L01 1 <#FROWN:L01\>Seven L01 2 "Now what do we do?" Qwilleran asked his L01 3 companions. He stood in the middle of a dead man's office in total L01 4 darkness, listening to the rain driving against the house. The L01 5 darkness made no difference to the Siamese, but Qwilleran was L01 6 completely blind. Never had he experienced a blackout so L01 7 absolute.

L01 8 "We can't stay here and wait for the power lines to be L01 9 repaired, that's obvious," he said as he started to feel L01 10 his way out of the room. He stumbled over a leather lounge chair L01 11 and bumped the computer station, and when he stepped on a tail, the L01 12 resulting screech unnerved him. Sliding his feet across the floor L01 13 cautiously and groping with hands outstretched, he kicked a piece L01 14 of furniture that proved to be an ottoman. "Dammit, Koko! L01 15 Why didn't you find this room before I bought one!" he L01 16 scolded.

L01 17 Eventually he located the door into the living room, but that L01 18 large area was even more difficult to navigate. He had not yet L01 19 learned the floor plan, although he knew it was booby-trapped with L01 20 clusters of chairs and tables in mid-room. A flash of violet-blue L01 21 lightning illuminated the scene for half a second, hardly enough L01 22 time to focus one's eyes, and then it was darker than before. If L01 23 one could find the wall, Qwilleran thought, it should be possible L01 24 to follow it around to the archway leading to the foyer. It was a L01 25 method that Lori Bamba's elderly cat had used after losing his L01 26 sight. It may have worked well for old Tinkertom, who was only ten L01 27 inches high and equipped with extra-sensory whiskers, but Qwilleran L01 28 cracked his knee or bruised his thigh against every chair, chest, L01 29 and table placed against the wall.

L01 30 Upon reaching the archway, he knew he had to cross the wide L01 31 foyer, locate the entrance to the dining room, flounder through it L01 32 to the kitchen, and then find the emergency candles. A flashlight L01 33 would have solved the problem, but Qwilleran's was in the glove L01 34 compartment of his car. He would have had a pocketful of wooden L01 35 matches if Dr. Melinda Goodwinter had not convinced him to give up L01 36 his pipe.

L01 37 "This is absurd," he announced to anyone L01 38 listening. "We might as well go to bed, if we can find L01 39 it." The Siamese were abnormally quiet. Groping his way L01 40 along the foyer wall, he reached the stairs, which he ascended on L01 41 hands and knees. It seemed the safest course since there were two L01 42 invisible cats prowling underfoot. Eventually he located his L01 43 bedroom, pulled off his clothes, bumped his forehead on a bedpost, L01 44 and crawled between the lace-trimmed sheets.

L01 45 Lying there in the dark he felt as if he had been in the Potato L01 46 Mountains for a week, rather than twenty-four hours. At this rate, L01 47 his three months would be a year and a half, mountain time. By L01 48 comparison, life in Pickax was slow, uncomplicated, and relaxing. L01 49 Thinking nostalgically about Moose Country and fondly about Polly L01 50 Duncan and wistfully about the converted apple barn that he called L01 51 home, Qwilleran dropped off to sleep.

L01 52 It was about three in the morning that he became aware of a L01 53 weight on his chest. He opened his eyes. The bedroom lights were L01 54 glaring, and both cats were hunched on his chest, staring at him. L01 55 He chased them into their own room, then shuffled sleepily through L01 56 the house, turning off lights that had been on when the power L01 57 failed. Three of them were in Hawkinfield's office, and once more L01 58 he entered the secret room, wondering what it contained to make L01 59 secrecy so necessary. Curious about the scrapbook that Koko had L01 60 discovered, he found it to contain clippings from the L01 61 Spudsboro Gazette - editorials signed with the initials L01 62 J.J.H. Qwilleran assumed that Koko had been attracted to the L01 63 adhesive with which they were mounted, probably rubber cement.

L01 64 The cat might be addicted to glue, but Qwilleran was addicted L01 65 to the printed word. At any hour of the day or night he was ready L01 66 to read. Sitting down under a lamp and propping his feet on the L01 67 editor's ottoman, he delved into the collection of columns headed L01 68 'The Editor Draws a Bead.'

L01 69 It was an appropriate choice. Hawkinfield took pot shots at L01 70 Congress, artists, the IRS, the medical profession, drunk drivers, L01 71 educators, Taters, unions, and the sheriff. The man had an infinite L01 72 supply of targets. Was he really that sour about everything? Or did L01 73 he know that inflammatory editorials sold papers? From his L01 74 editorial throne he railed against Wall Street, welfare programs, L01 75 Hollywood, insurance companies. He ridiculed environmentalists and L01 76 advocates of women's rights. Obviously he was a tyrant that many L01 77 persons would like to assassinate. Even his style was abusive:

L01 78 "So-called artists and other parasites, holed up in L01 79 their secret coves on Little Potato and performing God knows what L01 80 unholy rites, are plotting to sabotage economic growth ... Mountain L01 81 squatters, uneducated and unwashed, are dragging their bare feet in L01 82 mud while presuming to tell the civilized world how to approach the L01 83 twenty-first century..."

L01 84 The man was a mono-maniac, Qwilleran decided. He stayed with L01 85 the scrapbook, and another one like it, until dawn. By the time he L01 86 was ready for sleep, however, the Siamese were ready for breakfast, L01 87 Yum Yum howling her ear-splitting "N-n-NOW!" Only L01 88 at mealtimes did she assume her matriarchal role as if she were the L01 89 official bread-winner, and it was incredible that this L01 90 dainty little female could utter such piercing shrieks.

L01 91 "This is Father's Day," Qwilleran rebuked her L01 92 as he opened a can of boned chicken. "I don't expect a L01 93 present, but I deserve a little consideration."

L01 94 Father's Day had more significance at Tiptop than he knew, as L01 95 he discovered when he went to Potato Cove to pick up the four L01 96 batwing capes.

L01 97 The rain had stopped, and feeble rays of sun were glistening on L01 98 trees and shrubs. When he stood on the veranda with his morning mug L01 99 of coffee, he discovered that mountain air when freshly washed L01 100 heightens the senses. He was seeing details he had not noticed the L01 101 day before: wildflowers everywhere, blue jays in the evergreens, L01 102 blossoming shrubs all over the mountains. On the way to Potato Cove L01 103 he saw streams of water gushing from crevices in the roadside L01 104 cliffs -impromptu waterfalls that made their own rainbows. More L01 105 than once he stopped the car, backed up, and stared incredulously L01 106 at the arched spectrum of color.

L01 107 The rain had converted the Potato Cove road into a ribbon of L01 108 mud, and Qwilleran drove slowly, swerving to avoid puddles like L01 109 small ponds. As he passed a certain log cabin he saw the apple L01 110 peeler on the porch again, rocking contentedly in her high-backed L01 111 mountain rocker. Today she was wearing her Sunday best, evidently L01 112 waiting for someone to drive her to church. An ancient straw hat, L01 113 squashed but perky with flowers, perched flatly on her white hair. L01 114 What caused Qwilleran to step on the brake was the sight of her L01 115 entourage: a black cat on her lap, a calico curled at her feet, and L01 116 a tiger stretched on the top step. Today the shotgun was not in L01 117 evidence.

L01 118 Slipping his camera into a pocket, he stepped out of his car L01 119 and approached her with a friendly wave of the hand. She peered in L01 120 his direction without responding.

L01 121 "I beg your pardon, ma'am," he called out in L01 122 his most engaging voice. "Is this the road to Potato L01 123 Cove?"

L01 124 She rocked back and forth a few times before replying. L01 125 "Seems like y'oughta know," she said with a frown. L01 126 "I see'd you go by yestiddy. Road on'y goes one L01 127 place."

L01 128 "Sorry, but I'm new here, and these mountain roads are L01 129 confusing." He ventured closer in a shambling, L01 130 non-threatening way. "You have some nice cats. What are L01 131 their names?"

L01 132 "This here one's Blackie. That there's Patches. Over L01 133 yonder is Tiger." She recited the names in a businesslike L01 134 way as if he were the census taker.

L01 135 "I like cats. I have two of them. Would you mind if I L01 136 take a picture of them?" He held up his small camera for L01 137 her approval.

L01 138 She rocked in silence for a while. "Iffen I git L01 139 one," she finally decided.

L01 140 "I'll see that you get prints as soon as they're L01 141 developed." He snapped several pictures of the group in L01 142 rapid succession. "That does it! ... Thank you ... This is L01 143 a nice cabin. How long have you lived on Little Potato?

L01 144 "Born here. Fellers come by all the time pesterin' me L01 145 to sell. You one o' them fellers? Ain't gonna sell."

L01 146 "No, I'm just spending my vacation here, enjoying the L01 147 good mountain air. My name's Jim Qwilleran. What's your L01 148 name?" Although he was not prone to smile, he had an L01 149 ingratiating manner composed of genuine interest and a caressing L01 150 voice that was irresistible.

L01 151 "Ev'body calls me Grammaw Lumpton, seein' as how I'm a L01 152 great-grammaw four times."

L01 153 "Lumpton, you say? It seems there are quite a few L01 154 Lumptons in the Potatoes," Qwilleran said, enjoying his L01 155 unintentional pun.

L01 156 "Oughta be!" the woman said, rocking L01 157 energetically. "Lumptons been here more'n a hun'erd year - L01 158 raisin' young-uns, feedin' chickens, sellin' eggs, choppin' wood, L01 159 growin' taters and nips, runnin' corn whiskey..."

L01 160 A car pulled into the yard, the driver tooted the horn, and the L01 161 vigorous old lady stood up, scattering cats, and marched to the car L01 162 without saying goodbye. Now Qwilleran understood - or thought he L01 163 understood - the reason for the shotgun on the porch the day L01 164 before; it was intended to ward off land speculators if they became L01 165 too persistent, and Grammaw Lumpton probably knew how to use it.

L01 166 Despite the muddy conditions in Potato Cove, the artists and L01 167 shopkeepers were opening for business. Chrysalis Beechum met him on L01 168 the wooden sidewalk in front of her weaving studio. What she was L01 169 wearing looked handwoven but as drab as before; her attitude had L01 170 mellowed, however.

L01 171 "I didn't expect you to drive up here in this L01 172 mud," she said.

L01 173 "It was worth it," Qwilleran said, "if L01 174 only to see the miniature waterfalls making six-inch rainbows. What L01 175 are the flowers all over the mountain?"

L01 176 "Mountain laurel," she said. They entered the L01 177 shop, stepping into the enveloping softness of wall-to-wall, L01 178 floor-to-ceiling textiles.

