Rise the Dark Read Free Page A

Sometimes, though, when the light and the wind were right, the sea reminded him of other endless places. Expansive plains of the West; windblown wheat instead of water; storm-blasted buttes.
    Not so many of those memories were good.
    He’d been watching the water for a while when he heard the ring, a soft chime, and the charter captain, who was lounging with his feet up and a cigar in his mouth, said, “That’s yours, bud.”
    Mark found the phone in his jacket pocket, and he remained relaxed, warm and comfortable and with his mind on this boat and this day, until he saw the caller ID: COLEMAN CORRECTIONAL.
    For an instant he just stared, but then he realized he was about to lose the call to voice mail, so he hit Accept and put the phone to his ear.
    He knew the voice on the other end. It was a man he’d spoken to many times, a snitch who’d contacted Mark for legal help, which Mark provided in exchange for a tip on who killed his wife. The police didn’t believe the story; the snitch held to it.
    “He sent me a note, Novak. For you. For both of us. Here’s what it says: ‘Please tell Mr. Novak that his efforts were a disappointment, and every threat was only so much wasted breath. I’d hoped for more. Let him know that I’ll think of him outside this prison just as I thought of him inside it, and, more important, that I’ll think of her. The way she felt at the end. I’ll treasure that moment. It’s a shame he wasn’t there for it. She was so beautiful at the end.’”
    The man on the phone had once beaten someone to death with an aluminum baseball bat, but his voice wavered as he read the last words. When he was done, he waited, and Mark didn’t speak. The silence built as the boat rose and fell on the waves, and finally the other man said, “I thought you’d want to know.”
    “Yes,” Mark said. “I want to know. It is important that I know.” His voice was hollow, and Jeff London lifted his head with a concerned expression. “Is that all he had to say?”
    “That’s all. He’s made some threats to me, you know that, but ain’t shit happened, so maybe he’s all talk. Maybe about…about this too, you know? Just one of them that likes to claim shit to make themselves feel hard. I’ve known them before.”
    “You told me you didn’t think he was that kind,” Mark said. “You said you knew better. You said he was telling the truth.”
    A pause; then: “I remember what I said.”
    “Anything changed your opinion?”
    “No.”
    “All right. Thanks for the call. I’ll send money to your commissary account.”
    “Don’t need to, not for this. I just thought…well, you needed to hear it.”
    “I’ll send money,” Mark repeated, and then he hung up. Jeff was staring at him, and the charter captain was making a show of working with his tackle, his back to them.
    “That was about Webb?” Jeff said.
    Mark nodded. He found the horizon line again but couldn’t focus on it.
    “He’s taunting me. He killed her, he knows that I know it, and he’s a free man. He wanted to let me know that he’ll be thinking of me, and her. From outside of a cell now.”
    “It’s a dumb play. He’ll go back to prison.”
    “Yeah?” Mark turned to him. “Where is he?”
    “Don’t let this take you back to the dark side, brother. You’ve got to build a case, and you’ve got to—”
    “Someone has to settle the score for her.”
    Jeff’s face darkened. “There are lots of tombstones standing over men who made proclamations like that.”
    “I don’t want a tombstone. When I’m gone, you take the ashes wherever you’d like. Just make sure there’s a strong wind blowing. I want to have a chance to travel.”
    “That’s a bad joke.”
    “It’s not a joke at all,” Mark said. “I hope you remember the request should the need ever arise.” He looked at the charter captain. “You mind bringing us in a couple hours early?”
    The captain looked from Mark to Jeff and shook his head when no