The Thief and the White Knight - 13

"Kerry? Yeah, I think I saw him come in about forty-five minutes ago. He might be in the poolroom," the bartender told Tito, pointing him in the right direction. "That’s where he usually hangs out."

It had taken Tito a couple of days once he'd arrived in the city to track down where to find Kerry. While the station house he worked out of was the obvious starting point, Tito discovered after talking to the officer at the front desk that Kerry had taken a few days of his vacation time.

"I don't think he left the city," the man had confided, thinking that Tito was a police officer himself after Tito mentioned having been involved in a case with Kerry a few months earlier. A misapprehension Tito did nothing to dispel. "I can't give out his home address, even to a fellow officer, but I do know a couple or three of the bars where he sometimes hangs out."

The first bar had been a wash. No one there had seen Kerry in weeks. The bartender at the second one told Tito that Kerry had been in a couple of days ago but not tonight.

So now, Tito was at the third bar, and so it seemed was Kerry. Tito strolled to the archway separating the poolroom from the bar itself. The room was full, every table in use with hanger's-on watching and, Tito suspected, making bets on the games. It took him a minute to spot Kerry. He was sitting on a stool against the back wall nursing a beer as he watched the players at the table nearest him.

The man looked haggard, though it could just have been the lighting Tito though as he started around to edge of the room towards Kerry. When he got closer, he realized it wasn't. For a man on vacation, Kerry didn't look the least bit rested. He looked as if he'd been working hard and not getting any sleep.

Tito took the vacant stool next to Kerry's. Resting his back against the wall, he asked, "Who's going to win?" nodding to the table when Kerry turned to look at him.

"Stripes, that's a no-brainer," Kerry replied, frowning slightly. "You look familiar, but not from here," he said moments later.

"First time in this particular bar. I'm from out of town." Tito waited a beat before adding, "Winterfield."

Kerry sucked in a breath. "Never heard of the place."

"That's funny, because I could have sworn I saw you there. You saved my life, and Pia's."

* * * *

Kerry felt his heart stutter at the mention of Pia's name but he replied with as much calm as he could muster, "Oh yeah. That was you, huh? What brings you into my neck of the woods?"

"I never got a chance to thank you."

"So three months later you decide it's time to track me down?"

"Guess you could put it that way. I've been watching my best friend go through six kinds of hell and figured it was time to do something about it."

"Pia?" Kerry barely got her name out.

"Yes."

"I don't want to talk about it—about her."

"I'm not leaving until you do. Take it from someone who been in the same place you are now, I'm not giving up until we at least talk about your problem."

"If you're not leaving then I am because there's nothing to talk about." Kerry stood abruptly, shooting Tito an angry look before striding away.

"I'm not that easy to loose," Tito muttered, following Kerry out of the bar.

"Back off—Fontana, right?"

"Right. Guess she mentioned me?"

"Sorry to burst your bubble but no, not by name anyway. I learned it the next morning before I left town."

"Without even saying good-bye to Pia."

Kerry winced. "Look, she hated—hates me. If I'd even tried to contact her she'd have shut me down so fast my head would have been spinning."

"Funny, that. I don't get the impression she hates you. Well, not any more. I'm not sure what she's feeling right now, but for damned sure I know how you feel. Been there, done that."

"I don't think you could have come close to betraying anyone as badly as I betrayed her, so no you don't." Kerry started walking, head bowed, hoping the man would vanish if he ignored him.

As if reading his thoughts, Tito chuckled low as he caught up with Kerry. "I'm your shadow now. You need to talk to someone, and it might as well be me."

Kerry continued walking, not acknowledging that Tito had said anything. So, with as shrug, Tito kept pace with him, remaining silent.

After ten minutes of that, Kerry sighed. "You're not going to give up, are you?"

"I'm tenacious."

"So if we go somewhere and I let you talk at me you'll go away and leave me alone?"

"That's the plan."

Kerry looked around. Spotting an all-night diner in the next block, he headed toward it.