L01 179 "Was this place ever an old schoolhouse?" he L01 180 asked.

L01 181 "For many years. My great-grandmother learned the three L01 182 Rs here. Until twenty years ago the Taters were taught in one-room L01 183 schools - eight grades in a single room, with one teacher, and L01 184 sometimes with one textbook. The Spuds got away with murder! ... L01 185 Here are your capes. I brought six so you'll have a color choice. L01 186 What are you going to do with them, Mr...."

L01 187 "Qwilleran. I'm taking them home to friends. Perhaps L01 188 you could help me choose. One woman is a golden blond; one is a L01 189 reddish blond; one is graying; and the other is a different color L01 190 every month."

L01 191 "You're not married? she asked in her L01 192 forthright way but without any sign of personal interest.

L01 193 "Not any more ... and never again! Did you have a power L01 194 outage last night?"

L01 195 "Everybody did. There's no discrimination when it comes L01 196 to power lines. Taters and Spuds, we all black out L01 197 together."

L01 198 "Where's your mother today?"

L01 199 "She doesn't work on Sundays."

L01 200 With the weaver's help Qwilleran chose violet for Lori, green L01 201 for Fran, royal blue for Mildred, and taupe for Hixie. He signed L01 202 traveler's checks while Chrysalis packed the capes in a yarn L01 203 box.

L01 204 "I never saw this much money all at once," she L01 205 said.

L01 206 When the transaction was concluded, Qwilleran lingered, L01 207 uncertain whether to broach a painful subject. Abruptly he said, L01 208 "You didn't tell me that J.J. Hawkinfield was the man your L01 209 brother was accused of murdering."

L01 210 "Did you know him?" she asked sharply.

L01 211 "No, but I'm renting his former home."

L01 212 She gasped in repugnance. "Tiptop? That's where it L01 213 happened - a year ago today! They called it the Father's Day L01 214 murder. Wouldn't you know the press would have to give it a catchy L01 215 label?"

L01 216 "Why was your brother accused?"

L01 217 "It's a long story," she said with an audible L01 218 sigh.

L01 219 "I want to hear it, if you don't mind."

L01 220 "You'd better sit down," she said, kicking the L01 221 wooden crate across the floor. L01 222 L02 1 <#FROWN:L02\>13 L02 2 I stopped off at Rosie's on the way back to my place. I don't L02 3 usually hang out in bars, but I was restless and I didn't feel like L02 4 being alone just then. At Rosie's, I can sit in a back booth and L02 5 ponder life's circumstances without being stared at, picked up, hit L02 6 on, or hassled. After the wine at Francesca's, I thought a cup of L02 7 coffee might be in order. It wasn't really a question of sobering L02 8 up. The wine at Francesca's was as delicate as violets. The white L02 9 wine at Rosie's comes in big half-gallon screw-top jugs you can use L02 10 later to store gasoline and other flammable liquids.

L02 11 Business was lively. A group of bowlers had come in, a noisy L02 12 bunch of women who were celebrating their winning of some league L02 13 tournament. They were parading around the room with a trophy the L02 14 size of Winged Victory, all noise and whistles and cheers L02 15 and stomping. Ordinarily Rosie doesn't tolerate rowdies, but their L02 16 spirits were contagious and she didn't object.

L02 17 I got myself a mug and filled it from the coffeepot Rosie keeps L02 18 behind the bar. As I slid into my favorite booth, I spotted Henry L02 19 coming in. I waved and he took a detour and headed in my direction. L02 20 One of the bowlers was feeding coins into the jukebox. Music began L02 21 to thunder through the bar along with cigarette smoke, whoops, and L02 22 raucous laughter.

L02 23 Henry slid in across from me and put his head down on his arm. L02 24 "This is great. Noise, whiskey, smoke, life! I'm so sick of L02 25 being with that hypochondriac of a brother. He's driving me nuts. I L02 26 swear to God. His health regimen occupied our entire day. Every L02 27 hour on the hour, he takes a pill or drinks a glass of water ... L02 28 flushing his system out. He does yoga to relax. He does L02 29 calisthenics to wake up. He takes his blood pressure twice a day. L02 30 He uses little strip tests to check his urine for glucose and L02 31 protein. He keeps up a running account of all his body functions. L02 32 Every minor itch and pain. If his stomach gurgles, it's a symptom. L02 33 If he breaks wind, he issues a bulletin. Like I didn't notice L02 34 already. The man is the most self-obsessed, tedious, totally boring L02 35 human being I've ever met and he's only been here one day. I can't L02 36 believe it. My own brother."

L02 37 "You want a drink?"

L02 38 "I don't dare. I couldn't stop. They'd have to check me L02 39 into detox."

L02 40 "Has he always been like that?"

L02 41 Henry nodded bleakly. "I never really saw it till now. L02 42 Or maybe in his dotage he's become decidedly worse. I remember, as L02 43 a kid, he had all these accidents. He tumbled out of trees and fell L02 44 off swings. He broke his arm once. He broke a wrist. He stuck a L02 45 pencil in his eye and nearly blinded himself. And the cuts. Oh my L02 46 God, you couldn't let him near a knife. He had all kinds of L02 47 allergies and weird things going wrong with him. He had a spastic L02 48 salivary gland ... he really did. Later, he went through a ten-year L02 49 period when he had all his internal organs taken out. Tonsils and L02 50 adenoids, appendix, his gallbladder, one kidney, two and a half L02 51 feet from his upper intestine. The man even managed to rupture his L02 52 spleen. Out it came. We could have constructed an entire human L02 53 being out of the parts he gave up."

L02 54 I glanced up to find Rosie standing at my shoulder, taking in L02 55 Henry's outburst with a placid expression. "He's having a L02 56 breakdown?"

L02 57 "His brother's visiting from Michigan."

L02 58 "He don' like the guy?"

L02 59 "The man is driving him nuts. He's a L02 60 hypochondriac."

L02 61 She turned to Henry with interest. "What's the matter L02 62 with him? Is he sick?"

L02 63 "No, he's not sick. He's neurotic as hell."

L02 64 "Bring him in. I fix. Nothing to it."

L02 65 "I don't think you quite understand the magnitude of L02 66 the problem," I said.

L02 67 "Is no problem. I can handle it. What's the fellow's L02 68 name, this brother?"

L02 69 "His name is William."

L02 70 Rosie said "William" as she wrote it in her little L02 71 notebook. "Is done. I fix. Not to worry."

L02 72 She moved away from the table, her muumuu billowing out around L02 73 her like a witch's cape.

L02 74 "Is it my imagination or has her English gotten worse L02 75 lately?" I asked.

L02 76 Henry looked up at me with a wan smile.

L02 77 I gave his hand a maternal pat. "Cheer up. Is done. Not L02 78 to worry. She'll fix."

L02 79 I was home by 10:00, but I didn't feel like continuing my L02 80 cleaning campaign. I took my shoes off and used my dirty socks to L02 81 do a halfhearted dusting of the spiral staircase as I went up to L02 82 bed. Works for me, I thought.

L02 83 I was awakened in the wee hours with a telegram from my L02 84 subconscious. "Pickup," the message read. Pickup what? My L02 85 eyes came open and I stared at the skylight above my bed. The loft L02 86 was very dark. The stars were blocked out by clouds, but the glass L02 87 dome seemed to glow with light pollution from town. The message had L02 88 to be related to Tippy's presence at the intersection. I'd been L02 89 brooding about the subject since David Barney first brought it up. L02 90 If he was inventing, why attach her name to the story? She might L02 91 have had a ready explanation for where she was that night. If he L02 92 was lying about the incident, why take the chance? The repair crew L02 93 had seen her, too ... well, not really her, but the pickup. Where L02 94 else had I come across mention of a pickup truck?

L02 95 I sat up in bed, pushed the covers back, and flipped on the L02 96 light, wincing at the sudden glare. In lieu of a bathrobe, I pulled L02 97 on my sweats. Barefoot, I padded down my spiral staircase, turned L02 98 on the table lamp, and hunted up my briefcase, sorting through the L02 99 stack of folders I'd brought home from the office. I found the file L02 100 I was looking for and carried it over to the sofa, where I sat, L02 101 feet tucked up under me leafing through old photocopies of the L02 102 Santa Teresa Dispatch. For the third time in two days, I L02 103 scanned column after column of smudgy print. Nothing for the L02 104 twenty-fifth. Ah. On the front page of the local news for December L02 105 26 was the little article I'd seen about the hit-and-run fatality L02 106 of an elderly man, who'd wandered away from a convalescent hospital L02 107 in the neighborhood. He'd been struck by a pickup truck on upper L02 108 State Street and had died at the scene. The name of the victim was L02 109 being withheld, pending notification of his next of kin. L02 110 Unfortunately, I hadn't made copies of the newspapers for the week L02 111 after that so I couldn't read the follow-up.

L02 112 I pulled out the telephone book and checked the yellow pages L02 113 under Convalescent Homes & Hospitals. The sublistings were Homes, L02 114 Hospitals, Nursing Homes, Rest Homes, and Sanitariums, most of L02 115 which simply cross-referenced each other. Finally, under Nursing L02 116 Homes, I found a comprehensive list. There was only one such L02 117 facility in the vicinity of the accident. I made a note of the L02 118 address and then turned the lights out and went back up to bed. If L02 119 I could link that pickup to the one Tippy's father owned, it might L02 120 go a long way toward explaining why she was reluctant to admit she L02 121 was out. It would also verify every word David Barney'd said.

L02 122 In the morning, after my usual three-mile run, a shower, L02 123 breakfast, and a quick call to the office, I drove out to the South L02 124 Rockingham neighborhood where the old man had been killed. At the L02 125 turn of the century, South Rockingham was all ranchland, flat L02 126 fields planted to beans and walnuts, harvested by itinerant crews L02 127 who traveled with steam engines, cookhouses, and bedroll wagons. An L02 128 early photograph shows some thirty hands lined up in front of their L02 129 cumbersome, clanking machinery. Most of the men are mustachioed and L02 130 glum, wearing bandannas, long-sleeved shirts, overalls, and felt L02 131 hats. Staunchly they lean on their pitchforks while a dusty noon L02 132 sun beats down. The land in such pictures always looks pitiless and L02 133 flat. There are few trees and the grass, if it grows at all, seems L02 134 patchy and sparse. Later aerial photos show the streets radiating L02 135 from a round hub of land, like the spokes of a wagon wheel. Beyond L02 136 the outermost rim, the squares of young citrus groves are pieced L02 137 together like a quilt. Now South Rockingham is a middle-class L02 138 neighborhood of modest custom-built homes, half of which went up L02 139 before 1940. The balance were constructed during a miniboom in the L02 140 ten years between 1955 and 1965. Every parcel is dense with L02 141 vegetation, houses crowded onto every available lot. Still, the L02 142 area is considered desirable because it's quiet, self-contained, L02 143 attractive, and well kept.

