someone,’ said Jeff, but he didn’t make it clear to whom he was speaking until his next statement. ‘Garrison Pryor, this is Charlie Parker.’
Pryor stretched out a hand, and after only a slight hesitation I shook it.
‘Garrison Pryor, as in Pryor Investments?’ I said.
‘I’m surprised that you’ve heard of us,’ he replied, although he didn’t sound surprised. ‘We’re not one of the big houses.’
‘I get the Wall Street Journal,’ I lied.
‘Really?’ he said. He raised an eyebrow. ‘Know thy enemy, perhaps.’
‘Excuse me?’ It was an odd thing for him to have said.
‘It’s just that Jeff has told me a little about you,’ he continued. ‘From what I could gather, you didn’t strike me as a Journal reader. Jeff thinks you may be a closet socialist.’
‘Compared to Jeff, most people are socialists.’
Pryor laughed, displaying white teeth with slightly elongated canines and sharp incisors. It was like being snarled at by a domesticated wolf.
‘How true. I’ve been very interested to make your acquaintance for some time,’ said Pryor. He maintained steady eye contact, and his smile never wavered.
‘Really?’ I said.
‘I’d read a lot about you, even before Jeff entered your realm of acquaintance. The men and women who you’ve hunted down, well, it’s just frightening that such people could have roamed free for so long. It’s quite the service that you’re doing for society.’
From where I stood, I could see Rachel. She still wasn’t looking at me, but she was biting her lower lip hard. I’d seen that expression before: it was as close as Rachel got to a display of concern in public.
I didn’t reply, so Pryor went on talking.
‘Do you know what I find most interesting about you, Mr Parker?’
‘No,’ I said, ‘I don’t.’
‘If I’m correct, when a policeman uses his gun there are committees of inquiry, and paperwork, and sometimes even court cases. But you, a private operator, seem to skate around such obstacles with ease. How do you do that?’
‘Good luck,’ I said. ‘And I only shoot the right people.’
‘Oh, I think it’s more than that. Somebody must be looking out for you.’
‘God?’
‘Perhaps, although I was thinking along more terrestrial lines.’
‘I try to keep the law on my side.’
‘That’s funny,’ said Pryor. ‘So do I, and yet I don’t believe we’re at all alike.’
Jeff, who had been smiling at the start of our conversation, wasn’t smiling any longer. He seemed to realize that this wasn’t going the way he might have hoped, whatever that was.
‘We’d better be going, Garrison,’ he said. ‘Rachel and I have to get Sam home, so if you’d like me to take a look at that development with you . . .’
‘You know, Jeff, I don’t think that will be necessary. Maybe this part of the world isn’t for me after all.’
Jeff’s face fell faster than a busted elevator. I guessed that he’d been hoping to cut himself in on the deal by acting as a go-between if Pryor started throwing money around in Maine.
‘If you’re sure,’ said Jeff.
‘I’m very sure. Goodbye, Mr Parker. I’m sorry again for the intrusion, but I’m happy to have made your acquaintance at last. I look forward to reading more about you in the future.’
‘Likewise,’ I said.
Pryor said his goodbyes to Jeff, waved again to Rachel but not to Sam, and reversed his car onto the road before heading west toward the Interstate.
‘See you, big guy,’ said Jeff to me.
As he prepared to get into his car, I leaned in close to him.
‘Jeff,’ I said softly, ‘don’t ever bring any of your friends onto my property again, not without asking me first. You understand?’
He smiled thinly, and nodded. Only Sam waved at me again as they drove away.
Angel and Louis joined me on the driveway.
‘Who was that?’ asked Angel.
‘His name’s Garrison Pryor,’ I replied, ‘and I don’t think he’s one of the good guys.’
Within the hour, I received two messages arising out of that encounter. The first was a text from Rachel. It read only ‘Sorry.’ The second was an email notifying me of a gift subscription to the Wall Street Journal.
It came courtesy of Pryor Investments.
40
The late morning news bulletins detailed the death of a fifty-eight-year-old woman in an explosion at a lawyer’s office in Lynn, Massachusetts: I knew nothing about it until then because my focus had been entirely on Sam. The woman, who was not being named until relatives could be informed, was said to be an employee of the business. The principal, Thomas Eldritch, was described only as having suffered injuries in the blast,