Silent Treatment

Harry studied the drawing for just a fewseconds.

'I've never been more certain of anythingin my life,' he said. 'You two make a hell of a team.'

Maura crossed to the unassuming little manand kissed him on the cheek.

'You don't know the half of it,' she said.

Chapter25

The day was New York City hot. By latemorning, waves of steaming air were rising off the pavement and children wereopening hydrants. Kevin Loomis left his air-conditioned midtown office atten-thirty for a circuitous trip to Battery Park, a waterfront oasis on thesouthernmost tip of the island at the convergence of the Hudson and EastRivers. In response to James Stallings's warning against being followed, he hadcarefully planned every step of the journey.

Earlier that morning, Kevin had endured aforty-five minute meeting of Burt Dreiser's eight-member executive planningstaff. And although nothing unusual happened during the session, he feltconstantly conspicuous and read double meanings into almost everything Dreisersaid or did. By the time he checked out with Brenda Wallace and left for whathe said was a long-scheduled meeting and lunch, he was perspiring for reasonsthat had nothing to do with the weather.

Evelyn DellaRosa had been murdered, andJames Stallings, the other knight who had been with her, was terrified.

I wasn't sure if you were oneof them or not. . What in the hell had Stallings meant by that?

Loomis crossed the street against thelight, dodging a succession of infuriated cabbies. He then entered a small customhaberdashery. There were seldom more than one or two customers in the shop at atime, and at this moment, only the proprietor was there. Since joining TheRoundtable, Kevin had become a regular in the place. The fitting area was inback, next to an alley door. Kevin ordered a $150 shirt, allowed himself to bemeasured, and then made an excuse for leaving through the rear exit. Next hetook a cab ride to the East Side and walked several blocks to an IRT station,ducking frequently into doorways to check the street behind him. The BatteryPark stop was at the end of the line. He arrived there with ten minutes tospare.

Still anxious about the possibility ofbeing followed or watched, he strolled casually past a tarmac playground,pausing for a minute against the high, chain-link fence. There were twenty orso children on the swings, climbing bars, riding seesaws, laughing andshrieking with delight. Kevin thought about his own kids and about the lifethey were about to enter — a fabulous home with a bedroom for each of them andland enough for a huge swing set and possibly even a pool someday, a cleansuburban community with top-notch schools, and a limitless future.

Sunlight glared off the water. To thesouth, the Statue of Liberty stood tall against the sweltering heat. Kevinglanced about again and headed north on to the grassy mall. It was exactlynoon. Carrying his suit coat now, he passed half a dozen benches, each oneoccupied. Office workers eating take-out lunches; a bag lady asleep on anewspaper pillow; two young mothers lolling their sleeping infants instrollers; teen lovers nestled together, oblivious to all but one another. Sonormal.

'Loomis. Over here.'

Stallings, also holding his suit coat inhis hand, beckoned to him from the shadow of a century-old maple. His briefcasewas on the ground between his feet. The tension Kevin had picked up in the manat the Roundtable meeting was even more evident today. He glanced aboutnervously and constantly moistened his lips with his tongue.

'You sure you weren't followed?' he asked.

'I'm sure. Who are you worried about?'

'Any of them — Lancelot, Kay, Galahad,Merlin. Or someone they hired. Shit, Loomis, I don't know what to do. I justcan't believe this is happening.'

The man's apprehension was contagious.Without even knowing what was going on, Loomis felt his pulse begin to race.

'Hey, you've got to calm down,' he said.'You want to walk?'

'No. No, this is a good spot. Let's sitdown right here. Keep your back against the tree and a sharp eye out for anyonewho might be paying too much attention to us.'

Dark circles enveloped Stalling's eyes,and his pale skin was covered with a sheen of sweat. He had the look of ahunted animal.

'Lancelot came to see me a couple of daysago,' he began when they had settled on the grass at the base of the tree. 'Hisname's Pat Harper. Do you know him outside The Roundtable?'

'Northeast Life. I played golf with himonce.'. 'Well, he picked me up after work and took me for a ride up intoConnecticut. He drives a Rolls.'

'That fits. I really don't know anythingabout him, except that his cigars made me queasy and he's a much better golferthan I am. For that matter, I don't know anything about any of the knights.'

'Neither do I. The secrecy's on purpose.They really don't care if we find out who they are, but they want it to seemlike a big deal. They're really into this mystique thing.'

'You keep saying 'they.' Who doyou mean?'

'All of them, even Percivale, I think.They're on one side of the fence. You and I are on the other. For a while Ithought it was only me — that even though you joined after I did, you were oneof them. You always seemed so confident, so tuned into everything that wasgoing on. But listening to the way they grilled you about Desiree, I started tohave the feeling that you were an outsider, too. Then, hearing you last night,I felt almost certain of it.'

'All I can tell you,' Kevin said, 'is thatthe only contact I've had with The Roundtable or the knights has been at ourmeetings. I speak to my boss, of course. He's the one who picked me to succeedhim. But that's all. And we never talk about The Roundtable at work — only onhis boat.'

Stallings gazed out at the river and tooka deep, slow breath. It was as if he was getting set to dive from a cliff.

'Did your boss ever tell you they werekilling people?' he asked suddenly.

Kevin pushed back and stared at the man,half expecting to see a gotcha there, just kidding smile.

'Hey, easy does it, Jim,' Kevin said,forcing calm into his voice. 'I'm sure it's not what you think.'

Stallings laughed mirthlessly.

'It's exactly what I think. Lancelotstarted by telling me how pleased everyone was with the work I was doing — especially the legislation I drafted on the terminal-care project. He said thatbecause The Roundtable's business was so unorthodox — that was the word heused, unorthodox — that each new member had to go through a probationaryperiod. Now mine was over, and I was in a position to do my company and myselfa great deal of good.'

Stallings again glanced furtively about.Then he snapped open his briefcase, withdrew a computer printout, and passed itto Kevin. It was a list of 'qualifications' very similar to the ones Merlin hadpresented at the meeting — the factors that had led to Beth DeSenza's beingselected by microchip to lose her job. Only this list of criteria beganwith Currently Hospitalized.

'You know about the future-cost analyses,right?' Stallings asked.

'That's what Merlin was talking about — the estimate of what any illness will cost the industry over its entirecourse.'

'Exactly. Well, this program here has afuture-cost minimum of five hundred thousand dollars. Lancelot wants me to runit through our data banks each week and come up with two or three names. AIDS,cancer, chronic heart problems, mental illness, multiple trauma, blooddiseases, cystic fibrosis, even babies born under a certain weight.'

'There's certainly no shortage ofconditions that'll cost half a million over time.'