Part 25 (1/2)
”I think you can take the answer as yes. When's this to be?”
”Tomorrow night.”
”Short notice.”
”People will come for Buddy,” Ellen said. ”He was very much loved.”
”Lucky man,” Tesla remarked. ”So if Grillo wants you he can contact you up at Vance's house?”
”No.-He mustn't call there. Tell him to leave a message with next door. Mr. Fulmer. He'll be looking after Philip.”
”Fulmer. Right. I got that.”
There was little else to say. Tesla accepted a picture from the invalid to take back to Grillo, along with the best wishes of mother and son, then set out on the homeward journey, inventing stories as she went.
IX.
”William?”
It was Spilmont on the line, finally. The children were no longer laughing in the background. Evening had fallen, and with the sun gone the lawn-sprinkler's water would be more chilly than pleasurable.
”I haven't much time,” he said. ”I've wasted enough this afternoon as it is.”
”What?” said William. He'd spent the afternoon in a frenzy of antic.i.p.ation. ”Tell me.”
”I went up there to Wild Cherry Glade, just as soon as you left.”
”And?”
”And nothing, guy. Big fat zero. The place was deserted and I looked like an a.s.shole, going in ready for Christ knows what. Guess that's what you planned, right?”
”No, Oscar. You've got it wrong.”
”Only once, guy. Once I can take a joke, OK? I'm not going to have anyone say I haven't got a sense of humor.”
”It wasn't a joke.”
”You really had me going for a moment there, you know? You should be writing books not selling real estate.”
”The whole place was empty? There wasn't a trace of anything? Did you look in the pool?”
”Give me a break!” Spilmont said. ”Yeah, it was empty. Pool; house; garage. All empty.”
”Then they skipped. They got away before you arrived. Only I don't see how. Tommy-Ray said the Jaff didn't like-”
”Enough!” said Spilmont. ”I've got too many wackoes on the block without the likes of you. Straighten up, will you? And don't try this on any of the other guys, Witt. They're warned, see? Like I say: once is enough!”
Without signing off Spilmont terminated the call, leaving William to listen to the disconnected tone for fully half a minute before he let the receiver slip from his grasp.
”Who'd have thought?” the Jaff said, stroking his newest charge. ”There's fear in the unlikeliest places.”
”I want to hold it,” said Tommy-Ray.
”Consider it yours,” the Jaff said, allowing the youth to claim the terata from his arms. ”What belongs to you belongs to me.”
”It doesn't look much like Spilmont.”
”Oh but it does,” said the Jaff. ”There was never a truer portrait of the man. This is his root. His core. A man's fear is what makes him what he is.”
”Is that right?”
”What's walking out there tonight, calling itself Spilmont, is just the husk. The residue.”
He wandered to the window as he spoke, and drew the drapes aside. The terata that had been fawning over him when William came visiting dogged his heels. He shooed them away. They retreated respectfully only to creep back into his shadow when he returned 'from them.
”The sun's almost gone,” he said. ”We should get going. Fletcher is already in the Grove.”
”Yes?”
”Oh yes. He appeared in the middle of the afternoon.”
”How do you know?”
”It's impossible to hate someone as much as I hate Fletcher without knowing his whereabouts.”
”So do we go kill him?”
”When we've got enough a.s.sa.s.sins,” the Jaff said. ”I don't want any mistakes, like Mr. Witt.”
”I'll fetch Jo-Beth first.”
”Why bother?” said the Jaff. ”We don't need her.”
Tommy-Ray threw Spilmont's terata to the ground. ”I need her,” he said.
”It's purely Platonic, of course.”
”What does that mean?”
”It's irony, Tommy-Ray. What I mean to say is: you want her body.”
Tommy-Ray chewed on this a moment. Then said: ”Maybe.”
”Be honest.”
”I don't know what I want,” came the reply, ”but I sure as s.h.i.+t know what I don't want. I don't want that f.u.c.ker Katz touching her. She's family, right? You told me that was important.”