Masters & Lovers Box Set Three

Chapter 47

Michael

Klempner is, as usual, waiting as we arrive. From his seat, behind the barrier, he watches me enter with Charlotte. He looks rough; shadows under his eyes and he's lost weight.

The guard, Hartland, is there. He leans down, whispers close by my ear. “If it looks like trouble, just say the word.”

“I will.”

Then he straightens up and levels his baton towards Klempner. “Behave yourself, Larry.”

Klempner looks up, just barely tilts his head in acknowledgement. But I remember the look he gave Hartwell the last time we were here…

The monster stirring…

Klempner watches as James follows us in, letting out a barely audible sigh as he sits.

“That leg giving you trouble?”

James reply is curt. “Cold, damp weather.” But I hear his surprise at the question lurking behind the words.

Klempner fingers a long white scar on his hand. “It can't have been pleasant when Bech shot you. Tell me, do you remember it happening?”

James’ eyes shoot arrows. “What's it to you?”

“If you had just discovered you have a daughter, don't you think you would want to know something about the man she answers to?”

James shifts. Not much and perhaps not visibly to those who didn't know him, but I see it.

Unsettled?

“I didn't remember it at first, no,” he says. “The memory resurfaced after a few months.”

Klempner raises a flat, mirror gaze to him. “The memory was repressed?”

“Apparently.”

Klempner has a plastic cup of water by him. He takes a long mouthful, then sets it down again. “Interesting,” he says, “how the mind protects itself.”

What the hell’s he talking about?

Between me and James, Charlotte sits, shuffling awkwardly. Klempner chews at his upper lip. The pair regard each other in silence for a long minute then Charlotte finally speaks. “Thank you for sending the necklace.”

In restrained tones, “You’re welcome.” His eyes dip to her collar bone. “It suits you. As it did your mother.”

Charlotte swallows and lapses into silence again.

This could take a while…

After another long pause, Klempner says, “Are you going to ask me about your mother? That’s what you usually do.”

Charlotte fidgets then blurts, “I don’t even know what to call you.”

Klempner blows air. Looks down. Looks up. Then, “I suppose Dad is too much to hope for?”

James huffs and Klempner levels a stare at him. Then, “What do you want to call me?”

Charlotte’s voice would cut glass. “Don't tempt me.”

He coughs a laugh with no humour in it. “They know me as Larry around here. You can call me Larry.”

“What's your real name?”

“What?” He seems genuinely taken aback by the question.

your real name? I don’t think it’s Klempner. I think you've probably gone by a lot of names. In a lot of

you mean my original name. I left that behind

“And Larry?”

was what my mother

“Your mother?”

did have one

wanted to ask

taps a fingernail on the counter.

“What was she like?”

would freeze a basilisk. “Why do you want

grandmother. I’m trying to find out who my family were… are…. You told me that your father beat you. I wondered

around his eyes. “No, she

He looks haunted…

“Tell me about her.”

“I barely remember her.”

what you do

one day. But not

What going on?

counter. “You

He was a violent man. It

“He beat you?”

When I was small, he used my

as he speaks. Klempner jerks his chin up. “It’s not a

“Yes.”

against the kitchen table. He

knife. Just the kind you’d use to eat your eggs or scrape butter onto bread. But it’s what was in my hand. I stabbed him. I sank it into his chest. It went between

and falls; rises and falls. “Did

“No. I was shocked; in pain from the beating he’d already given me. I was scared. I panicked and

“Where to?”

out of town. Then I didn’t know what to do. I considered joining the army. You know the kind of thing. ‘Learn skills. Become a man.’ But I was too young, and

have jailed you. Not for defending yourself. And

I’d run a knife into a man and

Charlotte’s face goes slack…

Jenkins…

mirror of what happened to

thought she’d killed

She ran…

And she kept running…

speaking. “I left the country. Worked my way on the cargo ships. There’s destinations where they don’t ask too many questions so long as you pull

unfolds his arms, leans forward. “Which part of

but I moved around a lot. Congo, Chad, Central African Republic… you

again. “Those were dangerous places to be.

voice is languid, almost

you

to her, then back to Klempner,

“There’s always a war to be found in that part of the

blanks over for a moment, then refocuses.

“I was. Yes.”

you do something

“It’s a living.”

“But it’s so dangerous.”

head tilts.

holds…

of advice, for what it is worth to

Tell me.” Klempner doesn’t speak. “Tell me. You wouldn’t

on the run,” he says,

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