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“Crow doesn’t drink anymore. ”
“Hey, don’t get me wrong—I care a lot for Crow, but alcoholism isn’t something you just grow out of. ”
“Well, it’s not that,” she said with just a touch of frost. “It’s something he’s doing for Terry. ” She explained what was happening and about Crow’s mission to shut down the hayride.
Guthrie ate a cracker, dry, munching thoughtfully. “Are you afraid he’s going to go back on the cops? Is that it?”
“Oh no…no, he would never do that. ”
“Well then, don’t let it worry you. Terry has always had an annoying way of putting people on the spot, getting them to do things they don’t really want to do. ”
“I know. ”
“He and Crow have always been pretty tight, and you know how persuasive our dear mayor can be. ”
“Mm. ” Terry and Crow had been best friends since preschool, which meant that they’d known each other even longer than Val had known Crow. The boys had met Val in second grade, when they were all eight, and by the time of the Black Harvest two years later they were thick as thieves. Five of them—Val, Crow and his older brother, Billy, and Terry and his little sister, Mandy. By the end of that autumn two of them were dead—Billy and Mandy—victims of the Reaper, Terry was in a coma, and Crow and Val were clinging to each other, their worlds shattered.
The m
emory of that time flickered in Val’s eyes, and Guthrie could see it. He smoothly but quickly changed the subject. “Besides, you know Terry,” he said. “He likes to make everything seem dramatic. I think he imagines that being the mayor of a town this size actually means something. ”
“Yeah, him and Rudy Giuliani. ”
“Like that. He builds things up to be something they ain’t. Hell, he’s the kind that calls going over to Crestville for pizza and a movie a Regional Fine Dining and Cultural Arts Junket. ”
Val smiled. “Yeah, I guess. ”
“If there really is something going on around here, Terry’s not going to be doing much about it. You said that Crow told you there were some Philly cops coming in?”
“Uh-?huh. ”
“So Terry is going to be standing around looking important but not actually doing anything, and he’ll have Gus Bernhardt hustling around getting them coffee and asking to polish their badges. Terry’s one of those guys who needs to be in charge in some visible way, and he loves to give orders—and Crow happened to be there, and your boy can’t hardly say no to anybody. ”
“Except me. ”
Guthrie gave a comical snort. “Not so’s I noticed. He’ll be by here, you watch. ”
“I shouldn’t have let him go at all. ”
“Not yours to say, pumpkin. No more than it’s his to speak for you. This is the twenty-?first century, my lass. ” Guthrie took another mouthful of soup, winking at her as he did so. “Soup’s really good. ”
“Don’t say it like you’re shocked. ” Val crossed her arms. “Well, I just wish he wouldn’t jump whenever Terry says to. ”
“You think it’s really that bad?”
She shook her head. “It’s just that he spends so much time with Terry, and Terry is such a pain in the ass. ”
“You think he should stop hanging around with our fair mayor?”
“Mm. ”
“Why is it you don’t like Terry? You never really have. Even as kids you two were always at each other’s throats. ”
“I don’t know. Bad chemistry, I guess. There was just always something…off about him. I don’t know how to describe it. I just wish Crow wouldn’t hang out with him so much, that’s all. ”
“Now, now, darlin’, don’t be trying to tell your young man who his friends should be. ”
“Mm. ”
