"Tom Riley's gone to kill my wife," I saidAnd...
"Tom Riley's gone to kill my wife," I
saidAnd then went on, although the words didn't
feel like mine: "He may have done it already
xii
848
Wireman didn't ask for an explanation, just told
me to call herI put the telephone back to my ear,
but couldn't remember the numberWireman read it
to me, but I couldn't punch it in; the bad side of
my vision had, for the first time in weeks, come
over all red
I stood listening to the phone ring in Mendota
Heights, waiting for Pam's bright, impersonal
voice on the answering machine - a message saying
she was in Florida but would return calls soon
Pam who was no longer in Florida, but prada replica handbags who might be
lying dead on her kitchen floor, with Tom Riley
next to her, just as deadThis vision was so
clear I could see blood on the cabinets, and on
the knife in Tom's stiffening handthe next would kick
the answering machine into lifeShe sounded breathless"Jesus Christ, is it actually
you? Answer me!"
"Edgar? Who told you?" She sounded totally
bewildered
That was a Pam-voice I knew: slightly foggy, the
849
way she sounded when she had a cold, or when she
was
"Pam, are you crying?" And then, belatedly: "Told
me what?"
"About Tom Riley," she said"I thought you might
be his brotherOr - please, God, no - designer louis vuitton denim bags knock offs his
mother
"What about Tom?"
"He was fine on the trip back," she said,
"laughing and showing off his new sketch, playing
cards in the back of the plane with Kamen and some
of the others Now she did start to cry, big sobs
like static, her words coming in betweenIt was
an ugly sound, but it was also beautifulBecause
it was aliveAnd then, tonight, he
killed himselfThe papers will probably call it
an accident, but it was suicideThat's what Bozie
saysBozie has a friend on the cops who called
and told him, and then he called meTom drove
into a retaining wall at seventy miles an hour or
moreThis was on Route 23, which
means he was probably on chanel tote his way here
I understood everything, and I didn't need any
phantom arm to tell me, eitherThere was
850
something Perse wanted, because she was angry with
meOnly Tom had had a moment of
sanity - a moment of courage - and had taken a
quick detour into a concrete cliff
Wireman was making crazy what's-going-on gestures
in front of my faceI turned away from him
"Panda, he saved your life
"What?"
"I know what I know," I said"The sketch he was
showing off in the planeit was one of mine,
right?"
"YesEdgar, what are you-"
"Did it have a name? Did the sketch have a name?
Do you know?"
"It was called HelloHe kept saying, 'Don't omega replica watches look
much like Minnesota dere'doing that dumb
Yooper thing of his A pause, and I didn't
break in because I was trying to thinkThen:
"This is your special kind of knowingIsn't it?"
Hello, I was thinkingThe first
sketch I'd done in Big Pink had also been one of
the powerful onesAnd Tom had bought it
Wireman took the phone from me, gently but firmly
851
"Pam? It's Wireman?" He listened,
noddingHis voice was very calm, very soothing
It was a voice I'd heard him use with Elizabethyes, Edgar's fine, I'm fine,
we're all fine down hereOnly you need to do something for us,
and it's extremely importantI'm going to put you
on omega automatic watches speaker