Marathon Man, Page 23

  The kid nodded, pointed to some bushes. "From there."

  The young cop took a peek. "Hey," he said to the kid. "There's a guy lying in these bushes. He don't look so hot."

  "He's dead I think is why."

  "Oh, right," the young cop said, and suddenly he realized a number of things: a) the kid wasn't any kid, he was older, in his twenties maybe, wearing sneakers and a raincoat; b) there was a pistol on the ground beside him; c) he was on the wrong side of the reservoir fence, the inside, so he must have climbed it, and that was illegal, there were signs posted all over. "Hey, you shouldn't be in there."

  "I won't be much longer."

  The young cop approached the fence warily now. "Nice gun," he said, keeping his voice as casual as he could. "Yours?"

  "It was my father's," Babe said.

  The young cop was starting to get excited now--he'd never been involved with a murder before; hookers and junkies, sure, but he'd never been able to really crack the big time. "You didn't, by any chance, just use it?"

  "You mean, did I kill him?"

  "Kind of like that, yeah."

  Babe nodded.

  The cop quick cocked his pistol. "No funny moves," he said.

  "Can't I just finish what I'm doing?"

  "What are you doing?" He was just standing there, holding what looked like a coffee can, and was skimming marbles or pebbles across the reservoir.

  "I've only got a few more to go," Babe said. "Once I got four bounces." He whipped another couple out across the water, wondering if the cop would let him sprint around the reservoir before they went in, it might be just the thing to clear his head. Babe glanced at the cop. Probably he'd say no, and anyway, it wouldn't make you think straight, you're tired, sleep's the only thing that'll do that, but no one's gonna let you sleep for a while, not once this explodes. God alone knew which way the blast would hurl him, but there was about to be one hell of a detonation, that much was sure; he was either going to end up serving five hundred years in prison or as the biggest thing since Sonny Tufts. Babe skimmed a few more, watching the circles widen.

  "Hey, it's hot, let's go," the cop said.

  Babe nodded, tossed away the empty can, got rid of a final handful.

  ... skip ... skip...

  ... skip ... skip...

  ... skip ...