The Boxer and the Spy
- Автор: Паркер Роберт Браун
- Год: 2008
- Язык: английский
- Год: Philomel Books
- ISBN: 978-0-399-24775-0
- Жанр: Другие детективы
Электронная книга - «The Boxer and the Spy». Краткое содержание книги:
“You do what I tell you,” the big man said. “You watch and you wait and you report back to me. I don’t want you laying a hand on him. We need to ratchet up the pressure, we’ll do it when I say so.”
The jock nodded.
“You want to play Big Ten football?” the big man said.
“Yes sir.”
“Name in the paper, a hundred thousand fans every Saturday? Pro scouts?”
“Yes sir!”
“Then do what I tell you and make sure you don’t tarnish this office.”
“Yes sir.”
“You been seeing the nurse regularly?” the big man said.
“Just like you told me,” the jock said.
“Good,” the big man said. “You keep doing what I tell you, and everything will be smooth as new ice. Okay?”
“Okay,” the jock said.
“Okay, what?” the big man said.
“Okay, sir?”
“Thank you,” the big man said.
Chapter 20
At the drugstore, Gary Sarkis gave them ten photocopied pages of a medical update about steroids from a big HMO.
“Lotta medical language,” he told them. “But you can wade through it. You need help, call me.”
“Do you take steroids for asthma?” Terry said.
“Of a sort,” Gary Sarkis said. “In very small amounts. But it’s not the same stuff that athletes use.”
They took the pages to the Wall and sat and began to read them. Terry would read a page and hand it to Abby. When Abby read it, she underlined things in yellow.
When they had both finished, Terry said, “Yikes.”
“It does take some wading,” Abby said.
“You get anything out of it?” Terry said.
Abby giggled.
“If you take some of these things, your... testicles might shrink,” Abby said.
“Come on,” Terry said.
“Says so right here,” Abby said, and marked the passage.
Terry read it again.
“ ‘Testicular size may decrease if androgen is taken for many years,’ ” he said. “I missed that first time through.”
Abby giggled again.
“I didn't,” she said.
“So androgen is another word for steroid,” Terry said.
“I think so.”
“So here’s the psychological effects,” Terry said. “That’s what we want.”
“It doesn’t say anything about suicide,” Abby said. “‘Major mood disorders and aggressive behavior’ is what it says.”
“Suicide is a major mood disorder,” Terry said.
“But if they meant suicide, they’d say so, wouldn’t they?”
“I guess. Jason certainly wasn’t aggressive.” He pointed. “What’s this mean, you think?”
Abby read aloud.
“ ‘Most psychological descriptions are uncontrolled.’ ”
“Uncontrolled how?” Terry said.
“Like the studies aren’t, um, careful, you know?” Abby said. “They’re more just what people say about steroids. The doctors are, like, not sure if it’s true. A lot of this stuff is like that.”
“Well, hell,” Terry said. “Who’s going to tell their doctor they’re on ’roids?”
“I guess that’s the problem,” Abby said.
They read the pages again.
“Lot of stuff they think might happen to you from juicing,” Terry said.
“And over here it says they’re not all that sure that it does you much good.”
Terry nodded.
“Look at this,” he said. “If women take it.”
Abby looked down and read where he pointed.
“Oh wow,” she said. “Acne, facial hair...”
“Sounds great, doesn’t it?” Terry said.
“Can’t wait to try it,” Abby said.
“All of this stuff is written about jocks,” Terry said. “Doesn’t talk about ordinary kids like Jason.”
“Maybe because ordinary kids like Jason don’t take steroids,” Abby said.
“Nothing here makes me think he did,” Terry said.
“No,” Abby said. “Sounds more like Kip Carter All-American to me.”
“Yeah,” Terry said. “Maybe you should date him.”
“Me?” Abby said.
Terry gave her a straight-faced serious look.
“Give you a chance to find out if anything’s shrinking,” he said.
“Oh ugh!” Abby said.
And they both began to giggle.
Chapter 21
George was wrapping Terry’s hands.
“Little swollen,” George said.
“I had a fight.”
“How’d you do?” George said.
“I broke the guy’s nose,” Terry said.
“So you won?”
“Yeah.”
“Better than losing,” George said. “Why’d you fight?”
“Other guy started it,” Terry said.
“How?”
“Was gonna beat me up,” Terry said.
“Front of other people?”
“Yes.”
“You know why?”
“I think it’s about that kid, Jason, who died a while ago?”
“The one you been wondering about,” George said.
“Yeah.”
“Why somebody want to beat you up ’bout that?” George said.
“I don’t know.”
“You looking into it?” George said.
“Yes.”
“Maybe they want you to stop,” George said.
Terry shrugged. George looked at him for a moment. He looked like he wanted to say something. But he didn’t.
“What?” Terry said.
George shook his head and finished wrapping Terry’s hands.
“You gonna tell me mind my own business?” Terry said. “‘Cause I’m a kid, and I don’t know what I’m doing?”
“Nope.”
“You were gonna say something,” Terry said. “What?”
George slid the gloves onto Terry’s hands and cinched the Velcro closers shut.
“I was gonna tell you to be careful,” George said.
“I can take care of myself,” Terry said.
“Mostly,” George said. “Nobody can do it always.”
“So I just quit and go hide?”
“Nope.”
“So,” Terry said. “What?”
“So, nothing, that’s why I didn’t say it.”
They looked at each other.
“I don’t get it,” Terry said.
George nodded.
“Kid mattered to you,” George said.
“I felt sorry for him,” Terry said. “Got no father. Mother’s a drunk. Everybody thinks he’s a fag.”
“You?” George said.
“Yeah, I guess he was.”
“You don’t care.”
“No,” Terry said. “Got nothing to do with me.”
“You not gay,” George said.
“No,” Terry said. “You care?”
“No,” George said. “I don’t care. But that little girl might be awful disappointed.”
Terry smiled.
“I hope so,” he said.
“You doing what you think is the right thing to do,” George said. “Maybe be some risk. Smart to be careful. Don’t want to hide all your life. If you gonna face up to it, might as well start now.”
“You saying I should go ahead?”
“Yep.”
Terry didn’t know what to say.
“So this guy comes at you,” George said, “swinging, and you hold him off with your jab.”
“Yeah.”
“And he tries a big John Wayne roundhouse punch,” George said.