Private Screening (54 page)

“That no one else but us will ever know the truth. I almost think he'd enjoy that.”

They slept apart.

When he came down to breakfast, Stacy was in the window seat, watching the ocean. He gave her a tentative, querying look.

“I hate lima beans,” she told him.

“What brought
that
to mind?”

“Christopher. Last night he was asking me to get some beets for lunch.”

His face showed disappointment. “He's playing a trick on you, Stacy. I can't stand beets.”

She grinned at him. “That's what
he
said,” she answered, and then took them both to watch the seals.

What struck her was how Tony concentrated on what Christopher said or asked, so that his son knew at that moment that no one else was more important. She talked very little; it was enough to like him for reasons that had nothing to do with her.

When lunch was through, they went to the tide pools. The ocean had receded, leaving pockets of water on wet, shiny rock, filled with marine life. Christopher was drawn to small things—sea snails, mussels, miniature crabs. She dared him to stick a finger in the middle of a sea anemone; when it closed in harmless sucking, startling Christopher, she made the sudden slurping sound her father had used to trick her. Christopher laughed so hard he had to sit.

As they left the tide pool, Christopher ran ahead, kicking and throwing rocks.

“This must seem tame to him,” she said.

“It's muscle memory—we usually play some kind of ball.” Tony smiled after him. “Wait, though. He'll ask to come back tomorrow.”

After dinner, Christopher led her to the piano, asking Tony to stay in the kitchen. When he had finished memorizing the notes to Brahms's Lullaby, he called his father in for a performance. She had a fleeting thought of Alexis; as Tony listened, pleased and careless, she remembered that he had not been there. The thought vanished.

When Christopher finished, Tony shooed him up for a story, and Stacy went off to shower.

She stretched it out, reflecting. Putting on a silk robe, she heard voices in the living room.

Tony had turned on the news, as she hadn't known him to do since the night they had learned who John Damone was. He watched intently, unaware of her behind him.

Softly, she walked upstairs.

Christopher was asleep, lineless, untroubled, yet so much like his father that Stacy smiled to herself. It was easy to love them, she thought wryly, as they slept.

Returning, she paused at the foot of the stairs.

Rachel Messer was an anchorwoman now.

“The major story from San Francisco's primary,” she continued, “is the overwhelming defeat of District Attorney Ralph DiPalma.

“According to most analysts, the compelling factor was his failure to gain a conviction in the Harry Carson trial. Carson's recent death while attempting to escape seemed only to remind voters of their discontent.…”

Turning off the television, Tony saw her.

For a moment, they simply looked at each other.

After this, she suddenly knew, they would think in their own ways of Jamie or the Parnells, John Damone or Harry Carson. But she was somehow certain that this was the last time they might talk of that. It had all been said.

“Christopher's asleep,” she told him. “Come to bed with me, all right?”

Lord awoke to find her gone.

When he got to the cove, Stacy and his son had rolled up their jeans and were shelling with a bucket. As the waves came in, she showed Christopher how to wait until the sand settled, leaving the water clear. They did not see him.

Lord decided to let them be.

Idly, he looked inside their picnic cooler. There was nothing but a single can of beets.

Opening the can, Lord commenced to eat the beets, imagining how crushed they'd be. And then he heard them turn, laughing, from the water.

About the Author

Richard North Patterson is a
New York Times
–bestselling author of more than twenty novels. An acknowledged master of the courtroom thriller, he was a trial lawyer in San Francisco for many years. His novels have been translated into thirty languages and several have been adapted for television and film. He is a winner of the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award, the French Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, and the Silver Bullet Award from the International Thrillers Writers.

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint excerpts from previously published materials:

Irving Music: Lyrics from “Good Vibrations” by Brian Wilson and Mike Love. Music by Brian Wilson. © 1966 Irving Music, Inc. (BMI) All rights reserved. International copyright secured.

Little, Brown and Company: Excerpt from “The Adventures of Isabel” by Ogden Nash. Copyright 1936 by Ogden Nash. Reprinted by permission of Little, Brown and Co. and Curtis Brown, Ltd. Rights in the UK administered by Penguin Books, Ltd. Reprinted from
Ogden Nash: Custard and Company
(Kestrel Books, 1979), p. 88. Poems copyright © 1979 by the Estate of Ogden Nash. This selection and illustrations copyright © 1979 by Quentin Blake. Used by permission.

MPL Communications Inc.: Lyrics from “That'll Be the Day” by Norman Petty, Buddy Holly, and Jerry Allison. © 1957 MPL Communications and Wren Music Co. © renewed 1985 MPL Communications and Wren Music Co. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Red Cloud Music and Cass County Music: Lyrics from “Desperado” by Glenn Frey and Don Henley. © 1973 Red Cloud Music and Cass County Music. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Copyright © 1985 by Richard North Patterson

Cover design by Michel Vrana

ISBN: 978-1-4976-7915-3

This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

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EBOOKS BY RICHARD NORTH PATTERSON

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