Free Jericho's Fall by Stephen L. Carter Page A

had never occurred to them because they were trying to protect him, and when we love someone enough to offer protection, we prefer to imagine that the object of our affections is always in the right. Mrs. Blumen had taken care of Jericho Ainsley for most of his professional career; and now she was gone, as were most of his friends, and there was nobody left to protect him.
    Nobody but three women who could not manage to get along.
    (iii)
    His eyes were closed when she took the chair beside the bed. A different book was on the night table now, a collection of classic chess problems. Jericho’s hand was chilly, but she kept squeezing it, wanting to gift him her warmth. She called his name, then again, louder, and he seemed to smile. He looked so healthy still. She wondered what kind of God would create a world where people had to die, and why Audrey worshiped Him. She wondered what Pamela was worried about, and whether Dak was as crazy as Jericho. She remembered Jericho in the old days. He had struck her as eccentric, but in possession of his senses: brilliant, and handsome, and commanding. She thought about their first night together, and how he had guessed that she was a virgin. I know things , he had told her, eyes fiery and delighted. I just know things .
    And she remembered, too, the afternoon Jericho’s cousin Maggie, in those days lieutenant governor of Vermont, had come to talk to the seminar, back when they were still trying to hide their relationship. There were thirty-two students, and Beck’s seat was toward the back, but she felt Margaret Ainsley’s judgmental gaze on her for the entire two hours. The next day, she met Jericho in his office.
    She knows , Beck had told him. Your cousin knows .
    She’s like me , he said. She just knows things .
    “Did you ask her?” he said suddenly, jolting Beck back to the present. She saw that his eyes were open. Maybe they had been open for a while. She realized that she had no idea, because she had been dozing.
    “I’m sorry.” Rubbing her eyes. “The mountain air. Uh. Ask who?”
    “Audrey. You were supposed to ask her why she quit the family business. Why she left her husband.” He gestured. “Pain pills. Give me lots. Don’t look at me like that. I can’t sleep without them, not for more than an hour. Maybe I’m addicted, but I don’t actually think it matters. Do you?”
    She got the pills, poured water from the carafe. “Did you and Dak have a nice visit?”
    “Help me turn on my side.”
    She did that, too. His body felt warm and vigorous. It was difficult to accept that he might only have weeks. She remembered how her mother had shaved her father near the end, so that he would not have to go to the mortuary looking ragged. She wondered if anybody would bother shaving Jericho.
    “Yes,” he said.
    “Yes, what?”
    “Yes, we had a lovely visit. Simply lovely. Poor man. It’s driving him crazy. I bet by now he’s recruited you to keep an eye on me, hasn’t he?”
    Beck was back in the chair, holding his hand. “What’s driving him crazy?”
    “I won’t tell him, and he doesn’t know if I’m bluffing.”
    “Won’t tell him what?”
    A wolfish grin. “See? He’s recruited you. He would.”
    “Nobody recruited me to do anything, Jericho.”
    “Not yet, maybe.” He yawned. “But once you start working with me, you’re going to become very popular.”
    “What exactly am I working with you on?”
    He flashed the roguish grin she had once adored and pointed at the stack of pages from this afternoon.
    “Your will?”
    “It’s not a will. Ask Audrey. She’ll tell you what it is. I don’t have time to finish it. I want you to finish it.”
    Because Audrey turned you down, she decided suddenly. This was what Dak was asking about, whatever was in the folder, and Audrey wanted nothing to do with it.
    “What is it? In the folder?”
    “Beck, listen,” he said, dying mind already on to another subject. But she was listening already. “Any