The Betrayer (52 page)

Their only real hope, Johnny had said.

When Haley woke, she was herself utterly void of any semblance of hope.

Her heart was a dead thing in her chest, her lungs empty.

Rising from her bed, she moved to Johnny’s beside and sat down, taking his hand.

In the glow of the pulse monitor, she thought for a moment that she saw his eyelids flutter. Leaning forward, she watched him closely but saw only what she’d seen for the past few weeks.

Dormant eyes beneath closed lids.

And yet she continued to stare, as if she could maybe will him to open his eyes.

It was the next morning, while in seated meditation, that Haley heard something.

A faint murmur.

She opened her eyes, moved quickly to Johnny’s side and looked at him.

But saw nothing.

She whispered his name several times, but still nothing.

She quietly pleaded with him to come back to her.

Eventually she returned to her seated position on the other bed, closed her eyes, and resumed her morning
vipassana.

Counting her breathing, her mind free of all else.

Ending with her usual silent prayer, Haley opened her eyes and saw the very thing for which she had prayed.

Johnny’s eyes were at last open.

And looking straight at her.

A single tear falling from the corner of each.

He lifted and opened his right hand, and she rushed to take it, clutching it as it closed around hers with a familiar strength.

She saw then that same look of life in his eyes she’d seen the night he had come to her in Bangkok with his long hair cut and scraggly beard shaved, a weary traveler making what was to be his first return from the dead.

The End

Photograph by Tracy Deer-Mirek, 2010

Daniel Judson, Shamus Award winner and four-time finalist, is the author of seven acclaimed novels:
The Darkest Place, The Water’s Edge, The Violet Hour, Voyeur
, and The Gin Palace Trilogy, comprised of
The Poisoned Rose, The Bone Orchard
, and
The Gin Palace.

Though he began submitting novels to publishers when he was nineteen, Daniel remained unpublished for nearly twenty years. A brief study of playwriting and acting in college resulted early on in a research method that is decidedly character-driven and occasionally borders on obsession.

“If I’m writing about a boxer, I’ll take up boxing and do a boxer’s workout every afternoon. If I’m writing about a man who’s living in hiding, I’ll slip off the grid as best as I can for a time. I’ll even go as far as to wear what my characters wear or carry in my pockets what they carry in theirs. It’s also important for me to walk the streets they walk, see and hear the things they might see and hear.”

This attention to detail has resulted in an acquisition of a wide variety of skills, from vipassana meditation to Filipino knife-fighting to playing jazz trumpet to quick-drawing and shooting “triple taps” in three seconds. His research for
The Betrayer
included reading war memoirs (particularly those written by WWII paratroopers) and practicing urban evasion techniques in New York City.

Daniel currently lives in Connecticut with his fiancée and their four rescued cats. He works nights as a bartender and spends his spare time enhancing his current skills and pursuing new ones.

This book was originally released in episodes as a Kindle Serial. Kindle Serials launched in 2012 as a new way to experience serialized books. Kindle Serials allow readers to enjoy the story as the author creates it, purchasing once and receiving all existing episodes immediately, followed by future episodes as they are published. To find out more about Kindle Serials and to see the current selection of Serials titles, visit
www.amazon.com/
kindleserials
.