Shutter Island(75)

“You was in all sorts of places, huh?”

“Yeah, I was. Saw the world.”

“What’d you think of it?”

“Different languages, same shit.”

“Yeah, that’s the truth, huh?”

“You know what the warden called me tonight, Mr. Washington?”

“What’s that, Marshal?”

“A nigger.”

Trey looked up from the magazine. “He what?”

Teddy nodded. “Said there were too many people in this world who were of low fiber. Mud races. Niggers. Retards. Said I was just a nigger to him.”

“You didn’t like that, did you?” Trey chuckled, and the sound died as soon as it left his mouth. “You don’t know what it is to be a nigger, though.”

“I’m aware of that, Trey. This man is your boss, though.”

“Ain’t my boss. I work for the hospital end of things. The White Devil? He on the prison side.”

“Still your boss.”

“No, he ain’t.” Trey rose up on his elbow. “You hear? I mean, are we definitely clear on that one, Marshal?”

Teddy shrugged.

Trey swung his legs over the bed and sat up. “You trying to make me mad, sir?”

Teddy shook his head.

“So then why don’t you agree with me when I tell you I don’t work for that white son of a bitch?”

Teddy gave him another shrug. “In a pinch, if it came down to it and he started giving orders? You’d hop to.”

“I’d what?”

“Hop to. Like a bunny.”

Trey ran a hand along his jaw, considered Teddy with a hard grin of disbelief.

“I don’t mean any offense,” Teddy said.

“Oh, no, no.”

“It’s just I’ve noticed that people on this island have a way of creating their own truth. Figure they say it’s so enough times, then it must be so.”

“I don’t work for that man.”

Teddy pointed at him. “Yeah, that’s the island truth I know and love.”

Trey looked ready to hit him.

“See,” Teddy said, “they held a meeting tonight. And afterward, Dr. Cawley comes up and tells me I never had a partner. And if I ask you, you’ll say the same thing. You’ll deny that you sat with the man and played poker with the man and laughed with the man. You’ll deny he ever said the way you should have dealt with your mean old aunt was to run faster. You’ll deny he ever slept right here in this bed. Won’t you, Mr. Washington?”

Trey looked down at the floor. “Don’t know what you’re talking about, Marshal.”

“Oh, I know, I know. I never had a partner. That’s the truth now. It has been decided. I never had a partner and he’s not somewhere out on this island hurt. Or dead. Or locked up in Ward C or the lighthouse. I never had a partner. You want to repeat that after me, just so we’re clear? I never had a partner. Come on. Try it.”

Trey looked up. “You never had a partner.”

Teddy said, “And you don’t work for the warden.”

Trey clasped his hands on his knees. He looked at Teddy and Teddy could see that this was eating him. His eyes grew moist and the flesh along his chin trembled.

“You need to get out of here,” he whispered.

“I’m aware of that.”

“No.” Trey shook his head several times. “You don’t have any idea what’s really going on here. Forget what you heard. Forget what you think you know. They going to get to you. And there ain’t no coming back from what they going to do to you. No coming back no how.”

“Tell me,” Teddy said, but Trey was shaking his head again. “Tell me what’s going on here.”

“I can’t do that. I can’t. Look at me.” Trey’s eyebrows rose and his eyes widened. “I. Cannot. Do. That. You on your own. And I wouldn’t be waiting on no ferry.”

Teddy chuckled. “I can’t even get out of this compound, never mind off this island. And even if I could, my partner is—”

“Forget your partner,” Trey hissed. “He gone. You got it? He ain’t coming back, man. You gotta git. You gotta watch out for yourself and only yourself.”

“Trey,” Teddy said, “I’m locked in.”

Trey stood and went to the window, looked out into the dark or at his own reflection, Teddy couldn’t tell which.

“You can’t ever come back. You can’t ever tell no one I told you anything.”

Teddy waited.

Trey looked back over his shoulder at him. “We agreed?”

“Agreed,” Teddy said.

“Ferry be here tomorrow at ten. Leave for Boston at eleven sharp. A man was to stow away on that boat, he might just make it across the harbor. Otherwise, a man would have to wait two or three more days and a fishing trawler, name of Betsy Ross, she pull up real close to the southern coast, drop a few things off the side.” He looked back at Teddy. “Kinda things men ain’t supposed to have on this island. Now she don’t come all the way in. No, sir. So a man’d have to swim his way out to her.”

“I can’t do three fucking days on this island,” Teddy said. “I don’t know the terrain. The warden and his men damn sure do, though. They’ll find me.”