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.
think you've
I left that behind when I was fourteen. Klempner works as well as anything else. Klempner will
“And Larry?”
was what
“Your mother?”
I did have one you
ignores the sarcasm. “I wanted to ask
taps a fingernail on the counter.
“What was she like?”
would freeze a basilisk. “Why do you want
my… father… then she's my grandmother. I’m trying to find out who my family were… are…. You told me that your father beat you. I wondered
his eyes. “No, she didn’t.” Klempner’s
He looks haunted…
“Tell me about her.”
“I barely remember her.”
me what you do
swallows. “Perhaps one day. But
What going on?
“You said
violent man.
“He beat you?”
Used his fists. When I was small, he used my mother as a punch-bag.
speaks. Klempner jerks his chin up. “It’s not a
“Yes.”
his head; forward, backward, slowly, as though considering, then, “I was fourteen, maybe fifteen. He had me backed against the kitchen table. He was drunk. Throwing punches. Not caring what part of me he hit so long as he got something. I grabbed for
turned out to be a knife from the dinner plate. Nothing special. Not a bread knife or a meat 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.
rises and falls. “Did you enjoy
then, “No. I was shocked; in pain from the beating he’d already given
“Where to?”
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
Not for
you know of the world at that age? I’d run a knife into a man and watched him die at my feet. I thought they’d lock me
Charlotte’s face goes slack…
Jenkins…
happened to her
she’d
She ran…
And she kept running…
on the cargo ships. There’s destinations where they don’t ask too many questions so long as you pull your weight. And
leans forward. “Which part of
disembarked in Lagos, but I moved around a lot. Congo, Chad, Central African
dangerous places to
were.” Klempner’s voice is languid, almost bored,
“What were you
pass to her, then
“There’s always a war to be found in that part of
a moment, then refocuses. “You were a
“I was. Yes.”
Why would you do something
“It’s a living.”
“But it’s so dangerous.”
tilts. “Compared
She holds…
it is worth to you. If you find yourself in a dangerous situation,
Tell me.” Klempner doesn’t speak. “Tell me. You wouldn’t have
run,” he says, a touch of asperity in
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