“There’s no one else! Don’t turn it down so quickly. Most men would die to inherit—”
“Die, is right. I’d be dead in a month, a wreck, drinking, and dead.”
“You don’t understand. You’re the only son I have.”
“I’m sorry that’s true. Why me?”
“Because you’re a real honest-to-God idiot savant. A real fool, not a fake one. Someone who talks too much but then you look at the words and they’re right. You can’t help yourself. The good things come out of your hand into words.”
“Yes, but I haven’t leaned against the mirror and listened to you for years, like Manny.”
“He talks but his words don’t mean anything.”
“But he’s learned. He must know how to run things by now. Let me work for him!”
“Last chance? Last offer?” His voice was fading.
“And give up my wife and my writing and my life?”
“Ah,” whispered the voice. And a final “Yes …” Adding: “Now, at last. Bless me, father, for I have truly sinned.”
“I can’t.”
“Yes, you can. And forgive. That’s a priest’s job. Forgive me and bless me. In a moment it’ll be too late. Don’t send me to everlasting hell!”
I shut my eyes and said, “I bless you.” And then I said, “I forgive you, though, God, I don’t understand you!”
“Who ever did?” he gasped. “Not me.” His head slumped against the panel. “Much thanks.” His eyes closed in outer space where there is no sound. I added my own track. The sound of a mighty gate closing on oblivion, tomb doors banging shut.
“I forgive you!” I shouted at the man’s terrible mask.
“I forgive you …” my voice echoed back from high in the empty church.
The street was empty.
Crumley, I thought, where are you?
I ran.
72
There was a last place I had to go.
I climbed the dark interior of Notre Dame.
I saw the shape fixed out near the top rim of the left tower, with a gargoyle not too far away, its bestial chin resting on its horny paws, gazing out across a Paris that never was.
I edged along, took a deep breath, and called: “You … ?” and had to stop.
The figure seated there, its face in shadow, did not move.
I took another breath and said, “Here.”
The figure straightened. The head, the face, came up into the dim glow of the city.
I took a last breath and called quietly, “Roy?”
The Beast looked back at me, a perfect duplicate of the one that had slumped in the confessional a few minutes ago.