Эд Горман - Riders on the Storm

“Donovan had a terrible temper and he could be a bully when he got sanctimonious but generally he was an honorable man. He had to be miserable every day of his life knowing what Anders was up to. So I could see him snapping, saying that he’d had enough. Figuring out the best case he could for himself so maybe — just possibly — he could tell the law everything and avoid prison. Put everything on Anders, where it belonged anyway.”

“It seemed to me that Senator O’Shay had gotten Donovan pretty fired up about becoming a congressman.”

From the front doorway, Sheila Kelly said, “Think I could borrow you for a little while, Chief?”

“Be right with you,” Foster said, standing up. “We’re pretty much done here with you folks, Sam, if you’d like to go home.”

“I asked Mrs. Nelson to watch the girls. She’s usually in bed by nine thirty and it’s almost that time.”

“You know where to reach us, Chief.”

After a clumsy handshake, I said, “I’m still going to prove that Anders killed Donovan.”

His smile went to Mary, not me. “And I’m still going to prove he didn’t kill Donovan.”

The rain came as soon as we reached the highway. I kept the radio off so we could hear it play on the roof. Mary had her head back, eyes closed. Headlights were all we could see of the oncoming cars till they passed us.

“I was afraid you’d be mad at me, Sam.”

“You love me. You were afraid for me. You wanted to protect me.”

“If I ever need a lawyer I’ll hire you. You made a very nice defense of me.” Then, “So now will you tell me what happened with Byrnes back there?”

Foster had apologized to Mary but said he wanted to question me alone. He started by saying that even though I’d technically broken the law by entering the cabin without any kind of permission or warrant, he was grateful for what I’d done and no charges would be filed against me. I thanked him.

I hadn’t had time to tell Mary about the confrontation with Teddy Byrnes. But now that I repeated what I’d told Foster I realized how easily the situation could have turned out the other way around. Byrnes was not only a psychopath but also a skilled thug. The two things that saved me were his blind hatred of me, which had led him to make bad decisions in his attempt to kill me, and my ability to stay cool enough to think through how to outplay him.

“I can’t believe you’re still alive. Aren’t you in pain?”

“Yeah. My right side hurts quite a bit.”

“And you don’t have a headache?”

“Just now starting to. But it’s not bad.”

“A big drink and right to bed for you.”

“I need to unwind.”

“All right. A big drink and then you unwind.”

“This’ll all be on the news. I wonder what the girls’ll make of it.”

“They’ll be proud. They’ll make you tell them all about tonight. The cleaned-up version, of course.”

“That should be an interesting version. I don’t even get to mention the hookers?”

“What hookers?”

“See how fast that got your attention? Any kind of story you’re telling, you can never go wrong with hookers.”

“Didn’t we learn that in seventh grade?”

“No,” I said, “I think it was eighth.”

Since it was a workday I went to the office.

I did not stop anywhere along the way. Half of the front page of the morning paper dealt with the arrest of Lon Anders and the hospitalization of Teddy Byrnes. Valerie Donovan said that she would have no comment on the relationship between her husband and Anders. Chief Foster thanked me for my help with the case and called me “courageous.” There was a photo of me looking like a sixteen-year-old. I’d never seen it before.

TV and radio people had shown up at the house around eight o’clock. The girls watched them from the front window. Kate kept asking me if she would get to be on TV.

Mary did a fine job as my public-relations representative. In her blue skirt with the blue buttons running down the right side and her smart white collarless blouse, her makeup modest and perfect, she cordially explained that I would be making a statement very soon but that I had other matters to deal with and right now just couldn’t afford the distraction.

The word “hero” must have been used twenty times in the eight or nine minutes Mary was on the front porch. I was obviously no hero.

I hadn’t expected to find Teddy Byrnes at Anders’s house so you couldn’t say I’d sought him out. And as much as I hated him, I hadn’t been fighting him to rid humanity of a scourge; I’d just been trying to save my own sorry ass. But you couldn’t say that to the press. To them you were a good guy or a bad guy, and if you were a good guy you just had to be heroic in some way.

When Mary came back inside, she said, “You now have a fan club.”

“I don’t want a fan club.”

Kate said, “What’s a fan club?”

Nicole said, “That’s when people have posters of famous people on their walls and buy their records and stuff.”

Kate said, “Have you made a record, Sam?”

So now I sat at my desk smoking more Luckies than I should have and popping aspirins every hour on the hour. My left arm hurt when I extended it and my right side ribs hurt when I so much as took a deep breath.

Jamie said, “Everybody’s talking about you, Sam. I’m really proud.”

“This’ll last about two days and then my fifteen minutes’ll be up.”

“Look at that stack of phone messages and it’s not even ten thirty.”

“I looked at them. And they make me mad.”

“Why would they make you mad?” Today Jamie wore a blue-and-white polkadot dress and a blue barrette that accented the appeal of her fetching Midwestern face and body.

“Because half these people wouldn’t ever have returned my calls if last night hadn’t happened.”

“They just want to congratulate you.”

“The only ones I’m returning are the ones that might mean a little business for us. I’ve been thinking of adding a security service for businesses. We don’t have a local one. Some of the people who called probably need help that way.”

“Boy, you never mentioned that before.”

“I need to make more money. I...” I hesitated. I wanted to hear myself say it. “I hope I’m getting married.”

She had a great kid-sister grin. “That is so cool. Mary is the best woman you’ve ever been with.”

“It took me a long time to realize that.”

“I love her girls, too. I see them whenever I take my daughter to things for kids. Kate is hilarious.”

I’d missed one of the phone slips. Now I sat staring at it. “This one I just saw.”

“Whose is it?”

“Senator O’Shay.”

“I didn’t like him at all. He made me repeat his name and number three times and then he said, ‘This is urgent government business, young woman.’”

“The hell it is. He heard my name on the radio and now he wants me to travel around with him while he’s campaigning.”

“I didn’t like him before anyway. It really burns me up that his two sons don’t have to serve when he’s so big on the war.”

“He’s not going to win.”

“You really think so?”

Her phone rang and by the face she made it had to be O’Shay. I shook my head.

“I’m sorry, Senator, he hasn’t come in yet.”

She held the receiver out while he ranted. He went through his “official government business” and then he wanted to know where he could find me and then he said, “A secretary in Washington would have done everything she could to find him. She’d have him on the phone by now. But that’s a level of competence you’re clearly not capable of.”

I grabbed my receiver and said, “Look, you clown. You have no right to talk to her that way and I want you to apologize to her right now.”