Rescue

came when they weren’t expecting anybody. Later I heard that was how a lot of the la Drang families got their news, too. From Western Union, delivered by a cabdriver.“
    A shake of the head. “But when I saw that lieutenant come up the path... I retired the next year. I thought Mike’s company commander might come to visit Doris and me. We tried to do that in ‘forty-six, if we could, but I guess he had a lot of boys’ folks to visit. Or maybe he was killed later himself, I don’t know.“
    Howard’s expression suddenly changed, and he stood. “Excuse me.“
    Doris watched him leave the room. I heard a door close, then the muffled sounds of someone vomiting.
    I said, “I’m really sorry.“
    “Don’t be. It’s not so bad for us to remember Mike from time to time with somebody else, especially somebody who was there, too.“
    “Yes, but I’m sorry about Howard being... sick over it.“
    Doris moved her tongue around inside her mouth before saying. “It’s not from Mike. Howard always does that.“
    “Always?“
    “Throws up. It’s the cancer.“
    I didn’t say anything.
    “Stomach. By the time we found out what was making him sick, it was too late for anything that would cure it, and he didn’t want to go through what he’d seen with other people down here, the chemo and the radiation and all. So, he loses weight and toughs it out. It should be okay for a while yet, and he’s had a good life, too, longer than what most of his friends from the Marines had.“
    “My wife died of cancer, brain cancer.“
    A stricken look. “But... so young?“
    “A few years ago.“
    “Years. That’s what I’ll have, John. Howard’s seventy-five? I’m only seventy, and fit as a fiddle. Ten good years left for me, the way I’m feeling. I won’t stay here, I like the change of season too much, without Howard and the boat and the fishing with him to keep me on the Keys. But what am I going to do with them, the ten years? I ask you.“
    Doris Greenspan shook her head.

    When he came back into the dining area, Howard said, “I can tell by your face that Doris told you.“
    “What, you wanted John to think he was gonna get sick from my desserts, too?“
    The warm smile for her as he retook his chair. Then to me, the sound of command again in his voice. “All right, from what you told us, we can’t go to the Sheriff’s Office about the Church. How about the Highway Patrol or the F.B.I.?“
    “By now Tidyman’s sent them something with ‘John Francis’ on it. You think they’d believe a fugitive killer?“
    Doris said, “C.I.A.?“
    Her husband said, “They aren’t supposed to do anything domestic.“
    “So, I.R.S.?“
    “Sweetheart—“
    “Howard, I don’t know what initials we should be going to, but I do know we can’t let these monsters get away with killing babies.“
    He looked at me. I said, “Doris, as soon as any kind of formal complaint was lodged, even hinted at, Wyeth’s people would sidestep him and just dispose of the evidence.“
    She said, “What evidence?“
    “The children themselves.“
    Closing her eyes, Doris shook’ her head again.
    Howard folded his hands. “And even if we could persuade some agency on the quiet, none of them, state or federal, would go into a religious compound fast and hard after what happened to the A.T.F. in Waco.“
    I said, “I think you’re right.“
    Doris opened her eyes, looking from one of us to the other. “So that means we can’t do anything?“
    Howard gave her the warm smile. “I didn’t say that, sweetheart.“

27

    I feel silly .“
    Over the barely idling engine, Doris said, “You’re dressed fine for a tourist going fishing, John.“
    From under the front brim of the pith helmet, I glanced down through the lenses of the amber, wraparound sunglasses to the oldHawaiian shirt and yellow cruise pants Howard had lent me for the day.
    “Besides,“ she said, “the idea is nobody should recognize you, right?“
    “Right.“
    “So who’s going to know you in that getup?“
    Doris had a point. We were heading out from the marina on the mainland side of Mercy Key, moving slowly with no wake through what seemed to be a man-made canal with occasional concrete sidewalls, houses built no more than twenty feet back from the walls. The long-needled pine trees each had three or four pelicans perched in them, an occasional white egret on a television antenna. As we passed one pine, a pelican turned its back on us and let