Hawkes Harbor Part 5

Jamie stared at Kell, then burst into laughter. There was no hysteria in it at all.

d.a.m.n Kell, he was so good....

"Kellen, please." He wiped a tear from his eye, grinning at his old partner. "Get me outta here. Please. I'll do what you say from now on. I promise, I swear my solemn oath ... please. You always say you have something on at least one official in every port...."

"Ah, Jamie, I have leverage on three here, and I still may not... it'll mean calling in valuable chips, lad, remember... and money up front as well...you'll owe me, Jamie....

"Well, I'll see what I can do.... You've a rare smile, Jamie.

You should use it more often."

Train to Swiss border September 1964 "The girl has an evil reputation, Jamie. You weren't the first she's put in jail. It helped considerably."

Jamie looked out the window, took another pull on his beer. The new st.i.tches in his cheek throbbed. His arm ached, too. The doctor had insisted on an antibiotic when he saw the festering bite-nastier than dog bites, he scolded, he must be careful. "Yeah, sure," Jamie'd said. "I won't let anyone bite me again." Already it was receding like a bad dream. He didn't want to talk about it.

"You're looking better, lad, rested. Did your amorous suitor give up his pursuit? Or perhaps you succ.u.mbed to his charms?"

"He's dead," Jamie said. "Tripped and fell on a shiv. It was real peaceful in there, after. Everybody was afraid they'd trip and fall on a shiv. Except me. I don't trip easy."

He met Kell's eyes.

"Well, I'm glad you've rested."

After a silent hour, Jamie asked for the first time, "Where we going?"

"Switzerland. I need to visit my bank."

"You make some money?"

"Some, not as much as I'd hoped-the lady's children got wind of our romance. Just as well. I don't believe I'm quite ready for marriage, after all. Not yet."

Kell paused. "And from there we're going to Liverpool.

There's a ship with a special cargo ... we'll visit my homeland before going on...."

"Liverpool? Aw, man, I hate that place, you know that-"

"Well, Jamie, I did think your eternal grat.i.tude would last longer than an hour."

Jamie stammered lamely, "Uh, it's just so c-c-cold ... I don't mind Liverpool, Kell, honest."

"I must do my patriotic duty, Jamie, a ch.o.r.e for G.o.d and country. Then a trip to Boston ... I have some friends in Boston who could use a little help...."

Jamie had never understood Kell's explanation of Ireland's "troubles" or his role in it, and didn't care to.

"We ever going anywhere fun?"

"Perhaps Jamaica, or New Orleans, for a holiday, once we get things done- "Havana," Kell said. "It's too bad you missed Havana in its heyday, Jamie. The women there are just your type."

"Not rich," Jamie said. "That's my type."

"Only in good nature, Jamie."

Jamie leaned back against the seat. It was good to be without tension, to sit and relax and listen to Kell's voice.

The first thing he was going to do in Switzerland was get s.h.i.t-faced, falling-in-the-gutter drunk. He needed that.

Kell was eloquent on the charms of Cuba.

Jamie dozed, dreaming of the girls.

Terrace View Asylum, Delaware April 1967 Jamie and Dr. McDevitt sat on the porch watching the math professor play with his dog.

He threw sticks, and the dog would fetch, jumping and leaping, begging for another toss.

"You ever have a dog, Jamie?"

"No. There was a monkey ... on a freighter out of Singapore ... It did tricks."

Jamie's speech was halting, slow, the depression so obvious Dr. McDevitt made a note to try a new medication. He glanced at the long belt on Jamie's robe, and made another note.

According to his records, Jamie had withdrawn so completely at Eastern State that they'd used shock therapy. Dr. McDevitt ordered it only for the worst cases, and never if the patient was amnesiac.

Jamie swallowed, blinking back tears.

"I think Grenville forgot about me," he said.

Dr. McDevitt hid his excitement. This was the first time Jamie had shown any memory of the man who was paying the bills here at Terrace View. Grenville Hawkes.

What had triggered it?

"Why do you say that, Jamie?"

"Well, he shoulda come to get me by now."

Jamie watched the golden lab race after the stick, bring it back proudly to his master. Sometimes the man would stop to talk to his wife; the dog sat eagerly waiting.

"You think he forgot?"

"I don't know, Jamie."

"I used to work for Grenville," Jamie said. "At Hawkes Hall."

Louisa Kahne Terrace View Asylum, Delaware May 1967 After improving for a few weeks, Jamie suddenly relapsed into a quiet stupor. Dr. McDevitt was not unduly worried; he had seen similar behavior before.

Often it was just exhaustion from beginning human interaction again.

Jamie usually responded if spoken to; he was far from catatonic. He was still brought to Dr. McDevitt's office three times a week. But if he showed no inclination for talking, even for answering yes or no, Dr. McDevitt did not try to force the issue.

Nothing irritated him more than hearing someone shout questions at a patient, as if he were deaf instead of mad.

