Free Free Fall by Kyle Mills Page B

heard what I said."
    "Come on, Tommy, you know that everything relating to my suspension was a bullsh " He cut himself off as he looked down at Emory.
    "They've got nothing, and next week they're going to bring me back to full duty. The whole thing's already got the director's rubber stamp across it."
    Sherman didn't reply right away. He seemed to be trying to decide something. How much to say.
    "If they do bring you back, Mark, it won't have anything to do with justice." He spoke slowly, now. Deliberately.
    "You make it a little too obvious how important your job is to you."
    Beamon tried to interrupt, but his friend held up his hand and silenced him. Carrie fought off a moment of confusion. She'd never seen anyone with the power to make Mark Beamon shut up before.
    "You've put yourself in harm's way here, Mark, and now you're going to make it worse. You think they'll send you back to Flagstaff?" Sherman shook his head.
    "No way. They'll find a reason to transfer you back to D. C." where it's easier to keep an eye on you. They'll dole out the jobs and cases to keep you pacified, and then they'll find a way to hang you."
    Beamon slid up on the stone table behind him and took a sip of his beer, the muscles in his jaw tightening perceptibly. He needed to hear this no matter how much it hurt him, Carrie told herself. And he needed to hear it from the only person who had even a remote chance of getting through to him.
    "Mark," Sherman continued, "you're bigger than life at the Bureau. A hundred years from now, people are still going to be telling stories about the moronic stunts you pulled and the rabbits you managed to pull out of your hat. But it's time to walk away now. It'll only add to your legend."
    Sherman motioned around him.
    "I'm telling you, retirement isn't half bad. You do a little consulting work when you feel like it and play golf when you don't. No more politics, no more crap. Once you have a little time for yourself, you won't know how you lived without it."
    The silence lasted a long time. Carrie could see that Beamon was building something up inside and moved back to her former position along the rail to let Sherman take the brunt of whatever it was.
    Cowardly? Sure. But sometimes cowardice was the better part of valor.
    "Screw you, Tommy," Beamon said, not looking up from his beer.
    "How old were you when you retired? Fifty-six? Well, I'm nowhere near that. You walked out the " He lowered his voice.
    "Associate fucking director. I crawl out a disgraced SAC." Beamon waved his arm around him.
    "Your family owns half of Chicago, so you retire to your Dupont Circle brownstones, your ranches, your villas, and your horses. What do I get?
    A one-bedroom apartment and a job as a night watchman somewhere?"
    "Mark!" Carrie scolded.
    "Tom's just trying to " Beamon jumped off the table and brushed passed them, picking up Emory as he went by.
    "You want to go see the horses close up, honey?"
    Carrie watched for a long time as Beamon and her daughter trudged down the muddy hill toward a distant buck-and-rail fence.
    "I did my best, Carrie," Sherman said in a customarily melancholy tone.
    "I'm sorry."
    "You did more than anyone else could have."
    "It wasn't enough."
    "It's an impossible situation, Tom. The FBI's been such a big part of his life for so long, he isn't sure who he is without it. He won't let himself see all the other things he has in his life." Carrie surprised him by suddenly smiling and clinking her glass against his.
    "You may have failed at saving him from him self, and I imagine that Emory will be demanding a pony for Christmas, but the trip won't be a complete loss if you can show me how to do that trick."
    "Trick?"
    "The one where you make Mark shut his mouth."
    Sherman nodded slowly.
    "I'm getting old, Carrie, and my powers are waning. I can only do it once per visit these days."
    Tristan Newberry opened his eyes, but it was like being blind.
    The clouds had rolled in again, obliterating the stars and