Free Season of the Assassin by Thomas Laird Page A

he’s got them buffaloed into believing he’s the new Ernest Hemingway of Chicago. His book has had excellent reviews. It’s sold well, which is why he can afford his new lifestyle. It’s unfortunate that no one seems to realize that his ‘memoirs’ or whatever are strictly fiction. There’s no mention of his days in the service, and according to him the killings happened while he was home working on a collection of his poetry — which is forthcoming from his publisher in New York.
    It would be justice if I shot him. But perhaps I’m just not the kind of hero who would take matters into his own hands. Set things right, like some cowboy legend. I believe too much in the system. My job is to catch them, not kill them. 
    I come through the door at 12.35 a.m. on this Thursday morning. Eleanor is waiting for me at the top of the stairs.
    ‘You can’t keep this up,’ she tells me.
    ‘Keep what up?’
    I begin my tired ascent of the twenty-six stairs.
    ‘You haven’t written Jimmy in two months. I haven’t seen you in over a week. This is not a marriage. It’s not even an arrangement anymore.’
    ‘Divorce me, then.’
    ‘I can’t. I’m a Catholic, just like you.’
    ‘To hell with the Church! Divorce me, marry Nick, give Jimmy his real father back!’
    I stop halfway up. I have to grab hold of the banister.
    ‘You don’t want that and neither do I, Jake. Nick gave me a child. You couldn’t. I wanted to ask your forgiveness a thousand times, but I can’t do it. You could’ve got the marriage annulled for it. Why didn’t you?’
    ‘Why didn’t I? Let me think.’
    ‘Stop it! Nick gave us both a child. It was for us , not just for me. The doctor said we could never conceive and I did the only thing I knew that would give us a family. My God, Jake, what’s more important than our son?’
    ‘He’s not mine! He belongs to you and my brother!’
    I straighten up and let go of the banister, but my feet aren’t steady because of the six beers and their chasers.
    ‘Why can’t you forgive me, Jake? Why won’t you believe me when I tell you I did it for us. I love you, not Nick. Your brother knows it, too. He was doing it for — ’
    ‘Don’t you say it! He wants you. He wants you now, this day. And you stand there wondering why I live the way I do. Is it too difficult? I’m sterile, just like the two of us together are…But I made my bed, even if it’s not in your room anymore. I keep my word, Eleanor. I don’t betray people. I don’t knife them in the back when they least expect it. I don’t go to another man to change what God set up. We should’ve stayed childless.’
    ‘What would Jimmy think if he heard you? You love your son. Don’t lie to me, you drunk! You’ve always loved him. But your pride won’t back down. You act like you’re impotent. You’re not impotent. You simply had a disease in young adulthood that — ’
    ‘Don’t say it again. Don’t…Jesus, Eleanor, I’m too tired…Maybe we ought to separate. I can find an apartment — ’
    ‘This is our house. I’d rather go on this way than have to explain to people why you’re living somewhere else. I told you I was sorry…I love you. I always will.’
    She turns and walks away from me. I want to stop her, but I am too weary to lift my arms. I sit down on the midway stair of the flight. I put my head in my hands. 
    ‘Oh Jesus. Jesus.’
    Then I summon the will to rise, and I walk up the remaining stairs.
    *
    Anglin takes a bust for drunk-and-disorderly. Apparently his neighbors are tiring of his all-nighters. They call the gendarmes and the police are compelled to respond.
    I go down to the lockup to have a look at him. Eddie warns me not to, but I feel compelled to see him.
    ‘Well, I’m happy to have a visitor,’ he says and smiles. Then he looks up and gives me the full treatment with his eyes. They are shockingly bright and intelligent and…evil.
    ‘I’m no visitor. Just happened to be in your