Stranglehold. Part 6

When the road finally went from macadam to hard-packed dirt he slowed the car so the b.u.mps wouldn't jostle the guy awake. He didn't want him puking all over the Lincoln. He got to where he wanted to be and stopped and turned the car around so he was facing back toward civilization. He left the engine running and let himself out and walked to the pa.s.senger side.

The guy was leaning against the door. He opened it. The guy tumbled slowly into the dirt like a felled oak.

"Hey," the man said. His eyes couldn't seem to focus. This poor sad-a.s.s drunk wasn't going to remember anything in the morning.

Except maybe this.

Arthur took him by both wrists and dragged him away from the car, dropped him down in the tall gra.s.s waving gray in the moonlight.

Then he kicked him.

Experimentally at first, not too hard, in the ribs and in the gut. The guy went oomph and oomph and tried to crawl away on rubbery legs. Art let him get a foot or two and then kicked him some more, harder this time so that he fell, then got in front of him and kicked him once in the face.

The guy rolled over lying in the gra.s.s, he was bleeding from the forehead, and Arthur moved again, kicked his legs apart so that he stood between them and then let him have one hard in the nuts.

The guy shrieked and doubled over puking all over himself. Then rolled to his side and lay there coughing, whining. Slime dribbling down off his chin.

Art walked back to the car, got in, and headed down the road.

It wasn't that he hated drunks particularly.

Drunks were just people.

People who were easy.

That was what he hated.

The careless, heedless, almost casual vulnerability of people. They'd put themselves in the d.a.m.nedest, most pitiful situations with total strangers and then expect everything to go just fine. As though their innocence itself would protect them, as though innocence and virtue were a shield against the world he knew to be there.

He was put on the earth to do many things but partly he was put there to teach them.

Teach the truth.

That the world was a dark place.

Where you hid from what you caused to happen.

Everyone did, always. You forgot that at your peril.

And then you became a victim.

Five.

Duet

Plymouth, New Hampshire June 1985 It was something so lovely and painful to watch that Lydia could barely stand to see her sister, truly beautiful now out of the bridal veil and dancing, gliding-perfect-all in soft flowing white. Perhaps it was her own sense that it would never be this way for her sister again, this perfect, Barb's face bright with magic, the ancient ritual of bonding soul to soul resonant inside her, flushing her skin, reaching deep into something primal and good in human life lived together which, just for this moment, this day, radiated out to all who loved her. This, she thought, was the real virginity. Not the body's but the heart's. And once gone it was gone forever.

It would be that way for her sister too. If she was lucky enough and smart enough, what would follow would be the hard logic and gentle attentions of a good life together. Children maybe, enough money to live on, pleasurable s.e.x and other pleasures, work she cared about, love, friendship. Yet she might also have none of these.

That made her beautiful too.

Their mother sat prominent to one side below the wedding party, her aunt and uncle flanking her. She could see in her mother's face a reflection of her own thoughts-a steely joy, the moment's fragile grace finding that narrow path through surrounds of pain and rough knowledge to her mother's heart.

It had not been easy for her, living with her father.

Certainly not easy for Lydia or Barbara but especially not easy for their mother.

She wondered what she was remembering.

There was a man standing at the double doors to the hall. Lydia didn't know him. She a.s.sumed he was with Alan's-the groom's-party, though she hadn't noticed him at the wedding. The man was looking at her with an open interest that was just shy of being rude because the eyes and smile were so friendly.

"Do you know that man?"

Cindy Fortunato, Barbara's ex-roommate from college, followed Lydia's glance. She sipped her champagne before answering. The champagne had kept coming all evening and Cindy was keeping up with it nicely.

"Sure. That's Arthur Danse. He owns the place."

"He's staring."

"Really?" Cindy laughed. "Hey, good for you. He's cute and he has money."

"He's the owner?"

"Uh-huh. You could do worse, Liddy."

