sick. So do V
“But in the process, the kids get hurt.- A statement
“Some may be. As few as possible.”
1P Robert Ludium
‘Thafs contemptible.” The girl took her hand away from Matlock’s. “Ies so
condescending. Who makes those decisions? You?”
‘You~re beginning to sound like a one-truck tape
Vve been there. It’s not pleasant”
*This is entirely different. Ive met just two men; one … left. The othees
Greenberg. They’re not your nightmares from the fifties. Take my word for
that.”
“I’d like to.”
The manager of the Cheshire Cat approached the table. “There’s a telephone
can for you, Mr. Matlock.”
Matlock felt a twinge of pain in his stomach. It was the nerves of fear.
Only one person knew where he was-Jason Greenberg.
nanks, Harry~”
“You can take it by the reservations desk. The phon6’s off the hook.”
Matlock got out of his chair and looked briefly at Pat In the months and
months of their going out together, from restaurants to parties to dinners,
he had never received a telephone call, had never been interrupted that
way. He saw that realization in her eyes. He walked rapidly away from the
table to the reservations desk.
“Hello?*
‘Jim?” It was Greenberg, of course.
‘Jason?’
‘Sorry to bother you. I wouldn’t if I didn7t have to~’
‘What is it, for heaven’s sake?”
“Lucas Herron’s dead. He conindtted suicide about an hour ago~”
The pain in Matlock’s stomach suddenly returned. It wasn7t a twinge this
time, but instead a sharp blow that left him unable to breathe. All he
could see in front of his eyes was the picture of the staggering,
THE MATLOCK PAPM 34
panicked old man running across the manicured lawn and disappearing into the
dense foliage bordering his property. And then the wailing sound of a sob
and the name of Nh-nrod whispered in hatred.
“Are you all right?”
‘Yes. Yes, I’m all right” For reasons he could not fathon:4 Matlock’s
memory focused on a small, blackframed photograph. It was an enlarged
snapshot of a dark-haired, middle-aged infantry officer with a weapon in
one hand, a map in the other, the face lean and strong, looking up toward
the high ground.
A quarter of a century ago.
“Yoiid better get back to your apartment.
Greenberg was issuing an order, but he had the sense to be gentle about it
“Who found him?”
“My man. No one else knows yet.”
“Your man?”
“After our tak I put Herron under surveillance. You get to spot the signs.
He broke in and found him.”
“How?”
“Cut his wrists in the shower.”
“Oh, Christl What have I done?”
“Cut that outl Get back here. We!ve got people to reach…. Come on, Jim.”
“What can I tell Pat?” Matlock tried to find his mind but it kept wandering
back to a helpless, frightened old man.
“As little as possible. But hurry.”
Matlock replaced the receiver and took several deep breaths. He searched
his pockets for cigarettes and remembered that he’d left them at the table.
The table. Pat. He had to go back to the table and think of something to
say. –
The truth. Goddanin it, the truth.
io Robert Ludlum
He made his way around two antique pillars toward the far end of the room
and the small side table by the window. In spite of his panic, he felt a
degree of rehef and knew it was because he had decided to be honest with
Pat God knew he had to have someone other than Greenberg and Kressel to
talk to.
Kressell He was supposed to have gone to Kressers house at seven. He’d
forgotten all about itl
But in an instant Sam Kressel went out of his thoughts. He saw the small
side table by the window and there was no one there.
Pat was gone.
13
‘No one saw her leave?” Greenberg followed a frustrated Matlock into the
living room from the foyer. Sam Kressel’s voice could be heard from the
bedroom, shouting excitedly into a telephone. Matlock took notice of it, his
attention split in too many areas.
‘That’s Sam in there, isrft it?” he asked. “Does he know about Herron?”
“Yes. I called him after I talked to you. … What about the waitresses?
Did you ask them?”
“Of course, I did. None of them were sure. It was busy. One said she
thought she might have gone to the ladies’ room. Another hinted, shelp me,
hinted, that she might have been the girl who left with a couple from
another table.”
