Steve Hamilton - The hunting wind

“They told me what happened,” he said. He still had the bandages on, but without the tube running down his throat, he looked human again.

“Yeah,” I said. “I talked to the doctor.”

He looked toward the window. “What time is it?”

“Just after eleven.”

“Were you here the whole time?”

“No, I was up in Orcus Beach.”

He looked at me, then closed his eyes.

“The last thing I remember,” he said, “was going to her door.”

“Her daughter told you where she lives,” I said.

He opened his eyes again. “Yes.”

“Maria told me she thought you were Harwood,” I said. “Or somebody he sent.”

“You saw her.”

“Yes. I saw her.”

“What else did she say?”

“She said a lot of things,” I said. “Of course, every single thing she said was a lie.”

“I could use something to drink,” he said.

“She’s a very good liar, isn’t she,” I said. “Not unlike yourself.”

“The doctor said I’m not supposed to talk too much.”

“You may have some permanent damage to your vocal cords,” I said. “That’s gonna affect your technique a little bit.”

“Alex…”

“I know the whole story,” I said. “Your record in California, the arrest warrant waiting for you when you get back. That deputy’s been sitting outside your door the whole time.”

“You should have gone home,” he said.

“I called your family. I thought they should know.”

“Let me guess,” he said. “They were not overwhelmed with concern.”

“Your youngest son came the closest,” I said. “He seemed to care a little bit.”

Randy closed his eyes again.

“Feel free to tell me why you did all this,” I said. “Anytime. I’m all ears.”

“I didn’t lie to you,” he said.

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me,” he said. “I didn’t lie to you.”

“Good-bye,” I said, turning toward the door. “I’m gone.”

“Alex, wait.”

I stopped.

“I didn’t lie,” he said. “Not exactly. I just didn’t tell you everything.”

I rubbed my forehead. “Oh God,” I said. “Here we go. You should run for office, you know that?”

“Let me explain.”

I moved back. I stood over him with my arms folded across my chest. “Give it your best shot. First lie you tell me, I’m out the door. This time, I’ll know it. Believe me.”

He took a long breath and rested his head back on the pillow. For a moment, there was nothing but the sound of the heart monitor, still attached to his chest. Then be began.

“Everything they told you about me is true,” he said. “Everything and then some. I have no excuse for it, Alex. I’m not going to try to defend myself. All I can say is, there was a time, many years ago, when things were different. You knew me then. You knew how much I loved playing ball. It was the only thing I ever wanted to do. When I got my big chance and failed, it was all taken away from me. In one game, in one inning, it was all gone. I knew it right then. I knew I’d never get another chance. Even though I ended up getting kicked around in the minors for another six years, deep down I knew it was hopeless. I’d never get another shot.”

He paused to catch his breath.

“When I got sent up to Detroit, it was the best month of my life. When I met Maria, it got even better. I figured this was the girl I’d spend the rest of my life with. I’d be a big-league pitcher for twenty years and I’d go to the Hall of Fame one day, and she’d be there in Cooperstown with me, sitting in the front row. With our three kids. I could see my whole life opening up in front of me. I really could. When I got knocked out of that game, I went down into the clubhouse and I just sat there, Alex. I didn’t cry. I didn’t take a bat and destroy a television set or anything. I just sat there and thought to myself, This is what life is really like. Dreams don’t come true. Things don’t happen just because you want them to. Nothing is fair. Nothing is really good. Are you following me, Alex?”

“Keep going,” I said.

“All I’m trying to say is, in that exact moment, I saw things the way they really were. This girl I was spending so much time with, this beautiful, wonderful Maria, she didn’t really love me. She was just setting me up. It was all a big scam.”

“Giving up seven runs made you realize that.”

“The night before the game,” he said. “She told me about this debt her father had, going all the way back to the old country. He couldn’t repay it. No matter how she begged him, this man was so old-fashioned, he was willing to take his whole family back to Europe just so they could work as servants in some guy’s house to repay the debt to him. I told her I’d help her take care of the problem. She was so happy. Then I stopped thinking about it, because I was too preoccupied with the game. When I was sitting there in the locker room, watching my whole life go down the drain, I finally thought about it again, the whole story. A debt from the old country. They needed money. My God, Alex. Can you imagine? I was buying it. The whole thing. All the time we had spent together. It was all coming together. On that day, after what had happened to me, I could finally see it.”

“Okay, so you figured out she was a con artist,” I said. “And you blew her off. Why come back now? It’s a long time to wait for revenge.”

“I had already gotten my revenge,” he said. “Or so it turns out anyway. There was this man in Detroit named Harwood. He was trying to put together a deal with my father. The minute I met him, I hated him. You ever meet somebody like that?”

“Yes,” I said. “Just last night, in fact.”

“He was such a fraud. Everything he did, everything he said, it was all such an act. He was the most arrogant, pompous jackass I had ever seen in my life. And here he was, trying to suck up to me just because he wanted something out of my father. He made my skin crawl. He came to the game. Did you know that? He was there. I saw him a couple days afterward at the Lindell. I was getting drunk. Again. With Maria a couple blocks away, with her whole con artist family, probably putting the screws on some other sucker even as I was sitting there. And in walks Harwood, just the man I needed to see that night. He starts telling me how sorry he was I had gotten blown out of the game, how embarrassing it must have been, all this other crap. I could tell he was loving it. If he hadn’t still been trying to put the moves on my father, he’d have been standing there laughing at me. So I told him he really needed to go see Madame Valeska down the street to get his fortune told. It would really be an eye-opening experience for him, and he’d really get something out of it. I was hoping he’d go see them. I was really hoping. I knew they’d put him through the wringer. He was such a sleazebag. He was smart about money, but I knew he’d lose his head over Maria. And Maria would actually have to spend time with him. Even… get close to him. So in the end, they’d both get what they deserved.”

He stopped. He looked out the window, at nothing but darkness.

“Is that why you came back?” I said. “To see what they’d done to each other all these years?”

“No,” he said. “Don’t you understand? I had no idea. I didn’t even know if Harwood ever went to see them. I was long gone by then. And I never looked back.”

“You had no idea?”

“When we found her family’s house,” he said, “when they told us about Harwood and how they thought he had sent us? That was the first time I had heard his name in nearly thirty years. It was the first time I had even thought of him. It was just a drunken, spur-of-the-moment thing when I saw him that last time in Detroit. My little good-bye present to both of them. I never dreamed it would become something like that. It was all my fault, Alex. I made it happen. At that point, I didn’t want to drag you into it anymore, so I sent you home. I wanted to see if I could… I don’t know. I guess I was thinking I could fix things somehow. I wanted to try to help her.”