The Eighty-eighth Key Ch. 30

"Which means what, exactly?" Bressler asked.

"Perhaps someone spotted Harry by chance. Right now, the prudent thing to do is pack up and leave. Maybe sit it out in Switzerland, at least until things settle down."

Bullitt stood and began to pace the room. "Look, I left Cathy in Tel Aviv and she's just about had it. She needs to get back to work, and, well, I need to start figuring out what comes next."

Harry heard the pain in Frank's voice and wondered how he could help. "Her house ought to be ready to go within a month. She can start on my house as soon as she gets back...but what about you?"

"Well, it kind of depends on what happens with Sam. My retirement, or whatever you want to call it, was a ruse coordinated with Sam. On the other hand, the paperwork was officially submitted, so only Bennett has the capability to reinstate me. I can return, or I can remain retired, ya know what I mean? I'm trying to figure that out."

"Cathy's the problem, right?" Harry asked, and Frank nodded.

"Yeah."

"Why haven't you two gotten married?"

"I don't know. I guess because on one level I always felt like she already had one foot out the door."

"Why's that?"

Bullitt looked down. "She's an architect. I'm a cop, ya know? The other side of the tracks."

"So?"

"Sometimes it feels like we don't go out with her friends...because she's, well, we don't because I'm a cop."

Al looked thoughtful: "Do you get along okay with her friends?"

Bullitt shook his head. "Not really. They're artists, ya know? Into pot, doing mushrooms, LSD...all that psychedelic shit, so..."

"Does Cathy do that stuff?"

"Not really. Yet...sometimes I get the feeling she'd like to be able to cut loose. It's like I'm holding her back."

Harry shook his head: "This story usually doesn't have a happy ending, Amigo. Y'all need to talk this through, see where she wants to go from here. And where you want to be."

"The only thing I know, Harry, is this job. When I think about what I want to do, it's the job. I'm a cop, ya know? Retirement is not something that feels comfortable to me. It feels like a dead end."

"What are you gonna do, Harry?" Bressler asked.

"I'm going to get to know Sara, spend a lot of time with her. Then I'll see. A lot will depend on her, and how comfortable she is. Maybe how confident she feels."

"Harry, I don't want to bring this up too often, but the premiere of your mother's last piece is coming up next month."

"I know."

"I don't mean to be pushy here, Harry," Al said, "but I'd really like to be there for that."

"Me too," Frank said.

"Okay," Harry said. "I'd love to have you all there. With Sara."

A messenger came in and handed a note to Colonel Goodman, and everyone watched him as he read the contents, his face turning brilliant red, then a ghostly white.

"Harry? It seems we may have made an unforgivable error. Stacy Bennett was picked up at the clinic in Davos by helicopter."

"What?" Harry said, the room suddenly spinning underfoot.

"But not before she made an attempt on Sara's life."

Callahan closed his eyes as he fell to his knees, and nothing lay ahead but a vast field of stars.

© 2020 adrian leverkühn | abw | and as always, thanks for stopping by for a look around the memory warehouse...[and a last word or two on sources: I typically don't post all a story's acknowledgments until I've finished, if only because I'm not sure how many I'll need until work is finalized. Yet with current circumstances (a little virus, not to mention a certain situation in Washington, D.C. springing first to mind...) so waiting to mention sources might not be the best way to proceed. To begin, the primary source material in this case -- so far, at least -- derives from two seminal Hollywood 'cop' films: Dirty Harry and Bullitt. The first Harry film was penned by Harry Julian Fink, R.M. Fink, Dean Riesner, John Milius, Terrence Malick, and Jo Heims. Bullitt came primarily from the author of the screenplay for The Thomas Crown Affair, Alan R Trustman, with help from Harry Kleiner, as well Robert L Fish, whose short story Mute Witness formed the basis of Trustman's brilliant screenplay. Steve McQueen's grin was never trade-marked, though perhaps it should have been. John Milius (Red Dawn) penned Magnum Force, and the 'Briggs'/vigilante storyline derives from characters and plot elements originally found in that rich screenplay, as does the Captain McKay character. The Threlkis crime family storyline was first introduced in Sudden Impact, screenplay by Joseph Stinson. The Samantha Walker character derives from the Patricia Clarkson portrayal of the television reporter found in The Dead Pool, screenplay by Steve Sharon, story by Steve Sharon, Durk Pearson, and Sandy Shaw. I have to credit the Jim Parish, M.D., character first seen in the Vietnam segments to John A. Parrish, M.D., author of the most fascinating account of an American physician's tour of duty in Vietnam -- and as found in his autobiographical 12, 20, and 5: A Doctor's Year in Vietnam, a book worth noting as one of the most stirring accounts of modern warfare I've ever read (think Richard Hooker's M*A*S*H, only featuring a blazing sense of irony conjoined within a searing non-fiction narrative). Denton Cooley, M.D. founded the Texas Heart Institute, as mentioned. Many of the other figures in this story derive from characters developed within the works cited above, but keep in mind that, as always, this story is in all other respects a work of fiction woven into a pre-existing historical fabric. Using the established characters referenced above, as well as a few new characters I've managed to come up with here and there, I hoped to create something new -- perhaps a running commentary on the times we've shared? And the standard disclaimer also here applies: no one mentioned in this tale should be mistaken for persons living or dead. This was just a little walk down a road more or less imagined, and nothing more than that should be inferred, though I'd be remiss not to mention Clint Eastwood's Harry Callahan, and Steve McQueen's Frank Bullitt. Talk about the roles of a lifetime...]