The Snow Falcon Read Online Free Page B

assured him.
    A moment passed and Carl said, “You mind if I ask about your wife? I mean, have you seen her?”
    “We’re divorced now.”
    “You had a little girl, right? What was her name?”
    “Holly.” A picture of her sprung to Michael’s mind, the way she’d been when he’d last seen her, just a baby. He didn’t even know if the picture was accurate, or if it was simply a generic image of a baby. She would be almost eight years old now, he realized, and he had no idea what she looked like. He was aware that Carl was watching him, no doubt trying to decipher the thoughts in his mind. For a second, a silence enveloped them. Then, when Michael didn’t volunteer any other information, Carl moved on.
    “Anyway, I’d call Karen up so she could come in and see you herself, but I know she’s tied up with some meeting she had to go to. Something to do with school.” He waved his hand airily.
     
    19
     
    Michael looked at the photo and did recall Karen White. She’d been kind of a chubby blonde with an unnerving lazy eye that sometimes drifted inward. The picture showed Carl and Karen beaming smiles at the camera, two well-fed children in front of them.
     
    “She’ll be sorry she missed you,” Carl said, his smile slipping back into place.
     
    “I’ll see her around, I expect.”
     
    “Oh, sure.” Carl appeared vaguely puzzled, then the feeling was gone. “Anyway, I guess you want to get down to business,” he said, becoming brisk.
     
    He appeared happier dealing with straightforward issues that held no minefield of misunderstandings. He picked up a folder and started to read from it. “Everything’s pretty much as I told you when I wrote. There’s the house, of course, which is kind of in a poor way, which you’d expect after being empty for so long, but it’s not too bad. I had someone go out and take a look for you. The roof needs fixing in a couple of places and it could use a coat of paint, but nothing serious. Then there’s your dad’s old store. As you know, his insurance covered the mortgage when he died, so that’s freehold as well.”
     
    “I saw it on the way in,” Michael said, thinking of the black papered-over windows. “I see Greerman’s is still there.”
     
    “Yeah, I guess nothing much changes in a town like this,” Carl said. He flicked over a page and looked down a column of figures. “The money your dad left has been sitting in an account at the bank since he died. The taxes have had to be paid from it over the years, so the amount’s reduced a fair bit even after interest, but there’s still almost twenty thousand.”
     
    Carl paused and looked as if he were about to say something, and Michael knew Carl had to be curious about why he’d never touched the money before, and why he hadn’t sold the house and store instead of just leaving them empty all these years. “More like eight,” Michael said, explaining that he’d bought the Nissan, and whatever had been in Carl’s mind he put it aside and went back to the sheet in front of him.
     
    “Right, okay.” He made a note. “All the same, you’re not exactly destitute when you add it all up. Of course, you won’t get big-city prices here, but it should be enough to get you started again.”
     
    20
     
    Michael nodded, though his mind had been wandering. He went over to the window and looked down to the street.
    Carl watched him, then got up and stood beside him. “You’ve had a hard time over these last years, Michael. I think I know how it must feel. That’s why I’m glad to give you some good news.”
    Down in the street, a snowplow had stopped at the side of the road. A truck pulled up, and a guy got out and started talking to the man who looked to be in charge of the plow. Michael watched them, then turned his attention to a woman with two young children who pulled up in a big Ford F250 and started taking bags out of the front seat. The roof of her truck was covered in a layer of snow. Winter