15
Baker moved away from the hotel slowly. In the doorway of
F. A. O. Schwarz, on Fifth Avenue, he stopped and waited,
ignoring Abel's sulking over his refusal to stand and fight.
Baker listened. He thought he could hear one voice, two
perhaps, but neither of them clearly. But he could hear
anger. Blame being placed. Baker nodded, satisfied. The re
criminations had to mean that Harrigan and Tanner were safely away. Nor could he feel their presence.
Baker stepped from the doorway into the moving throng
on the sidewalk and made his way to a Hertz office near Third Avenue. There, he rented an inconspicuous midsize
under the name of Harold Mailander. He returned with the
car to Central Park South. The Oldsmobile, he confirmed, was gone. It was quiet now. No voices at all that he could
hear. Baker looked for a vacant meter near the St. Moritz
and, seeing none, elected to double-park long enough to
call Tina from the lobby. He stopped the car and climbed out, but a policeman on the sidewalk looked at him and
shook his head. Baker slid back behind the wheel and
pulled away. He would find a phone closer to the highway.
But soon. Harrigan had been gone for at least forty min
utes. He would be approaching the Connecticut line by
now.
Baker found a telephone kiosk near the Sixty-second
Street entrance to the FDR Drive. He parked, once more il
legally, and dialed Jane Carey's number. Busy. Damn. Bet
ter move on. He would try it again from the next phone he
saw.
By the time he reached the Bruckner Expressway and the
first enameled signs for Connecticut, Baker's relief was giv
ing way to worry. He should have listened longer, he thought.
He should have asked Charley to listen instead of trying to pick
through the street noises and random spoken voices himself. Charley would know what they intended next. Where they
would look for him next. Not that he didn't know very well
what they'd do. Harrigan was right. They'd cover the house where Tina lived and they'd cover Sonnenberg. No other ac
tion made any sense. But first they'd have some housekeeping
to do. The one handcuffed in the stairwell would need atten
tion. And Harrigan. Harrigan would have to dispose of the dead man in his car. And Tanner would have to see another
body. Baker shook his head sadly. She would think Abel did it,
he thought. As if she wasn't disgusted enough by him already,
she would think that Abel had killed again.
“Charley?”
“yes.”
“Who killed the man in Harrigan's car? Do we know
that?”
Charley didn't answer.
“Yes or no, Charley”
“whateveryou think”
“I'm asking you, Charley.”
“you don't need me. you're hearing stuff now. you don't
even like me.”
The answer surprised Baker. He lightened his foot and al
lowed the car to drift into a slower lane. It had never oc
curred to him that Charley thought in terms of being liked.
”
I do need you, Charley. Today more than ever
.”
“you need me just today, you just want to get tina and go
away and not have abel and charley anymore, you 're going now to find out how to do that and you want me to help even
when you don't like me and don't want me.”
Charley's rebuke softened Baker more than it alarmed
him. It was true that he had treated Charley badly, like an un
welcome guest, almost from the beginning.
“It
’
y
s not true that I don 't want you, Charley. You're a part
of me, and that won't change. It's just that I don't want you to be separate anymore. That's just as hard for you some
times as it is for me.”
“you like me?”
“I'm learning to understand you better”
“that's not liking.”
“There are things about myself I don't like either,
Charley. I don't like Baker when I'm stupid or thoughtless. I haven't been very nice to you, Charley, and I'm sorry.”
“you like me?”
“Yes, Charley. I like you.”
”i like tina, you know.”
“That's good, Charley.”
”i like her just as much as you. in some ways we're even
better friends than you and her. it's me who tal
ks
to tina. you
think it's you using me, but it's me too, sometimes you think about her and she knows it because i tell her.”
”I don't understand, Charley. Tina knows about you? And Abel?”
“just me, and only sort of if she knew for sure, i bet she 'd
like me.”
“Come to think of it, she probably would, Charley.”
Baker smiled. Lots of kids Tina's age had an imaginary
friend, he thought. At least a doll or stuffed animal they
talked to. Imagine having an honest to gosh friend like
Charley.
“you're sure you like me better now?”
“Yes, Charley. I like you better.”
“i'll tell you some stuff then, the soldier did it.”
“What soldier did what?”
“you asked who hurt the man in harrigan's blue car. the
soldier fixed him so he couldn't hurt you.”
“What soldier?”
”sonnenberg's soldier, the one who digs for old things
and didn't go to notre dame.”
Hershey. Baker realized! Roger Hershey. He'd never met
Hershey, but he'd seen his file in Sonnenberg's basement
room. Now he understood what had confused him when he
was making his way toward the street.
“Charley, there was a woman by the elevator. She saw
Abel, but she wasn't afraid of him.”
“she was a little afraid, she just wasn't surprised.”
“She's one of Sonnenberg’s people?”
“melanie.”
Melanie Laver. Baker nodded.
“Sonnenberg sent them to help me? How did he even
know I was here?”
