Next came the paperwork. Who would be responsible for the bills? “I will,” I said. “You’ll probably have to check with the home where she was living; they may have made some kind of arrangement or legally binding contract. But I will guarantee payment.”
We talked about what kind of funeral she would have if Denver turned out to be her final stop. She might have gone to an unmarked plot in a potter’s field with a plywood coffin, but I wanted her to have a plaque and a place of her own. This was strange since I had never cared much about funerals. I don’t care where they put me; in terms of eternity, it doesn’t matter much, but suddenly the tariff had leaped into four figures and I was okay with it. The man took my credit card number, the doctor went home, and for now that was that. Erin and I stood on the street with the Ralstons in the early morning and watched the hearse drive away.
None of us wanted to separate: not quite then, not quite that way. Ralston suggested a simple wake. “I don’t mean to be disrespectful of the departed,” he said, “but I am hungry as hell.”
We all were. The pizza I had shared with Erin seemed like a distant meal indeed, and I suggested we all go down to Colfax, where the all-night eating places were. Denise wouldn’t hear of it. “We will cook something. Michael is a gourmet cook, did you know that?”
“I told them,” Ralston said. “It’s gonna be hard to make anything decent with what we’ve got. We got some eggs and milk; I could make a simple omelet but that’s about all. If y’all don’t mind waiting, I could go out and get some better stuff.“
“I’ll get the stuff,” I said. “You fire up the stove, give me a list of what you need, and I’ll be back in a while.”
He directed me to the nearest all-night Safeway. “You won’t get any gourmet makings there, but do the best you can,”
Forty minutes later we said our farewells to old Mrs. Gallant. We had known her only for a few hours but she had touched something in each of us. Even Erin, who had not known her at all, had been moved by her story.
“I should apologize for eavesdropping at the bedroom door,” she said. “But I had a hunch those questions might come up. It never hurts to have an impartial witness to what was said.”
This got grateful looks from the Ralstons. Then, in the best tradition of a real wake, we ate an incredible omelet.
“Damn, you really are a gourmet cook,” I said. “You oughta do this for a living.”
“I do, when I can find work. I should say, when I can keep it.”
“Michael has a problem with arrogant authority,” Denise said.
“Isn’t that amazing, so do I,” I said. “We seem to be more alike all the time.”
“Except you don’t have to worry about getting fired. That’s what happened to me this week. Been thinking of changing jobs anyway, but I’d rather have done it on my own hook, after some bills have been paid.“
“Well,” I said casually, “now you’ll have the money to pay your bills.”
I motioned to the Burton, still on the table where I had put it hours ago.
“When you sell it, you mean,” Ralston said.
“I may never sell it. But I’m willing to pay you half of what I think its retail value might be. We can do that tonight if you want to. Like I told your friend the doctor, I think it’s a twenty, twenty-five-thousand-dollar piece. Say twelve-five to you.”
“Holy mackerel, Batman,” Ralston said, but Denise gave a tiny head shake.
“I just bought the Pilgrimage at auction for twenty-nine and change. That’s widely considered to be Burton’s greatest book. It’s a very important piece, but so is this. The condition of both is outstanding, and that’s actually a huge understatement. Old bookmen like to call everything the world’s best copy, but I truly can’t imagine better copies of either book anywhere in the world today. The inscription is intriguing, and I think it gains by having the two of them together.”
They looked at each other.
“Listen,” I said, “there’s no pressure on this. You do what’s right for you. Bring in another bookseller, get his opinion, I’ll pay half of whatever he says. If and when I do sell it, if it goes over thirty, we’ll split that difference as well. Whenever that might be.”
“Couldn’t be fairer than that,” Ralston said, looking hopefully at his wife.
Denise was looking at me. “I trust you. That’s not what’s bothering me.”
I knew what was bothering her. The deathbed promise I had made lingered in the air. “Nobody expects you to find those books,” Ralston said.
Denise shook her head. “Oh, honey, that’s where you’re wrong.”
A long quiet moment later, I said, “I didn’t give that promise lightly. If those books are there to be found, I will find them. I’m just thinking how much easier it might be if this book is in my hands alone. We can let it ride, if that’s what you want. But I get the final word on where the hunt goes and how I want to conduct it.”
“He used to be a cop,” Ralston told his wife.
“Really? That surprises me. You seem like such a gentle soul, Mr. Janeway…it’s hard to believe you were ever part of any violent world.”
“I’ve been called lots of things, but a gentle soul isn’t even close to the list. Maybe I’m making some headway.”
“Why did you leave the police?”
“Long story. Goes to my attitude, which isn’t always so gentle. Let’s just say I like the book world better.”
“You should’ve seen him wheeling and dealing those two cats from Texas,” Ralston said. “Two fat cats came into his store and he pulled eight bills out of their pockets slicker than hell.”
“They knew what they wanted,” I said. “They got what they paid for.”
I asked if either of them knew who or what Koko was.
“I can’t imagine,” Denise said. “Probably some childhood friend.”
“Who’s been dead forever,” Ralston said.
Denise touched the book, opened it carefully. “This is all so far from my own life, from any kind of experience I’ve ever had. Until now I couldn’t have imagined such a book.” A moment later, she said, “Would it bother you if I kept it overnight? Maybe for a couple of days? I’d just like to…I don’t know…get a feel of it…if that wouldn’t bother you.”
It bothered me a lot, but what could I say? What I said was, “You’d have to be very careful.”
“I know that.”
“I mean really careful, Denise. A spot on the cover could be five grand.”
“I hear you.”
Now an extended silence fell over us. Denise walked to the window and looked out into the yard. Ralston cocked his head and smiled at me, a quizzical expression that said, You’ll have to wait for her, man, it’s the only way.
But he was the one who squirmed as the minutes dragged on. “That’s a whole bunch of money, doll,” he said to some crack in the floor. “We could get a great new start with that.”
He looked up at me and found another reason to take the money and run. “The answers you want won’t be here in Denver, will they? There’ll be expenses, and they’ll come out of the book’s value, right off the top. That’s only fair.”
Denise took a deep breath, as if the same thought had just occurred to her. I could quickly eat up the entire value of the book traveling, and for what?
Erin was watching me intently. I smiled at her, then at Denise, who had just turned from the window. “It’s your choice,” I said. “You could take your money and be done with it. Speaking just for myself, I’ve got to try.”
“Wherever that leads,” Ralston said. “Whatever it costs.”