The Frumious Bandersnatch полностью

“No, darling,” he said, enunciating every word clearly, emphasizing them with his hands so that she wouldn’t miss their meaning or their importance to him, “not in any sense am I the father of the bride. I am the son of the bride, and I am the brother of the bride, but I am not in any way, shape, or form the father of the bride.”

Yes, but to your mother and Angela, you are the father of the bride, Teddy insisted.

“Their perception has nothing to…”

You’re the person who’ll be giving them away.

“I know that. But that doesn’t make me the father of the…”

At least they’re not asking you to pay for the wedding.

“Oh, that’ll be the day!” Carella said, and got off the sofa and began pacing. “My mother’s marrying a big ginzo from…”

Steve!her eyes snapped, and her fingers crackled.

“Is what he is, ” Carella said. “He speaks English the way my grand father did when he first came to this country.”

Luigi happens to speak English…

“Luigi! Couldn’t he have picked a more…”

…as well as you do. And he’s a very nice…

“…wop-sounding…”

You ought to be ashamed of your…

“…name? Luigi! Jesus Christ! ”

Well, I’m not going to shout over you,Teddy signed, and folded her hands in her lap.

The room went still.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

You should be,Teddy signed.It’s going to be a lovely wedding.

“I’m sure it will be,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

But he was sure it would not be. Because the issue here wasn’t that his mother was about to marry a man from Italy, a real Italian, mind you, not somebody who was born here and who called himself Italian for God knew what obscure reasons, but someone actually from Italy, this was not the issue. The issue was that his mother was getting married at all. And so soon after his father was murdered. Before the funeral meats were cold, so to speak.

Which was the other thing that rankled about this double wedding impending in June, next month, right around the corner, for which he had been unanimously declared father of the bride when he didn’t even choose to be either brother or son of the bride,brides, damn it! Of all the men in this vast city, of all the available bachelors pounding on her door and sniffing at her heels, why had his sister chosen the man who’d prosecuted the case of the People v.Cole, and lost that case, allowed his father’s murderer to walk free until another day? Why this particular man? Was there something fucking Electral about this? Something Carella was missing?

The telephone rang.

He looked up at the grandfather clock.

It was nine-thirty.

He went into the hall to answer it.

“Hello?” he said.

“Detective Carella, please.”

“Speaking.”

“This is Special Agent Stanley Endicott,” the voice on the other end said. “Is this Carella?”

“Yes, it is.”

“I’m not waking you, am I?”

“No, I’m awake.”

“I’m in command of the Joint Task Force here at Federal Square,” Endicott said. “We’ve been assigned the Valparaiso kidnapping, and I understand you were the officer who caught the initial complaint, is that correct?”

“Well, the Harbor Patrol was actually the first to respond,” Carella said, and wondered why whenever the FBI appeared on the scene he automatically started covering his ass.

“But you conducted the initial investigation, isn’t that correct?”

“Yes, it is,” Carella said.

“Aboard the River Princess, is the information I have here.”

“Yes.”

“And you’ve been working the case since, more or less.”

Carella liked to think the old Eight-Seven had been giving it their all, but he said nothing.

“Have you come up with anything so far?” Endicott asked.

“We’ve been tracking a trio the Harbor Patrol stopped on the river, shortly before the kidnapping. We’ve got a name for the guy who rented a boat that may have been used, but that’s all we’ve got. There’s nothing on him in the computer, local, state, or federal. We’re thinking he used a phony credit card.”

“What was the name?”

“Andy Hardy,” Carella said.

“Oh really?” Endicott said, and chuckled.

“We also have an eye witness to the boat coming back in before midnight last night…well, he didn’t actually see the boat, but he gave us a good description of the three people who might’ve been on the boat…”

“Might’ve been,” Endicott said.

“We’re fairly certain they’re the ones who brought the boat in. A man and two women. They drove off in a black Ford Explorer…”

“Fairly certain,” Endicott said.

Carella was silent for a moment.

Then he said, “Do you want this or don’t you?”

“I’m all ears,” Endicott said.

“So cut the editorials, okay? We’ve been busting our asses on this ever since we caught it.”

“I’m sure you have.”