The Partner

“‘The rooms next door are empty,’ Guy said, pointing in both directions. ‘So you can listen at full volume.’

‘It’s nasty, I take it,’ Stephano said, staring at the tapes.

‘Pretty sick. I’ll never do it again.’

‘You can leave now.’

‘Good. I’m down the hall if you need me.’ Guy left the room.

Stephano made a call, and a minute later Benny Aricia knocked on the door. They ordered black coffee, and spent the rest of the night listening to Patrick scream in the jungles of Paraguay.

It was Benny’s finest hour.”

This passage explores the theme of Money and Corruption and establishes the characters’ moral quality. The author uses their reactions to torture—ranging from indifferent to uncomfortable to actively sadistic—to contrast with Patrick and keep the reader’s sympathy on Patrick’s side.

“When the money disappeared six weeks later, and the gossip started, Sandy had laughed to himself and wished his buddy well. Run Patrick run, he’d thought many times over the past four years, and always with a smile.”

Sandy is experiencing the universal appeal of the dream of freedom. He doesn’t really want what Patrick achieved, but the thought of Patrick gives him a vicarious satisfaction.

“Some men crack up when they near forty. The midlife crisis drives them to a new wife, or back to college. Not old Patrick. He celebrated his angst by killing himself, stealing $90 million, and disappearing.”

This passage illustrates again the desire for escape from burdens and responsibilities. Everyone dreams of recreating themselves at some point in their lives. Patrick does it more dramatically than the average person and actually succeeds.

“Regardless of when [Eva] awoke, [Patrick] was already awake, lying still and quiet and staring at her as if she were in danger […] He was up well before dawn, and usually had read the newspapers and several chapters of a mystery by the time she ambled forth and found him on the patio.

‘Never more than two hours,’ he answered when she asked how long he could sleep. He seldom napped and never went to bed early.”

The passage illustrates the downside of Patrick’s escape. He actually lost the freedom he wanted and is perpetually burdened with anxiety.

“Life on the run was filled with dreams, some at night during sleep, real dreams, and some when the mind was awake but drifting. Most were terrifying, the nightmares of the shadows growing bolder and larger. Others were pleasant wishes of a rosy future, free of the past. These were rare, Patrick had learned. Life on the run was life in the past. There was no closure.”

Another example of Patrick’s crime corrupting his dream. He hasn’t yet escaped his past life. The dreams that haunt Patrick symbolize his need for Freedom and Connection as he is haunted by both the consequences of his actions and hopes for a better future removed from the corrupt system he worked in.

“The truth was, Patrick had never been able to completely relax and enjoy his new life. Not even the money could calm his fears. This very day was inevitable; he’d known it all along. He had stolen too much money. A lot less, and the victims might not have been so determined.”

By succumbing to greed, Patrick lost everything he hoped to find. Money in this context is a burden rather than a means to freedom.

“When you commit a murder you make twenty-five mistakes. If you can think of fifteen of them, you’re a genius.”

This is a common premise of the detective genre in which the detective uncovers the identity of a criminal. Patrick meant for the “victim” in the car to be identified as Pepper Scarboro, so the discovery of Pepper’s belongings in the cabin didn’t really matter, but the fact that Patrick had forgotten about them it illustrates that his plan was never entirely foolproof.

“In twelve years on the bench, Judge Huskey had often been astonished at the amount of sympathy he could muster for average people who’d committed heinous crimes. He saw the human side of their suffering. He saw guilt eat them alive. He’d sent to prison hundreds of people who, if given the chance, would have left his courtroom and never sinned again.”

Grisham, having been a defense lawyer, has in some ways a jaundiced view of the justice system. In other books, he has explored the ways the draconian legal system traps people in unreasonable and unconstitutional laws and then delivers unreasonably long sentences to people who don’t present a threat to society. He has a sympathetic and nuanced understanding of human frailty, which is reflected here in Judge Huskey.

“‘She’s very pretty,’ Leah said.

‘Yes, she is. I’m afraid Patrick made the mistake of marrying her for her looks.’

‘He wouldn’t be the first.’

‘No, he wouldn’t.’

‘Patrick despises her. She is a bad person, and she was unfaithful to him throughout their marriage.’”

Here, Eva is talking about Trudy, but the conversation foreshadows the revelation that Patrick has also gotten involved with Eva largely because she is beautiful, and she will also be unfaithful to him. Patrick has a failure of judgment when it comes to beautiful women.

“Why can’t a man have more than one life? Where was it written that you couldn’t start over? And over?”

This is the motif of identity that applies to the theme of freedom. Patrick felt trapped in the identity he had before his escape. Identity is always a negotiation between the self and world, and Patrick learns that the individual can never entirely define himself.

“How odd that she was driving along a foreign highway in a foreign country with a fake passport proclaiming her to be someone she never wanted to be, and going to a place that she had yet to determine. Yes, everything was odd and blurred and frightening as hell, and what Eva needed and desperately wanted was to see Patrick so she could scream at him for an hour, and throw rocks as well. This was not part of the deal. It was one thing for Patrick to be hunted for his past, but she had done nothing wrong.”

The passage illustrates Eva’s gradual loss of her former identity and her coming to see Patrick as who he truly is. She sees him as to blame for her frightening situation, failing to acknowledge her own culpability in choosing him.

“Sitting in his parked car in the hospital lot, he called his wife and told her he’d be in very late, so late that he might be forced to stay in Biloxi. His son was playing in a junior high football game. He apologized, blamed everything on Patrick, and said he’d explain later.”

