There were some things that were yet to be, and some things that already were. Lou’s experience was among the latter. The proprietor of hotdogs across from Glengarry Park, mutual contact to Colinaude and Peter Cooley, had told Colinaude of witnessing the Cad making a spectacle of himself in a manner that included ‘interesting plates.’ This is that experience.
It occurred a little after noon. Every once and a while, a biter rival sought to complicate Lou’s life by having his vending license challenged. Breaching the subject of his age and how he sometimes forgot things usually accomplished this. Officer McAlester, as always, was dispatched to review the paperwork, which was what Lou was in the midst of when the Cad rolled along. His car had government plates, or rather, the car he was driving in did, and Lou made a note of this because he had never known the Cad to provide his own transportation. So this car with government plates pulled up behind McAlester’s, and out came the Cad, a blonde beauty, and a shuffling man, but no one who looked or acted like they came from the government. Lou had a suspicion who Shuffling Man was, but for the moment he was more concerned with McAlester, and proving once more he had every continuing right to rain on someone else’s parade. Every time the challenge came around, Lou would adopt his most stoic behavior, coupled though it was with some of his grumpiest. McAlester never failed to notice. Lou never failed to make sure McAlester realized the source of the attitude.
As McAlester pulled away and Lou put away his papers, glaring at the vendor he knew to have provoked the challenge, he overheard the name of the blonde beauty, Delia, and heard her giggle over something that in all likelihood was not that funny. For the moment, Delia, Cad, and Shuffling Man were standing around, enjoying a smoke and sharing in piffles of conversation, the kind that left Delia continuously giggling. It was clear they had other matters on the agenda, but that they enjoyed delaying in the meantime. Lou wondered why McAlester had not investigated the distinct lack of a government representative in the government-plated vehicle. There was no driver waiting inside. Shuffling Man had been behind the wheel.
Finally, the Cad tossed his cigarette butt aside. Shuffling Man took the opportunity to smudge it out with his own foot. Delia went back to the car and opened the trunk, producing the group’s own papers, which seemed to be fliers. She handed them to the Cad, who proceeded to a junction in the park that saw the most flow of pedestrians. Lou couldn’t hear anymore, but he could see that Cad was now giving some sort of spiel, gesturing with his hands and handing out the fliers. Delia stood by his side, but Shuffling Man waited off at a distance, below a tree, obscuring himself in its shadow. He appeared to not want a large part in this presentation. Whatever Cad was selling, either Shuffling Man was confident of or peripheral to. What he clearly was not doing was making it his business.
Soon enough, a crowd had gathered around the Cad and Delia. Delia posed for a few pictures. Cad continued his rhetoric, and even elicited cheers. He began to blow kisses, and to embrace some women and deliver real ones. Lou could have been mistaken to assume Cad was running for public office, but he knew better. Had this been an official event, McAlester would not have gone but been joined by a fair number of his brethren.
Delia was sent back to the car to retrieve something else, which turned out to be a rolled-up poster of some sort. She brought with her a stand to display it on, and though the setup was facing the wrong way for Lou to see properly, the sun shined through the poster well enough for him to make out what it had on the other side. Lou saw the Eidolon, encircled by red, with a line slanted through. There were some murmurs then, and some deserters, but others stayed and cheered. A second car pulled up not far away, and the presentation gained some new faces.
The most prominent one was a gang member with a red cap, and he was trotted out in front of the others, where he no doubt made a statement Lou couldn’t hear. He evidently was the showstopper, since when he was finished the second unit left and the Cad, Delia, and Shuffling Man came back to their own car, the Cad blowing more kisses with grand gestures of the arm to those who were still congregated. Delia returned the presentation materials to the trunk, but the Cad did not enter the vehicle immediately. He came, with Delia and Shuffling Man trailing him, toward Lou, beaming like a little child, his hands clasped and his lips moving, ordering three hotdogs, with relish.
Lou hesitated, but only for a moment. He was still a professional, but he didn’t say a word, not even his customary greeting. After having prepared all three dogs, he handed them over, and received from Delia, at Cad’s beckoning, a large clip of bills. Lou refused it. The Cad took the clip back himself, and gave Lou a polite nod, bowing out of the rest of the line’s way. He and Delia returned to the car, then, but Shuffling Man lingered. He was not as polite as his associate was. He glared at Lou and then followed his companions.
The car drove off. It was not long after this that Colinaude himself appeared. The Cad’s presentation had lasted all of fifteen minutes, and fifteen minutes later, as if by clockwork, Colinaude walked up. Lou understood the implications of what he had seen, understood most of all how much they pertained to Colinaude, but he also understood that if he didn’t say everything he had seen, it would not, in the long run, hurt Colinaude. He had reason to hold back. He was angry at him, angry at the jeopardy the Eidolon placed people in, as much as safety, angry that Peter Cooley had in all likelihood fallen prey to this monster, Rodrigo Ramirez, who was as much interested in his own ambitions as in targeting the Eidolon.
The Eidolon was a lightning rod, as much a force for good as its opposite. Lou cooperated with Colinaude as much as out of respect for his friend Cooley as his general inclination told him to. He knew the Eidolon’s intentions were noble. He also knew noble was not always enough, and he had seen enough of that to know how badly things could go wrong.
So yes, Lou was angry at the Eidolon, and was not afraid to let Colinaude see it, to know it, understand it. Was he in fact abetting the Cad by withholding all that he knew? Maybe so. There was also the fact that he had never been straightforward with Colinaude. He cooperated, mostly begrudgingly, and excused it by saying to himself that the man would find out what he needed to know from others. Lou owed him nothing. That he gave him anything at all was reward enough for that.
What would he do, if Colinaude cost him Cooley? Carry on, as always. Life was cruel. If Cooley was the cost to help Colinaude understand that, Lou could live with it. He wouldn’t be very pleased, though, and he would probably never help the Eidolon again. That would be a small price.
Besides, he trusted Colinaude could put a few things together himself. Give him that the Cad had made a scene. Give him that his car had ‘interesting plates.’ Forget to mention Shuffling Man. Lou only had a suspicion who he was. Why bother with a suspicion? Lou didn’t like suspicions, though he liked Shuffling Man even less. There was something about him, something far more threatening than the malice, the greed, the ambition just below the surface of the Cad’s charm. It was clear he was no stooge. Yet his quality was elusive, and it was this aspect that unsettled Lou the most. He had never met anyone else like him.
Colinaude would learn the rest from others. Lou was confident in that. He gave Colinaude one more thing before what could be the last time they saw each other ended. He allowed Colinaude to understand there was a respect that underlined everything else. He couldn’t deny that, and he had no intention to, either. Someone had been watching, waiting for Colinaude to move on. She walked up to Lou and they discussed him, and Lou convinced the woman that Colinaude needed looking after. This had not been the first time they talked of him. The woman had seemed to be interested in Colinaude for the past few years. Lou didn’t know where the connection had formed, and he didn’t care to find out. He never asked, and she never offered.
It was through her he found out where Colinaude spent his evenings. After most of the vendors had closed up shop, as always, Lou lingered, looking to please a last few customers. He went home, changed, got himself a hat, and then made his way to the Tin Can. When he arrived, he learned that Colinaude was out on his lunch hour. He chatted with the bartender for a few minutes, sopped down a beer, and stayed long enough to hear the legend of Marty Jennings. He vowed to return some day and defeat him. He probably would, too.
But for now, though, he would let things unfold exactly as they would, without anymore participation from Lou than they really needed. That was all he was ever interested in. Let the night take care of its own. Lou had carried his charge, and he figured he’d done a fine job. He’d seen all he needed to see, and said all he needed to.
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