Chapters (46)
- COVER PAGE
- PRAISE
- DEDICATION
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- SNEAK PEEK: EXIT .45
Beauden watched Reese Witherspoon for another minute. Then he pointed at the three bottles over on the table, aim shifting slightly as he spoke: ‘Yesterday, yesterday, yesterday. Those three, all yesterday. Bring me a stack of bibles and I’ll swear on it.’
‘All right.’
He lifted the bottle he was drinking. ‘This one, though. This is today.’ His mouth downturned. ‘Like I say. Not a crime to have one before five. Every now and then.’
Vincent didn’t answer.
Beauden said, ‘Don’t fucking worry about me. Happiest man on the planet.’
‘All right. That’s good then.’
Quiet for a little while. Then Beauden said, ‘When we were on deployment, I was always glad I had guys around looking out. I mean, I was glad, you know.’ Grinning a little. ‘I was glad you were around. And now it’s like ten, fifteen years later, you’ve still … Anyway.’
Vincent waited.
Beauden said, ‘I’ve had to do a lot of thinking, but this is how I like to do things. So don’t come in here trying to fix something that isn’t broken.’
Vincent wasn’t sure if he should push back on that claim or not. But he figured there was some kind of enduring requirement to take people at their word. Maybe that was always going to be the problem. He wondered if he could use Beauden as a character in his script. Not Beauden as himself, obviously, but someone with Beauden’s situation. Have a couple of scenes hinting at a drink problem, and then bring it together toward the end, maybe have the guy going into rehab or something, all tearful and appreciative. It could be one of the themes they wrote about in the reviews when the film came out. They liked a good theme. But it was a lot harder in real life, fixing someone else’s problem, getting an admission of something that was simple from the outside. People rigged up all kinds of elaborate internal theories about how two plus two didn’t equal four in their case. Which, Vincent realised, was what he himself was doing, in a sense. He should have told the police everything that had happened, instead of going along with the Erin way. And yet.
He said, ‘Can I at least change the channel?’
Beauden finished the beer. ‘No, just give it ten minutes. Think it’s getting to a good part.’ He looked over at Vincent again. ‘They didn’t arrest you, obviously.’
Vincent shook his head. ‘No. But it’s been another funny old day …’
THIRTY-TWO
THIRTY-TWO
Erin said, ‘Have you heard of the intellectual dark web—the IDW?’