Evan Hunter - Nobody Knew They Were There

“I am concerned about everyone in our little group, Mr. Sachs. Especially you. We are only five people, and we are undertaking an insane endeavor, yes, insane. I am an orderly man by nature, and I do not approve of anarchy. I would never have considered an action such as ours if I believed there was any other way. You are the instrument of our deliverance. If Sara brings you succor…”

“Sara is only…”

“Please, Mr. Sachs, we know she spent Wednesday night with you.”

“Did she tell you that?”

“She did not have to tell us. We are none of us children. Do you deny it?”

“I deny it”

“Then you’re a liar.”

“No, I'm a gentleman.”

“One does not necessarily exclude the other,” Raines says, and shrugs. “You are sleeping with Sara, all well and good, I have no quarrel with that Unless, Mr. Sachs, unless it begins to interfere with the job you’re here to do. If that should happen, I think you will find I can become extremely quarrelsome. By the same token, should you and Hester..

“Professor Raines,” I interrupt, and pause significantly. “My private life is my own. I hardly think it’s any concern of…”

“While you’re here, Mr. Sachs, you have no private life.”

“Don’t make that mistake, Professor Raines. Your money hasn’t bought…”

“Don’t you make the mistake of underestimating me, Mr. Sachs. I’m an old man, true, but an extremely strong one. I know you’re a killer of some reputation, but I was a killer once myself, and I’ve not forgotten my trade. I am quite capable of strangling you right here and now should the need arise.” He smiles pleasantly, and a shiver runs up my back “I was about to say…”

“I don’t frighten easily, Professor Raines.”

He looks at me skeptically. I know that my face must be pale, my eyes must clearly reveal fear.

“Yes, well, let’s not play at espionage, eh?” he says in dismissal. “I was about to say that by the same token, should your personality differences with Hester become insupportable, I shall have to take measures to correct that situation as well.”

“What measures?”

“Measures.”

“Like getting rid of Hester?”

“No. I could never do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because Hester is indispensable. You are only necessary.”

“You’re forgetting that I already have seven thousand dollars of your money.”

“You’ll return that if we ask for it.”

“Don’t be too sure.”

“I am certain,” Raines says.

“Have we finished talking?”

“Not quite. I want to make my position absolutely clear, Mr. Sachs. It was not easy for me to decide upon this present course of action. I’m a political scientist, I believe in government. But ever since the trouble at Harvard, attempts at any sort of meaningful dialogue have been met only with bland assurances that such dialogues would take place sometime in the future, when the country might not be quite as polarized as it is today. Mr. Sachs, the country is no longer polarized, that is a simple fact of life. The country has been brought to heel like a giant dumb beast, and that to me is the final affront, the ultimate indignity. It’s wrong to assume that all opposing ideas are necessarily evil. But it’s evil to assume that all opposing ideas are necessarily wrong. If a nation has been forbidden to think, it has been instructed to act . Assassination is abhorrent to me. I chose it only in desperation.”

“Why?”

“Because I felt it less sinful than aborting a million ideas.”

“You sound doubtful.”

“Of course I am. Aren’t you? ”

“Not in the slightest.”

“Then I’ve misjudged you, Mr. Sachs. You ore a ruthless man.”

“Let’s say dedicated.”

“Or perhaps obsessed,” Raines says, and regards me coolly. “In any case, doubtful or not, I’m wholly committed to the plan, and will allow nothing to stand in its way. Not even…” (and here he smiles and bows his head in deference to my definition) “… not even a ‘dedicated’ man. There’s far too much at stake here, Mr. Sachs. Before allowing you to jeopardize something that was decided upon after months and months of agonizing, I would kill you first”

“The plan is in no jeopardy.”

“Your assurance is appreciated, but not solicited. I will know if and when it’s in jeopardy, believe me.”

“How? Is the black man yours?”

“What black man?”

“The one who’s been following me.”

“I have engaged no one to follow you,” Raines says. His eyes are suddenly troubled. “This alarms me, Mr. Sachs. I would hate to think you’re already suspected.”

“You have no idea who he is, huh?”

“None whatever.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“You can believe me. If I am nothing else, I am utterly honest.”

“The very young and the very old, both so utterly honest. How do you come by it so easily? It’s taken me half a lifetime, and I still haven’t managed it.”

“Perhaps because you think it’s come by so easily, Mr. Sachs.”

“Do you know what I think? I think everyone in this grubby little town is full of shit. What do you think of that, Professor Raines?”

“I think I dislike profanity.”

“Fuck you, Professor Raines.”

He seizes the collar of my coat abruptly, and twists it in his left hand. At the same time, his right hand comes up and he strikes me harshly and repeatedly across the face. He hurls me away from him like a broken twig. I am tempted to whimper. It is as though my father has administered a severe whipping.

“Don’t ever talk to me that way again, Mr. Sachs,” he whispers. “Ever.” He hesitates. “Do you understand me?”

I am angry enough to kill him. I do not answer him.

“Do you understand me?” he repeats.

Sara is not here in this silent wood to see me or to hear me, to lend support or give approval. But I find the courage, or the foolhardiness, nonetheless. I clench my fists and look directly into Raines’s eyes.

“Fuck you, Professor Raines,” I repeat.

He does nothing. He merely nods. Perhaps he is frightened. Or perhaps he is only waiting for another time. He turns abruptly on his heel and limps away from me. The leaves are falling softly everywhere around him, and the sky is still leaden with the promise of snow.

I keep calling Boston.

There is no answer at my son’s apartment. I begin to worry. Have the police broken in on him? Has he been foolish enough to hold onto his cache of marijuana, despite what happened to his friends? It is one o’clock on the Eastern seaboard. I may just catch Eugene before he goes out to lunch. I place the call with the switchboard downstairs, and then hear Bernice’s voice answering on the other end of the long-distance line. She is surprised to hear that I am in Salt Lake City. I tell her that I want to talk to Mr. Levine, and she asks me to wait just one moment His voice explodes onto the line.

“Sam? Where the hell are you?”

“Salt Lake City.”

“That’s pure crap, Sam. Where are you?”

“Crap or not, it’ll have to do, Eugene.”

“Why? What’s going on? Abby's been calling here every hour on the hour. Have you lost your goddamn mind?”

“I don’t think so.”

“What are you doing in Salt Lake City? Or wher ever you are.”

“That’s not important. Eugene, I need your help.”

“I think you need a doctor’s help, is what you need.”

“I’ve been trying to reach David at his apartment in Boston, and I can’t get an answer. Some of his friends were arrested on narcotics charges. One of them is thinking of jumping bail David’s considering the idea of going with him if he leaves the country. I’m very worried about it.”