11
After Dani returned to sleep, I put on a sweatshirt and padded outside with my cell phone. I considered sending a congratulatory text to Aimee but understood the Cronks would need time to process the unexpected turn of events. As did I.
Nearby a robin laughed maniacally. I caught a flash of red as he flew off through the bare trees. The hints of color were subtle in the spring woods: green buds of birches, purplish catkins of alders, maroon spathes of skunk cabbage emerging from holes in the snow they had melted with their own thermogenesis.
Billy is going free!
Every so often I would let out a whoop, startling the chickadees that had begun swooping into the feeder. My mentor, Charley Stevens, had trained a flock of chickadees to eat out of his hand, but I lacked the patience for avian instruction.
Less than a minute passed from the time Charley’s name popped into my head until the phone buzzed. I had read how the brain fools us into interpreting such synchronicities as evidence of telepathy. What happens is we forget the countless occasions when we’re thinking about someone and the phone doesn’t ring. So what was it with coincidences that they always made me shiver?
“I take it you’ve seen the news,” said the retired warden pilot.
“Seen the news? I was part of it.”
“I figured as much. You have an uncanny aptitude at finding yourself at the center of every hullabaloo. Besides, I knew it was a call from Aimee Cronk that took you away from the river yesterday.”
“Did the fishing improve after I left Grand Lake Stream?”
“Doesn’t it always?”
I knew the old geezer was waiting for me to give my full account of the past thirty-six hours. When it came to curiosity, Charley Stevens had every tomcat beat. So I indulged him. Given Billy’s change of tune about Dawn Richie, I no longer felt oath-bound to omit any details.
“Did he explain what had gotten his hair up about Sergeant Richie in the first place?”
“We were interrupted before he could.”
“I’d surely like to know. You said this woman was from Down East before she got the job in Warren. I thought I knew most of the turnkeys at the Machiasport pen.”
“You’re going to start snooping around, aren’t you?”
“I’m retired. What else do I have to do?”
“I found it odd that the governor didn’t even mention her name.”
“My guess is her boss wants to keep Sergeant Richie out of the limelight as a protective measure. And it wouldn’t do for them to pin a medal on her only to have her turn around and sue the state for gross negligence in failing to protect its COs.”
“The way I figure it, this pardon is the Penguin’s way of sticking it to Hildreth.”
“Now I’ve gotten you calling him the Penguin, too. What a bad influence I’ve been.”
“Stacey claimed we were bad influences on each other.”
My mention of his runaway daughter seemed to suck the good humor out of him.
“You’re right that Billy’s deliverance is pure political theater,” he said after an exhalation of breath. “I’m sure Hildreth is fuming.”
“Do you think the pardon will actually happen?”
“I expect so. Tell me again about this guard you mentioned, the one who shot the prisoner he’d let escape.”
“His name is Novak Rancic, and I heard he was an experienced corrections officer. I’ve seen the process guards use to transfer a prisoner from handcuffs to hospital-bed restraints. It’s almost like Rancic went out of his way to give Chapman the opportunity to get loose.”
“Be careful of coming to conclusions when you don’t have all the evidence.”
“You’ve told me that before, Charley.”
“Have I?”
I heard the porch door open above me and saw Dani emerge buttoning up her uniform. She must have been unable to fall back to sleep. I used the handrail to pull myself to my feet.
“Meanwhile, now that Billy’s safe, I can get back to enjoying my vacation.”
“I was hoping you’d be headed back to Grand Lake Stream.”
“I haven’t made up my mind yet.”
As I was hanging up, Charley said, “Give Trooper Tate my fondest wishes.”
How had the old fart known that Dani was here with me? Maybe I had written off the existence of ESP too quickly.
“Charley Stevens sends you his fondest wishes.”
“I bet he does.”
Dani still considered Stacey to be an archrival, no matter that Dani was now the one sharing my bed. Her open jealousy both piqued and excited me, I had to admit.
“You must feel like you’re getting a pardon, too,” she said.
“How’s that?”
“When Billy goes free, you won’t have to carry around your guilt anymore. You can both move forward.”
“It’s not like I’ve been locked in there with him.”
“No?” She shrugged her shoulders. “I should get going. I don’t want to be late reporting for duty.”
“And I don’t want to be a bad influence.”
“Then stop being one.” Her tone was light, but the words landed hard.
“You were the one who came flying over here.”
“You’re right. That wasn’t fair. All I’m asking is you think about what I said before. I’m not giving you an ultimatum, but…”
She kissed me with closed lips and was the first to pull loose of our embrace. We exchanged awkward goodbyes. Then, before I knew it, her Ford Interceptor was rumbling down the track of mud that was my driveway.
Slate-colored juncos returned to peck at the husks under the bird feeder.
April was too early for bare feet. I hurried inside to warm my refrigerated toes beside the woodstove. I wondered if it was too soon for a bourbon straight up.
Six hours later, I was no closer to deciding how to spend the remainder of my vacation.
All I knew was that, for the first time in years, I no longer needed to worry about the Cronks.
One of the decisions I’d made, in moving into my new house, had been to sell my television. I had only ever watched sports on it, and I preferred listening to baseball on the radio.
