Eric stared out the window at the thousand different grays in the sky and the grays here on the ground, which included us. Then he just stood next to me through the whole graveside performance.
I hadn’t been here since the last funeral, and I noticed how nice Melvin’s grave looked. The sod had rooted and blended with the rest of the grass. It was very peaceful, and the new grave was an interruption. But soon it would blend like the first one had, and they could get on with their eternity together.
“Jason?”
It was Eric’s first word since we’d left the church. “What?”
“Where is our mother buried?”
It took me a few seconds to climb out from that ton of bricks.
“You don’t know?”
“No.”
He’d been two years old. But no one ever told him?
“We’ll go up there tomorrow.”
“Is it close?”
“No.” He had just never thought to ask? Or he’d been afraid to?
Katie sniffed and dabbed with her little handkerchief. She was in gray. It wasn’t her best color, but she’d known it was apt for the day.
Damon spun his wheels in the gravel turning onto the main road, and there could have been no more final sound to end the event.
Eric was staring at Melvin’s headstone, like an abandoned child.
Which he was.
I wondered if he’d been here since the last funeral. The monument had been set, and it was very nice. Big but not gaudy, very solid, with three chiseled lines:
MELVIN HOWARD BOYER
UNITED STATES SENATOR
PHILANTHROPIST
And below them were the dates. I counted syllables-six, seven, four. It was haiku.
Angela’s stone would be next to his. I hadn’t seen it, but I could guess. Matching design, just smaller.
I checked the obstacles between me and the car. Fred and Nathan were double-teaming; that was going to be a tough one to get through.
Celeste was at my elbow. “Which one is the lawyer?” she said. Of course-she wanted a gander at the will.
“Fred Spellman,” I said. “He’s there, the large gentleman.”
The cannonball flew straight, and the obstacle went down. “Let’s go,” I said, and Katie and Eric followed me. Fred was hopelessly outgunned, and Nathan was pinned down in the crossfire. I smiled at Nathan, snubbed Fred, and opened the door for my wife and brother.
But on the drive home I relented and called Fred’s office. “Tell him I’ll see him at eight o’clock tomorrow,” I told the secretary. Mourning was over-life would just have to go on somehow.
19
Wednesday I fulfilled my promise and arrived in Fred’s armchair a full two minutes before eight. I had other business for the day and I wanted to get this over.
But Fred still had anger to vent. “You’ve wasted precious time.”
“I’ve been busy.”
“So has the governor. Do you understand what this means?”
“ This refers to Angela’s suicide?”
He snorted. “If you want to call it that.”
I tried to make myself comfortable, but I wasn’t. “Okay, so it was no suicide. And we know for sure now that Melvin was murdered, the investigation will be re-opened, and Angela probably died because I interfered.”
“You understand the ammunition that this has given the governor.” “A big pile of it.”
“A very big pile. The investigation is open, since Monday, and late last night the whole story of your interference was leaked to Channel Five.” I’d been playing with fire, and Fred seemed grimly pleased that I was getting burned. He didn’t seem concerned about Angela herself.
“I didn’t interfere in any way they could use against me.”
“Bright will do whatever he wants. He owns the state police, and Channel Five enjoys sensational news. He will let you know that he did not like your interference. Anyway, Mr. Wilcox will call on you soon. You had best be ready for that.”
“I will be.”
“You need to give Stanley Morton something for Channel Six and the newspaper so he’s not left behind.”
Maybe I had been wasting time. This mass was definitely critical. “We talked briefly. I’ll call him again.”
“You will not be able to stop the investigation.”
“I’m not trying to,” I said. “Is this still his way of negotiating?”
“It would be up to you to offer a deal, and it would have to be good. Bright isn’t merely threatening. He has his opportunity, and he is going to try to destroy you. If you had only negotiated, this could have been prevented.”
“But I didn’t. Now I have no choice,” I said. “I think it’s him or me.”
It took him a minute to say the words. “At this point, you are both in the locked room, and you both have guns. Someone will have to fire first. I don’t see any other way out.”
“Then I’m pulling the trigger.”
I gave Fred a few seconds to muse. “The end of an era,” he said. “Harry Bright and your father went back a long way.” Back to the present. “I don’t know what will happen.”
“I’ve got one advantage, Fred. I really am innocent, and he’s not.”
“That’s a very small advantage. I don’t suggest you count on it helping you.”
“I know. How should I do this? Take my briefcase of papers to the FBI? Publish them in the newspaper? Challenge Bright to a duel? Loaded pistols at ten paces. You can be my second.”
“A duel would favor the coolest head, so you would both miss, and I would not want to be nearby. Talk to Stanley first. He may or may not want to be on the front lines.”
“And what about you, Fred?” How did this man feel about being on the front line?
He frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Are you in on this?”
“What choice do I have? You’re paying me to advise you.”
I’d been hoping for something a little deeper. “Would you quit if I’m too big of an idiot?”
“Oh. Not for a while.”
I wanted to know how deep the loyalty went. “How long did you work for Melvin?”
“Nearly from the beginning.” I did not sense any sentimentality. “I was a staff lawyer for the state assembly, and he asked me to advise him on dealing with the state government.”
“That was before he went to Washington.”
“Yes, by several years.”
“Did you know my mother?”
“Slightly.” A little bit of the old Uncle Fred was resurfacing. “She was ill. Eric was an infant, and you were a small child. In those circumstances, she did not socialize.”
“When she died…” I didn’t know what to ask.
“Yes?”
“How did Melvin react?”
“He didn’t react to such things, in any public way.”
