Authors: Noel; Behn

Seven Silent Men (68 page)

“You don't sound too happy about that.”

“They're FBI men, Tina Beth.”

“Guess that answers my next question.”

“What question?”

“Your intentions 'bout staying with the FBI or not.”

“I haven't made up my mind.”

“Sure you have, Billy Bee, only you don't know it yet.” With a giggle she turned and leaned back into the railing. Rearranged her skirt. “Billy Bee, when Patricia said I was being held a prisoner and would be killed if you didn't do what she wanted, what was it you did again?”

It was a question he had hoped would not be asked. “Want me to be honest?”

“Cross your heart?”

“I tried not to think about you, Tina Beth. I tried to â¦,” his voice cracked, “tried to forget you â¦ and what I was doing to you. And I couldn't, Tina Beth. All I thought about was you after that. All I could see was you. I was screaming inside. Even when Corticun had me out in the chair, even when he was getting ready to fire, all I saw was you. And know what, Tina Beth?” He crossed his heart again. “I think I was just about to tell him, âOkay, don't shoot. I'll do anything you want if you let Tina Beth off. Let her off and I'll be your puppy and you can kill me later or I'll kill myself.' Only we don't really know if that's what would have happened, do we? Grafton showed up first.”

“I know.” She kissed him and started sashaying down the gaslit promenade. “See that bench right over there, Billy Bee?”

Yates, as he began to follow her, looked over at the wooden bench under a shade tree. “What about it?”

“Nothing, 'cepting that's where Mark Twain sat and wrote
The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg
.”

“Who told you that?”

“Sue Ann Willis.”

“How would Sue Ann know? She can't read.”

“Sue Ann is third vice-chairperson of the Samuel Clemens Restoration Society. She knows all about those things. He wrote it in 1889 sitting right there. Or do you want to defy known truth?”

It wasn't the truth, he knew, but his eyes were on revealed truth â¦ her swinging hips, and below. “Whatever you say, Tina Beth.”

“I feel sorry for Patricia.”

“Sorry?”

“She lost Edgar.”

“My God, Tina Beth, she was a Lucretia Borgia!”

“I think she was sweet. And Edgar too. I told you that about him way back.”

“He was a lunatic.”

“No, he wasn't, Billy Bee, no, he wasn't. Like you told me Ed Grafton told you, Edgar liked pretending he was crazy so he could get away with more. Edgar was as sane as you and me, Billy Bee. And just as much in love. Don't you see, Edgar loved Patricia. He was her love-slave. He had to obey her. He let her believe she was helping him because he loved her so much. He didn't want to disappoint her and hurt her feelings by telling her to stop helping him the way she was.”

“Are you serious?”

“'Course I am.”

“That's the next thing to saying Hoover condoned the actions of a monster like Muleâ”

“Maybe when you looked at Mister Mule Corkel, or I looked at Mister Mule Corkel, we saw a monster, but not Edgar. He saw who Patricia told him to see. She like cast a spell over Edgar, gave him a secret potion. Dear child, Edgar would have fallen in love with Mister Mule Corkel if Patricia had so wished, just like in William Shakespeare.”

“This isn't a play, Tina Beth. It's real life.”

“And
love
, Billy Bee. Oh yes, love. Why can't you understand that? Edgar did it all for love. Isn't that romantic? A man of his age being so amorously inclined?”

She had stopped under a path lamp and was smiling at him. He was, for the moment, bewildered.

“How amorously inclined is a man of your age, Billy Bee?”

She turned before he could answer, began walking down the path, walking and sashaying â¦ discarding clothes as she went.

â¦ The call went out on the park patrol's radio band at 9:07 P.M. as 122 and 188 offenses, a disturbance of the peace as well as a violation of the city's decency code. A follow-up alert revealed that all cars should proceed to the sports stadium, where, reportedly, a stark-naked man was observed scrambling across the infield in pursuit of a fleeing stark-naked woman. The witness, who declined to be identified, said he had never â¦

About the Author

Noel Behn (1928â1998) was an American novelist, screenwriter, and theatrical producer. Born in Chicago and educated in California and Paris, he served in the US Army's Counterintelligence Corps before settling in New York City. As the producing director of the Cherry Lane Theatre, he played a lead role in the off-Broadway movement of the 1950s and presented the world premiere of Samuel Beckett's
Endgame
. Behn's debut novel,
The Kremlin Letter
(1966), was a
New York Times
bestseller and the inspiration for a John Huston film starring Orson Welles and Max von Sydow.
Big StickâUp at Brink's!
(1977), the true story of the 1950 Brink's robbery in Boston, was based on nearly one thousand hours of conversations with the criminals and became an Academy Awardânominated film directed by William Friedkin. Behn also wrote for television and served as a creative consultant on the acclaimed series
Homicide: Life on the Street
. His other books include the thrillers
The Shadowboxer
(1969) and
Seven Silent Men
(1984), and
Lindbergh: The Crime
(1995), a nonfiction account of the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr.

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Cover design by Jason Gabbert

ISBN: 978-1-5040-3665-8

This edition published in 2016 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

180 Maiden Lane

New York, NY 10038

www.openroadmedia.com