L02 144 I located the convalescent hospital, a one-story stucco L02 145 structure flanked on three sides by parking lots. From the outside, L02 146 the fifty-bed facility looked plain and clean, probably expensive. L02 147 I parked at the curb and climbed four concrete steps to the sloping L02 148 front walk. The grass on either side was in its dormant stage, L02 149 clipped short, a mottled yellow. An American flag hung limply from L02 150 a pole near the entrance.

L02 151 I pushed through a wide door into a comfortably furnished L02 152 reception area, decorated in the style of one of the better motel L02 153 chains. Christmas hadn't surfaced yet. The color scheme was L02 154 pleasant: blues and greens in soothing, noninflammatory shades. L02 155 There was a couch covered in chintz and four matching upholstered L02 156 chairs arranged so as to suggest intimate lobby chats. The L02 157 magazines one the end tables were neatly fanned out in an arc of L02 158 overlapping titles, Modern Maturity being foremost. There L02 159 were two ficus trees, which on closer inspection turned out to be L02 160 artificial. Both might have used a dusting, but at least they L02 161 weren't subject to whitefly and blight.

L02 162 At the desk, I asked to see the nursing home director and was L02 163 directed to the office of a Mr. Hugo, halfway down the corridor to L02 164 my left. This wing of the building was strictly administrative. L02 165 There were no patients in evidence, no wheelchairs, gurneys, or L02 166 medical paraphernalia. The very air was stripped of institutional L02 167 odors. I explained my business briefly, and after a fife-minute L02 168 wait Mr. Hugo's personal secretary ushered me into his office. L02 169 Nursing home directors must have a lot of holes to fill in their L02 170 appointment books.

L02 171 Edward Hugo was a black man in his midsixties with a curly mix L02 172 of gray and white hair and a wide white mustache. His complexion L02 173 was glossy brown, the color of caramel. The lines in his face L02 174 suggested an origami paper folded once, then flattened out again. L02 175 He was conventionally dressed, but something in his manner hinted L02 176 at obligatory black-tie appearances for local charity events. He L02 177 shook my hand across his desk and then took his seat again while I L02 178 took mine. He folded his hands in front of him on the desk. L02 179 "What can I help you with?"

L02 180 "I'm trying to learn the name of a former patient of L02 181 yours, an old gentleman who was killed in a hit-and-run accident L02 182 six years ago at Christmas."

L02 183 He nodded. "I know the man you're referring to. Can you L02 184 explain your interest?"

L02 185 "I'm trying to verify an alibi in another criminal L02 186 matter. It would help if I could find out if the driver was ever L02 187 found."

L02 188 "I don't believe so. Not to my knowledge, at any rate. L02 189 To tell you the truth, it's always bothered me. The gentleman's L02 190 name was Noah McKell. His son, Hartford, lives here in town. I can L02 191 have Mrs. Rudolph look up his number if you'd like to speak to L02 192 him."

L02 193 He went on in this manner, direct, soft-spoken, and L02 194 matter-of-fact, managing in our ten-minute conversation to give me L02 195 all the information I needed in a carefully articulated format. L02 196 According to Mr. Hugo's account of the night in question, Noah L02 197 McKell had removed his IV, disconnected himself from a catheter, L02 198 dressed himself in his street clothes, and left his private room by L02 199 the window.

L02 200 L03 1 <#FROWN:L03\>The lawsuit was unexpected because for fifty years L03 2 Louisiana had allowed itself to be devoured and polluted by oil L03 3 companies and people like Victor Mattiece. It had been a trade-off. L03 4 The oil business employed many and paid well. The oil and gas taxes L03 5 collected in Baton Rouge paid the salaries of state employees. The L03 6 small bayou villages had been turned into boomtowns. The L03 7 politicians from the governors down took the oil money and played L03 8 along. All was well, and so what if some of the marshlands L03 9 suffered.

L03 10 Green Fund filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in L03 11 Lafayette. A federal judge halted the project pending a trial on L03 12 all issues.

L03 13 Mattiece went over the edge. He spent weeks with his lawyers L03 14 plotting and scheming. He would spare no expense to win. Do L03 15 whatever it took, he instructed them. Break any rule, violate any L03 16 ethic, hire any expert, commission any study, cut any throat, spend L03 17 any amount of money. Just win the damned lawsuit.

L03 18 Never one to be seen, he assumed an even lower profile. He L03 19 moved to the Bahamas and operated from an armed fortress at Lyford L03 20 Cay. He flew to New Orleans once a week to meet with the lawyers, L03 21 then returned to the island.

L03 22 Though invisible now, he made certain his political L03 23 contributions increased. His jackpot was still safe beneath L03 24 Terrebonne Parish, and he would one day extract it, but one never L03 25 knows when one will be forced to call in favors.

L03 26 BY THE TIME the Green Fund lawyers, both of them, had waded in L03 27 ankle deep, they had identified over thirty separate defendants. L03 28 Some owned land. Some did exploring. Others laid pipe. Others L03 29 drilled. The joint ventures and limited partnerships and corporate L03 30 associations were an impenetrable maze.

L03 31 The defendants and their legions of high-priced lawyers L03 32 answered with a vengeance. They filed a thick motion asking the L03 33 judge to dismiss the lawsuit as frivolous. Denied. They asked him L03 34 to allow the drilling to continue while they waited on a trial. L03 35 Denied. They squealed with pain and explained in another heavy L03 36 motion how much money was already tied up in exploration, drilling, L03 37 etc. Denied again. They filed motions by the truckload, and when L03 38 they were all denied and it was evident there would one day be a L03 39 trial by jury, the oil lawyers dug in and played dirty.

L03 40 Luckily for Green Fund's lawsuit, the heart of the new oil L03 41 reserve was near a ring of marshes that had been for years a L03 42 natural refuge for waterfowl. Ospreys, egrets, pelicans, ducks, L03 43 cranes, geese, and many others migrated to it. Though Louisiana has L03 44 not always been kind to its land, it has shown a bit more sympathy L03 45 for its animals. Since the verdict would one day be rendered by a L03 46 jury of average and hopefully ordinary people, the Green Fund L03 47 lawyers played heavy on the birds.

L03 48 The pelican became the hero. After thirty years of insidious L03 49 contamination by DDT and other pesticides, the Louisiana brown L03 50 pelican perched on the brink of extinction. Almost too late, it was L03 51 classified as an endangered species, and afforded a higher class of L03 52 protection. Green Fund seized the majestic bird, and enlisted a L03 53 half-dozen experts from around the country to testify on its L03 54 behalf.

L03 55 With a hundred lawyers involved, the lawsuit moved slowly. At L03 56 times it went nowhere, which suited Green Fund just fine. The rigs L03 57 were idle.

L03 58 Seven years after Mattiece first buzzed over Terrebonne Bay in L03 59 his jet helicopter and followed the swamplands along the route his L03 60 precious canal would take, the pelican suit went to trial in Lake L03 61 Charles. It was a bitter trial that lasted ten weeks. Green Fund L03 62 sought money damages for the havoc already inflicted, and it wanted L03 63 a permanent injunction against further drilling.

L03 64 The oil companies brought in a fancy litigator from Houston to L03 65 talk to the jury. He wore elephant-skin boots and a Stetson, and L03 66 could talk like a Cajun when necessary. He was stout medicine, L03 67 especially when compared to the Green Fund lawyers, both of whom L03 68 had beards and very intense faces.

L03 69 Green Fund lost the trial, and it was not altogether L03 70 unexpected. The oil companies spent millions, and it's difficult to L03 71 whip a bear with a switch. David pulled it off, but the best bet is L03 72 always on Goliath. The jurors were not impressed with the dire L03 73 warnings about pollution and the frailness of wetland ecology. Oil L03 74 meant money, and folks needed jobs.

L03 75 The judge kept the injunction in place for two reasons. First, L03 76 he thought Green Fund had proven its point about the pelican, a L03 77 federally protected species. And it was apparent to all that Green L03 78 Fund would appeal, so the matter was far from over.

L03 79 The dust settled for a while, and Mattiece had a small victory. L03 80 But he knew there would be other days in other courtrooms. He was a L03 81 man of infinite patience and planning.

L03 82 THIRTY L03 83 THE TAPE RECORDER was in the center of the small table with L03 84 four empty beer bottles around.

L03 85 He made notes as he talked. "Who told you about the L03 86 lawsuit?"

L03 87 "A guy named John Del Greco. He's a law student at L03 88 Tulane, a year ahead of me. He clerked last summer for a big firm L03 89 in Houston, and the firm was on the periphery of the hostilities. L03 90 He was not close to the trial, but the rumors and gossip were L03 91 heavy."

L03 92 "And all the firms were from New Orleans and L03 93 Houston?"

L03 94 "Yes, the principal litigation firms. But these L03 95 companies are from a dozen different cities, so of course they L03 96 brought their local counsel with them. There were lawyers from L03 97 Dallas, Chicago, and several other cities. It was a L03 98 circus."

L03 99 "What's the status of the lawsuit?"

L03 100 "From the trial level, it will be appealed to the Fifth L03 101 Circuit Court of Appeals. That appeal has not been perfected, but L03 102 should be in a month or so."

L03 103 "Where's the Fifth Circuit?"

L03 104 "New Orleans. About twenty-four months after it arrives L03 105 there, a three-judge panel will hear and decide. The losing party L03 106 will undoubtedly request a rehearing by the full panel, and this L03 107 will take another three or four months. There are enough defects in L03 108 the verdict to insure either a reversal or a remand."

L03 109 "What's a remand?"

L03 110 "The appellate court can do any of three things. Affirm L03 111 the verdict, reverse the verdict, or find enough error to send the L03 112 whole thing back for a new trial. If it goes back, it's been L03 113 remanded. They can also affirm part, reverse part, remand part, L03 114 sort of scramble things up."

L03 115 Gray shook his head in frustration as he scribbled away. L03 116 "Why would anyone want to be a lawyer?"

L03 117 "I've asked myself that a few times in the past L03 118 week."

L03 119 "Any idea what the Fifth Circuit might do?"

L03 120 "None. They haven't even seen it yet. The plaintiffs L03 121 are alleging a multitude of procedural sins by the defendants, and L03 122 given the nature of the conspiracy, a lot of it's probably true. It L03 123 could be reversed."

L03 124 "Then what happens?"

