Silent Night: A Spenser Holiday Novel by Robert B. Parker

Author:Robert B. Parker
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780399157882
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Published: 2013-10-22T05:00:00+00:00

SUSAN WAS GIVING PEARL her afternoon homemade Christmas cookie. Because we were at Susan’s house, homemade meant cookies from Rosie’s Bakery in Inman Square.

“If we’re not careful,” she said, “Pearl will gain weight.”

“Maybe ‘we’ could try to wean her off the cookies,” I said.

“Never,” Susan said. “I think you need to run with her longer.”

“In that case,” I said, “I think I deserve a cookie, too.”

Susan brought a plate of Christmas cookies over to her coffee table. She sat down next to me on the sofa and rested her head on my shoulder.

“So do you believe Carmen?” she said.

“She has beautiful deep blue eyes.”

“Martin Quirk has beautiful blue eyes. Do you believe everything he tells you?”

“Oddly enough, Quirk’s eyes don’t seem to affect me in the same way,” I said.

“Hmm.” Susan nibbled on a small corner of cookie. Her self-control was awe-inspiring.

“You are suspicious of the tennis player,” I said.

“I am suspicious of all women who have beautiful blue eyes and athletes’ bodies.” She lifted her head up and took a sip of her chardonnay.

“Based on what I’ve told you, what’s your professional opinion?”

“Impossible to say without seeing her in person. Not that I doubt what you’ve told me. But if what she’s saying is true, the most fascinating subject in this whole drama is Juan Alvarez.”

“How so?”

“Controlling, domineering personality. Needs to be loved and respected. Generous, devoted family patriarch. Yet also a vicious criminal.”

“Sounds like Michael Corleone in The Godfather.”

“Exactly,” Susan said. “In the movie, his personality evolved, or devolved, over time. That’s not always the case with dissociative disorders. But it is fascinating that a person can believe they are good, even when they are doing very bad things. They find a way to separate themselves from the bad, even when they are the direct cause.”

“I sometimes forget you went to Harvard,” I said. “I’m going to have to start writing the big words down.”

“You don’t need to write anything down,” she said. “I’ll just talk more slowly.”

Pearl wandered over to the coffee table and snuffled around the plate of cookies. Susan shooed her away. Pearl ambled back over to the fireplace, circled around three times, and then sat heavily on the rug in front of the fire.

“So,” I said, “based solely on what I’ve described, do you think Carmen is being truthful in her motivations?”

“Again, it’s impossible to tell for sure without seeing her. So much is revealed by body language, by tone and inflection of speech. But yes, it’s certainly possible she’s telling the truth. She sounds like a fundamentally strong woman who has taken some pretty significant knocks. She enjoyed some hard-earned success in a tough, highly competitive environment, and then spiraled down lower than she ever imagined she could go.”

“And now she wants to destroy the man who helped her back up?”

“Perhaps she’s reached a point in her recovery where she doesn’t need his support any longer, where she can stand on her own. She’s now able to see him for what he truly is.

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