The Fall Line by Sullivan Mark T

Author:Sullivan, Mark T. [Sullivan, Mark T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: thriller
ISBN: 9781453268759
Goodreads: 15984839
Publisher: MysteriousPress.com/Open Road
Published: 1994-11-01T08:00:00+00:00

Farrell looked up from the pages. The weight on his shoulders had returned. It was heavier now and had sharper angles. He had felt awkward and dull when he discovered who Lena’s patients were. He did everything he could to suppress the thought that he was somehow responsible. He chose to dwell on the thrills he was getting.

One night Lena forced him to look in the mirror. It was early December. They sat in their living room before a roaring fire while rain pelted the windows. Punta and Rabo lay on the rug and snored.

“The government should go after them, put them away,” Lena said.

“People will get it one way or the other,” Farrell said, shifting uncomfortably. “And you’re being a hypocrite, considering.”

“I’ve smoked pot and, yes, we used cocaine a few times,” Lena said. “What did we know then? Look what I know now: dozens of them every day in every hospital in the city.”

A distance opened between them. Farrell imagined it was the day before and he was out scuba diving; Lena was on the surface leaning over the side of the boat talking to him. He could see her lips moving, but her voice was muffled.

Farrell yawned nervously. “I’m tired. Can’t we talk about something else?”

“I always have to hear about your latest deal. But you never want to hear what happens to me.”

“That’s not true. It’s just the talk of hospitals makes me jumpy.”

“Some of the people you work with make me jumpy.”

“Name one.”

“That man, Cordova. He’s the eeriest person I’ve ever met.”

Cordova had come to the house the week before for dinner. Farrell and the dove boy had been in Houston to pass papers on a small apartment complex. Cordova decided to return with him for a night before flying back to Mexico City. At the time it had seemed a perfectly normal thing to do. Farrell thought that, in retrospect, Cordova may have had ulterior reasons. Had he been checking up on my home life?

“You just don’t like him because he’s fat,” Farrell had told Lena.

“That has nothing to do with it,” she said. “He has a strange way of looking just to the right or left of you when you are speaking.”

“It’s probably just the glasses. He doesn’t see well without them.”

“It’s not his vision. I, well I … got the feeling he knows what I look like without makeup. I just don’t want him here anymore.”

“So now I can’t have one of my most important clients to my house?”

“Take him to a restaurant.”

“Fine. Who are we going to have to our house? One of your little shaking babies?”

Lena’s mouth hung open.

“I shouldn’t have said that …” Farrell said. “I …”

Lena had already walked from the room.

Farrell held his head in his hands, feeling the breeze pick up out on the lake. How could he have been so cold? He opened the diary.

December 5

Jack’s been sleeping on the couch the past few nights. Nothing said, just agreed upon. Sometimes he’s like a picture in a magazine ad; after a while it becomes familiar, but you don’t know who the model really is.

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