Chapter 19

Jackal’s business was Jackal’s business, though, no matter what his neighbor and friend thought or felt. If Jackal wanted to bed a private college filled with boyishly-looking soccer players, he would have, with or without Calvin’s consent. And Jackal felt the same way about Calvin’s son, since Buddy was old enough, but maybe not wise enough, to make his own decisions. Had Buddy decided to put the sexual and irreversible moves on Jackal, Jackal wouldn’t have turned the young man’s affection away. Instead, he would have welcomed such naked activity, forgetting that Calvin and his bigotry existed.

Jackal’s diary had proved in various entries that he had been an occasional lover with the eastern man. For the last two of the five years that Jackal had lived in the Tudor, he had been seduced by the young drug user and alcoholic. Discreetly, like this evening, Buddy had made his way to inside Jackal’s house, trespassing and—