تیری در قلب

Chapter 9 A Bullet in the Heart

What a fool I was.

Somebody found her body the next day on a dirt road in the forest. She had made a fire and burned the papers about Stanton’s blood test. Then she had shot herself in the heart.

The police asked me questions because I was the last person to have seen her alive. “If I knew, I would have tried to stop her,” I told them. “But with Libby, you never knew and you could never stop her.” Then I started to cry. “She was a very close friend of mine.”

♦

The funeral was held in a church in North Mammoth Falls. Jack Stanton stood up and made a speech.

“Libby Holden was the older sister that I never had,” he said. “It seemed that whenever I had a problem, she was there to help me.

The bullet that went into Libby’s heart broke all of our hearts.” I walked back to my apartment with Daisy. I told her about Libby, I told her about what we had found in Florida, and I told her about the blood test.

“Do you think Stanton will win?” she asked.

“Maybe,” I said, “but he’ll have to do it without me.” “What do you mean?”

“I’m going to the Governor’s house to quit.” ♦

I found Jack Stanton in his kitchen eating a sandwich.

“Hi, Henry,” he said. “I’ve called Picker. I’m going to fly to Florida in about fifteen minutes and give him all the information that Libby had. I know you want to quit but, please, will you go to Florida with me?”

♦

We flew to Florida in a small airplane and landed at an airport just north of Tallahassee. Freddy Picker’s driver was waiting for us.

When we arrived at Picker’s house, one of his sons let us in.

Picker served us drinks.

“I’ve decided to quit the election,” said Stanton.

“That’s what I heard on the news.”

“You heard about my friend?” asked Stanton. “The one who died?”

Picker nodded.

“She and Henry found this information.” Stanton handed Picker the papers. “She killed herself because she thought I was going to give this information to the press. But I’m giving it to you. I want you to have it, so you’ll know what the journalists might find.”

“Did you ever try cocaine, Jack?” asked Picker.

Stanton nodded. “Yeah, I tried it once, but I didn’t like it.” “I did,” said Picker. “I loved it. That’s why I’m quitting the election.”

Stanton looked surprised. “Nobody needs to know about the cocaine,” he said.

“The press will find out about it, Jack,” said Picker. “If you don’t tell them, somebody else will. And my sons will find out too.” He started to cry. Stanton got up from his chair and put his arms around him. He held him for a long time. When Picker finally stopped crying, he looked up at Stanton and said, “Jack, I don’t think you should quit the election.”