L03 125 "The fun starts. If either side is unhappy with the L03 126 Fifth Circuit, they can appeal to the Supreme Court."

L03 127 "Surprise, surprise."

L03 128 "Each year the Supreme Court receives thousands of L03 129 appeals, but is very selective about what it takes. Because of the L03 130 money and pressure and issues involved, this one has a decent L03 131 chance of being heard."

L03 132 "From today, how long would it take for the case to be L03 133 decided by the Supreme Court?"

L03 134 "Anywhere from three to five years."

L03 135 "Rosenberg would have died from natural L03 136 causes."

L03 137 "Yes, but there could be a Democrat in the White House L03 138 when he died from natural causes. So take him out now when you can L03 139 sort of predict his replacement."

L03 140 "Makes sense."

L03 141 "Oh, it's beautiful. If you're Victor Mattiece, and L03 142 you've only got fifty million or so, and you want to be a L03 143 billionaire, and you don't mind killing a couple of Supremes, then L03 144 now is the time."

L03 145 "But what if the Supreme Court refused to hear the L03 146 case?"

L03 147 "He's in good shape if the Fifth Circuit affirms the L03 148 trial verdict. But if it reverses, and the Supreme Court denies L03 149 cert, he's got problems. My guess is that he would go back to L03 150 square one, stir up some new litigation, and try it all again. L03 151 There's too much money involved to lick his wounds and go home. L03 152 When he took care of Rosenberg and Jensen, one has to assume he L03 153 committed himself to a cause."

L03 154 "Where was he during the trial?"

L03 155 "Completely invisible. Keep in mind, it is not public L03 156 knowledge that he's the ringleader of the litigation. By the time L03 157 the trial started, there were thirty-eight corporate defendants. No L03 158 individuals were named, just corporations. Of the thirty-eight, L03 159 seven are traded publicly, and he owns no more than twenty percent L03 160 of any one. These are just small firms traded over the counter. The L03 161 other thirty-one are privately held, and I couldn't get much L03 162 information. But I did learn that many of these private companies L03 163 are owned by each other, and some are even owned by the public L03 164 corporations. It's almost impenetrable."

L03 165 "But he's in control."

L03 166 "Yes. I suspect he owns or controls eighty percent of L03 167 the project. I checked out four of the private companies, and three L03 168 are chartered offshore. Two in the Bahamas, and one in the Caymans. L03 169 Del Greco heard that Mattiece operates from behind offshore banks L03 170 and companies."

L03 171 "Do you remember the seven public L03 172 companies?"

L03 173 "Most of them. They, of course, were footnoted in the L03 174 brief, a copy of which I do not have. But I've rewritten most of it L03 175 in longhand."

L03 176 "Can I see it?"

L03 177 "You can have it. But it's lethal."

L03 178 "I'll read it later. Tell me about the L03 179 photograph."

L03 180 "Mattiece is from a small town near Lafayette, and in L03 181 his younger years was a big money man for politicians in south L03 182 Louisiana. He was a shadowy type back then, always in the L03 183 background giving money. He spent big bucks on Democrats locally L03 184 and Republicans nationally, and over the years he was wined and L03 185 dined by big shots from Washington. He has never sought publicity, L03 186 but his kind of money is hard to hide, especially when it's being L03 187 handed out to politicians. Seven years ago, when the President was L03 188 the Vice President, he was in New Orleans for a Republican L03 189 fundraiser. All the heavy hitters were there, including Mattiece. L03 190 It was ten thousand dollars a plate, so the press tried to get in. L03 191 Somehow a photographer snapped a picture of Mattiece shaking hands L03 192 with the VP. The New Orleans paper ran it the next day. It's a L03 193 wonderful picture. They're grinning at each other like best L03 194 friends."

L03 195 "It'll be easy to get."

L03 196 "I stuck it on the last page of the brief, just for the L03 197 fun of it. This is fun, isn't it?"

L03 198 "I'm having a ball."

L03 199 "Mattiece dropped out of sight a few years ago, and is L03 200 now believed to live in several places. He's very eccentric. Del L03 201 Greco said most people believe he's demented."

L03 202 The recorder beeped, and Gray changed tapes. Darby stood and L03 203 stretched her long legs. He watched her as he fumbled with the L03 204 recorder. Two other tapes were already used and marked.

L03 205 "Are you tired?" he asked.

L03 206 "I haven't been sleeping well. How many more L03 207 questions?"

L03 208 "How much more do you know?"

L03 209 "We've covered the basics. There are some gaps we can L03 210 fill in the morning."

L03 211 Gray turned off the recorder and stood. She was at the window, L03 212 stretching and yawning. He relaxed on the sofa.

L03 213 "What happened to the hair?" he asked.

L03 214 Darby sat in a chair and pulled her feet under her. Red L03 215 toenails. Her chin rested on her knees. "I left it in a L03 216 hotel in New Orleans. How did you know about it?"

L03 217 "I saw a photograph."

L03 218 "From where?"

L03 219 "Three photos, actually. Two from the Tulane yearbook, L03 220 and one from Arizona State."

L03 221 "Who sent them to you?"

L03 222 "I have contacts. They were faxed to me, so they L03 223 weren't that good. But there was this gorgeous hair."

L03 224 L04 1 <#FROWN:L04\>13 L04 2 Josh MacCallum and Amy Carlson sat nervously on the bench L04 3 outside Hildie Kramer's office. The house was quiet, for the rest L04 4 of the kids had already headed for their first classes of the day. L04 5 But during breakfast Hildie had come into the dining room and L04 6 instructed the two of them to come to her office at the beginning L04 7 of the first period. Josh and Amy exchanged an apprehensive glance. L04 8 For his part, Josh was convinced he was in trouble. Deep trouble: L04 9 Jeff must have told his parents what he had said yesterday L04 10 afternoon after the funeral, and Mrs. Aldrich must have called L04 11 Hildie. But what was so wrong with wondering if maybe Adam hadn't L04 12 really killed himself? And Jeff hadn't been mad at all - in fact, L04 13 Josh thought, it seemed Jeff had believed him.

L04 14 Amy, though, thought they'd been summoned by Hildie Kramer for L04 15 a different reason. "I bet our moms decided to take us out L04 16 of school," she said. "I bet they talked to L04 17 Monica's folks, and now they're going to make us go home, L04 18 too."

L04 19 Josh had stared speculatively at the empty chair at the next L04 20 table, which Monica Lowenstein had habitually occupied until this L04 21 morning. He shook his head. "How come grown-ups always L04 22 start acting weird? Monica wasn't going to do anything. She thought L04 23 Adam was really dumb to kill himself. And it can't be that, anyway. L04 24 If my mom was going to take me home, she'd have done it yesterday. L04 25 Besides, she told me she'd decided not to. And your mom and dad L04 26 didn't even come to the funeral, so how could they have talked to L04 27 Monica's folks?"

L04 28 Amy made a face at him. "Haven't you ever heard of the L04 29 telephone?"

L04 30 "That's dumb," Josh replied. "Monica's L04 31 folks probably don't even know where your folks live." Amy L04 32 had made no reply, but instead poked disconsolately at her oatmeal. L04 33 "Maybe we're really not in any trouble at all," L04 34 Josh suggested.

L04 35 "Oh, sure," Amy said, scowling at him. L04 36 "Did you ever get called to the principal's office when you L04 37 weren't in trouble?"

L04 38 For that argument, Josh had no reply at all. The two of them L04 39 had sunk into a dejected silence for the rest of breakfast. Nor had L04 40 it helped when the other kids had begun teasing them as they left L04 41 for their various classes.

L04 42 "See you later," Brad Hinshaw had called. L04 43 "If you're still here!" Laughing, he'd shoved his L04 44 way through the front door into the bright morning sunlight, while L04 45 Josh and Amy perched on the bench outside Hildie's office, the L04 46 relative gloom of the large foyer doing nothing to improve their L04 47 mood.

L04 48 Finally the door to Hildie's office opened and Hildie herself L04 49 stepped out to usher them inside. "Well, look at the two of L04 50 you," she said, smiling at them. "From those long L04 51 faces, you must have done something I haven't heard about L04 52 yet!" As Josh and Amy eyed one another nervously, she burst L04 53 out laughing. "If I'd known you were going to worry L04 54 yourselves to death, I wouldn't have said a thing at breakfast. I'd L04 55 have just stopped you on your way to class. Now come on L04 56 in."

L04 57 Warily, the two children followed Hildie into her office. For L04 58 some reason both of them felt vaguely relieved when she didn't L04 59 close the door. Hildie, noting their response, smiled to herself. L04 60 Long ago she'd discovered that all the kids got nervous when she L04 61 called them in for a closed-door conference. It was as if they L04 62 instinctively knew that a closed door meant some kind of L04 63 dressing-down. Conversely, she'd also discovered that the simple L04 64 act of closing the door was enough to strike terror into the heart L04 65 of the occasional troublemaker.

L04 66 "I was talking to Dr. Engersol last night," she L04 67 told them, settling herself into the chair behind her desk as Josh L04 68 and Amy perched anxiously on the couch. "With Monica L04 69 leaving school, there are two vacant places in his seminar. He and L04 70 I both think you two are ideal candidates to take their L04 71 places."

L04 72 Josh felt a quick thrill of anticipation, remembering Jeff L04 73 telling him a week ago about the seminar, but refusing to talk L04 74 about exactly what they were doing. All he knew was that it L04 75 involved computers - something he'd loved since the first moment L04 76 he'd seen one, when he was only five - and that only a few kids in L04 77 the school were allowed to be in it.

L04 78 The smartest, most talented kids.

L04 79 Adam and Jeff Aldrich, and Monica Lowenstein, and a few L04 80 others.

L04 81 Jeff. What about his place? Was it possible that he was coming L04 82 back to school after all? He voiced the question even as it came L04 83 into his head, and Hildie's smile broadened.

L04 84 "He's coming back tomorrow," she told him. L04 85 "Which should make you happy, right? He's your best friend, L04 86 isn't he?"

L04 87 "Except for Amy," Josh replied. "Is he L04 88 still going to be in the seminar?"

L04 89 "As far as I know."

L04 90 "But what's it about?" Amy asked. "None L04 91 of the kids who are in it ever talk about it."

L04 92 "Well, it's hardly a big secret," Hildie L04 93 replied. "Basically, it's a class in artificial L04 94 intelligence."

L04 95 Josh's eyes widened. "Wow. You mean like in teaching L04 96 computers how to think?"

L04 97 "Exactly. And since both of you seem to have remarkable L04 98 abilities in math, we think you'd fit in very well."

