Desperate Measures (24 page)

"I'm telling you I'm not going to-"

"The first thing you need to know about this gun, Pittman said, "is that the ammunition is stored in this spring-loaded device-it's called a magazine-that's inserted into the bottom of the grip."

"Are you serious?" Jill squinted as the Duster emerged from a covered bridge into dazzling sunlight. "Have you any idea how many people in critical condition because of gunshot wounds I've had to try to keep alive in intensive care? I don't. want to know anything about that gun. I don't want it in MY purse. I don't want to have anything to do with it."

Pittman studied her, then peered ahead. "The first turn the right past the bridge."

"I know. It's On the sheet of directions the librarian gave us. I remember what she said."

"I was just trying to be helpful.

"Look, I'm sorry. I don't mean to be snappy. It's just ... You scared me with that business about the gun." jills voice was unsteady. "For a while there, when we were on the train, I was able to forget how serious this is. I wish I wasn't doing this. "

"Then turn around," Pittman said. "What?"

"We'll go back to Montpelier and put you on the train back to New York. I'll go out to the academy on my own. "Put me On the ... ? What good would that do? Nothing's changed. Those men are still after me. I can't go back to my apartment. You've convinced me that the police wouldn't be able to protect me forever. I certainly can't depend on my parents to get me through this. They're probably being watched. As for my friends, I don't want to put them in danger- Being with you is the safest place I can think of, and that's not saying much, but it's all I've got."

"I've already fed a round into the firing chamber. To shoot this gun, you don't need to cock it. All you have to do is Pull the trigger. There's the gate." Pittman pointed toward a large elegant sign that read: GROLLIER ACADEMY.

"I love its motto," Pittman said. TO LEAD IS TO SERVE.

They veered from the road, following a paved lane up a treed . They passed incline. A white wooden fence had an open gate a small building that reminded Pittman of a sentry box at the entrance to a military base, but no one was there, and Pittman assumed that the building was for deliveries. At the top of the incline, the view was spectacular enough to make Jill stop driving. On each side, fir trees stretched along a ridge, rising toward mountains. But directly ahead and below, the trees had been cleared, replaced by an impressive expanse of grassland. In the valley, there were stables, horses in a pasture, an equestrian rings, and a polo field. Adjacent were several football fields. In the distance, an oval-shaped lake glinted with the reflection of sunlight, and Pittman remembered the importance that Professor Folsom had said the school placed on team rowing.

But Pittman's attention was mostly directed toward the buildings in the center of the valley: a traditional white-steepled church, an imposing pillared building that was probably the school's administration center, fifteen other structures made of brick, covered with ivy.

"Dormitories and classroom buildings," Pittman said.

"Solid, efficient, functional. What the Establishment considers roughing it."

Jill looked puzzled. "You really have a problem about privileged society."

"To rephrase Will Rogers, I never met a rich person I liked. "I'm rich."

"But you don't act rich.... I had an older brother,." Pittman said. Jill looked as if she didn't understand the jump in topics.

"His name was Bobby. He taught me how to ride a bicycle, how to throw a baseball. When I came home with a black eye from a fight in the school yard, he showed me how to box. There wasn't anything Bobby couldn't do. He was my idol. God, how I loved him."

"You keep using the past tense." "He died in Vietnam."

"Oh.... I'm sorry. "

"He didn't want to go," Pittman said. "He didn't believe the war was right. But my parents didn't have any money, and Bobby didn't have the means to go to college and he couldn't get a draft deferment. I remember him cursing about how all the rich kids got deferments but he couldn't. All of his letters mentioned the same thing-how everybody in his unit was part of the Disestablishment. Of course, Bobby used cruder terms. He kept writing about a premonition he had, about how he was sure he wouldn't be coming back. Well, he was right. Friendly fire killed him. I used to go to the cemetery every day to visit him. I remember thinking how easy it was for rich people to start wars when their children wouldn't have to fight. Later, after I saved enough money from working on construction to go to college, I realized something else-those rich people got richer because of the they started. That's why I became a journalist. To go those bastards. To get even for my brother."

"I'm sorry," Jill repeated. "So am I." Pittman stared down at his bandaged hand. "I apologize. I didn't mean for all that to come out."

Jill touched his arm.

The buildings were situated along a square that reminded Pittman of a parade ground. Pavement flanked each side of the square, and Jill almost parked there, until she saw a lot next to what appeared to be the administration building. Fifteen other cars were already parked there. Pittman got out of the Duster, conscious of the .45 under his sport coat. It dismally occurred to him that one mark of how far he had come since his suicide attempt Wednesday night was that he thought of being armed as ordinary.

Jill locked the car and came around to join him. Her sneakers, jeans, and sweater were in a small suitcase in the backseat. The brown pumps, sand-colored A-line skirt, forest green jacket, and yellow blouse that she'd bought in Montpelier fit her perfectly. Pittman still wasn't used to seeing her in clothes that weren't casual and loose. , The lines of her legs were as elegant as those of her throat.

"Ready?"

Jill inhaled nervously and nodded, securing the strap of her purse to her shoulder. "It's heavy."

"Just try to forget a weapon's in there."

"Easy advice from you. I still don't see why it couldn't stay in the car."

"Because things keep turning out differently from the way They walked from the parking lot and watched as the square, which had been deserted except for a few groundskeepers, suddenly filled with hurrying students a few seconds after a bell rang in several of the buildings.

Wearing uniforms of gray slacks, navy blazers, and white shirts with red striped ties, the boys moved with brisk determination from what seemed to be classroom buildings, crossing toward a larger building opposite the church.

"Fire drill?"

Jill glanced at her watch. "Noon. Lunchtime."