She knew that her sister and her friends used to come here often to the bar and restaurant on the other side of those double doors while they were undergrads at Plymouth College. That was why Barb had chosen The Caves for her reception-that and the convenience for Alan's family, who lived right here in town. Supposedly the banquet hall had been a recent addition. Which meant that Cindy was probably right. Danse was doing quite well for himself.

Not that it mattered. What mattered right now, she thought-after her own three gla.s.ses of champagne-was more the cute part.

It had been a long time since Jim.

She decided that for once she didn't mind someone staring.

He finally had it-why he couldn't seem to take his eyes off her.

It wasn't that she was the most beautiful woman in the room-the bride, for one, was prettier-or the best dressed or most stylish or that she had the best body.

It occurred to him that there were women who seemed to have this weird sort of allure-who people seemed to want to talk to right away, to open up to right away. He'd never really understood the urge in others but he could tell she was like that. That she'd bring that out in people. Something about the eyes, their directness, the interest in the eyes, something about the way the younger girl who was sitting next to her leaned toward her as they spoke, as though she felt a kind of pull.

He knew instinctively that this was the sort of woman for whom the guy at the local service station would go the extra mile wiping down the windshield front and back and wouldn't cheat on the repair bills. The sort of woman other, maybe bolder women would always want to befriend and protect like some special little sister, even if they were actually younger than she was, and whom men would always desire.

Somebody you could want.

As he found that he did. If only to show a thing or two. That she wouldn't always be protected.

"Ask him over. Give him a nod. No, better yet, go to the ladies' room. You'll have to walk right by him."

"You're impossible."

"I'm sensible. Plus I'm smashed. Plus it's a wedding."

"What's that got to do with it?"

"It's a wedding. It's romantic, for G.o.d's sake."

"For my sister it's romantic."

"Bulls.h.i.t. You're chicken."

"Cindy, I'm thirty years old. Married and divorced."

"So?"

"So I'm not about to go around picking up strange men."

"He's not exactly strange. I met the guy once."

"Sure. He nodded to you at the bar."

"Actually he smiled at me at the bar."

"See?"

"There's a difference."

"There is? Then you get up and go to the ladies' room. You go meet him."

"He's not staring at me. Besides, Eddie would shoot me. Come on! You're going to have to pee sooner or later anyhow, right?"

He really didn't believe he was doing this.

Walking right over.

Straight across the floor past the tables and the dancers to the bridal party.

It violated all his principles, business and otherwise.

First of all, it was their show. He was only there to make sure that things ran smoothly. He had no business fraternizing with the guests. Nor had he ever in his life made the acquaintance of a woman in quite such a public way. In such an exposed, unguarded way.

Yet here he was. Walking over.

"Everything all right here?"

"Everything's ... just fine," she said. He could see the surprise in her face. "Dinner was excellent."

"Good. Plenty of champagne?"

She raised her gla.s.s and smiled. "Plenty."

"I wanted to introduce myself. I'm Arthur Danse. The Caves is mine. So if anything's not up to par you have me to blame."

"Really, everything's been perfect. And the room is lovely."

"Thanks. I got lucky on the decorator. You're ... the sister of the bride?"

"Yes. Lydia McCloud."

"Pleased to meet you."

She reached for his hand.

Hers was warm and dry but not as smooth as he'd expected.

She works with her hands, he thought.

Yet she's educated.

Interesting.

She introduced him to the girl sitting next to her, one of the bridesmaids, Cindy something. Cindy Something was grinning at him like today was her birthday and he was her present.

Not likely.

Not with this one around.

"Listen," he said. "If there's anything you need, whatever, napkins, matches, or a B-52 from the bar, please just let me know."

"Excuse me? A B-52?"

"Gran Marnier, Kahlua, and Bailey's Irish Cream. Believe me, it's exactly what it says it is."

He turned and watched the dancers for a moment. "Looks like a good party," he said.

"Yes, it is."

"And your sister's a really pretty bride."