L04 99 Amy looked uncertain. "I don't really like L04 100 computers," she said. "All the games are kind of L04 101 dumb, once you've played them a couple of times. I mean, it's L04 102 always the same stuff, over and over again."

L04 103 "And why do you think it's always the same L04 104 stuff?" Hildie asked.

L04 105 Amy looked puzzled by the question, but Josh saw the answer L04 106 instantly.

L04 107 "Because all a computer does is put things together the L04 108 way it's told to. It can't figure out anything new, because it L04 109 can't think like people can."

L04 110 Amy's brows knit as she concentrated on the idea. "But L04 111 how could a computer ever think like a person?" she L04 112 asked.

L04 113 "That's what the seminar is all about," Hildie L04 114 explained. "Most of what Dr. Engersol is trying to do is L04 115 learn how people think. In a way, our brains are like computers, L04 116 but there's a big difference. Somehow, we manage to put all the L04 117 data in our heads together and come up with new ideas. Computers L04 118 can't do that. A lot of people think that if we can figure out just L04 119 how our brains come up with new ideas, we might be able to design a L04 120 computer to do it, too. That's what artificial intelligence is all L04 121 about."

L04 122 "But what would we be doing?" Amy asked.

L04 123 Hildie shrugged. "Dr. Engersol will have to explain L04 124 that to you. But I can promise you, you'll like the seminar. L04 125 Everyone who's been in it loves it." She smiled ruefully. L04 126 "Unfortunately, I don't think I understand it enough to L04 127 know quite why they love it, but they do."

L04 128 "I don't know," Amy said, fidgeting on the L04 129 couch. "Do I have to take it? What if I don't want L04 130 to?"

L04 131 "Well, I'm sure if you don't want to, Dr. Engersol will L04 132 understand," Hildie told her. "Of course, you L04 133 probably won't get to move down to the second floor, but it's L04 134 entirely up to you."

L04 135 "The second floor?" Amy asked, her interest suddenly L04 136 engaged. The rooms on the second floor were much larger than the L04 137 ones on the third, which had originally been the servants' quarters L04 138 when the mansion had been built. "Why would we get to move L04 139 downstairs?"

L04 140 Hildie smiled as if it should have been obvious. "It L04 141 has to do with the seminar. All the students in Dr. Engersol's L04 142 class are issued special computers, and the rooms on the third L04 143 floor are just too small. And since Adam's room, and Monica's, are L04 144 empty..." She left the bait hanging. As she'd been certain L04 145 would happen, both Amy and Josh snatched at it.

L04 146 "Could we move downstairs today?" Amy asked L04 147 eagerly. "This morning?"

L04 148 Hildie chuckled. "You can move right now, if you want L04 149 to," she told them. "Does that mean you both want L04 150 to join the seminar?"

L04 151 The two children agreed eagerly. Hildie took two pieces of L04 152 paper out of a file folder that was already lying on her desk. L04 153 "In that case, here are your new schedules. Starting L04 154 tomorrow, you'll both be going into the new class first period. L04 155 Amy, you'll be moved into the mathematics class that meets at two, L04 156 and I've put you into the same one, Josh."

L04 157 Josh broke into a smile. "Since we're taking another L04 158 class, does that mean we can stop doing P.E.?" he asked L04 159 eagerly.

L04 160 Hildie made a face of exaggerated disapproval. "No, it L04 161 doesn't mean you can stop doing P.E. But it does mean," she L04 162 added, as Josh's face fell, "that we'll be making some L04 163 changes in that, too. So as soon as you leave here, I want you both L04 164 to go to the gym behind the college field house and see Mr. L04 165 Iverson. I'll give you a note telling him why you're there, and L04 166 he'll give you some tests and then help you set up a gym schedule L04 167 that won't interfere with any of your classes. Okay?"

L04 168 Both children, slightly dazed by the sudden change in the L04 169 schedules that had been set up little more than a week ago, nodded L04 170 silently, and Hildie handed them the note for Joe Iverson, who L04 171 headed the university's physical education program. Years ago, L04 172 working closely with George Engersol, Iverson had designed a L04 173 special regimen for the children in the Academy, emphasizing L04 174 individual sports over team activities.

L04 175 "None of the kids we're targeting is going to grow up L04 176 to be a team player," Engersol had explained even before L04 177 they'd taken in their first students. "They'll all be L04 178 unique kids, and most if not all of them will have had nothing but L04 179 bad experiences with team sports. If they're forced into situations L04 180 where they have to curtail their intellects in favor of someone L04 181 else's physical superiority, they'll only resent it, and I don't L04 182 intend for this Academy to be an unhappy experience for any of L04 183 them. We'll have a few kids who love baseball and football, but for L04 184 the most part physical competition just won't mean anything to our L04 185 kids. So I want you to design a program that will give them the L04 186 exercise they need, but not bore them. Is it possible?"

L04 187 Iverson had nodded. "Anything's possible," he'd L04 188 agreed, and set to work. What he'd come up with was a program L04 189 emphasizing swimming, which he knew most kids loved to start with, L04 190 and gymnastics, which, of one was to achieve any sort of L04 191 proficiency, demanded nearly as much brain power as muscle L04 192 development. Furthermore, the sports he'd selected for the kids L04 193 were individual enough that most of them were able to work their L04 194 P.E. sessions in at their own convenience, merely appearing at the L04 195 pool or gym when they had time, so long as they put in a minimum of L04 196 five hours a week.

L04 197 For Josh and Amy the choice had been easy - an hour a day in L04 198 the pool was more like playing than anything else.

L04 199 Now, they left Hildie Kramer's office and headed across the L04 200 lawn and out the gate, then turned left into the main university L04 201 campus, on the other side of which were the field house, a smaller L04 202 gym, the pool, and the football stadium. Amy gazed curiously at L04 203 Josh.

L04 204 "How come they have to change our P.E.? Why can't we L04 205 just keep going swimming every day, like we have been?"

L04 206 Josh shrugged. "Maybe they have something special for L04 207 the kids in the seminar."

L04 208 "But why?" Amy pressed. "What's dumb L04 209 old P.E. got to do with artificial intelligence?"

L04 210 "Who cares?" Josh grinned. "We get new L04 211 rooms and new computers, don't we?"

L04 212 Amy nodded halfheartedly. The new room was great - she was L04 213 already looking forward to that. But she didn't really care about L04 214 the new computer, and the thing with changing her P.E. program L04 215 seemed stupid. She started to say something else, then changed her L04 216 mind. After all, Josh didn't know any more about the seminar than L04 217 she did, and the other kids in it hadn't ever said a word.

L04 218 L05 1 L05 2 <#FROWN:L05\>By the time I got down there, the Weasel had his L05 3 notepad and tape recorder out. A cigarette hung from the corner of L05 4 his mouth. "Lieutenant Smith," he said. "I L05 5 wonder if I could talk to you."

L05 6 "I'm pretty busy," I said.

L05 7 "Come on," Connor called to me. "Time's L05 8 a'wasting." He was holding the door open for me.

L05 9 I started toward Connor. The Weasel fell in step with me. He L05 10 held a tiny black microphone toward my face. "I'm taping, I L05 11 hope you don't mind. After the Malcolm case, we have to be extra L05 12 careful. I wonder if you would comment on racial slurs allegedly L05 13 made by your associate Detective Graham during last night's L05 14 Nakamoto investigation?"

L05 15 "No," I said. I kept walking.

L05 16 "We've been told he referred to them as 'fucking L05 17 Japs.'"

L05 18 "I have no comment," I said.

L05 19 "He also called them 'little Nips.' Do you think that L05 20 kind of talk is appropriate to an officer on duty?"

L05 21 "Sorry. I don't have a comment, Willy."

L05 22 He held the microphone up to my face as we walked. It was L05 23 annoying. I wanted to slap it away, but I didn't. L05 24 "Lieutenant Smith, we're preparing a story on you and we L05 25 have some questions about the Martinez case. Do you remember that L05 26 one? It was a couple of years back."

L05 27 I kept walking. "I'm pretty busy now, Willy," I L05 28 said.

L05 29 "The Martinez case resulted in accusations of child L05 30 abuse brought by Sylvia Morelia, the mother of Maria Martinez. L05 31 There was an internal affairs investigation. I wondered if you had L05 32 any comment."

L05 33 "No comment."

L05 34 "I've already talked to your partner at that time, Ted L05 35 Anderson. I wondered if you had any comment on that."

L05 36 "Sorry. I don't."

L05 37 "Then you aren't going to respond to these serious L05 38 allegations against you?"

L05 39 "The only one I know that's making allegations is you, L05 40 Willy."

L05 41 "Actually, that's not entirely accurate," he L05 42 said, smiling at me. "I'm told the D.A.'s office has L05 43 started an investigation."

L05 44 I said nothing. I wondered if it was true.

L05 45 "Under the circumstances, Lieutenant, do you think the L05 46 court made a mistake in granting you custody of your young L05 47 daughter?"

L05 48 All I said was, "Sorry. No comment, Willy." I L05 49 tried to sound confident. I was starting to sweat.

L05 50 Connor said, "Come on, come on. No time." I got L05 51 into the car. Connor said to Wilhelm, "Son, I'm sorry, but L05 52 we're busy. Got to go." He slammed the car door. I started L05 53 the engine. "Let's go," Connor said.

L05 54 Willy stuck his head in the window. "Do you think that L05 55 Captain Connor's Japan-bashing represents another example of the L05 56 department's lack of judgment in racially sensitive L05 57 cases?"

L05 58 "See you, Willy." I rolled up the window, and L05 59 started driving down the hill.

L05 60 "A little faster wouldn't bother me," Connor L05 61 said.

L05 62 "Sure," I said. I stepped on the gas.

L05 63 In the rearview mirror, I saw the Weasel running for his L05 64 Mercedes. I took the turn faster, tires squealing. "How did L05 65 that lowlife know where to find us? He monitoring the L05 66 radio?"

L05 67 "We haven't been on the radio," Connor said. L05 68 "You know I'm careful about the radio. But maybe the patrol L05 69 car phoned in something when we arrived. Maybe we have a bug in L05 70 this car. Maybe he just figured we'd turn up here. He's a scumbag. L05 71 And he's connected to the Japanese. He's their plant at the L05 72 Times. Usually the Japanese are a little more classy about who L05 73 they associate with. But I guess he'll do everything they want L05 74 done. Nice car, huh?"

L05 75 "I notice it's not Japanese."

L05 76 "Can't be obvious," Connor said. "He L05 77 following us?"

L05 78 "No. I think we lost him. Where are we going L05 79 now?"

L05 80 "U.S.C. Sanders has had enough time screwing around by L05 81 now."