“harrigan knew, then biaggi knew, then biaggi told every
body, he told peck and he told tortora. tortora knew so son
nenberg knew.”
“Biaggi may have told Peck. But he didn't tell anyone
else, Charley.”
“did too.”
“How do you know that?”
“it's what harrigan thought, he thought biaggi had too
many masters, and i heard biaggi in the park, he was scared of peck and scared of harrigan if they found out he was also tortora’s little bird.”
“Why didn't you tell me this before, Charley?”
“you didn't ask me then, you didn't like me then either.”
Baker shook his head wearily. It all made sense to him
now. At least the parts that mattered. Ahead of him, off the
Westchester Avenue exit, he saw the crowned hamburger
of a Burger King restaurant. He'd try Tina again from
there. Some food in his system wouldn't be a bad idea ei
ther. Being Abel twice in twenty-four hours must have
melted five pounds off him. Baker turned onto the off
ramp.
Tortora and Sonnenberg. Sonnenberg and Peck. Peck and
Biaggi. Biaggi and Harrigan. Baker said their names as if he
were spitting them out of his system. And I'm the plaything
in the middle. The toy. The subject. You're manipulating me
even now, aren't you, Dr. Sonnenberg. Come on, Charley.
Baker parked the car under the hum of the highway. Let's all
of us get something to eat.
Baker tried Jane Carey's number once more. Still busy.
“Charley?”
“it's okay, she knows we're coming.”
“Is anything wrong, Charley?”
”i don 't think so. i think she 's asleep, she said daddy and
then she was asleep with bad dreams.”
“Keep listening, Charley.”
Baker ordered two burgers and a large container of cof
fee and carried them back to his rented car. He would finish
one here and eat the other as he drove.
Sonnenberg! Baker chewed on the name along with his sandwich. It's over, Doctor.
Damn you.
It's all been a game, hasn't it? Hare and hounds. You've been playing with my life and playing with Tina's. And now
you, you and the rest of them, are playing with Tanner
Burke's life as well. The one clean and decent thing to come into my life in two years and, thanks to your games, it prob
ably doesn't have a chance. No way. No way in the world
any feelings she might have will ever settle down into two people just liking each other. Being comfortable together.
Loving each other. She'll never get the sight of Charley out
of her mind. Or her fear of Abel. I don't even know what she feels for the poor slob who's left over. Sorry for him, maybe.
Maybe a little mesmerized because he's so different from
whatever she's used to. But if that's it, it's not going to last. It's going to end because I'm not going to be different a day
longer than I have to. And when that day comes,
I'm going
to melt down into my own world and let Tanner go back to
hers. And there won't be anything left except a couple of
broken toys.
“baker?”
“Yeah, Charley.”
“sonnenberg didn't do that.”
“He didn 't do what, Charley ? ”
“it wasn
‘
t him who made
Li
z be in the game, it was me. i
didn't mean to, but it was me. i told you i listened for tina.
soon i could hear when anyone else listened for tina too.
Li
z
listened when she walked in the park and i heard.”
“
You’re saying that Liz…
Tanner
…
can hear like you can hear?”
“no. not the same, it was just like thinking tina. thinking
about how tina wrote letters and maybe
Li
z could visit, abel
said don't tell you because you should only care if they
wanted to hurt you. i hated that but i was scared, but then
they said your name too and tortora's name, i told that to
abel and abel said i was making it up so he would go help
Li
z instead of watching out for the men who were following
you. but i got real scared and then he believed me. he was even happy, he smiled because now he could fix it so you'd
need him always.”
“You're not afraid of Abel now, Charley?”
“now he says please.”
“Thank you, Charley.”
Baker put aside the hamburger wrapping and started the
engine. He dropped the car into gear and eased toward the
entrance ramp.
He was glad to know what Charley had told him, but he wasn't sure how much difference it made. The long and the short of it was that those two would never have been where
they could hurt Tanner Burke if it hadn't been for Sonnenberg and his games. And Sonnenberg wanted Baker on the
run and needing Abel just as much as Abel wanted it. He
even tolerated Harrigan's snooping around because that was
pressure too. Mostly he tolerated Harrigan because where
there was Harrigan there was Biaggi, and as long as there
was a bought-and-paid-for Biaggi, Sonnenberg would know when Peck was ready to make his move. Games. If Harrigan
got too close, there were always Tortora's killers to slap him down. Just like they slapped down that loony judge and left
him propped outside my house. Yes, Sonnenberg, you son of
a bitch, you did that too, didn't you? You or Tortora, as if it mattered which. You were afraid I wouldn't run unless you
could give me a reason that outweighed staying close to Tina.
” úh-huhl ”
Listen to Charley, Sonnenberg. There's your first mistake.
It never occurred to you that Abel and Charley might have
minds of their own. You never figured on Abel enjoying the
game so much he'd make sure they never stopped chasing
him. And it surely never crossed your mind that Charley
might have some capacity for love. That's right, Doctor. He
loves Tina . . .