Episodul 32 · The Gray Car

Soles came out of police headquarters and found Maxim waiting in the truck. He wanted to tell him about the confession before it began to sound reasonable.

— Well?

Soles did not get in. He stood beside the open passenger door, his good hand on its frame.

— He confessed.

— That’s… good?

— He confessed to everything. The fraud. Dad. The notebook. The sentence. Everything.

Maxim was silent. He looked at him for a long moment.

— And you don’t believe him.

— It fits too well.

— What does that mean, too well?

— Every awkward part has an explanation. Except the man who was watching us yesterday.

Maxim leaned across the cab. Soles had stopped looking at him. Beyond the truck, beside the building’s side entrance, a gray car stood between a white van and an official car.

The rear license plate was covered in mud. Only halfway.

Maxim followed his gaze. He said nothing. Soles heard his breathing change, as briefly as his own had.

The building’s side door opened. The lawyer in the navy suit came out, tucked the briefcase under his arm, and took keys from his pocket.

He stopped.

He looked across the parking lot, directly at them. Nothing changed in his expression.

He raised a hand. A small, polite greeting.

Then he got into the gray car, signaled right, and drove around the corner.

Soles climbed into the cab. The passenger step pulled at his ribs. Maxim waited until he was seated before starting the engine.

The engine shook the gear stick between them.

— He waved to you.

— I saw.

— No. He waved to you. Like a neighbor. Like someone you see every morning at the kiosk.

Soles pulled the seat belt across his chest with his right hand. The buckle caught against his coat. Maxim freed it without a word.

— Who was he?

— Kerr’s lawyer.

Maxim looked in the mirror toward the empty space between the van and the official car.

— Kerr’s lawyer, he repeated. Who parks in reserved spaces.

— Yes.

— And drives a gray car.

— Yes.

— Which he washed everywhere except half the license plate.

Soles did not answer. Maxim put the truck in gear.

— A very tidy man, he said, and pulled out of the lot.

The boulevard was crowded. Maxim drove more slowly than usual, checking the mirrors more often than the road ahead. At the second light, Soles saw him check the right mirror twice in a row.

— He isn’t following us.

— I know.

— Then what are you looking at?

— The car behind us. It’s red. That calms me down.

Soles checked. A woman in the red car was fixing her hair. He faced forward again.

Maxim’s phone vibrated in the mount beside the dashboard. A company name appeared on the screen. Maxim rejected the call with his thumb, eyes on the road.

— What did the investigator tell you inside? Maxim asked. Everything.

Soles told him. The fraud with the donation money. The work on the banks, what had been paid for and what had been done. Kale’s notebook and city hall, from Kerr’s statement. The sentence in the yard and the way Kerr had explained it. Maxim listened to the end. Only at the sentence did his fingers tighten on the wheel.

— And the part about the banks? he asked at the end. You believe that?

— Maybe that part. Dad would’ve noticed. He noticed everything.

— Then what don’t you believe?

— The rest. That he came alone. That he knew exactly what he needed to know and nothing more.

Maxim thought about that until the next intersection.

— And what did the lawyer tell you?

— That now I can rest.

— Kind of him. Can you?

— No.

— Neither can I.

The phone vibrated again. The same company name. Maxim answered on the speaker.

— Yes. I’m taking him home. Then I’ll come for the collection.

The dispatcher’s answer carried through the cab. The customer had canceled. Someone else was taking the next run too.

— Then put me down for Monday, Maxim said. I heard you.

He ended the call and laid the phone facedown beside the mount.

— You had something today, Soles said.

— I did.

— And?

— And now I have it Monday.

Soles looked at him. Maxim kept his eyes on the road, chin slightly raised the way he held it when he did not want something visible on his face.

— You didn’t have to sit in the parking lot all morning.

— I didn’t sit there all morning. I sat there two hours and fifty minutes. I counted the pigeons on the roof. There are eleven. One limps.

— Maxim.

— It limps, but it’s the bravest. First one to the crumbs.

Soles turned toward the window. On the sidewalk, a man pulled a cart of empty siphon bottles behind him. He thought of Maxim’s boots beside the spare-room door, the mornings his cousin left for work after feeding the dogs, of all the trips that had begun with you don’t have to come and ended with Maxim coming anyway. He did not know what he owed him for them. Being family had made it easy to stop asking what the help cost.

— You don’t have to do this, he said.

— Do what?

— Drive me everywhere.

— The truck carries you. I’m mainly here to discourage the gearbox.

Soles almost smiled.

— What did they say about the next run?

— That someone reliable’s taking it.

Maxim kept his eyes on the road. Soles let the smile go.

On their street, Lucky heard them before they stopped. His bark came from behind the gate, followed by Mina’s clear demand to be let through. Maxim pulled to the curb and left the engine running.

— Coming in? Soles asked.

— I have to take this back. I’ll be home later.

Soles got out. He stood for a moment with one hand on the door.

— Thank you.

— For the pigeons?

— For everything.

Maxim nodded once, his eyes going past him to the gate.

— Lock it.

— It’s daytime, Soles replied.

— Lock it in the daytime.

Soles turned his hip to Lucky’s greeting, protecting his chest. Mina bounced beside them until he said, “Wait.” She sat, tail sweeping the ground, while Lucky tried to fit his head under Soles’s hand. Once the gate was locked, both followed him to the house. When he reached the door, he looked back.

The truck was still there. The engine was running. Through the windshield, Soles saw Maxim try another call. No answer. His cousin put the phone down and sat with both hands on the wheel.

He stayed like that until Mina grew bored and went inside.

Then the truck pulled away.