The Beast of Bishop by Borden Shaw

Author:Borden Shaw [Shaw, Borden]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Vanguard Press
Published: 2020-03-08T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

The meal was for the most part conducted in silence. A second helping disappeared as quickly as the first; a third cup of coffee and I finally felt myself again. The big man across the table seemed pleased with my appetite.

“That was excellent, Jonathan. I never thought I’d finish the whole damned thing; but then again, I never realised I was quite that hungry.”

“The fresh open air will do that to you. Do you smoke? I do have a box of fine Cubans.”

“No… No, thank you. I quit.”

“Shall we retire to the living room?”

“Sure,” I said, grabbing my coffee mug. “You do like your comfort.”

“Why not–?”

“Oh, and let me just grab my backpack, too. I left it at the door.”

“I’ll get it. There’s a small guestroom down the hall if you’d like to stay the night–”

“No, no, that’s okay–”

“You know, you really have made things difficult for me,” said my host, with just the slightest edge in his voice. “I have things to do this weekend–”

“I’m sorry, Jonathan,” I responded, “I have a deadline, and I thought this was going to be some downtime for you, and didn’t think you’d mind–”

“What the hell do you carry in this backpack of yours? It’s heavy.”

“My survival kit – thanks – my laptop, charger, a couple of spare charger packs, a thirty-five mil camera with the requisite rechargeable batteries – oh, and a couple of pairs of underwear and three pairs of socks and a change of clothes.”

“Everything a guy could need and more.”

“Thanks,” I said, taking the pack from his hand. “It’s a little worn, and, damn, I keep promising myself to buy a new one, but it serves me well. It’s always packed and ready to go on a moment’s notice.”

“Sounds like an exciting life.”

“It can be. I just came back from a rather run-of-the-mill interview with this society-page socialite – not usually my cup of tea. However, it was on one of those Alaskan cruise ships – all expenses paid – like a mini-holiday; and I’ve never been up the Alaskan coast– You know, my house can be a pigsty – I mean, I’m hardly ever home to clean it up. However, I usually know where everything is in this kit–”

“What are you looking for?”

“My tape recorder– Ah! It was in my pocket. These damned things are so small these days… I mean, when I first started in the business, they created such a bulge in your jeans when you shoved them in your pants. Is that a tape recorder in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me? Sorry. I couldn’t resist. I took it out to replace the batteries and… look at that. I left the damned thing running.”

“No wonder you had to replace the batteries. Do you do that often, leave it running?”

“Yeah.”

“I would have thought you’d have been more high-tech with a phone that could do everything – camera, recorder…”

“I’m kind of hard on my equipment,” I said. “Besides, I can pop a

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