Keeper of the Flame. Jack Batten

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СКАЧАТЬ Sal said. “I’m writing my thesis on the novels of an American writer named Richard Russo.”

      “Nobody’s Fool,” I said. “I loved it.”

      “That’s the same as Maury,” Sal said, a big smile on her face. “All you guys did was see the movie because Paul Newman was in it.”

      “Yeah, but I read the novel, too,” I said. “And a couple of his other books. Straight Man, The Old Cape Magic.”

      “You read those?” Sal said.

      “Empire Falls.”

      “Crang, wow, I salute you.”

      “You want any tips for your thesis,” I said, “keep me in mind.”

      Sal turned to Maury. “Give this man whatever he wants.”

      “I’ll phone Jackie soon as I get back to my place,” Maury said to me. “Ask him about having a meet with you.”

      We finished the drinks and walked back to our cars. Maury was parked on the same street as I was. He opened his passenger door and ushered Sal into her seat. After he closed the door, Maury gripped my arm and steered me a few steps up the street.

      “No,” he said with great emphasis, “I don’t need fuckin’ Viagra.”

      Maury got in his car and drove away.

      Chapter Ten

      When I arrived home a little after ten, Annie was in her office on the first floor writing in longhand on a yellow legal pad.

      “Wouldn’t it go faster if you went straight to your computer?” I said. “Type whatever it is you’re writing there?”

      Annie held her left hand in the air while she continued to write with her right, meaning I should wait till she finished. I waited.

      In a couple of minutes, Annie stopped writing.

      “Have you heard,” she said, “that writing something by hand facilitates the memorizing process?”

      “I learned that for myself at exam time in high school,” I said.

      “Exactly,” Annie said. “Write out stuff about the hard subjects and memorize it long enough to pass the exams.”

      “Physics and chemistry for me.”

      “What I’m doing here,” Annie said, nodding at the pad, “I’m memorizing the speech I’ll give at the book launch.”

      “Reading the speech to the audience might be easier.”

      “Yeah,” Annie said, “but then they’d see my shaking hands, and that’s probably all they’d remember — the nervous woman from Toronto with the rustling pages. They’d forget everything else about me.”

      “Including the subject of the book you’re promoting.”

      “I’m going to look the Columbia people right in the eye,” Annie said, “and sell them on Edward Everett Horton.”

      I gave Annie a pat on the back and a kiss on the lips.

      “You’ve had a bite to eat already?” I said.

      “At this hour, of course I have,” Annie said. “But consider yourself welcome to yesterday’s leftover salads in the fridge.”

      Out in the kitchen, I made myself a martini and arranged a selection of the salads on the dining room table.

      My iPhone rang. I looked at the screen.

      “Fast work, Maury,” I said on the phone.

      “Jackie’ll see you Saturday morning around ten-thirty,” Maury said. “He wants you to know he’s very keen.”

      “But not keen enough to see me tomorrow?”

      “He’ll be at the hospital, which is one of the things I should brief you concerning.”

      “Brief me concerning?”

      “Jackie had a stroke last year.”

      “The poor guy,” I said. “He’s not disabled?”

      “His left side doesn’t operate so good,” Maury said. “And his speech gets kinda shaky. But nothing’s wrong with Jackie’s brain.”

      “Or memory?”

      “That either.”

      “What about this hospital visit tomorrow?”

      “He has one of those every three months, just in case,” Maury said. “Saturday morning, I’ll pick you up at Kennedy subway station, ten o’clock. You wait out front.”

      “That’s the far east end of the Bloor line, right?” I said. “Jackie lives in Scarborough?”

      “North York.”

      “I can never figure out the damn suburbs.”

      “Why else do you think I’m driving?”

      Maury hung up.

      I took my time over the martini, and still hadn’t started on the salads when Annie came out to the kitchen. She poured a glass of Chardonnay, and sat down across from me.

      “What trouble did you get into today?” Annie asked.

      “I met a girl who’s writing her Ph.D. thesis on Richard Russo’s novels,” I said.

      “Truly?” Annie was smiling, “That’s not the kind of person a criminal lawyer encounters every day.”

      “Practically never.”

      “What’s the catch?”

      “She’s Maury’s girlfriend.”

      Annie registered a moment of authentic surprise, but recovered in a hurry.

      “For one thing,” she said, “that must mean the girl has attributes other than intellectual.”

      “Remarkable knockers.”

      Annie smiled a different smile, one of the rueful sort. She shook her head.

      “My conclusion, you meeting the girlfriend and so on,” Annie said, “is that good old Maury is already involved in the Flame case, if I can call it that.”

      “I think of it as a file.”

      “In the past, “Annie said, “whenever you’ve gotten yourself into a piece of illegal behaviour, your buddy Maury was somewhere on the scene.”

      “You know what we should do?” I said. “You and I should СКАЧАТЬ