A Man's Game

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A Man's Game Page 33

by Newton Thornburg


  But when Lee took the stand and claimed she was unable to swear which night Baird had been with her, then he began to understand. It occurred to him that both women—and for that matter, the judge too, given the swiftness of her rulings—might have joined in a kind of visceral, unconscious conspiracy not so much to save him as to ratify what he had done, each woman affirming in her own way that the time had come to do battle against their common enemy: all the twisted, violent men, all the butchers and rapists and killers.

  True or not, Baird found it a pleasant thought. He loved women. His sudden gift of freedom would not have seemed half so precious had he not been able to contemplate spending most of it in the company of women. Yet, at the moment, the women in his life seemed to be walking out of it. Lee was already gone, already across James Street and heading for the police station and whatever career he had left her. And Ellen would not look at him. She smiled at the reporters but continued to say nothing, just stood there watching the street, waiting for Kevin and the car.

  For that matter, even Kathy seemed uneasy at his side, probably only because of the crowd still pressing in around them. But Baird recognized that she could have been feeling the first stirrings of revulsion toward him as someone who possibly had taken a life. Yet even in that case, he knew he would not feel remorse or regret, for he finally had come to the point where he understood—where he truly believed—that he had done only what he had to do, no more and no less. He had protected his child. It was as simple as that.

  Still holding onto his arm, Kathy looked up at him and smiled. He kissed her on the forehead and hugged her close, reflecting that he could always do that at least.

  “Are you okay, Daddy?” she asked.

  “I’m fine,” he said.

  More from Newton Thornburg

  Beautiful Kate

  Wanted as a material witness in a drug-smuggling case, Gregg Kendall is hiding out at his family's old Chicago home. While there, he finds himself thinking about his long dead siblings, older brother Cliff and twin sister Kate. The two died in a car crash years before, and as Gregg revisits and relives the memories of his childhood, he awakens long-buried secrets from the family's past—including memories of his relationship with his twin that were better left undisturbed.

  Black Angus

  Bob Blanchard spent his entire inheritances on a cattle ranch in the Missouri Ozarks—but it hasn’t turned out the way he’d hoped, and he’s now being threatened with foreclosure. The cattle are sick, and the herd can't survive, and so Blanchard agrees to a desperate scheme to sell the cattle before their illness is widely known. But when a faked cattle rustling and an insurance scam go wrong, the plan begins to crumble from the inside out.

  Cutter and Bone

  Cutter is a scarred and crippled Vietnam veteran, obsessed with a murder he’s convinced his buddy, Bone, witnessed. That it was committed by the powerful tycoon JJ Wolfe only makes Cutter even surer that Bone saw the unthinkable.

  Captivated by Cutter’s demented logic, Bone is prepared to cross the country with Cutter in search of proof of the murder. Their quest takes them into the Ozarks—home base of the Wolfe empire—where Bone discovers that Cutter is pursuing both a cold-blooded killer, but also an even bigger and more elusive enemy.

  Dreamland

  Two apparent suicides and a pair of brutal sex murders plunge would-be starlet Foxy Reno and ex-hippie drifter Crow into the dark underbelly of Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley. As Crow and Reno embark on a manhunt, they discover the dark side of desire in white-hot California.

  Eve's Men

  A classic bad seed and his good-guy brother fall in love with the same woman. Wild man Brian demolishes a movie set as revenge against the studio he feels is defaming him. As Brian rampages from Colorado to Seattle with girlfriend Eve in tow, his brother Charley follows, unnerved by Brian's increasingly violent behavior.

  Eve, Brian, and Charley are on a crusade ride through mayhem and madness, where one seeks justice, another seeks redemption, and all three seek something in the ruins—each other. EVE'S MEN is a fascinating ride with a wild man and those who love him.

  The Lion at the Door

  After losing his wife, his parents, and his family farm, Tom Kohl is staying with his cousin Ken in Seattle as he tries to put his life back together. But things only go from bad to worse when Ken kills a man in a hit-and-run—a man who turns out to be the brother of Tony Jack Giacolone, Seattle's top mobster. Out of loyalty to his cousin, Tom agrees to help cover up the killing. But when he's spotted ditching the car by a cocktail waitress—who happens to also be the girlfriend of a low level mobster—the stakes only get higher, and Tom must face what he's willing to do for family when his life is on the line.

  To Die in California

  The police call on David Hook at his farm in Illinois, telling him his son Chris has committed suicide. David doesn’t believe them, he can’t. He knows something else must have happened in California to cause Chris’s death. Diving into the life of his son, David discovers corruption, immorality, and evil that shocks him to his very core, but it also awakens something lurking within, something he enjoys, something that poses an even bigger threat to those who hurt his son.

  Valhalla

  In the dystopian future, the government has collapsed, cities are burning, and roving gangs, called Mau Maus, are marauding across America. A drifter named Walter Stone finds refuge at a lakeside camp, where the survivors of a plane crash have met up with other refugees, and are struggling with a constantly changing cast of leaders, as well as limited supplies. Across the lake stands Valhalla, a house, well supplied with food and ammunition, where a junkman and his daughters live. The goal is to take control of Valhalla. The obstacles are certain death across the lake, roving bands of killers threatening the camp, and a way of life that is quickly slipping away.

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