The Pariot GAme by George V. Higgins Read Free Book Online Page A

see-through nighties back to Lord and Taylor and congratulate yourself on saving all that lovely money. Who’re you beating out of lunch at the Colonnade, Ticker? Some poor bastard that doesn’t know you?”
    “No,” he said, “Charlie Lobianco. Seats. And he’s beating me.”
    “My God,” she said, “no wonder you look so down in the mouth. You poor old skinflint, you. You must want something big, you’re buying lunch.”
    “I guess I do,” he said. “Seats seems to think so.”

S UPERINTENDENT K ENNETH W ALKER was in his early fifties. He had gray hair cut very short over an angular face that was pallid. He wore a dark blue suit and a blue tie with white stripes on a light blue shirt. He had the beginnings of a gut, but he had been working on keeping firm. He sat at the head of a long oak table that needed varnish. There was one file folder in front of him. He did not get up when Riordan entered the office. He did not change his expression. He said: “Peter.”
    “Ken,” Riordan said. Walker cocked his right eyebrow as the two men seated at his left and right stood up and faced Riordan, extending their right hands. Riordan responded the same way. “You know Oscar, here,” Walker said nodding to his right. Riordan took Dietz’s hand and shook it. “Oscar,” Riordan said, “nice to see you again.” Dietz was about thirty-five, wearing a blue-and-white cord suit, half-frame glasses, an open-collared blue shirt and a serious expression. He was smoking a bulldog briar pipe, which he removed from his mouth when he spoke.
    “Peter,” Dietz said. He looked at Riordan critically. “You’re still abusing your health, I see.”
    “That’s a common belief,” Riordan said. “I’ve heard itfrom many people who’re going to need the embalmer before I do.”
    Walker grinned. “And this,” he said, “is Fred Mayes.”
    “Fred,” Riordan said, extending his right hand over the table. Mayes was about thirty-two. He was stocky. He had a short brown beard. His hairline was receding at the forehead. He wore a blue madras sports coat over a blue-and-white-striped button-down shirt, with a green-and-blue-striped tie. He did not smile. “You may call me
Doctor
,” he said.
    “Oh?” Riordan said. “What of? Medicine?”
    “Psychology,” Mayes said.
    “Fine,” Riordan said. “And you,
Doctor
, may call me
Doctor
.”
    Mayes said: “What of?”
    “Philosophy,” Riordan said.
    “I obtained my doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley,” Mayes said. “I have published in many of the leading journals.”
    “I obtained my doctorate from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island,” Riordan said. “I haven’t published in any of the leading journals, or even the second-rate journals, because I’ve been out chasing thugs and learning about the real world. Now, Doctor Mayes, are we gonna fuck around here or are we gonna talk business, huh?”
    Dietz had an expression of dismay on his face. Mayes was turning red. Walker was grinning behind their backs. “I didn’t mean any insult, Peter,” Mayes said.
    “Doctor Riordan, to you,” Riordan said. “I’ve got a question pending.”
    “I don’t see any need to use foul language,” Mayes said.
    “I don’t see any need to put up with your fucking airs and graces, Doctor,” Riordan said. “I asked you a goddamned question. I came here to talk about a guy. I didn’t come here to swap résumés with you, you pompous asshole. We gonna talk business or what?”
    “This man Magro is an inmate of this institution,” Mayes said.
    “Right,” Riordan said, “and they got lions and tigers in the goddamned circus. What other news you got for me today? You think I came waltzing out here for the exercise? I came out here because Magro is an inmate of this institution. Magro is an inmate because he was convicted of killing a guy. Somebody is getting set to let him out. I have got it on good authority that when he gets out, he is going to