“Well, it could be embarrassing for a lot of people if they keep tugging on threads.”
“I’m sure that something can be done,” said Gabriel. “In the meantime, the matters in hand are more pressing: who did this, and how can we ensure that it does not happen again?”
“‘We’?”
“I feel a certain responsibility for your well-being, even after all this time. Also, in a sense, your problems are my problems, especially if they relate to something that occurred on my watch, as it were. It could, of course, be the case that it’s related to your other activities. Your friend Parker has a way of making interesting enemies.”
“Willie said the guy never mentioned Parker. It was about me.”
“Good.”
“Good?”
“It narrows the field. I haven’t heard anything about a price on your head and, as you say, this was amateur hour. Anyone who put a paper out on you would be sure to hire more professional staff. If I were you, I’d be rather offended that someone might think you could be dealt with in such an uncouth fashion.”
“Yeah, I’m all torn up. Speaking of which, I hope you sent flowers for Billy Boy.”
Gabriel nodded sympathetically. “It wasn’t entirely unexpected. His illness was quite advanced. Radical surgery was called for. It appears somebody took it upon himself to offer it.”
“I’m sure he would have liked a second opinion.”
“He got the best treatment available. The end, when it came, was quite swift.”
“Blissful, even.”
A spasm of unease animated Gabriel’s face.
“I should have been told,” said Louis.
“What have you heard?”
“Rumors, that’s all.”
“It’s been a long time since anyone encountered him. It had been suggested that he was dead.”
“Wishful thinking.”
“Does he frighten you?” asked Gabriel slyly, calm now returning to his face.
“Do I have reason to be frightened?”
“None of which I’m aware. But in the case of the gentleman to whom you’re referring, I wouldn’t be privy to that kind of information. He’s been off the radar for a long time, but you two do have a history. If he did return, he might be in the mood to renew old acquaintances.”
“Not very reassuring for me. Maybe not very reassuring for you either.”
“I’m an old man.”
“He’s killed old men before.”
“I am different.”
Louis conceded the point.
“Still, you and your partner handled today’s upsets rather well. I imagine that you’d present quite a challenge to him, even after all these years. What did you do with the trash?”
“I had it taken away. Landfill.”
“And the old lady?”
“We bought her chocolate cake.”
“Would that everyone were so easily mollified. How are your friends from the auto shop?”
“Shaken. I told them to close up for a few days. They’re staying at a hotel.”
Gabriel finished his lemonade and stood, picking up the newspaper as he did so and sliding it into his coat pocket.
“I should have something for you in a day or two,” he said.
“I’d appreciate it.”
“Well, it’s not good to have this kind of thing going on. It makes everyone look bad.”
“And we can’t have that.”
“Indeed not. Walk safely.”
And with that, Gabriel was gone.
CHAPTER SEVEN
TWO MORNINGS LATER, GABRIEL held another meeting, this time in Central Park. The sky was clear and blue, unmarred by clouds after the gloom of the previous days, and there was a crispness to the air, a cleanliness, as though, however briefly, some of the fumes and filth of the city had been miraculously purged from it during the night. It was a day from childhood, but as he grew older Gabriel struggled to remember a time when he was young. The fragments of memory that remained to him seemed to involve another person, one unrelated to himself yet distantly familiar nonetheless. The sensation was similar to watching an old movie and recalling that, yes, one had seen this film before, and it had meant something, once upon a time.
He hated getting old. He hated being old. Seeing Louis had reminded him of all that he had once been, of the power and influence that he had wielded. There was still a little of it left, though. He no longer had Reapers at his beck and call, willing to do his bidding or the bidding of others for money, but favors were owed to him for favors done, for confidences kept, for problems buried and lives ended. Gabriel had stored his secrets away carefully, for he knew that his own life depended upon them. They were his security, and a currency to draw upon when necessary.
A younger man joined him, falling casually into step beside him. He was taller than Gabriel by a head, but Gabriel had almost three decades of often bitter experience on his companion. His code name was Mercury, after the god of spies and spooks, but Gabriel knew him as Milton. He suspected that it might be his real name, too, for, although an educated man, Milton’s knowledge did not appear to extend into the field of literature, and an allusion to Paradise Lost by Gabriel early in their relationship had been met with a blank look. Then again, one never knew with agency men, and particularly ones of Milton’s pedigree. One might have offered Milton intimate evidence of his own sexual preferences, complete with photographs, illustrations, and even former partners, to a similar end: a blank look. Blank. It was an appropriate word, in this case. Everything about Milton suggested a man who had been created in a laboratory in order to attract no attention whatsoever: average height, average looks, average hair, average clothing. There was nothing remarkable about him at all. In fact, so unremarkable was he that the eye tended to skate over him, barely registering his presence, and then instantly forgetting what it had seen. One had to be an exceptional individual to go through life so unnoticed.
Milton and Gabriel strolled by the lake, walking slowly enough to allow joggers to outpace them but fast enough that they could not be followed themselves without noticing. Milton wore a gray wool overcoat and a gray scarf, and his black shoes shone in the fall sunlight. Beside him, Gabriel, his white hair sprouting untidily from beneath a woolen cap, looked like a genial tramp. After some minutes had passed, Milton spoke.
“It’s good to see you again,” he said. His voice was as average as the rest of him, so that even Gabriel, who had known him for many years, could not tell if the words were meant or not. He decided that the sentiment might be genuine. It was not, as far as he could recall, something Milton said very often.
“And you,” Gabriel lied, and Milton smiled, any offense caused by the untruth exceeded by his happiness at catching it. Milton, thought Gabriel, was the kind of man who was only at ease when the world was disappointing him, and therefore living down to his expectations. “I didn’t expect you to come in person.”
“It’s rare that we have a chance to meet these days. Our paths no longer cross as once they did.”
“I’m an old man,” said Gabriel, and he was reminded of the context in which he had used those same words earlier in the week. He wondered if he had been correct then, if his age and his previous status might be enough to protect him from Bliss’s predation. The thought had troubled him. He bore some responsibility for what had been done to Bliss, although Bliss could hardly have been surprised when retribution was visited upon him for his own actions, but the animosity between Bliss and Louis was of a deeper, more personal nature. No, if Bliss had returned, Gabriel would not be in his sights.
“Not so old,” said Milton, and now it was his turn to lie.
“Old enough that I can see the tunnel at the end of the light,” said Gabriel. “Anyway, it’s a new world with new rules. I find it harder to recognize my place in it.”