Part 35 (2/2)
I waited some more. I didn't say anything. Rugar looked at me as steadily as he had.
”The longer they hold me,” he said, ”the more chance they have to look into my ident.i.ty.”
”Good point,” I said.
”And giving up the man who hired me would cost me nothing.”
”Another good point,” I said.
He paid no attention. As far as I could tell he was talking to himself.
”I promised him nothing. I never expected to fail, so there was nothing to promise. Had I succeeded, I could not implicate him without implicating myself, and he could not implicate me without implicating himself. Each had to keep the other's secret.”
”But that's not how it is now,” I said.
”No,” Rugar said. ”It isn't, and that is my fault. I have failed in my a.s.signment. I am forced to compromise myself.”
”There's another way to look at it,” I said.
”Yes?”
”You didn't fail,” I said. ”I succeeded.”
”My present situation remains the same,” Rugar said.
”It can be changed,” I said. ”You give me the guy who hired you, and you testify against him, and you walk away from this.”
”You are willing to let me go free after I came so close to fulfilling my a.s.signment?”
”Yep.”
”Do you fear I will try again?”
”No.”
”Really,” Rugar said. ”Why not?”
He seemed genuinely interested.
”You are a professional. You do this for money. You don't allow ego or fear or compa.s.sion to motivate you. If you give me your client, you have no further reason to chase me.”
Rugar looked past me for a moment at the cop leaning on the wall outside the cage. Then he s.h.i.+fted his eyes back to me.
”And how do you know this about me?” he said.
I shrugged. He kept looking at me for a moment and then, oddly, he smiled.
”It is because that is also how you are,” he said.
”Gimme a name,” I said.
”Donald Stapleton,” Rugar said.
”That's the right name,” I said.
”You knew it.”
”Yes.”
”But you couldn't prove it.”
”Correct.”
”Now you can,” Rugar said.
Chapter 50.
WHEN I CAME back from New York I went straight to the Inn Style Barbershop and had Patty cut my hair the way it's always been cut. Then I went home and shaved off my beard. Which, if you've never shaved off a beard, is not as easy as you might think. I rinsed out the sink, took a shower, and patted on some Club Man aftershave, which Susan laughed at but I liked. I put on beige slacks, sand-colored suede loafers, a white oxford s.h.i.+rt with a b.u.t.ton-down collar, and a blue blazer to hide my gun. I put a white silk handkerchief in the display pocket of the blazer, checked myself in the mirror, and noticed that I looked entirely das.h.i.+ng, and went to Susan's house. I got there just as her last patient was coming out the front door. I went in, making no eye contact, and was standing in her front hall when she came out of her office in her tailored blue suit with the white blouse and her dark hair perfectly in place. She froze in mid-step when she saw me. I opened my arms and she stared at me for a moment as if she didn't understand, then the angularity went away and she stepped in against me and pressed her face against my chest.
”He didn't kill you,” she said after a long time.
”Not hardly.”
”Did you kill him?”
”He's in jail,” I said.
”Will he get out?”
”Maybe, but he's no threat to us anymore.”
She stayed with her face against my chest and her arms around my waist under the handsome bra.s.s hanging lamp that ornamented her front entry hall. I could feel her body trembling slightly. I didn't say anything. Neither did she. Finally she pulled away and looked at me. Her eyes were red. There were tears on her face.
”You appear to be crying,” I said.
”Yes, and it's beating h.e.l.l out of my eye makeup.”
”Doesn't make you look less beautiful,” I said.
”Yes, it does,” she said. ”I had talked myself into it, that maybe this time you wouldn't come back. That this time you met somebody too good for you and you'd been hurt, and I knew you had to do this. I knew I wouldn't even want to be with the man you'd be if you didn't do this and you allowed me to talk you out of it, and I told myself that loving you meant letting you be you, and I was ready when Quirk, or Belson, or Hawk came and told me.”
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