Dinner was chicken, something Pam knew how to fix. Kelly almost got out a bottle of wine but thought better of it. Why tempt her with alcohol? Maybe he’d stop drinking himself. It would be no great loss, and the sacrifice would validate his commitment to her. Their conversation avoided serious matters. He’d already shut the dangers from his mind. There was no need to dwell on them. Too much imagination made things worse, not better.
‘You really think we need new curtains?’ he said.
‘They don’t match the furniture very well.’
Kelly grunted. ‘For a boat?’
‘It’s kinda dull there, you know?’
‘Dull,’ he observed, clearing the table. ‘Next thing, you’ll say that men are all alike – ‘ Kelly stopped dead in his tracks. It was the first time he’d slipped up that way. ‘Sorry…’
She gave him an impish smile. ‘Well, in some ways you are. And stop being so nervous about talking to me about things, okay?’
Kelly relaxed. ‘Okay.’ He grabbed her and pulled her close. ‘If that’s the way you feel… well…’
‘Mmm.’ She smiled and accepted his kiss. Kelly’s hands wandered across her back, and there was no feel of a bra under the cotton blouse. She giggled at him. ‘I wondered how long it would take you to notice.’
‘The candles were in the way,’ he explained.
‘The candles were nice, but smelly.’ And she was right. The bunker was not well ventilated. Something else to fix. Kelly looked forward into a very busy future as he moved his hands to a nicer place.
‘Have I gained enough weight,?’
‘Is it my imagination, or … ?’
‘Well, maybe just a little,’ Pam admitted, holding his hands on her.
‘We need to get you some new clothes,’ he said, watching her face, the new confidence. He had her on the wheel, steering the proper compass course past Sharp’s Island Light, well east of the shipping channel, which was busy today.
‘Good idea,’ she agreed. ‘But I don’t know any good places.’ He checked the compass like a good helmsman.
‘They’re easy to find. You just look at the parking lot.’
‘Huh?’
‘Lincolns and Caddys, honey. Always means good clothes,’ Kelly noted. ‘Never fails.’
She laughed as intended. Kelly marveled at how much more in control she seemed, though there was still a long ways to go.
‘Where will we stay tonight?’
‘On board,’ Kelly answered. ‘We’ll be secure here.’ Pam merely nodded, but he explained anyway.
‘You look different now, and they don’t know me from Adam. They don’t know my car or my boat. Frank Allen doesn’t know your name or even that you’re a girl. That’s operational security. We ought to be safe.’
‘I’m sure you’re right,’ Pam said, turning to smile at him. The confidence in her face warmed his blood and fed his already capacious ego.
‘Going to rain tonight,’ Kelly noted, pointing at distant clouds. ‘That’s good, too. Cuts down visibility. We used to do a lot of stuff in the rain. People just aren’t alert when they’re wet.’
‘You really know about this stuff, don’t you?’
A manly smile. ‘I learned in a really tough school, honey.’
They made port three hours later. Kelly made a great show of being alert, checking out the parking lot, noting that his Scout was in its accustomed place. He sent her below while he tied up, then left her there while he drove the car right to the dock. Pam, as instructed, walked straight from the boat to the Scout without looking left or right, and he drove off the property at once. It was still early in the day, and they drove immediately out of the city, finding a suburban shopping center in Timonium, where Pam over a period of two – to Kelly, interminable – hours selected three nice outfits, for which he paid cash. She dressed in the one he liked best, an understated skirt and blouse that went well with his jacket and no tie. For once Kelly was dressing in accordance with his own net worth, which was comfortable.
Dinner was eaten in the same area, an upscale restaurant with a dark corner booth. Kelly didn’t say so, but he’d needed a good meal, and while Pam was okay with chicken, she still had a lot to learn about cooking.
‘You look pretty good-relaxed, I mean,’ he said, sipping his after-dinner coffee.
‘I never thought I’d feel this way. I mean, it’s only been … not even three weeks?’
