When Clete and I hiked above Lake Louise, he had to sit down and catch his breath because of the thin air and the steepness of the grade. As always, he gave no credence to the seriousness of his physical and psychological wounds; he treated the world as a giant playground where misfortune became a problem only if you allowed it to be one. But as we sat in the dappled shade of the pines and cedar trees, looking down at the milky green waters of Lake Louise and the gold poppies in full bloom, I saw in his shirt pocket the letter he had received that morning at the hotel, and I knew where his thoughts had gone.
“Felicity is in South America, huh?” I said.
“Yep, that’s what she said,” he replied. “Working with the Indians like her old man did.”
“She’ll be back one day.”
“No, she won’t. When her kind go away, they go away.”
“Did you know I got a card from Wyatt Dixon? He didn’t sign it, but I know it was from him.”
“Don’t mention that guy to me, Dave.”
“Okay, I won’t.”
He unwrapped a piece of peppermint candy and put it in his mouth and sucked on it. “So what’d he say?”
“ ‘Tell Miss Gretchen good luck with her moviemaking.’ ”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it,” I said. “Ready?”
“I’d like to just sit here awhile. The lake looks like a giant green teardrop at the foot of that snowfield. I’ve never seen flowers that gold,” he said.
“I think you’re right.”
“Dave?” he said.
“What’s up?”
“You think we’ve done okay with our lives? You think the good outweighs the bad?”
“That’s the way I’d read it.” I cupped my hand on his shoulder. “Let me know when you’re ready, and we’ll finish our stroll and take everyone to lunch. It’s a grand day for it.”
“Roger that, big mon,” he replied.
We got up and hiked the rest of the way to the log teahouse on top of the mountain, the trees so thick and tall on either side of us that they seemed to touch the clouds, more like the pillars of heaven than earthly trees.
© FRANK VERONSKY
JAMES LEE BURKE is the author of thirty-two novels and two short story collections, including such New York Times bestsellers as Creole Belle, The Glass Rainbow, Swan Peak, The Tin Roof Blowdown, and Feast Day of Fools. He lives in Missoula, Montana.
WWW.JAMESLEEBURKE.COM
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BY THE SAME AUTHOR
DAVE ROBICHEAUX NOVELS
Creole Belle
The Glass Rainbow
Swan Peak
The Tin Roof Blowdown
Pegasus Descending
Crusader’s Cross
Last Car to Elysian Fields
Jolie Blon’s Bounce
Purple Cane Road
Sunset Limited
Cadillac Jukebox
Burning Angel
Dixie City Jam
In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead
A Stained White Radiance
A Morning for Flamingos
Black Cherry Blues
Heaven’s Prisoners
The Neon Rain
HACKBERRY HOLLAND NOVELS
Feast Day of Fools
Rain Gods
Lay Down My Sword and Shield
BILLY BOB HOLLAND NOVELS
In the Moon of Red Ponies
Bitterroot
Heartwood
Cimarron Rose
OTHER FICTION
Jesus Out to Sea
White Doves at Morning
The Lost Get-Back Boogie
The Convict and Other Stories
Two for Texas
To the Bright and Shining Sun
Half of Paradise
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2013 by James Lee Burke
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First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition July 2013
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Jacket design by Jackie Seow
Jacket painting by Heather Buchanan
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Burke, James Lee.
Light of the world : a Dave Robicheaux novel / James Lee Burke.
pages cm.
1. Robicheaux, Dave (Fictitious character)—Fiction.
2. Good and evil—Fiction.
3. Kansas—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3552.U723L54 2013
813'.54—dc23 2013008797
ISBN 978-1-4767-1076-1
ISBN 978-1-4767-1078-5 (ebook)
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Epilogue
About James Lee Burke
James Lee Burke, Light of the World
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