Where the Rain Gets In Read Online Free PDF

I’m
putting down the phone – don’t call me again.”
    “Don’t go, Katie, please – I need your
help.”
    “You never needed anyone’s help, Mike,
least of all mine. Whatever you’re playing at, I’m not interested. These are
the exact circumstances in which you – you, Mike – said not to call. This was
your rule and you made me swear to it. God knows there were times . . . I could
have tracked you down because I needed you, but I didn’t. And now you’re doing
what we swore we’d never do, and knowing you Mike, knowing you, there’s another
reason behind this and I don’t want to know.”
    “You don’t take much tracking down,”
said Mike. “All I have to do is open the newspaper and you’re there.”
    “That doesn’t give you the right to
contact me, it doesn’t mean all bets are off. Maybe I thought it safer to keep
a high profile. What isn’t safe is for you to call me at the first sign of
trouble.”
    “I received a letter from the FBI,” said
Mike.
    “What?”
    “The FBI – they wrote to me, telling me
I’d be receiving a subpoena to appear in a U.S. court of law.”
    “Bullshit!”
    “Bullshit or not, they know who I am.”
    “Counting cards in Vegas isn’t a crime,”
said Katie.
    “You know as well as I do this isn’t
about counting cards in Vegas. I’m a U.S. citizen, remember; I could end up
doing a serious amount of time in prison.”
    “Yeah, but you’re also a British citizen
– and an Irish one too, come to that – I can’t imagine them prosecuting you.”
    “They don’t like being made fools of,”
said Mike.
    “It was over twenty years ago; they’re
hardly going to pursue you after all this time.”
    “But they are doing, aren’t they? We
fucked them over and they don’t like it. And what I hear about U.S. prisons, I
don’t much like either.”
    “You’re not going to prison, Mike.”
    “We messed with their precious system,
and we cheated them out of their money. There’s nothing they care more about
than their money.”
    “But it wasn’t even that much,” said
Katie. “I mean, it was a lot of money at the time, but by today’s standards it
was nothing.”
    “We proved it could be done – that’s
what’s pissing them off.”
    “You proved it could be done,” corrected
Katie. “I just went along for the ride.”
    “And the money,” said Mike.
    “Yes, the money, but until you called
there was no connection from me to that money. I’m not the one being
subpoenaed.”
     “I’m scared,” said Mike.
    “Bullshit again,” said Katie. “I don’t
know what it is you’re up to Mike but – ”
     “I’m not up to anything. I just need
to see you; I need to talk to you.”
    “You want to meet?”
    “Yes, I’m in Dublin today, and I want to
see you. I’m in the Gresham. I’ll be here until three this afternoon. If you
ask at reception, they’ll let you know where to find me. I understand if you –
”
    “No,” said Katie. “You can’t do that,
Mike. I have a life here; you can’t just walk back into it and ask to see me
again – not after twenty years.”
    “I know how it must look, and I don’t do
it lightly – ”
    “I don’t care how lightly you’re doing
it – the answer’s no. I have too much to lose here for it to be fucked up by
you. I appreciate everything you did for me Mike, but that was a long time ago
and I can’t go back there.”
    “Please Katie – ”
    “No! I’m going now Mike, and I don’t
want you to call again.”
    She put down the phone and looked at the
receiver. She looked at the receiver for a long time. It didn’t ring again
until Carmel called through to remind Katie she had a meeting scheduled for
eleven; everybody was here waiting.
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
    Part 2
     
    K atie first met Mike on the day she
started college. She was twenty years old and nervous. She shuffled along in a
line of law students, and waited to collect her timetable for the year. There
was a lot of noise