On the Fifth Day Read Online Free Page B

harmony. The next time he'd seen Ed, things were already unraveling. The three of them would never be caught smiling like that together again.
    When the doorbell rang the first time, he ignored it, but when it rang twice more it occurred to him that he might be the only one in the building. Then he remembered the lawyer who was coming to meet with him about what was laughably referred to as his brother's "estate." He moved swiftly down the narrow hall and rickety staircase, only pausing for a sec
    ond to wonder what he would do if it was a homeless person as Jim had assumed him to be, or someone with some pressing spiritual crisis. He opened the door and gasped as the cold wind struck him forcibly in the face.
    The man outside had taken a few steps back as if to look up to the windows for signs of life. He looked at Thomas for a second without moving, one hand holding a black attache
    case, the other thrust deep into his pocket.
    "You Knight?" he said.
    "Yes," said Thomas, a little taken aback by the man's brusque manner. "Come in."
    "Parks," he said.
    "I'm sorry?"
    "Parks," he repeated. "Ben Parks."
    He stepped past Thomas without extending a hand. He was maybe thirty, thin-faced with curly hair, a goatee, and hard eyes that didn't meet Thomas's when he spoke. The coat he wore looked old and a size or two too large. He didn't look like a lawyer.
    Thomas led him back into the spartan kitchen.
    "Do you want to go straight to his room or what?"
    The look on the lawyer's face was reminiscent of Jim's when he had realized that Thomas wasn't looking for a handout.
    "His room?"
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    A. J. Hartley
    "I'm sorry," said Thomas. "You are the lawyer come to see about Ed's stuff, right?"
    "Ed?"
    "Ed Knight, my brother. The priest who died."
    There was another split second of uncertainty and the man's eyes tightened. For a moment he was silent, and then his demeanor changed, lightened so that he looked like a dif
    ferent person entirely.
    "Oh, you're his brother. I'm so sorry. I've never actually met Father Knight and I didn't know him by his first name. I assumed you were a priest."
    Thomas laughed at that.
    "No," he said. "My brother got the spiritual gene. Or the Catholic gene. Something. Me, it skipped. So," he said, mov
    ing quickly in case his confession had made the lawyer un
    comfortable, and because it was bravado and not really true at all, "you want to look over his room?"
    "Sure," said the lawyer. "That would be great."
    Thomas led the way.
    "Been in town long?" said Parks.
    "I live here. Well, Evanston," he said, adding for no partic
    ular reason, "the cheap end. I came as soon as I heard. I fig
    ured I'd need to be here a few days, but Ed seems to have owned so little--unless you know something about assets I don't--that that might not be necessary. And no doubt Mother Church will make sure everything is in order."
    "Right," said the lawyer.
    Thomas opened the door to the miserable little bedroom.
    "Chateau Knight," he said.
    The lawyer stood in the doorway and looked carefully around without moving, as if he were afraid of disturbing a crime scene.
    "I don't think there's much I'm going to want," said Thomas. "Unless he turns out to have had some offshore ac
    count worth millions, I think the order will get the lot."
    "Do you know much about your brother's life, any assets we might not immediately find?"
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    O n t h e F i f t h D a y
    "The car outside is his, I think," said Thomas, "though it's only worth a few hundred bucks at most. Maybe it belongs to the parish or the Jesuits. He probably had a suitcase or two with him. I don't know."
    "Anything else?"
    "Look," said Thomas, "we weren't what you'd call close. Didn't really see eye to eye on a lot of stuff."
    "I see. I'm sorry."
    "I'm not looking for sympathy. I'm just saying that if you talk to people here, people he worked with, I mean, you'll find out a hell of a lot more about him than you will if you ask me. I didn't know anything about him."
    He was angry and ashamed