Page 107 of The Furies

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PIRATO WALKED LOUIS AND me to the door of the Hitch Knot, where we joined Angel. We were out of earshot of the others.

“I can’t say it was a pleasure doing business with you,” said Pirato, “but it was less painful than it might have been—for all of us.”

“Except Luca,” I said.

“He’ll get over it.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure.”

“You worried for yourself?”

“It was just a general observation.”

“Structures up here,” said Pirato, “they’re in transition. These have been hard years. Stability is required while we rebuild. I’ve been tasked with making it happen.”

“I’d wish you luck,” I said, “but it would go against the grain.”

“I can see how it might.” He took in the three of us. “You appreciate that this is a favor you were owed, and we’re even now.”

“A favor?” I said, although I thought I knew for what.

“We had an agreement with Mother down in Providence,” said Pirato. “She didn’t encroach on us, and we paid her the same courtesy. It wasn’t ideal—for us more than her—but the alternative wouldn’t have been worth the aggravation. We were waiting for her to die, except her idiot son started to get ideas above his station, and she indulged him. Then you three came along and solved the problem for us.”

“We didn’t touch her son,” I said.

“You didn’t have to. You simply made what happened to him inevitable.”

“You ever hear from her?” said Louis.

“Mother doesn’t make social calls, and doesn’t receive them either. If what I hear is true, she has dementia, or it may be that what you forced her to do drove her insane. Me, I’d suggest a woman with those capacities was deranged to begin with.”

He patted me on the shoulder.

“Time for you to go now. When you see Mattia Reggio, mention to him that I said hello. Tell him I was over at Revere Beach not so long ago.”

He unlocked the door of the bar to let in some light.

“I looked at the Argent,” he said, “and thought of him.”

CHAPTER XXXVI

Veale spent a couple of hours walking the streets of Portland, and when he wasn’t walking he found places to sit, observe, and brood. He didn’t know the city, had never been there before, and suspected he would never return once he and Pantuff had completed their business. Veale didn’t like cities at the best of times, even ones as small as this, but he’d also had his fill of people, so the pandemic might have been arranged with him in mind. He planned to stock up on food and supplies and find a place to wait it out. He supposed that, if he and Pantuff could afford a unit big enough, they might not even have to see each other very often; or they could go to a trailer park and rent adjacent units. But as he walked, Veale began more and more to conceive of a life without Pantuff by his side.

In the meantime Veale’s headache hadn’t gone away, and neither had the damn hissing. No, call it what it is. Call it speech. And you could understand the words, if you chose, regardless of proximity to that damned hotel, but you don’t want to listen, not yet. You will, though, you will. He’d bought some painkillers at a gas station and swallowed them dry, but they hadn’t helped. Finally, when his feet began to ache, he resigned himself to returning to the Braycott Arms.

* * *

THE MANAGER, WADLIN, WAS sitting at his desk, another western playing on his television. He barely bothered to acknowledge Veale, who remained standing at the plexiglass, unspeaking.

“Your buddy already went up,” said Wadlin. “He’s got the key. If you want a second, you’ll have to pay another security deposit.”

On the screen, natives were being picked off by soldiers hiding behind adobe walls. The film was in black and white, so Veale knew how it was going to end. The cavalry only ever lost in color, except in that Errol Flynn movie about Custer. Veale produced a twenty-dollar bill and slid it over.

“I’ll take that second key,” he said, “in case my friend is sleeping.”

Wadlin made a big show of being inconvenienced, though he only had to move his chair about six inches in order to open a cabinet and withdraw the spare. The twenty disappeared into his pocket, the key was dropped in the drawer, and Wadlin returned to his western.

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