L05 82 We drove down the street, down the hill, toward the 101 L05 83 freeway. "By the way," I said. "What was L05 84 all that about the reading glasses?"

L05 85 "Just a small point to be verified. No reading glasses L05 86 were found, right?"

L05 87 "Right. Just sunglasses."

L05 88 "That's what I thought," Connor said.

L05 89 "And Graham says he's leaving town. Today. He's going L05 90 to Phoenix."

L05 91 "Uh-huh." He looked at me. "You want to leave L05 92 town, too?"

L05 93 "No," I said.

L05 94 "Okay," Connor said.

L05 95 I got down the hill and onto the 101 going south. In the old L05 96 days it would be ten minutes to U.S.C. Now it was more like thirty L05 97 minutes. Especially now, right at midday. But there weren't any L05 98 fast times, anymore. Traffic was always bad. The smog was always L05 99 bad. I drove through haze.

L05 100 "You think I'm being foolish?" I said. L05 101 "You think I should pick up my kid and run, L05 102 too?"

L05 103 "It's one way to handle it." He sighed. L05 104 "The Japanese are masters of indirect action. It's their L05 105 instinctual way to proceed. If someone in Japan is unhappy with L05 106 you, they never tell you to your face. They tell your friend, your L05 107 associate, your boss. In such a way that the word gets back. The L05 108 Japanese have all these ways of indirect communication. That's why L05 109 they socialize so much, play so much golf, go drinking in L05 110 karaoke bars. They need these extra channels of communication L05 111 because they can't come out and say what's on their minds. It's L05 112 tremendously inefficient, when you think about it. Wasteful of time L05 113 and energy and money. But since they cannot confront - because L05 114 confrontation is almost like death, it makes them sweat and panic - L05 115 they have no other choice. Japan is the land of the end run. They L05 116 never go up the middle."

L05 117 "Yeah, but..."

L05 118 "So behavior that seems sneaky and cowardly to L05 119 Americans is just standard operating procedure to Japanese. It L05 120 doesn't mean anything special. They're just letting you know that L05 121 powerful people are displeased."

L05 122 "Letting me know? That I could end up in court over my L05 123 daughter? My relationship with my kid could be ruined? My own L05 124 reputation could be ruined?"

L05 125 "Well, yes. Those are normal penalties. The threat of L05 126 social disgrace is the usual way you're expected to know of L05 127 displeasure."

L05 128 Well, I think I know it, now," I said. L05 129 "I think I get the fucking picture."

L05 130 "It's not personal," Connor said. "It's L05 131 just the way they proceed."

L05 132 "Yeah, right. They're spreading a lie."

L05 133 "In a sense."

L05 134 "No, not in a sense. It's a fucking lie."

L05 135 Connor sighed. "It took me a long time to L05 136 understand," he said, "that Japanese behavior is L05 137 based on the values of a farm village. You hear a lot about samurai L05 138 and feudalism, but deep down, the Japanese are farmers. And if you L05 139 lived in a farm village and you displeased the other villagers, you L05 140 were banished. And that meant you died, because no other village L05 141 would take in a troublemaker. So. Displease the group and you die. L05 142 That's the way they see it.

L05 143 "It means the Japanese are exquisitely sensitive to the group. L05 144 More than anything, they are attuned to getting along with the L05 145 group. It means not standing out, not taking a chance, not being L05 146 too individualistic. It also means not necessarily insisting on the L05 147 truth. The Japanese have very little faith in truth. It strikes L05 148 them as cold and abstract. It's like a mother whose son is accused L05 149 of a crime. She doesn't care much about the truth. She cares more L05 150 about her son. The same with the Japanese. To the Japanese, the L05 151 important thing is relationships between people. That's the real L05 152 truth. The factual truth is unimportant."

L05 153 "Yeah, fine," I said. "But why are they L05 154 pushing now? What's the difference? This murder is solved, L05 155 right?"

L05 156 "No, it's not," Connor said.

L05 157 "It's not?"

L05 158 "No. That's why we have all the pressure. Obviously, L05 159 somebody badly wants it to be over. They want us to give it L05 160 up."

L05 161 "If they are squeezing me and squeezing Graham - how L05 162 come they're not squeezing you?"

L05 163 "They are," Connor said.

L05 164 "How?"

L05 165 "By making me responsible for what happens to L05 166 you."

L05 167 "How are they making you responsible? I don't see L05 168 that."

L05 169 "I know you don't. But they do. Believe me. They L05 170 do."

L05 171 I looked at the line of cars creeping forward, blending into L05 172 the haze of downtown. We passed electronic billboards for Hitachi L05 173 (#1 IN COMPUTERS IN AMERICA), for Canon (AMERICA'S COPY LEADER), L05 174 and Honda (NUMBER ONE RATED CAR IN AMERICA!). Like most of the new L05 175 Japanese ads, they were bright enough to run in the daytime. The L05 176 billboards cost thirty thousand dollars a day to rent; most L05 177 American companies couldn't afford them.

L05 178 Connor said, "The point is the Japanese know they can L05 179 make it very uncomfortable. By raising the dust around you, they L05 180 are telling me, 'handle it.' Because they think I can get this L05 181 thing done. Finish it off."

L05 182 "Can you?"

L05 183 "Sure. You want to finish it off now? Then we can go L05 184 have a beer, and enjoy some Japanese truth. Or do you want to get L05 185 to the bottom of why Cheryl Austin was killed?"

L05 186 "I want to get to the bottom."

L05 187 "Me, too," Connor said. "So let's do L05 188 it, k<*_>o-stroke<*/>hai. I think Sanders's lab will have L05 189 interesting information for us. The tapes are the key, L05 190 now."

L05 191 Phillip Sanders was spinning like a top. "The lab is L05 192 shut down," he said. He threw up his hands in frustration. L05 193 "And there's nothing I can do about it. L05 194 Nothing."

L05 195 Connor said, "When did it happen?"

L05 196 "An hour ago. Buildings and Grounds came by and told L05 197 everybody in the lab to leave, and they locked it up. Just like L05 198 that. There's a big padlock on the front door, now."

L05 199 I said, "And the reason was?"

L05 200 "A report that structural weakness in the ceiling has L05 201 made the basement unsafe and will invalidate the university's L05 202 insurance if the skating rink comes crashing down on us. Some talk L05 203 about how student safety comes first. Anyway, they closed the lab, L05 204 pending an investigation and report by a structural L05 205 engineer."

L05 206 "And when will that happen?"

L05 207 He gestured to the phone. "I'm waiting to hear. Maybe L05 208 some time next week. Maybe not until next month."

L05 209 "Next month."

L05 210 "Yeah. Exactly." Sanders ran his hand through L05 211 his wild hair. "I went all the way to the dean on this one. L05 212 But the dean's office doesn't know. It's coming from high up in the L05 213 university. Up where the board of governors knows rich donors who L05 214 make contributions in multi-million-dollar chunks. The order came L05 215 from the highest level." Sanders laughed. "These L05 216 days, it doesn't leave much mystery."

L05 217 I said, "Meaning what?"

L05 218 "You realize Japan is deeply into the structure of L05 219 American universities, particularly in technical departments. It's L05 220 happened everywhere. Japanese companies now endow twenty-five L05 221 professorships at M.I.T., far more than any other nation. Because L05 222 they know - after all the bullshit stops - that they can't innovate L05 223 as well as we can. Since they need innovation, they do the obvious L05 224 thing. They buy it."

L05 225 "From American universities."

L05 226 "Sure. Listen, at the University of California at L05 227 Irvine, there's two floors of a research building that you can't L05 228 get into unless you have a Japanese passport. They're doing L05 229 research for Hitachi there. An American university closed to L05 230 Americans." Sanders swung around, waving his arms. L05 231 "And around here, if something happens that they don't L05 232 like, it's just a phone call from somebody to the president of the L05 233 university, and what can he do? He can't afford to piss the L05 234 Japanese off. So whatever they want, they get. And if they want the L05 235 lab closed, it's closed."

L05 236 I said, "What about the tapes?"

L05 237 "Everything is locked in there. They made us leave L05 238 everything."

L05 239 "Really?"

L05 240 "They were in a hell of a rush. It was gestapo stuff. L05 241 Pushing and prodding us to get out. You can't imagine the panic at L05 242 an American university if it thinks it may lose some L05 243 funding." He sighed. "I don't know. Maybe Theresa L05 244 managed to take some tapes with her. You could ask her."

L05 245 "Where is she?"

L05 246 "I think she went ice skating."

L05 247 I frowned. "Ice skating?"

L05 248 "That's what she said she was going to do. So you could L05 249 check over there."

L05 250 And he looked right at Connor. In a particularly meaningful L05 251 way.

L05 252 Theresa Asakuma wasn't ice skating. There were thirty little L05 253 kids in the rink, with a young teacher trying in vain to control L05 254 them. L05 255 L06 1 <#FROWN:L06\>After closing the file drawer and turning off the L06 2 lamp in the den, Hatch and Lindsey stopped at Regina's room to make L06 3 sure she was all right, moving quietly to the side of her bed. The L06 4 hall light, falling through her door, revealed that the girl was L06 5 sound asleep. The small knuckles of one fisted hand were against L06 6 her chin. She was breathing evenly through slightly parted lips. If L06 7 she dreamed, her dreams must have been pleasant.

L06 8 Hatch felt his heart pinch as he looked at her, for she seemed L06 9 so desperately young. He found it hard to believe that he had ever L06 10 been as young as Regina was just then, for youth was innocence. L06 11 Having been raised under the hateful and oppressive hand of his L06 12 father, he had surrendered innocence at an early age in return for L06 13 an intuitive grasp of aberrant psychology that had permitted him to L06 14 survive in a home where anger and brutal 'discipline' were the L06 15 rewards for innocent mistakes and misunderstandings. He knew that L06 16 Regina could not be as tender as she looked, for life had given her L06 17 reasons of her own to develop thick skin and an armored heart.

L06 18 Tough as they might be, however, they were both vulnerable, L06 19 child and man. In fact, at that moment Hatch felt more vulnerable L06 20 than the girl. If given a choice between her infirmities - the game L06 21 leg, the twisted and incomplete hand - and whatever damage had been L06 22 done to some deep region of his brain, he would have opted for her L06 23 physical impairments without hesitation. After recent experiences, L06 24 including the inexplicable escalation of his anger into blind rage, L06 25 Hatch did not feel entirely in control of himself. And from the L06 26 time he had been a small boy, with the terrifying example of his L06 27 father to shape his fears, he had feared nothing half as much as L06 28 being out of control.

L06 29 I will not fail you, he promised the sleeping child.

