“I do not ask about her business matters or her personal life, Mr. Holland.”
“You don’t need to ask. You see and hear everything,” Hackberry said. “You put me in mind of a giant pterodactyl flying over the landscape.”
“A what?”
“What was she doing in Beckman’s office?” Hackberry said. “Why would she be with a man of his kind? I can abide anything in human beings except treachery.”
“It is not good to talk of her this way, Mr. Holland.”
“I do so only because I put my faith in her,” Hackberry said, his voice rising. “I misplaced it.”
“You are in an emotional state right now,” Andre said. “It is better you review your words before you speak them.”
“It’s better I don’t hold conversations with pterodactyls. I’m going to give it to him.”
Darl turned around. “You’re gonna give the cup Jesus drunk from to a fellow like that? That ain’t right, Mr. Holland.”
“In a public place, where everyone will know he has it. He’ll be forced to return it to wherever it came from. He’ll no longer have any reason to hold my son.”
“You’re deceiving yourself, Mr. Holland,” Andre said. “Do not do this. You know better. Do not give yourself over to foolish thinking. If you give the cup to this man, you will never forgive yourself. Nor will I.”
“Did torturing and killing those men in Haiti get your children back?” Hackberry said.
“No, it did not. But it purged the world of men who had no right to live. Also, no other child had to suffer at their hands.”
“Take me to Beckman’s office.”
“Where is the cup?” Andre said.
“In a place nobody is going to find it.”
“You are acting in a willful and stubborn fashion, Mr. Holland. There is only one alternative for us. I do not want the young deputy to hear this. You know what we must do. There are instances when we have to put aside the restraints of mercy.”
“You’re right, Andre, I don’t want to hear this,” Darl said. “And as a deputy sheriff of Kerr County, I’d damn well better not.”
“I think Darl means it, Andre,” Hackberry said.
“Where is the cup?” Andre said.
“In the kind of place it should be. In a place the original owner would probably be happy to see it.”
“You’ve been told you were chosen,” Andre said. “But you have never asked what you were chosen for. Do you think you were chosen only to protect the cup? There are many who could have done that.”
“Those words were spoken to me in a dream,” Hackberry said. “The only person I told of this dream was Miss Beatrice. Did she tell you about it?”
“No, she did not. She is not one who breaks confidences.”
“Then how did you know?”
“I know little and am not worthy to speak on these things. So I will do as you say and not speak on these matters again.”
“Don’t get your feathers ruffled,” Hackberry said. “I value your advice.”
Andre made no reply. They drove to the office of Arnold Beckman.
THE ASIAN SECRETARY said he was eating with friends at a steak house not far from the Alamo. Hackberry nodded and looked through the front window at the sky. “You ever see weather worse than this?” he asked.
“No, it is very bad. It is flooding the property,” she said.