At this point I was standing over him. I nodded toward my glass. “Am I going to need an antidote for that?”
He was still gaping at the chair where I’d been, but he managed to shake his head. I believed him, and left.
I didn’t look back until I was up in the parking lot and getting into my car. He hadn’t moved. His drink, still untouched, sat on the table beside his motionless arm. He seemed to be fixated on my empty chair.
I felt cold. I once thought he was a friend. Maybe once he was.
The sun, low now, cast him in the glow it saved until the end of the day. It highlighted the ropes and rigging that coiled about his yacht, like snakes ensnaring it. In widening circles around the white hull bobbed the wreckage and silt of the end of winter. The debris at the end of a life.
Arched across the stern was the name of his boat. It was once intended to celebrate his cleverness, his success. Now, like a verdict, it hung there.
THE PATH 0 LOGIC
THE BUFFALO GAZETTE
APRIL 25, 1997
DEATHS
Dr. Robert Watts, lost at sea during a squall in the waters of Chesapeake Bay. Physician, teacher, and former chief of pathology at St. Paul’s Hospital. Age sixty-three. Survived by his daughter and two sons.
THE BUFFALO GAZETTE
APRIL 29, 1997
BIRTHS
Brendan Garnet, seven pounds, six ounces, was born this morning to Dr. Janet Graceton and Dr. Earl Garnet. All are doing well.
This book is dedicated to my friends and colleagues and to my “New York angels”—Beverly, Carolyn, Danelle, Jeff, and Denise—for their generosity, guidance, and wonderful expertise. Thank you.
Copyright © 1998 by Peter Clement Duffy
Originally published by Fawcett (ISBN 0449002810)
Electronically published in 2010 by Belgrave House
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This is a work of fiction. All names in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to any person living or dead is coincidental.