The Night He Left the Syndicate, I Took His Chair novel · Chapter 9 of 32
Chapter 9: The First Boat
"I didn't come for the watch," I said.
"I know what you came for."
He let the watch swing.
"Three boxes. Hall closet. Your old man in his oilskins, your old man holding you on the Hannah Dell, your old man at the Blessing of the Fleet with that ugly hat."
"Open the gate, Orson."
"Come in and get them."
"Bring them out."
"Come in, Ris." His voice dropped. "We'll talk. Just the two of us. Like the garage."
"The garage is where you told me I paid for a man's death."
"And you came anyway."
Behind me Zeke got out of the sedan and leaned on the roof.
Orson's eyes went to him and stayed there.
"Hesketh's new boy," he said. "He sleeps outside your window, I hear."
"He sleeps outside Mavis's."
"Same window."
He looked back at me.
"Your photos are safe as long as you're reasonable," he said. "Plead to the books, and I'll carry the boxes down to Mavis's myself."
My father holding me up at the wheel when I was six.
I wanted them so badly my hands hurt.
I turned around and got in the car.
"Ris."
I shut the door.
At the bottom of the bluff Zeke said, "You want me to go back up there tonight and get them?"
"No."
"I'm good at fences."
"He'd know it was me. And he'd burn them."
He reached over and turned on the heater, which he never did.
On Monday I took the loan book out of the safe while Hesketh's grandson was at lunch.
I opened it to page twelve.
The Petrel. Forty-one feet. Owned by the co-op's old president, seventy-four years old, still going out every morning at four.
He'd borrowed for a new engine six years ago.
He had paid on time every month since.
He still owed more than he'd borrowed.
I wrote a line under his last payment.
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