No, not like that. But the thought made him realize that there were indeed many different ways to define friendship. And love, he added. “And love,” he said, as if someone else had made the comment.

Maybe he was totally wrong. Maybe there was nothing to the whole thing—the manuscript, his theory, any of it. Maybe he was just chasing a dream that didn’t exist, chasing it because he so badly wanted it to be true.

Worst of all, he wondered if maybe he was only doing it because it kept Paul alive. No, he told himself. It’s more than that. It was what Paul had wanted more than anything, and what Hudson wanted now was to help him achieve his dream. Our dream, he corrected himself. It’s mine too.

He gathered up his materials and stuffed them into his briefcase. He’d been living with this mystery too long to let it go now. He had to see it through. But sitting in that room all alone, the whispers of doubt telling him there was nothing left to look for, he wasn’t sure he could.

He left the room quickly, glancing over his shoulder as if someone might be watching. Edgar Macready’s voice echoed in his head as he ran for the elevator. They weren’t queer. They were good men.

CHAPTER 26

CHAPTER 26

“It’s like something out of a pirate story.”

Hudson and Ben were standing at the top of the cliff overlooking Whaler’s Cove. A hundred feet below them the ocean crashed over the tops of the reefs. Gulls circled overhead and the wind, hot like the breath of a giant, rippled the tall rye grass, leaving a track like the passing of a great brown snake.

“Funny you should say that,” Ben remarked. “This is where Stevenson got his inspiration for Treasure Island.”

“Stevenson?” said Hudson. “What was he doing in Monterey?”

“Ah,” Ben replied. “That’s an interesting story. He came here for a woman, Fanny Osbourne, who, unfortunately for everyone concerned, was already married.”

“So he came here to leap to his death,” Hudson suggested.

“I never thought of that,” said Ben. “Maybe. It would certainly be a good place to die. I don’t think you’ll find many more beautiful spots.”

“Get back to the story,” Hudson said. “Did he get the girl or not?”

“He did,” Ben said. “But only after a messy divorce during which Fanny lost custody of her son for being a wanton woman. Then the happy couple returned to Britain.”

“The perils of love,” Hudson remarked.

“The Spanish called this place Punta de los Lobos Marinos,” said Ben. “The Point of the Sea Wolves. Much more dramatic than Pt. Lobos, but it doesn’t fit on a map as easily.” He looked out to sea. “They said the winds howling through here reminded them of the wolves from home.”