deliver me up and get on with your life, forget I ever existed.”
“That’s not going to happen, Eleanor. That’s one promise I’m making you.”
“What can you do, tell me that…what can you do?”
“I don’t know. Did you do the burglary?”
“Yes, I did. So there you are.”
“Why did you do it?”
“Personal reasons.”
“Did you take a gun into the house?”
“Does it matter?”
“Does it matter? Hell, yes, it matters. It can be the difference between a first-time offender asking for probation and a gun moll doing heavy time.”
She didn’t say anything.
“You said something back in the restaurant when we were talking about your stalker. The subject of a gun came up. Do you remember what you said?”
She looked at me through the glass. “I’ve never fired a gun in my life.”
“Did the cops do a gunshot residue test?”
“I don’t even know what that is.”
“So I’ll ask you again. Did you take a gun into that house?”
“No. Believe it or not.”
“Okay, I believe it. Did you get a gun while you were in the house, maybe from the guy’s gun rack. Was it you that did the shooting?”
“I never shot at anyone. I was the one shot at. I’m lucky to be alive.”
“If we can prove that, you’ve got a fighting chance. You were still wrong to be there. You broke in, they had every right to shoot at you. But almost any judge would wonder why they’d lie about it.”
“I guess they want me to go to jail.”
“For a long time, apparently.” I leaned closer to the glass. “I’d still like to know why you broke in, what you were looking for.”
“Maybe I’ll tell you sometime. But not today; I don’t think I know you well enough to get into the wired-up hell of my life with you. When do we leave?”
“Late tonight. I’ll come for you around seven-thirty.”
“Lots of dead time for you to fill. What’ll you do, hit the bookstores?”
“Maybe.”
“That’s the only part of this that really surprises me. I never had a hint you were a book dealer. You played that card very well.”
I tried to smile at her. “I’d better go.” But something powerful held me there. Then, so quickly that I didn’t know how it happened, I stepped off the straight and narrow for the first time that day. I stepped all the way off and said something that could never be unsaid.
“How’d you like to get out of here?…go with me?…be my guide through the Seattle book jungle?”
She looked like a person half-drowned who had suddenly been brought back to life. “Can you do that?”
“Probably not. The jailer will look at my tickets and wonder what the hell I’m doing taking you out ten hours early. The judge’ll schedule a new hearing, I’ll get drawn and quartered, and you’ll end up riding back to Taos handcuffed to a deputy.”
I shrugged. “We could try.”
She reached out as if to touch my face. Her fingertips flattened against the glass.
“You’ve got to promise to behave.” I felt a sudden desperation, as if I’d taken a long step into the dark. “I’m taking a big chance, Eleanor. It’s my responsibility now. I’ll take the chance because I like you. I owe you one for the big lie. And it just occurs to me that you’d probably rather spend the day in bookstores than chained by your neck to the wall of some crummy jail cell. But you’ve got to behave.”
“Absolutely. Who wouldn’t love a deal like that?”
The jailer gave our tickets a cursory glance. He looked at my papers, read the judge’s order, and at half past ten Eleanor Rigby and I walked out into a drippy Seattle day.
13
It was a day of magic. The two of us were charmed: Seattle was our oyster and every stop coughed up a pearl. She took me to a place called Gregor Books on Southwest California Avenue. The books were crisp and fine and there were lots of high-end goodies. You don’t steal books out of a store like that—the owner is far too savvy ever to get caught sleeping on a live one, but Rita McKinley’s words echoed in my ear.
