Hard Candy - Andrew Vachss [85]
"No."
Her voice changed the way her face could. Train's voice: "If there is no truth, saying it is the truth. So there is always truth."
She watched my face, smiling. "Pretty good, huh? I gave him that one. He works the place in Brooklyn, I work here."
"Your partner's gone. So's Elvira."
"I'm still here. I know how to do it. There's plenty of kids. I'll always have me. I don't need anybody else."
"You're garbage."
"Am I? You think I loved you? Even when we were kids? It was Wesley I loved. He had the power. You…you're a weak, soft man. You were never hard. Me, I made you hard. I can do it again. I'm the one that's hard. Like Wesley. You should see your eyes…you want to beat me to death right here. But you can't do it. You can't hurt me. I know you. We can go in the back room right now. Tie me up so I can't move. And I'll still be in control."
I didn't say anything, watching her. The love Wesley never knew he had. He was better off where he was.
"You won't go to the cops either. That's not your way. The secret is to know. Like I know you. You could never hurt me. Wesley won. He's out there someplace. And I'll find him. I know you. If you were really a killer, you'd kill me."
She turned her back on me, walked out of the room, leaving me alone. Giving me a choice.
I closed the door behind me.
155
AS I WALKED down the carpeted hall, a puddle of shadow moved. I nodded. Max drifted silently back the way I came, a key in his hand.
Andrew Vachss
Andrew Vachss has been a federal investigator in sexually transmitted diseases, a social caseworker, a labor organizer, and has directed a maximum-security prison for youthful offenders. Now a lawyer in private practice, he represents children and youths exclusively. He is the author of numerous novels, including the Burke series, two collections of short stories, and a wide variety of other material including song lyrics, poetry, graphic novels, and a "children's book for adults." His books have been translated into twenty different languages and his work has appeared in Parade, Antaeus, Esquire, The New York Times, and numerous other forums. He lives and works in New York City and the Pacific Northwest.
The dedicated Web site for Vachss and his work is www.vachss.com
BOOKS BY ANDREW VACHSS
Flood
Strega
Blue Belle
Hard Candy
Blossom
Sacrifice
Shella
Down in the Zero
Born Bad
Footsteps of the Hawk
False Allegations
Safe House
Choice of Evil
Everybody Pays
Dead and Gone
Pain Management
Copyright © 1989 by Andrew Vachss
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. Originally published in hardcover by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, in 1989, and in trade paperback by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 1995.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to Famous Music Corporation for permission to reprint an excerpt from "The Ballad of Charles Whitman" by Kinky Friedman. Copyright © 1973 by Ensign Music Corporation. Reprinted by permission.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the Knopf edition as follows:
Vachss, Andrew H.
Hard Candy: a novel/by Andrew Vachss.
p. cm.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Random House Web address: http://www.randomhouse.com/
eISBN: 978-0-375-71904-2
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