‘Wouldn’t they have had to pass you on the way out? Wouldn’t you have seen
her?”
“Not necessarily. We were in the back. There are two or three doors which
lead to a terrace. In summer, especially when ifs crowded, they put tables
on the terrace.”
“You drove out in your car?”
“Naturally.”
“And you didn’t see her outside, walking on the road, on the grounds?”
jL46 Robert Ludlum
“No.”
“Did you recognize any of the other people there?”
“I didn7t really look. I was . . . preoccupied.” Matlock lit a cigarette.
His hand shook as he held the match.
“If you want my opinion, I think she spotted-someone she knew and asked for
a lift home. A girl like that doesn’t go anywhere she doesn1 want to go
without a fight.”
“I know. That!s occurred to me.-
“Have a fight?”
“You might say it was diminishing but not over. The phone call probably set
her off again. Old English teachers rarely get calls while out at
restaurants.*
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault. I told you, she’s uptight. She keeps thinking about
her father. I’ll try her apartment when Sam gets off the phone.”
“He’s a funny man. I tell him about Herron-naturally he goes off the deep
end. He says he7s got to talk privately with Sealfont so he goes into the
bedroom and shouts so loud they can hear him in Poughkeepsie.”
Matlocles thoughts shifted quickly to Herron. ‘His death-his suicide-is
going to be the biggest shock this campus has had in twenty years. Men like
Lucas simply don’t die. They certainly doet die like this. .
Does Sam know I saw him?”
“He does. I couldn~t withhold that. I told him pretty much what you told
me-shorter version, of course. He refuses to believe it. The implications,
I mean.”
“I don’t blame him. Theyre not easy to believe. What do we do now?”
“We wait. I’ve made a report. Two lab men from
THE MATLOCK PAPM 147
the Hartford Bureau are out there now. The local pohoe have been called in.”
At the mention of the police, Matlock suddenly remembered the patrolman out
of uniform in the squash court corridor, who had walked rapidly away at the
moment of recognition. He’d told Gzleenberg and Greenberg had never given
him an explanation-if there was one. He asked again.
‘What about the cop in the gym?”
“Me story’s reasonable. At least so far. The Carlyle police are assigned
three mornings a week for limited use of the facilities. Town-gown
relations. Coincidenoe.”
“You’re settling for that?”
“I said, ‘so far.’ We’re running a check on the Nothing’s turned up but an
excellent record.”
‘He!s a bigot, a nasty bastard.”
“This may surprise you, but that’s no crime. Ies guaranteed in the Bill of
Rights.”
Sam Kressel walked through the bedroom door quickly, emphatically. Matlock
saw that he was as close to pure fear as hed ever seen a man. There was an
uncomfortable similarity between SanYs face and the bloodless expression of
Lucas Herron before the old man had raced into the woods.
“I heard you come in,” Kressel said. “What are we going to do? What in bell
are we going to do? … Adrian doesn’t believe that absurd story any more
than I dol Lucas HerronI It’s insaner
“Maybe. But it’s true.”
“Because you say so? How can you be sure? You’re no professional in these
matters. As I understand it, Lucas admitted he was helping a student
through a drug problem.”
24 Robert Ludlum
“He … they aren’t students.-
“I see.” Kressel stopped briefly and looked back and forth between Matlock
and Greenberg. “Under the circumstances, I demand to know the identities.”
“You% get them,” said Greenberg quietly. “Go on. I want to hear why
Matlock’s so wron& the story so absurd.”
“Because Lucas Herron Isn’t . . . waset the only member of the faculty
concerned with these problems. There are dozens of us giving aid, helping
wherever we can]”
“I doet follow you.” Greenberg stared at Kressel. “So you help. You don’t
go and kill yourself when a fellow member of the faculty finds out about
it”
Sam Kressel removed his glasses and looked momentarily reflective, sad.
“There’s something else neither of you know about I’ve been aware of it for
some time but not so knowledgeably as Sealfont … Lucas Herron was a very
sick man. One kidney was removed last summer. The other was also cancerous