way. I learned that in No Name Valley, under the sewer grate. I counted the threads in my sweater so I wouldn?t have to think about the time being stolen from my life.?
She turned a University of Houston class ring on her finger. The waitress brought coffee and went away. Pam watched a church bus pass on the street, its headlights on in the mixture of blowing dust and rain. ?You?re the most unusual man I?ve ever known, but not for the reasons you might think,? she said.
He tried to smile but was disturbed by the tenor in her voice.
?You?re blessed with an innate goodness the Communists couldn?t take away from you. But I think in your mind, Jack Collins has become the prison guard who tormented you in North Korea. Collins wants to make you over in his image. If you let him do that, he wins, and so does that prison guard in the POW camp.?
?You?re wrong. Collins is a defective amoeba. He?s not worth thinking about.?
?Lie to God, lie to your friends, but don?t lie to yourself.?
?If you?re going to talk church-basement psychology to me, would you lower your voice??
?There?s no one sitting around us.?
He looked sideways and didn?t reply.
?Don?t blow me off, Hack.? She pushed her right hand across the table and bumped the tips of her stiffened fingers hard against his.
?Do you think I?d do that? Do you think any intelligent man would ever treat a woman like you with disrespect??
She bit a hangnail on her thumb and looked at him in a peculiar fashion.
IN FRONT OF the office, Hackberry took one glance at the sky and unhooked the chain on the flagpole and lowered the flag in advance of the impending storm. He folded the flag in a tuck and placed it in his desk drawer. Then he went back to work on the list of registrants given to him by the DMV. He went through the entire list twice, his eyes starting to swim. What was the point? If the FBI couldn?t locate Collins, how could he? Did Collins actually possess magic? Was he a griffin loosed from the pit, a reminder of the bad seed that obviously existed in the gene pool? It was always easier to think of evil as the work of individuals rather than the successful and well-planned efforts of societies and organizations operating with a mandate. Men like Collins were not created simply by their environments. Auschwitz and the Nanking massacre hadn?t happened in a vacuum.
His phone rang again. The caller ID was blocked. ?See if that?s Ethan Riser,? Hackberry called through the doorway. He heard Maydeen take the call in the other room. A moment later, she was standing in the doorway. ?Better pick up,? she said.
?Who is it??
?Same asswipe?pardon me?same dude who called yesterday and said you two were the opposite sides of the same coin.?
Hackberry lifted the receiver and put it to his ear. ?Collins?? he said.
?Good morning,? the voice said.
?I?m getting pretty tired of you.?
?I watched you through binoculars yesterday afternoon.?
?Revisiting our murderous handiwork, are we??
?I?m afraid your thinking is muddled once again, Sheriff. I didn?t murder anybody. They tried to set me up. They also threw down on me first. I wasn?t even armed. An associate was carrying my weapon for me.?
?An associate? That?s a great term. The guy with the raincoat on his arm??
?The security camera caught that??
?You left the camera intact deliberately, didn?t you??
?I didn?t give it a lot of thought.?
?Why?d you kidnap Mrs. Dolan??
?What makes you think I did??
?Because you left a witness.?
Hackberry heard Collins breathe in, as though sucking air across his teeth while he thought of a clever response.
?I don?t think I did,? he said.
?You thought wrong. You?ll get to meet him at your trial. I have to ask you something, bub.?
??Bub???
Hackberry leaned forward in his chair, one elbow on the desk blotter, rubbing one temple with his fingers. Both Maydeen and Pam were watching from his office door. ?I don?t know you well, but you seem like a man with a code. In your way, maybe you?re a man of honor. Why do you want to do so much injury to Mrs. Dolan? She has three children and a husband who need her. Set her free, partner. If you have an issue with me, that?s fine. Don?t punish the innocent.?
?Who are you to lecture me??
?A drunkard and a whoremonger with no moral authority at all, Mr. Collins. That?s the man you?re talking to. Let Esther Dolan go.