Unlike Patrick, Sandy has attachments to his present life that make the idea of an escape like Patrick’s ultimately unappealing. His identity as a husband and father gives him a sense of meaning, and his work is meaningful not only in the satisfaction in the work itself but because it supports his family.

“By now, Patrick had conceived no fewer than ten ways to rescue her. And he wouldn’t sleep until he had the list pared down to the best three plans. The fun was in the planning, he always said.”

Eva is now powerless and completely dependent on Patrick’s wits. She is beginning to see herself as a pawn in Patrick’s game. Lawyers are trained to be strategic thinkers, and Patrick takes that tendency to the extreme. He is getting satisfaction at Eva’s expense, suggesting that Eva may betray him in the same way he betrayed his law firm.

“I’m not Patrick anymore, Karl. Patrick is dead. He was trapped and unhappy. He was fat and miserable and, thankfully, he went away. I’m Danilo now, Danilo Silva, a much happier person with a quiet life in another country.”

Patrick’s distaste for his old life is such that escaping it feels like a death and rebirth. Unfortunately, he did it wrong the first time when he took the money. He plans to die and be reborn again—a third life—but this time he means to do it right.

“Patrick closed his eyes and clenched his fists. The fortune had just taken a major hit, but there was plenty left; enough for him and Eva to one day settle down somewhere safe and have a house full of kids. A large house. And many kids.”

Patrick was originally willing to walk away with nothing, but he has been corrupted by greed. He will still have millions of dollars; he hasn’t even spent any of the original $90 million, yet he craves it. He has to remind himself that he will still have the home and family that give life much of its meaning and significance.

“She couldn’t take another arrest. She loved Patrick, but this was far above and beyond the call of romance. Not long ago she’d had a promising career as a lawyer in a city she loved. Then Patrick came along.”

Eva’s loyalty continues to break down as reality intrudes on fantasy. She is beginning to see that she has lost everything she valued and her life is losing its meaning because of Patrick.

“When contemplating an action which might be unpopular, do it quickly. Get it over with. Hesitation allows the issue to fester.”

This is general life advice. The judge and prosecutors who are being forced to release Patrick in spite of his crimes are gritting their teeth and submitting to the inevitable. This is also the principle on which Patrick arranged his own recapture. He was tired of running, simply wanting to get it over with.

“‘I’m extremely curious about something. We found Lanigan in Brazil only after someone squealed on him. Someone who knew him very well. […] We paid the money. We got Lanigan.’

‘So who was the client?’ Sandy asked.

‘That’s my question. It’s gotta be the girl, right? […] We paid a total of one million, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to this mysterious client, and she, or he, delivered. Just like Judas.’”

Stephano identifies Eva with Judas. It isn’t clear at this point that Eva’s apparent betrayal was part of Patrick’s plan. The identification of Eva with Judas foreshadows her actual betrayal of Patrick when she takes the money and runs, much like the biblical Judas who accepted payment for the betrayal of Jesus.

“‘If you had the chance to walk away, to vanish right now, would you do it?’ […]

‘Of course not. It’s not the same. I love my wife, you didn’t. I have three great kids, your situation was different. No, I wouldn’t run. But I don’t blame you.’

‘Everybody wants to run, Karl. At some point in life, everybody thinks about walking away. Life’s always better on the beach or in the mountains. Problems can be left behind.’”

Patrick is stating a universal truth that everyone at some time or other wants to throw off their burdens and escape. However, he is wrong when he says that problems can be left behind. He wasn’t able to leave his problems behind in his first escape. He brought new burdens with him. Even in this second escape where he is really free from pursuit, he finds he has once again been saddled with a new set of problems when Eva breaks his heart and disappears, leaving him with no money.

“Life on the run is quite an adventure, very thrilling and romantic, until you learn that someone is back there. While you’re sleeping, someone is trying to find you. While you’re having dinner with a wonderful woman in a city of ten million, someone is knocking on doors, quietly showing your photo to a clerk, offering small bribes for information. I stole too much money, Sandy. They had to come after me, and when I learned they were already in Brazil, I knew the end would come.”

Patrick at first enjoyed his identity as the romantic outlaw, but that life came with an expiration date. He let greed and revenge corrupt him and lost everything he originally wanted.

“Did I not just talk with a woman I love dearly, a woman who happens to be keeping a small fortune for me? The past is finally gone, Sandy. Don’t you see? There’s no one looking for. me anymore.”

This passage is ironic considering that Eva is already planning to disappear with the money. Patrick doesn’t know yet that he has also escaped his past identity as the Danilo Silva who planned to settle down with Eva and a life of luxury and security.

“She had reserved a room in both names, Eva Miranda and Patrick Lanigan. How nice to be in from the cold, to travel as real people without the cloak and dagger of false names and passports.”

Patrick is reveling in the prospect of being free and safe, but he still expects to benefit from his crime. He is soon to experience the shock of finding himself that justice will have its way.

“He had a painful meeting with Paulo, in which he told the entire story, every detail.

The poor man crumbled before his eyes, crying and cursing him for corrupting his precious daughter. The meeting was an act of desperation, and utterly fruitless.”

Patrick has corrupted Eva; her family was once the most important relationship in her life. Now, she has thrown it away in favor of wealth. Eva may return to be in her father’s life, but she will always be tainted in his eyes by her actions.