A boy of about fifteen stopped before them. Like the others, he had brightly polished black shoes and neatly cut short hair. His gaze was direct, his voice confident, his posture straight. "May I help you, sir?"

"We were wondering where the school library is," Pittman said.

The boy pointed to Pittman's left. "In building four, sir. Would you like to see Mr. Bennett?"

"Mr. Bennett?"

"The academy's director."

"No. There isn't any need to bother him. Thank you for your help.

"You're welcome, sir. " The boy turned and continued quickly toward the building the other students were entering on the opposite side of the square. Although they hurried, they managed to look like gentlemen.

"He'll be a credit to Washington insiders," Pittman said.

He and Jill walked in the direction the young man had indicated, reached a brick building with the number 4 above its entrance, and left the noon's intense sunlight, entering a cool, well-lit stairwell that smelled sweetly of wax. Steps led down and up.

The building was eerily silent.

"I doubt very much that a library would be in the basement, " Jill said. "Too much danger of moisture getting into the books."

Nodding in agreement, his footsteps echoing, Pittman went up to the first floor. A hallway had several doors on each side. Many of the doors were open. In one, study desks were equipped with computers. In another, the desks had tape players and earphones, probably for language study.

As Pittman approached a third door, an elderly man came out, holding a key, about to close the door. He wore the same uniform that the students had been wearing. Short and somewhat heavy, he looked to be about sixty, with a saltand-pepper mustache and receding gray hair.

He peered over his glasses toward Pittman and Jill. "I was just going to lunch. May I help you?"

"We were told that the library is in this building." "That's correct." The man cleared his throat.

"Is that where you keep old yearbooks, things like that?" Pittman asked.

"They would be in our archival section." The man squinted. "I don't believe I've met you before. Why exactly would you need to know?"

"My name is Peter Logan. I'm a freelance journalist, - and I've decided to write the book I always promised myself I would. "

"Book?"

"About Grollier Academy. A great many distinguished public servants have graduated from this school."

"You could say that we've had more than our share. But suspect that they wouldn't want their privacy invaded.

"That isn't what I had in mind. Grollier Academy itself, that would be my emphasis. I thought it would be an example to other schools if I wrote about the superior methods of this one. This country's in a crisis. If our educational system isn't changed ... I'm worried about our future. We need a model, and I can't think of a better one than Grollier. " The man scrunched his eyebrows together and nodded. "There is no better preparatory education in America. What sort of research did you intend to do?"

"Well, for starters, Mr.... ?" "Caradine. I'm chief librarian."

"Naturally I'll devote a considerable portion of the book to Grollier's educational theory. But I'll also need to supply a historical perspective. When the academy was founded. By whom. How it grew. The famous students who passed through here. So, for starters, I thought that a general immersion in your archives would be helpful. The yearbooks, for example. Their photographs will show how the campus changed over the years. And I might discover that Grollier had many more famous graduates than I was aware of. I want to skim the surface, so to speak, before I plunge into the depths.

"A sensible method. The archives are Caradine glanced at his watch. "I'm sorry. I have a lunch meeting with the library committee, and I'm already late. I'm afraid I can't show you through the archives. If you come back at one o'clock ... The head of the refectory will, I'm sure, be pleased to provide you with lunch. "

"'nanks, Mr. Caradine, but my assistant and I had a late breakfast and ... To tell the truth, I'm anxious to get started. Perhaps you could let us into the archives and we can familiarize ourselves with the research materials while you're at your meeting. I had hoped not to inconvenience you. I'm sure you have better things to do than watch us read journals."

Caradine glanced at his watch again. "I really have to be at ... Very well. I don't see the harm. The archives are on the next level. The first door on your right at the top of the stairs. "

"I appreciate this, Mr. Caradine. If you'll unlock the door, we'll do our best not to trouble you for a while."

"Just go up. " Caradine started past them toward the stairs. "The door isn't locked. Almost none of the doors at Grollier are locked. This is a school for gentlemen. We depend on the honor system. In its entire one-hundred-and-thirty-year history, there has never been an instance of thievery on this campus.

"Exactly what I was getting at earlier. This school is a model. I'll be sure to put what you just told me into my book.

Caradine nodded, fidgeting with his hands, saying, 'I'm terribly late. He hurried down the stairs and left the building.

The door thunked shut. Pittman listened to its echo, turned to Jill, and gestured toward the stairs that led upward. "I hope he's a slow eater."

At the top of the stairs, the first door on the right had a frosted glass window. Pittman turned the knob, briefly worrying that Caradine had been mistaken about the door's being unlocked, but the knob turned freely, and with relief, Pittman entered the room.

He faced an area that was larger than he had expected. Shelves lined all the walls and, in library fashion, filled the middle area. Various boxes, ledgers, and books were on the shelves. Several windows provided adequate light.

Jill shut the door and looked around. "Why don't you check the shelves against that wall? I'll check these."

For the next five minutes, they searched. "Here," Jill said.

Pittman came over. Stooping toward where Jill pointed at lower shelves, he found several rows of thin oversized volumes, all bound in black leather, their spines stamped with gold numbers that indicated years, arranged chronologically, beginning with 1900.

"I thought Caradine said the school went back a hundred and thirty years," Pittman said. "Where are the other yearbooks?"

"Maybe the school only started the tradition at the turn of the century."

Pittman shrugged. "Maybe. Millgate was eighty. Assuming he graduated when he was eighteen, his last semester at Grollier would have been .

.."

"The spring of '33," Jill said-. "How on earth did you do that so fast?"

"I've always been good with numbers. All my money, you know," Jill said, joking to break the tension. "Of course, Millgate might have graduated when he was seventeen."