[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
now. Leave the thought to soak in; give the spinal-cord reaction time to die
away. Wasn t that, after all, as much as she d told herself she had set out to
accomplish?
She backed off with a sigh and enough of a smile to be conciliatory. Of
course, I understand how you feel, she replied.
B u t y o u h a v e t o u n d e r s t a n d m e t o o , E r i c . I
j u s t w a n t e d you to be aware that from where I see things, nothing is
impossible.
Eric nodded, made a face, and raised a hand to show that he concurred. There
was still some visible ruffling of the feathers . . . but the situation was
defused.
They had the time, Michelle reminded herself. There was no indication of
anything drastic about to happen soon.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Doug Corfe sat in his second-floor office in the Neurodyne building and stared
at the far wall, as he seemed to have been doing for half the afternoon. And
that wasn t good enough. There was work to be done. But he couldn t get the
situation with Vanessa off his mind. Eric and Kevin were too close, too much
like family for him not to feel responsible. And even if that had not been the
case, it wasn t something that a person of his makeup could sit by and let
happen without at least trying to do something.
But do what? His mind seemed to oscillate between extremes like a beach ball
rolling from end to end on a teeter-totter.
Part of the time he felt that Michelle was being too cautious weren t they
talking about somebody s life being at stake here, for heaven s sake? He would
go to the police himself if she wouldn t and who cared whether or not there
was enough evidence to make a case, who could prove what, or about all the
Page 93
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
other lawyer s technicalities? Several times he had been on the verge of
calling them right there, from his office. . . .
And then, like a view of a wire cube, his perspective would shift, and the
whole line of thought would appear as no more than a sop to his own
conscience fooling himself that it would mean anything to passively pass over
to others what he had already been told would do no good. At that point he
wanted to throw aside all caution completely, and would find himself seriously
entertaining fantasies about arranging an accident himself and then shake
himself out of it.
Maybe something not quite as drastic, then. Weren t there supposed to be
professionals who specialized in making sure that messages got received
clearly messages like, Too bad, what happened to Martin s nice boat; guess
what might be next if anything happens to Eric. ? . . . But no, it was just
another fantasy. He wouldn t even know where to start, even if he were
serious. The result of it all was that he was still sitting there more than
halfway though the afternoon, with nothing done that was worth speaking of,
when Kevin called.
Hi, Doug. Sorry to interrupt you at work, but I think it s important.
I wasn t doing anything that you could call interruptible. Anyhow, if it s
about what I think it s probably about, it s important. What s up?
Well, er, I don t think it would be a good idea to go into it now. But could
we get together maybe this evening and talk about it?
Sure, Corfe said. Did you have anywhere in particular in mind?
Probably best not at the house. I was thinking, maybe over at Hiroyuki s.
Could you pick me up later?
Corfe frowned into the phone. Hiroyuki s? Why there? Wouldn t that be almost
as bad?
It has to do with an idea that Taki had last night you know, to solve our
problem. Well, I don t know about solve it, so much, but do something that
might help, anyway. We tried it out over there, and
Wait a minute, Kevin. An idea that Taki had? You re not saying he knows about
this situation?
He s okay, honest. It won t go any further. . . .
Oh, Jesus Christ! Corfe groaned and covered his brow with a hand.
I know him better than I know anyone, really. He s the only person I can talk
to who s on the same wavelength. I had to talk to somebody. It s bad enough
for you, Doug, from what you were telling me, and we re not talking about your
dad. Just try being in my position for a day and see how it feels.
Okay, okay. Corfe couldn t find it in him to argue. He d known Kevin long
enough to believe it wasn t something he would have rushed into lightly. And
besides, it was done now. The worst thing they could do would be to start
falling out among themselves with accusations and recriminations. Give me a
chance to get clear here. Corfe snorted to himself. Get clear from what? He d
said it through pure force of habit. I ll stop by the house at around . . .
say, between five and six.
Sounds good to me.
After hanging up, Corfe remembered that Michelle had been at the firm earlier
in the day. If what Kevin had to say concerned the case in general, then
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