This morning Jamie did not even nod h.e.l.lo but sat staring at Dr. McDevitt's desk or, more precisely, at the model ship in a bottle that ornamented it.

Dr. McDevitt said, "Good morning, Jamie," but could see that further inquiry would be useless. The doctor glanced again through Jamie's files.

Jamie had been due for release from Eastern State just before he was transferred here. Not because of any miraculous recovery, but simply because the kidnapping charges had been dropped. Lack of evidence ... the girl involved too confused to testify- If Louisa Kahne had not intervened, Jamie very likely would have been transported to the state line and dumped there. It was not unheard of....

It was an act of kindness, generosity, from Jamie's employer, Grenville Hawkes, of course, but: "Where does Louisa Kahne fit into this?" the doctor wondered aloud.

Jamie raised his head and looked directly at him.

"Dr. Kahne better get out of Hawkes Harbor. She wants to help it, but she can't."

The doctor stared, dumbfounded, then hastily scribbled down those two sentences.

"Why do you say that, Jamie?"

But Jamie Sommers was gone again, perhaps to sea in a masted ship....

Dr. McDevitt looked at the note. Dr. Kahne? Surely Louisa wasn't trying to pa.s.s herself off as a physician.

She had left med school without the degree. Then he remembered her degrees: history, anthropology, specializing in myth and folklore. Of course, technically she could use the t.i.tle, but still...

What was it she couldn't help? Jamie had phrased it so oddly, as if ... Yes, the way he said "it." As if "it" were a t.i.tle, or as if "It" was a name.

Hawkes Hall, Hawkes Harbor, Delaware July 1965 Even from across the great hall, Louisa Kahne felt rather than saw the young man tremble.

"Did you accomplish what I asked?" Grenville asked.

He paced the great room with his impatient stride, curiously stealthy for a man of his height and weight.

"N-n-no. I, I c-can't do it."

"Go to your quarters. In a moment I will join you and we'll discuss what you can and cannot do."

Louisa saw Jamie Sommers flinch but leave the room with robotlike resolve.

"Dr. Kahne," Grenville said, "I believe volume six contains some mention of what we were looking for.

You will excuse me for a moment."

Louisa met his eyes. She hastily looked down at the scattered piles of books and doc.u.ments and began a fumbling search. Her hands were shaking.

Within a few minutes of Grenville's departure, she heard a low, despairing wail from the back of the hall.

Louisa swallowed. Some of her brash self-confidence ebbed, for the first time since she began this... project.

Grenville returned, and as if there had been no interruption, seated himself opposite Louisa across the large rough-hewn table.

She slid an old, leather-bound ledger before him. "Is this what you were speaking of?" she said coolly. "I'm quite certain this is what you meant."

Several hours later Grenville started to open the front door for her, but Louisa stood resolutely in the hallway.

She had made up her mind.

"I want to see Jamie before I go."

"Jamie seemed indisposed. He's not receiving visitors."

"There are questions I feel he can answer."

"Not this evening ..."

She ignored the malevolent look he gave her and went through the large hallway that led to the back of this ...

house? Fort? Castle? Modeled after a hunting lodge in England, he had told her. Never intended to be the main residence...

The last door in the hallway was shut; she pushed it open without knocking.

She had a quick impression of a spare, bare, L-shaped room, then saw Jamie sitting on the edge of a narrow bed, rocking back and forth.

He gave a violent start as she opened the door-then calmly said, "h.e.l.lo, Dr. Kahne," as if she showed up in his room every evening.

She had noticed this about him before. In spite of his nervous edge, the way any unexpected happening made him jump, he still had the air of a man who had experienced the biggest surprise life could hand him, never again could he feel awe.

In a way, he very much resembled the new kind of patient they were starting to get at Terrace View-the young veterans of the war.

And it's so cold in here, she thought, her own teeth chattering, no wonder he's shivering ... far too cold for summer. He moved away as she reached out to touch him. "I'm okay," he said politely. "I appreciate it, but I'm okay." He'd been crying. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Just a little dizzy. Weak. It'll pa.s.s." Jamie always spoke politely, but hesitant, as if he wasn't quite sure how. He gingerly touched his turtleneck sweater on the right side of his throat.

"This ain't that bad. Anyway, I heal up real fast. It's part of ... being like this."

"Here." Louisa opened her purse. She took a bottle of capsules, shook two into her hand. "Stronger than aspirin."

"No, thank you. He wouldn't like it."

"What do you mean?" Louisa saw, with queasy pity, a light bloodstain seeping through the sweater.

Jamie thought he couldn't be much clearer, but explained, "He don't want me drinkin', smokin', taking pills. Messes up my blood. I tried to take aspirin before, couldn't get 'em into my mouth."

He was lucky to get to eat and sleep, he thought. Grenville could and had stopped that for a time, too.

"Could have been worse," Jamie said. "Surely, he doesn't beat you."

Jamie stared at the floor and said nothing. This woman was so naive.... Like It needed to do that....

"So. You going to cure It?" Jamie still thought of Grenville as "It."