a yellow pad and a pen from the desk in the den, got into his car, and drove down to the charred ruins of the barn.

As he got out of the car, he grimaced at the acrid odor of wet ashes. From somewhere far down the road came the intermittent whine of a chain saw.

Reluctantly, he stepped closer to the heaps of burned boards that lay within the warped but still-standing framework of the barn. In the area where their bright yellow kayaks had once rested atop a pair of sawhorses, there was now an unidentifiable brownish, bubbled, hardened mass of whatever the kayaks had been made of. He’d never been especially fond of them, but he knew that Madeleine was and that being out on the river, paddling along under a summer sky, was one of her special delights. Seeing the little boats destroyed-reduced to a solidified petrochemical glop-saddened and angered him. The sight of her bicycle was worse. The tires, seat, and cables had melted. The wheel rims were warped.