Now and then - By Robert B. Parker Page 0,22

corridor toward his office. I walked with him. He looked at me sidelong for a moment, decided he didn’t know me, and strode on.

“Professor Alderson,” I said.

He turned his head this time to look at me.

“Yes?”

“I have some audiotapes,” I said, “that I think you should hear.”

“Audiotapes?”

I gave him my card.

“Come see me,” I said.

“What kind of audiotapes.”

“They’re personal in nature,” I said.

“Excuse me?”

“Jordan Richmond,” I said.

“Jordan Richmond,” he said.

“And you,” I said.

He stopped and looked at me without any expression.

“Original recording.”

His look didn’t waver. His expression didn’t change. It was as if somewhere inside there a valve had clicked shut.

“Come see me,” I said again and walked away. “Bring cash.”

When I got to the elevator he was still standing expressionless looking after me. No affect. If I weren’t so valiant it would have been a little unsettling.

26.

The next morning, I got to my office early. The door seemed intact. No sign of jimmying. No hint that anyone had worked on the lock. There was no point in Alderson rushing this. I probably hadn’t told anyone, if I was looking for cash. And if they just popped me first chance they got, they might not find the tapes and they’d be right where they had been before they popped me, so the sensible thing was for Alderson to play along.

I took my gun out and held it at my side while I unlocked the door and pushed it open. Nothing stirred. I waited. Nothing. I raised my gun and followed it into the room in a crouch. The room was empty.

I left my office door open, and put my gun back on my hip, and made coffee. I sat at my desk and opened the right-hand top drawer, where I kept a stainless-steel Smith & Wesson .357

Magnum. There were six rounds in the cylinder. If seven guys showed up, I could throw the gun at the last one. I took the little tape recorder from my middle drawer and put it on my desk near my left hand. Then I opened the paper.

I was reading today’s Calvin and Hobbes. Get it while it lasts. I liked the idea of rerunning stuff. Today Calvin and Hobbes, maybe someday Alley Oop? I had no fully developed plan for this venture. I had simply gotten tired of waiting and decided to poke a stick in the hive. I was being careful, but until Alderson could account for the tape, he probably wouldn’t be dangerous. He might eventually decide that the best approach was simply to make me tell him what I knew. But that wouldn’t come until he knew more than he knew now. For all he knew now, I was bait, and when he made a run at me a thousand FBI agents would jump out of the woodwork and say booga booga. I read Calvin and Hobbes, and Tank McNamara, and Arlo and Janis. I was studying Doonesbury when Alderson came into my office alone. He closed the office door behind him and came to the desk carrying my business card in his left hand.

“Mr. Spenser,” he said.

I folded the paper and put it down.

“Mr. Alderson.”

He was wearing a gray Harris tweed jacket with a black turtleneck sweater and tan corduroy pants. A long red scarf was draped around his neck. I thought the scarf made himlook like a horse’s ass, but he seemed pleased with it. He was looking at me closely. Probably wondering why I didn’t have a scarf. Then he tucked my card in his breast pocket and slowly looked around the room, at each wall, the fl oor and the ceiling. When he was through he studied my desk from where he stood. If he saw the gun in the open drawer, he didn’t react. He sat down.

“Are you an agent of the United States government?” he said.

“No.”

“Of any government?”

“No.”

“Are you taping, or in any way recording, this conversation?” he said.

“No.”

“What is the purpose of this meeting?” he said.

“I’m hoping to blackmail you,” I said.

He tipped his head back, as if stretching the front of his neck, and held it that way for a moment. Then he lowered his head and allowed me to see that his face had no expression.

“That’s rather bold,” he said.

I smiled modestly. He waited. I sat. A silence ensued. After a time, Alderson said, “Upon what basis are you planning to blackmail me?”

“I have an audiotape of you,” I said. “Before, during, and after sexual congress with the recently deceased wife of