“That’s right.’ Kelly set his coffee down. ‘Tomorrow we’ll see Sarah and her friends. In a couple of months everything will be different, Pam.’ He took her left hand, hoping that it would someday bear a gold ring on the third finger.
‘I believe that now. I really do.’
‘Good.’
‘What do we do now?’ she asked. Dinner was over and there were hours until the clandestine meeting with Lieutenant Allen.
‘Just drive around some?’ Kelly left cash on the table and led her out to the car.
It was dark now. The sun was nearly set, and rain was starting to fall. Kelly headed south on York Road towards the city, well fed and relaxed himself, feeling confident and ready for the night’s travail. Entering Towson, he saw the recently abandoned streetcar tracks that announced his proximity to the city and its supposed dangers. His senses perked up at once. Kelly’s eyes darted left and right, scanning the streets and sidewalks, checking his three rearview mirrors every five seconds. On getting in the car, he’d put his .45 Colt automatic in its accustomed place, a holster just under the front seat that he could reach faster than one in his belt – and besides, it was a lot more comfortable that way.
‘Pam?’ he asked, watching traffic, making sure the doors were locked – a safety provision that seemed outrageously paranoid when he was so alert.
‘Yes?’
‘How much do you trust me?’
‘I do trust you, John.’
‘Where did you – work, I mean?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean, it’s dark and rainy, and I’d like to see what it’s like down there.’ Without looking, he could feel her body tense. ‘Look, I’ll be careful. If you see anything that worries you, I’ll make tracks like you won’t believe.’
‘I’m scared of that,’ Pam said immediately, but then she stopped herself. She was confident in her man, wasn’t she? He’d done so much for her. He’d saved her. She had to trust him – no, he had to know that she did. She had to show him that she did. And so she asked: ‘You promise you’ll be careful?’
‘Believe it, Pam,’ he assured her. ‘You see one single thing that worries you and we’re gone.’
‘Okay, then.’
It was amazing, Kelly thought, fifty minutes later. The things that are there but which you never see. How many times had he driven through this part of town, never stopping, never noticing? And for years his survival had depended on his noting everything, every bent branch, every sudden birdcall, every footprint in the dirt. But he’d driven through this area a hundred times and never noticed what was happening because it was a different sort of jungle filled with very different game. Part of him just shrugged and said. Well, what did you expect? Another part noted that there had always been danger here, and he’d failed to take note of it, but the warning was not as loud and clear as it should have been.
The environment was ideal. Dark, under a cloudy, moonless sky. The only illumination came from sparse streetlights that created lonely globes of light along sidewalks both deserted and active. Showers came and went, some fairly heavy, mostly moderate, enough to keep heads down and limit visibility, enough to reduce a person’s normal curiosity. That suited Kelly fine, since he was circulating around and around the blocks, noting changes from the second to the third pass by a particular spot. He noted that not even all the streetlights were functioning. Was that just the sloth of city workers or creative maintenance on the part of the local ‘businessmen’? Perhaps a little of both, Kelly thought. The guys who changed the bulbs couldn’t make all that much, and a twenty-dollar bill would probably persuade them to be a little slow, or maybe not screw the bulb in all the way. In any case, it set the mood. The streets were dark, and the dark had always been Kelly’s trusted friend.
The neighborhoods were so… sad, he thought. Shabby storefronts of what had been mom-and-pop grocery stores, probably run out of business by supermarkets which had themselves been wrecked in the ’68 rioting, opening a hole in the economic fabric of the area, but one not yet filled. The cracked cement of the sidewalks was littered with all manner of debris. Were there people who lived here? Who were they? What did they do? What were their dreams? Surely not all could be criminals. Did they hide at night? And if then, what about the daylight? Kelly had learned it in Asia: give the enemy one part of the day and he would secure it for himself, and then expand it, for the day had twenty-four hours, and he would want them all for himself and his activities. No, you couldn’t give the other side anything, not a time, not a place, nothing that they could reliably use. That’s how people lost a war, and there was a war going on here. And the winners were not the forces of good. That realization struck him hard. Kelly had already seen what he knew to be a losing war.