Pale Kings and Princes
Robert B. Parker
Copyright © 1987
as always for Joan, and Dan, and Dave, and this time too, for Kathy
'La Belle Dame sans Merci'
Chapter 1
The sun that brief December day shone weakly through the west-facing window of Garrett Kingsley's office. It made a thin yellow oblong splash on his Persian carpet and gave up.
'Eric Valdez was a good reporter,' Kingsley was telling me, 'and a good man, but if he'd been neither he wouldn't deserve to die.'
'Most people don't,' I said.
'The people that killed Eric do,' Kingsley said.
'Depends on why they killed him,' I said.
'They killed him to keep the lid on the biggest cocaine operation in the East.'
Kingsley was short and sort of plump. He needed a haircut and his big gray moustache was untrimmed. He had on a green and black plaid woolen shirt and a leather vest. His half glasses were halfway down his nose so he could stare over them while he talked. He looked like an overweight Titus Moody. He owned and edited the third largest newspaper in the state, and he had more money than Yoko Ono.
'In Wheaton, Mass?' I said.
'That's right, in Wheaton, Mass. Population 15,734, of whom nearly 5,000 are Colombians.'
'My grandmother came from Ireland,' I said. 'Doesn't mean I deal potatoes.'
'Potatoes aren't selling for $170,000 a pound,' Kingsley said.
'Good point,' I said.
'After the war, some guy ran a clothing factory in Wheaton had relatives in Colombia in a town called Tajo. He started recruiting people from the town to work in the factory. After a while there were more people in Wheaton from Tajo than there were in Tajo.'
Kingsley took a corncob pipe from one of his vest pockets and a pouch of Cherry Blend tobacco from another pocket. He filled the pipe, tamping the tobacco in with his right forefinger, and lit the pipe with a kitchen match from another vest pocket that he scratched into flame with his thumbnail. I shall return.
'Then a couple things happened,' Kingsley said. 'The clothing business in Wheaton went down the toilet- there's only one factory still operating-and cocaine passed coffee as Colombia's number one export.'
'And Tajo is one of the major centers of export,' I said.
Kingsley smiled. 'Nice to see you keep up,' he said,
'And Wheaton became Tajo north,' I said.
'Colombians have been dealing with cocaine since your ancestors were running around Ireland with their bodies painted blue,' Kingsley said. He took a long inhale on the pipe and eased the smoke out.
'Corncob's great,' he said. 'Don't have to break it in and when they get gummy you throw 'em away and buy another one.'
'Go with the rest of the look too,' I said.
Kingsley leaned back and put his duck boots up on the desk. There was a glitter of sharp amusement in his eyes.
'You better fucking believe it,' he said.
'Probably drive a jeep Wagoneer,' I said. 'Or a Ford pickup.'
'Un huh,' Kingsley said, 'and drink bourbon, and cuss, and my wife has to tie my bow ties for me.'
'Just folks,' I said.
'We're the third biggest paper in the state, Spenser. And the tenth biggest daily in the Northeast and the biggest city in our readership area is Worcester. We're regional, and so am I.'
'So you sent this kid Valdez down to Wheaton to look into the coke trade.'
Kingsley nodded. He had his hands clasped behind his head and both feet on his desk. His vest fell open as he tilted the chair back and I could see wide red suspenders. 'Kid was Hispanic, grandparents were from Venezuela,
