the caller said. ‘Then we carry on until you’re persuaded otherwise. Though I am surprised. I would’ve thought the message of bombs and countless dead would be enough to make you realize there’s only one way out of this… The toll of the dead is in your hands.’
‘Goddamn you! I gave you all I could.’
The caller laughed mockingly. ‘No, we gave you all we could. You got what you wanted and now we want something in return.’
‘You had it already. There is no more. And you know nothing was ever one sided. What we had was a fair deal. We both know that and we both got what we needed… Look, even if I wanted to do this, what you’re asking is an impossibility. I can’t do it on my own. There are two people needed to make such an action happen. It isn’t just me. It’s not like before.’
‘Then you find a way for the other person to see it your way. I don’t think you want a war. I think you have enough of those already… But if it does come to that, it’ll be like nothing you’ve seen before. Hell will be unleashed.’
‘And you don’t think there’d be a war, a massive fall-out if I did what you were asking? You do know who he is and what he stands for?’
The contempt from the caller was palpable. ‘What you say he stands for.’
‘What I know he stands for. What you’re asking doesn’t make sense! It’s not in either of our best interests, because we’ll end up coming after you… It can only end one way. Jesus Christ, you gotta see that this will cause a resurgence and reignite everything we’ve fought against for the past few years… I can’t do it. The answer’s no.’
The caller’s tone was light but heavy with threat. ‘I pride myself on my English but it seems you’re not understanding me clearly. This is not a negotiation. We shall cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Their habitation is the fire and you will suffer in this life and go to hell in the next.’
‘Listen to me and listen carefully…’
The caller interrupted. ‘No, it’s you who’ll listen… Eventually you’ll realize you need to sacrifice a pawn to continue with the game you started.’
‘But it isn’t a pawn, is it? We’re not talking about a pawn.’
‘That depends on how you look at it. And in case you think that this is just an empty threat, we have another reminder for you. Hopefully this one will help to persuade you to come to the right decision.’
‘You bastard. You don’t have to do this.’
‘Look at it this way. At least you’ve got a warning this time… Next Wednesday, the government building. Eighteen forty-five hours. Chatham, Illinois… Do what you think’s right.’
Nf3 O-O
‘What the hell did you think you were doing in there?’
Earl Edwards slammed Cooper hard against the cool tiles of the court house restroom, reminding Cooper of the fact Earl had been the high school wrestling champion.
‘Earl, listen…’
He slammed again. Only this time harder. High school state champion three years running.
‘Don’t. I don’t want to hear any crap coming out of your mouth, Coop. But I do want to know why only one of us was trying back there? It’s always the same with you, Coop. Destroy everything you got going for you. If it’s jail you want to go to, carry on doing what you’re doing.’
A bald guy on the wrong side of two hundred pounds walked in. Looked at them. Walked right out.
‘What do you want me to do, Earl?’
‘I want you to let me do my job! And let me tell you something, Coop, you’re not making that easy. Look at you. We’re here to try to convince the court you got it together. That you’re willing to do the programs. But can you do that? The hell you can. You come here so wired I’m surprised you can even hold your head up… Where did that tall, handsome, clean-living guy go to, Coop?’
This time Cooper slammed Earl hard. Reminding him of the fact he’d been the armed forces wrestling champion… Four years in a row. ‘Don’t pull that one on me, Earl. Not you. I’m trying, okay. Things have been a bit tough lately.’
‘Coop, you’re losing it, man. We all get what’s going on. We all feel for you, but when’s it going to stop? You’ve messed up your marriage. You’re messing up your job. And it’s starting all over again.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘I’m talking about Ellie.’
There it was again. The shot. Only this time it wasn’t done with a small-caliber pistol. This time Cooper felt the hit from a Remington pump.
His breathing was fast. Hard. Short. Shallow. Damn it, he could hardly get his breath.
‘What did I say, Earl…? I told you, didn’t I? I made myself real clear… I said, Earl, don’t say her name. But what do you go and do…?’
Cooper punched his fist into one of the cubicle doors, swinging it wide open. Any other time a guy sitting on the john with his pants round his ankles and a face full of shock might’ve made him smile. Right now, there was nothing funny about anything.
‘… You went and said her Goddamn name.’
Earl shook his head. His left cheek going into tiny pulsating spasms. Always did when he was under stress. Always did when he was about to say something he knew Cooper wasn’t going to like.
‘You listen to me right now. You’re freefalling, man. I don’t know exactly what’s happened in the past couple of weeks, but I do know you’re going backwards. We all love you. I don’t know another guy who’s got a big a heart as you do, or is as loyal. But since you got back from the Congo, I don’t recognize you.’
It was Cooper’s turn to shake his head but he added his hand, interweaving fingers through his strawberry blonde hair. It needed a cut. Hell, when didn’t it? ‘You sound like my wife.’
‘I would do if you even had one anymore. And that’s my point. Why throw it away because of…’
Cooper’s hands pounded into Earl’s chest. He stumbled back. ‘You really going to say her name again?’
‘I don’t have to because we both know who we’re talking about. Judge Saunders is right. It’s been almost eight years since the accident. Eight. And you know something, Coop? You’re as dead as she is.’
Cooper’s fist found Earl’s mouth before he’d decided what he was going to do. It split open like the skins of the fried red tomatoes at Mama’s diner on Main Street.
‘What is it with you? What is it with any of you? You of all people, Earl. You really saying that I shouldn’t at least have tried to find her? You think I was wasting my time looking for someone I loved? Do you, Earl? Is that what you think?’
Cooper watched Earl get up from the floor. Wiped his suit before his mouth. He said, ‘What I think is you need to let it go.’
Cooper stepped in close. Real close. Close enough to smell the blood on Earl’s lip. ‘I don’t care what you think I need to do, Earl. I don’t care what the others think. But for your information, I have given up on it… on finding her, but the guilt… the guilt, Earl, it kills me. From the moment I open my eyes to the time I go to sleep.’
‘Coop, listen… ’
Earl stretched out his arms, with his six-foot frame three inches shorter than Cooper’s. Giving Cooper that look which cut him down like a cotton plant at harvest back in Missouri. The look which told Cooper