Page 35 (1/2)

"I ought to get to sleep," I said

"You're not even tired"

He was right I wasn't I don't kno he knew it, because Ihad soized me He drove don and west and parked at a fire hydrant in front of an old-fashioned diner across from the river a few blocks south of the entrance to the Holland Tunnel A white-haired waitress brought us s over easy They had Philadelphia-style scrapple on the s And coffee, I said

"Did you want the special coffee?"

I asked what it was She looked uncomfortable, and Ballou told her I'd have plain black coffee, but that he'd like the special coffee At that point I caught on, and I wasn't surprised when the special coffee turned out to be straight scotch served in a coffee ive the police his address"

"I could I don't knohat they'd do with it I tried to press charges against him and Durkin wouldn't even listen to me"

"There's more," he said "You have to do this alone"

"Do I?"

"I think you do It's between the two of you, and that's how it has to be settled"

"That's how it feels to me, too," I adh he's a worthy foe and I have to meet him as an equal He's a ot hit by a bus crossing the street"

"I'd buy the driver a drink"

"I'd buy hiet hi hiot a call earlier from the police lieutenant in Ohio He did some work on his own, found ato make a difference in this case I have to face him myself and I wish I knehy"

"Your business with hie I was before, God knows, but I used it all up on that big stupid kid in the park It ran away fro loss to e went away soer, but I swear to God I can't feel it I must hate the bastard, but I don't feel that, either I just feel-"

"What?"

"Driven"

"Ah"

"He's my problem and I have to solve hio I didn't play according to the rules, and everything that's happened since has to be charged to my account Or maybe it's simpler than that It's personal to hi into his perception of it Either way, I have to do so about him He's the boulder in front of my door If I don't shove hiain" I drank the rest of e on the bottom of the cup "Except he's an invisible boulder," I said "I've got a sketch of hiet to see hi over my shoulder and he's never quite there"

"He was there the other night In the eht as well have happened in a dreaot to see him He was behindat hi It was dark as a coal mine in there, all I saas a shape Then I was facedown in the dirt, and then I was unconscious, and then I was all by rateful for the aches and bruises They were proof the whole thing really happened Every time I pissed blood I knew I hadn't er over a scar on the back of his left hand "Soreat co him in," I said "In a funny way I have a better shot than the cops do I'et in , and I can enter the pre any evidence I turn up I don't have to read hiet a confession out of hiet to consult an attorney I can record anything he says without getting a court order first, and I don't even have to tell hihtirons, Mick I want to see hiain And I think you're right I think I have to bring him in un"

"I'll use it if I have to"

"I'd use it first chance I'd shoot him in the back"

Maybe I would, too I couldn't really say what I'd do, or when Imist once the sun came up So far all I had was an address and an apartment number, and I didn't even know if he really lived there

When I was a working cop there had been restaurants where I didn't get a check The owners liked having us around, and I guess they thought our presence orth the occasional free meal Evidently some establishments feel similarly about career criminals, because there was no check for us at the diner We each left five dollars for the waitress, and Mick stopped at the counter to pick up a couple of containers of coffee

The Cadillac had a ticket on the windshield He folded it and tucked it in a pocket without co still and fresh around us He drove up along the river and over the George Washington Bridge to the Jersey side, then headed north on the Palisades Parkway, pulling off at an overlook high above the Hudson He parked with the big car's nose against the guardrail and we sat and watched the dawn come up over the city I don't think either of us had said more than a dozen words since we left the diner, and we didn't speak now

After a while he got our coffees out of the paper sack and handed one to love compartment and removed a half-pint silver flask He uncapped it and added an ounce or two of whiskey to his coffee I must have reacted visibly because he turned and raised his brows at me

"I used to drink coffee that way," I said

"With twelve-year-old Irish?"

"With any kind of whiskey Bourbon,pull of the sweetened coffee "Sometimes," he said, "I wish to God you'd take a drink"

"So you've said"

"But do you know soht now I'd break your ar up your whiskey"

"I don't want you drinking any man's whiskey And I couldn't tell you why Have you been up here before?"

"Not in years And never at this hour"