L06 30 He looked at Lindsey, to whom he owned his lives, both of them, L06 31 before and after dying. Silently he made her the same promise: I L06 32 will not fail you.

L06 33 He wondered if they were promises he could keep.

L06 34 Later, in their own room, with the lights out, as they lay on L06 35 their separate halves of the bed, Lindsey said, "The rest L06 36 of the test results should be back to Dr. Nyebern L06 37 tomorrow."

L06 38 Hatch had spent most of Saturday at the hospital, giving blood L06 39 and urine samples, submitting to the prying of X-ray and sonogram L06 40 machines. At one point he had been hooked up to more electrodes L06 41 than the creature that Dr. Frankenstein, in those old movies, had L06 42 energized from kites sent aloft in a lightning storm.

L06 43 He said, "When I spoke to him today, he told me L06 44 everything was looking good. I'm sure the rest of the tests will L06 45 all come in negative, too. Whatever's happening to me, it has L06 46 nothing to do with any mental or physical damage from the accident L06 47 or from being ... dead. I'm healthy, I'm okay."

L06 48 "Oh, God, I hope so."

L06 49 "I'm just fine."

L06 50 "Do you really think so?"

L06 51 "Yes, I really think so, I really do." He L06 52 wondered how he could lie to her so smoothly. Maybe because the lie L06 53 was not meant to hurt or harm, merely to soothe her so she could L06 54 get some sleep.

L06 55 "I love you," she said.

L06 56 "I love you, too."

L06 57 In a couple of minutes - shortly before midnight, according to L06 58 the digital clock at bedside - she was asleep, snoring softly.

L06 59 Hatch was unable to sleep, worrying about what he might learn L06 60 of his future - or lack of it - tomorrow. He suspected that Dr. L06 61 Nyebern would be gray-faced and grim, bearing somber news of some L06 62 meaningful shadow detected in one lobe of Hatch's brain or another, L06 63 a patch of dead cells, lesion, cyst, or tumor. Something deadly. L06 64 Inoperable. And certain to get worse.

L06 65 His confidence had been increasing slowly ever since he had L06 66 gotten past the events of Thursday night and Friday morning, when L06 67 he had dreamed of the blonde's murder and, later, had actually L06 68 followed the trail of the killer to the Route 133 off-ramp from the L06 69 San Diego Freeway. The weekend had been uneventful. The day just L06 70 past, enlivened and uplifted by Regina's arrival, had been L06 71 delightful. Then he had seen the newspaper piece about Cooper, and L06 72 had lost control.

L06 73 He hadn't told Lindsey about the stranger's reflection that he L06 74 had seen in the den mirror. This time he was unable to pretend that L06 75 he might have been sleepwalking, half awake, half dreaming. He had L06 76 been wide awake, which meant the image in the mirror was an L06 77 hallucination of one kind or another. A healthy, undamaged brain L06 78 didn't hallucinate. He hadn't shared that terror with her because L06 79 he knew, with the receipt of the test results tomorrow, there would L06 80 be fear enough to go around.

L06 81 Unable to sleep, he began to think about the newspaper story L06 82 again, even though he didn't want to chew on it any more. He tried L06 83 to direct his thoughts away from William Cooper, but he returned to L06 84 the subject the way he might have obsessively probed at a sore L06 85 tooth with his tongue. It almost seemed as if he were being L06 86 forced to think about the truck driver, as if a giant mental L06 87 magnet was pulling his attention inexorably in that direction. L06 88 Soon, to his dismay, anger rose in him again. Worse, almost at L06 89 once, the anger exploded into fury and a hunger for violence so L06 90 intense that he had to fist his hands at his sides and clench his L06 91 teeth and struggle to keep from letting loose a primal cry of L06 92 rage.

L06 93 From the banks of mailboxes in the breezeway at the main L06 94 entrance to the garden apartments, Vassago learned that William L06 95 Cooper was in apartment twenty-eight. He followed the breezeway L06 96 into the courtyard, which was filled with palms and ficuses and L06 97 ferns and too many landscape lights to please him, and he climbed L06 98 an exterior staircase to the covered balcony that served the L06 99 second-floor units of the two-story complex.

L06 100 No one was in sight. Palm Court was silent, peaceful.

L06 101 Though it was a few minutes past midnight, lights were on in L06 102 the Cooper apartment. Vassago could hear a television turned L06 103 low.

L06 104 The window to the right of the door was covered with Levolor L06 105 blinds. The slats were not tightly closed. Vassago could see a L06 106 kitchen illuminated only by the low-wattage bulb in the range L06 107 hood.

L06 108 To the left of the door a larger window looked onto the balcony L06 109 and courtyard from the apartment living room. The drapes were not L06 110 drawn all the way shut. Through the gap, a man could be seen L06 111 slumped in a big recliner with his feet up in front of the L06 112 television. His head was tilted to one side, his face toward the L06 113 window, and he appeared to be asleep. A glass containing an inch of L06 114 golden liquid stood beside a half-empty bottle of Jack Daniel's on L06 115 a small table next to the recliner. A bag of cheese puffs had been L06 116 knocked off the table, and some of the bright orange contents had L06 117 scattered across the bile-green carpet.

L06 118 Vassago scanned the balcony to the left, right, and on the L06 119 other side of the courtyard. Still deserted.

L06 120 He tried to slide open Cooper's living-room window, but it was L06 121 either corroded or locked. He moved to the right again, toward the L06 122 kitchen window, but he stopped at the door on the way and, without L06 123 any real hope, tried it. The door was unlocked. He pushed it open, L06 124 went inside - and locked it behind him.

L06 125 The man in the recliner, probably Cooper, did not stir as L06 126 Vassago quietly pulled the drapes all the way shut across the big L06 127 living-room window. No one else, passing on the balcony, would be L06 128 able to look inside.

L06 129 Already assured that the kitchen, dining area, and living room L06 130 were deserted, Vassago moved catlike through the bathroom and two L06 131 bedrooms (one without furniture, used primarily for storage) that L06 132 comprised the rest of the apartment. The man in the recliner was L06 133 alone.

L06 134 On the dresser in the bedroom, Vassago spotted a wallet and a L06 135 ring of keys. In the wallet he found fifty-eight dollars, which he L06 136 took, and a driver's license in the name of William X. Cooper. The L06 137 photograph on the license was of the man in the living room, a few L06 138 years younger and, of course, not in a drunken stupor.

L06 139 He returned to the living room with the intention of waking L06 140 Cooper and having an informative little chat with him. Who is L06 141 Lindsey? Where does she live?

L06 142 But as he approached the recliner, a current of anger shot L06 143 through him, too sudden and causeless to be his own, as if he were L06 144 a human radio that received other people's emotions. And what he L06 145 was receiving was the same anger that had suddenly struck him while L06 146 he had been with his collection in the funhouse hardly an hour ago. L06 147 As before, he opened himself to it, amplified the current with his L06 148 own singular rage, wondering if he would receive visions, as he had L06 149 on that previous occasion. But this time, as he stood looking down L06 150 on William Cooper, the anger flared too abruptly into insensate L06 151 fury, and he lost control. From the table beside the recliner, he L06 152 grabbed the Jack Daniel's by the neck of the bottle.

L06 153 Lying rigid on his bed, hands fisted so tightly that even his L06 154 blunt fingernails were gouging painfully into his palms, Hatch had L06 155 the crazy feeling that his mind had been invaded. His flicker of L06 156 anger had been like opening a door just a hairline crack but wide L06 157 enough for something on the other side to get a grip and tear it L06 158 off its hinges. He felt something unnameable<&|>sic! storming into L06 159 him, a force without form or features, defined only by its hatred L06 160 and rage. Its fury was that of the hurricane, the typhoon, beyond L06 161 mere human dimensions, and he knew that he was too small a vessel L06 162 to contain all of the anger that was pumping into him. He felt as L06 163 if he would explode, shatter as if he were not a man but a crystal L06 164 figurine.

L06 165 The half-full bottle of Jack Daniel's whacked the side of the L06 166 sleeping man's head with such impact that it was almost as loud as L06 167 a shotgun blast. Whiskey and sharp fragments of glass showered up, L06 168 rained down, splattered and clinked against the television set, the L06 169 other furniture, and the walls. The air was filled with the velvety L06 170 aroma of corn-mash bourbon, but underlying it was the scent of L06 171 blood, for the gashed and battered side of Cooper's face was L06 172 bleeding copiously.

L06 173 The man was no longer merely sleeping. He had been hammered L06 174 into a deeper level of unconsciousness.

L06 175 Vassago was left with just the neck of the bottle in his hand. L06 176 It terminated in three sharp spikes of glass that dripped bourbon L06 177 and made him think of snake fangs glistening with venom. Shifting L06 178 his grip, he raised the weapon above his head and brought it down, L06 179 letting out a fierce hiss of rage, and the glass serpent bit deep L06 180 into William Cooper's face.

L06 181 The volcanic wrath that erupted into Hatch was unlike anything L06 182 he had ever experienced before, far beyond any rage that his father L06 183 had ever achieved. Indeed, it was nothing he could have generated L06 184 within himself for the same reason that one could not manufacture L06 185 sulfuric acid in a paper cauldron: the vessel would be dissolved by L06 186 the substance it was required to contain. A high-pressure lava flow L06 187 of anger gushed into him, so hot that he wanted to scream, so L06 188 white-hot that he had no time to scream. Consciousness was burned L06 189 away, and he fell into a mercifully dreamless darkness where there L06 190 was neither anger nor terror.

L06 191 Vassago realized that he was shouting with wordless, savage L06 192 glee. After a dozen or twenty blows, the glass weapon had utterly L06 193 disintegrated. He finally, reluctantly dropped the short fragment L06 194 of the bottle neck still in his white-knuckled grip. L06 195 L07 1 <#FROWN:L07\>100 L07 2 BRENDON MOODY could not let go of his gut reaction to Karen L07 3 Grant. The last week of July, as he impatiently waited for the L07 4 subpoena to be issued by the Chicago court, he wandered around the L07 5 lobby of the Madison Arms Hotel. It was obvious that Anne Webster L07 6 had finally retired from the agency. Her desk had been replaced by L07 7 a handsome cherrywood table, and in general the decor of the agency L07 8 had become more sophisticated. Moody decided it was time to pay L07 9 another visit to Karen Grant's ex-partner, this time at her home in L07 10 Bronxville.

L07 11 Anne was quick to let Brendon know that she had been deeply L07 12 offended by Karen's attitude. "She kept after me to move up L07 13 the sale. The ink wasn't dry on the contract when she told me that L07 14 it was not necessary for me to come into the office at all, that L07 15 she would handle everything. Then immediately she replaced my L07 16 things with new furniture for that boyfriend of hers. When I think L07 17 of how I used to stick up for her when people made remarks about L07 18 her, let me tell you, I feel like a fool. Some grieving L07 19 widow!"

