“What about him?”
“Do we tell him?”asked Teal.
“That we raped and killed a DEA agent?Like hell we do.”
Teal was silent.
“What?”asked Kenney.
“Uh, I spoke to him on the phone, a couple of days back.Spero stuff.”
“And?”
“He asked how Detroit went.You know, in passing.”
“What did you say?”
“That it was good.Clean.I told him she was colored.”
“Is that all?”
“I think so.”
“Youthinkso?”
Teal hesitated again.
“I might have mentioned a name,” he said.“I can’t be sure.”
Which meant he was sure, but didn’t want to say.Kenney’s eyes fluttered closed.The Saint knew, because Cotter’s dual identity had been revealed to the media as part of the ongoing efforts to locate her.
“I didn’t think anything of it,” Teal continued.“We’ve always been open with one another before now.”He assumed a hurtexpression.“I mean, I always like to hear how the Game went for others.Even if I didn’t get to play, I get to experience it vicariously.”
Kenney couldn’t chastise Teal for that.He’d done the same himself, but he wished Teal had kept his mouth shut this once.In the past, they’d all been playing by the same rules, which bound them together.But if the Saint was playing a game of his own, it meant the rules had changed without consultation.Kenney recalled the glance that had passed between the Saint and Renders at the school when Kenney mentioned Mallory Norton’s disappearance.Kenney had been up to the Spero for one of his bi-annual visits and gave no sign that he’d spotted the interaction between the Saint and his assistant principal, but he’d filed it away nonetheless, and Renders’s expression in particular.He was familiar with that look because he’d seen it on his own face in the days immediately after the Game.If the Saint had killed the Norton girl, Renders had helped him do it.
So the Saint had played close to home, which was a transgression all its own, and then hadn’t even invited his old friends to join in the fun, which was, you know, selfish of him.Instead, he’d shared her with Renders.If the Saint was no longer abiding by the rules, and was additionally shortchanging the original players, how could he be trusted about anything?Should the police connect the Saint to Mallory Norton, they’d begin tearing the rest of his life apart, digging in corners better left unexplored, and hiding in one of them would be Edward Kenney and Roger Teal.What if the Saint offered to sell them out in return for a better deal?Twenty-five years, the minimum for murder in Maine, was better than a life sentence.
But that was a worst-case scenario.Each man held the fate of the others in his hands, which was one of the beauties of the Game, and one of its guarantees.Just as the Saint could theoretically offer testimony against Teal and Kenney, so too could Kenney turn on Teal and the Saint, or Teal seek to save himself by sacrificing the others.If it came down to it, they’d all sink together, right?In theory, perhaps, but now there was the Renders factor to be taken into account.
“Did Mallory Norton come up in this conversation?”Kenney asked.
“Not then,” said Teal.“But I’ve been thinking: She may have come up before, indirectly.”
“How?”
“Way before you and I went to Detroit, the Saint mentioned that one of the boys at the school was sneaking out to meet a local girl.He said something would have to be done about it.”
“And?”
“I think you’re right,” said Teal.“Something was done.”
“You’re only telling me this now?”
“It didn’t register then.Nobody had died or gone missing, and you hadn’t said anything about being worried.”
But Kenney wasn’t annoyed.He was grateful to Teal for confirming any remaining doubts about the Saint’s activities.
“I still haven’t spoken to the Saint about her,” said Kenney.
