Day of Reckoning by John Katzenbach

Author:John Katzenbach
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mysterious Press
Published: 2014-05-22T04:00:00+00:00

8

FRIDAY

Shortly before dawn, Duncan sat on the floor in Tommy’s room and for the hundredth time went over his checklist. The house around him was quiet, save for the ordinary clicks and creaks of darkness, the heating system starting up, the wind rattling some tree branches against a window, a sigh from the twins’ bedroom, where their sleep seemed edgy and out of synchronization with the waning night rhythms.

“I can do this,” he whispered to himself.

Duncan placed the list on Tommy’s bed and stood up. The last hours before morning are always the most difficult. He remembered moments with his son, rocking him through the pre-dawn blackness, holding him in a wrestler’s grip, as if all the boy’s problems tugged and pulled at him, threatening to carry him away to some unreachable spot. Sometimes it had felt like a physical battle, holding off the stresses that clawed at his son.

Duncan’s eyes drifted to his son’s bureau top. He picked up a spotted brown and white turtle shell and held it in his hand, turning it over and over, rubbing his fingers across the dry, rough exterior. Where did he get this? he wondered. What does it mean to him? He put the shell down and picked up a rock that seemed cut in two, exposing a quartz-like purple and white interior. And what secret does this hold? Two dozen toy soldiers had been lined up in opposing rows, knights mingled with Civil War figures and army commandos in some historically preposterous confrontation. Which side were you on, Tommy?

Duncan felt all the tensions and exhaustions of the last few days gather within him—then just as suddenly recede, like a wave running across the sand. He held his hands out in front of himself and asked, Who are you?

I am a banker.

No, you’re not.

I am. I am a businessman and a father and a husband.

And?

That’s it.

And?

That’s it!

Liar.

Right. I’m lying to myself.

He looked down at the sheet of paper on the bed with his checklist. He examined all the details of the crime that he’d planned. I am a criminal, as well. I have been since that day in Lodi. It has always been within me, waiting to come out.

Then he shook his head. They’ve stolen my child. It is up to me to get him back. Why should I let anything stand in my way?

He thought of his own mother, then of Megan, and finally of Olivia. The three women in my life. My mother was impersonal and distant, ordered, spinsterish, without enthusiasm. Megan was filled with color and art and spontaneous, vibrant. She was everything my mother wasn’t. And Olivia, what was she? Danger, rebellion, fury, direction.

Duncan remembered seeing her for the first time at a campus demonstration against Central Intelligence Agency recruitment. She had led a phalanx of students down a street, chanting slogans, waving banners, then finally breaking into a rush and throwing themselves forward, filling the lobby of the administration building, disrupting secretaries, admissions officers, and university personnel with screamed imprecations.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.