L07 20 "Mrs. Webster," Moody said, "this is L07 21 very important. I think there is a chance that Laurie Kenyon is not L07 22 guilty of Allan Grant's murder. But she'll go to prison next month L07 23 unless we can prove that someone else did kill him. Will you please L07 24 go over that evening again, the one you spent at the airport with L07 25 Karen Grant? Tell me every detail, no matter how unimportant it L07 26 seems. Start with the drive out."

L07 27 "We left for the airport at eight o'clock. Karen had L07 28 been talking to her husband. She was terribly upset. When I asked L07 29 her what was wrong, she said some hysterical girl had threatened L07 30 him and he was taking it out on her."

L07 31 "Taking it out on her? What did she mean by L07 32 that?"

L07 33 "I don't know. I'm not a gossip and I don't L07 34 pry."

L07 35 If there's anything I'm sure of, it's that, Brendon thought L07 36 grimly. "Mrs. Webster, what did she mean?"

L07 37 "Karen had been staying at the New York apartment more L07 38 and more these last months, ever since she met Edwin Rand. I have L07 39 the feeling that Allan Grant let her know he was mighty sick of the L07 40 situation. On the way to the airport, she said something like, I L07 41 should be straightening this out with Allan, not running a driving L07 42 service.

L07 43 "I reminded her that the client was one of our most L07 44 valuable, and that she had a real aversion to hired L07 45 cars."

L07 46 "Then the plane was late."

L07 47 "Yes. That really upset Karen. But we went to the VIP L07 48 lounge and had a drink. Then Spartacus came on. It's L07 49 my-"

L07 50 "Your favorite movie of all time. Also a very long one. L07 51 And you do tend to fall asleep. Can you be sure that Karen Grant L07 52 sat and watched the entire movie?"

L07 53 "Well, I do know she was checking on the plane and went L07 54 to make some phone calls."

L07 55 "Mrs. Webster, her home in Clinton is forty-two miles L07 56 from the airport. Was there any span of time when you did not see L07 57 her for somewhere between two to two-and-a-half hours? I mean was L07 58 it possible that she might have left you and driven to her L07 59 home?"

L07 60 "I really didn't think I slept but..." She L07 61 paused.

L07 62 "Mrs. Webster, what is it?"

L07 63 "It's just that when we picked up our client and left L07 64 the airport, Karen's car was parked in a different spot. It was so L07 65 crowded when we arrived that we had quite a walk to the terminal, L07 66 but when we left it was right across from the main L07 67 door."

L07 68 Moody sighed. "I wish you had told me this before, Mrs. L07 69 Webster."

L07 70 She looked at him, bewildered. "You didn't ask L07 71 me."

L07 72 101 L07 73 IT WAS just like it had been in those months before Lee was L07 74 locked up in the clinic, Opal thought. In rented cars, she and Bic L07 75 began to follow her again. Some days they'd be parked across the L07 76 street and watch Lee hurry from the garage to the clinic entrance, L07 77 then wait however long it took until she came out again. Bic would L07 78 spend the time staring at the door, so afraid of missing even one L07 79 glimpse of her. Beads of perspiration would form on his forehead, L07 80 his hands would grip the wheel when she reemerged.

L07 81 "Wonder what she's been talking about today?" L07 82 he'd ask, fear and anger in his voice. "She's alone in the L07 83 room with that doctor, Opal. Maybe he's being tempted by L07 84 her."

L07 85 Weekdays Lee went to the clinic in the morning. Many afternoons L07 86 she and Sarah would golf together, usually going to one of the L07 87 local public courses. Afraid that Sarah would notice the car L07 88 following them, Bic began to phone around to the starters to L07 89 inquire about a reservation in the name of Kenyon. If there was L07 90 one, he and Opal would occasionally drive to that course and try to L07 91 run into Sarah and Lee in the coffee shop.

L07 92 He never lingered at the table, just greeted them casually and L07 93 kept going, but he missed nothing about Lee. Afterwards, he'd L07 94 emotionally comment about her appearance. "That golf shirt L07 95 just clings to her tender body... It was all I could do not to L07 96 reach over and release the clip that was holding back that golden L07 97 hair."

L07 98 Because of the 'Church of the Airways' program, they had to be L07 99 in New York the better part of the weekend. Opal was secretly L07 100 grateful for that. If they did get a glimpse of Lee and Sarah on L07 101 Saturday or Sunday, the doctor and the same young man, Gregg L07 102 Bennett, were always with them. That infuriated Bic.

L07 103 One mid-August day he called to Opal to join him in Lee's room. L07 104 The shades were drawn, and he was sitting in the rocker. "I L07 105 have been praying for guidance and have received my L07 106 answer," he told her. "Lee always goes to and L07 107 returns from New York alone. She has a phone in her car. I have L07 108 been able to get the number of that phone."

L07 109 Opal cringed as Bic's face contorted and his eyes flashed with L07 110 that strange compelling light. "Opal," he thundered, L07 111 "do not think I have not been aware of your jealousy. I L07 112 forbid you to trouble me with it again. Lee's earthly time is L07 113 almost over. In the days that are left, you must allow me to fill L07 114 myself with the sight and sound and scent of that pretty L07 115 child."

L07 116 102 L07 117 THOMASINA PERKINS was thrilled to receive a note from Sarah L07 118 Kenyon asking her to write a letter on Laurie's behalf to the judge L07 119 who was going to sentence her.

L07 120 You remember so clearly how terrified and frightened L07 121 Laurie was, Sarah wrote, and you're the only person who L07 122 ever actually saw her with her abductors. We need to make the judge L07 123 understand the trauma Laurie suffered when she was a small child. L07 124 Be sure to include the name you thought you heard the woman call L07 125 the man as they rushed Laurie from the diner. Sarah concluded L07 126 by writing that a known child abuser by that name had been in the L07 127 Harrisburg area then and, while of course they couldn't prove it, L07 128 she intended to suggest the possibility that he was the L07 129 kidnapper.

L07 130 Thomasina had told the story of seeing Laurie and calling the L07 131 police so often that it could practically write itself. Until she L07 132 got to the sticking point.

L07 133 That day the woman had not called the man Jim. Thomasina L07 134 knew that now with absolute certainty. She couldn't give that name L07 135 to the judge. It would be like lying under oath. It troubled her to L07 136 know that Sarah had wasted time and money tracking down the wrong L07 137 person.

L07 138 Thomasina was losing faith in Reverend Hawkins. She'd written L07 139 to him a couple of times thanking him for the privilege of being on L07 140 his show and explaining that, while she would never suggest that L07 141 God had made a mistake, maybe they should have waited and kept L07 142 listening to Him. It was just that God had given her the name of L07 143 the counter boy first. Could they try again?

L07 144 Reverend Hawkins hadn't bothered to answer her. Oh, she was on L07 145 his mailing list, that was for sure. For every two dollars she L07 146 donated, she got a letter asking for more.

L07 147 Her niece had taped Thomasina's appearance on the 'Church of L07 148 the Airways' program, and Thomasina loved to watch it. But as her L07 149 resentment of Reverend Hawkins grew she noticed more and more L07 150 things about the taped segment. The way his mouth was so close to L07 151 her ear when she heard the name. The way he didn't even get L07 152 Laurie's name straight. He had referred to her at one point as L07 153 Lee.

L07 154 Thomasina's conscience was clear when she mailed a passionate L07 155 letter to the judge, describing Laurie's panic and hysteria in L07 156 lurid terms but without mentioning the name Jim. She sent a L07 157 copy of the letter and an explanation to Sarah, pointing out the L07 158 mistake the Reverend Hawkins himself had made by referring to L07 159 Laurie as Lee.

L07 160 103 L07 161 "IT'S GETTING CLOSER," Laurie told Dr. Donnelly L07 162 matter-of-factly as she kicked off her shoes and settled back on L07 163 the couch.

L07 164 "What is, Laurie?"

L07 165 He expected her to talk about prison, but instead she said, L07 166 "The knife."

L07 167 He waited.

L07 168 It was Kate who spoke to him now. "Doctor, I guess L07 169 we've both done our best."

L07 170 "Hey, Kate," he said, "that doesn't L07 171 sound like you." Was Laurie becoming suicidal? he L07 172 wondered.

L07 173 A wry laugh. "Kate sees the handwriting on the wall, L07 174 Doctor. Got a cigarette?"

L07 175 "Sure. How's it going, Leona?"

L07 176 "It's pretty nearly gone. Your golf is getting L07 177 better."

L07 178 "Thank you."

L07 179 "You really like Sarah, don't you?"

L07 180 "Very much."

L07 181 "Don't let her be too unhappy, will you?"

L07 182 "About what?"

L07 183 Laurie stretched. "I have such a headache," she L07 184 murmured. "It's as though it isn't just at night anymore. L07 185 Even yesterday when Sarah and I were on the golf course I could L07 186 suddenly see the hand that's holding the knife."

L07 187 "Laurie, the memories are coming closer and closer to L07 188 the surface. Can't you let them out?"

L07 189 "I can't let go of the guilt." Was it Laurie or L07 190 Leona or Kate speaking? For the first time Justin couldn't be sure. L07 191 "I did such bad things," she said, L07 192 "disgusting things. Some secret part of me is remembering L07 193 them."

L07 194 Justin made a sudden decision. "Come on. We're going to L07 195 take a walk in the park. Let's sit in the playground for a while L07 196 and watch the kids."

L07 197 The swings and slides, the jungle gym and seesaws were filled L07 198 with young children. They sat on a park bench near the watchful L07 199 mothers and nannies. The children were laughing, calling to each L07 200 other, arguing about whose turn it was to be on the swing. Justin L07 201 spotted a little girl who looked to be about four. She was happily L07 202 bouncing a ball. Several times the nanny called to the child, L07 203 "Don't go so far away, Christy." The child, totally L07 204 absorbed in keeping the ball bouncing, did not seem to hear. L07 205 Finally the nanny got up, hurried over and firmly caught the ball. L07 206 "I said, stay in the playground," she scolded. L07 207 "If you chased that ball in the road, one of those cars L07 208 would hit you."

L07 209 "I forgot." The small face looked forlorn and L07 210 repentant, then, turning and seeing Laurie and Justin watching her, L07 211 immediately brightened. She ran to them. "Do you like my L07 212 beautiful sweater?" she asked.

L07 213 The nanny came up. "Christy, you mustn't bother L07 214 people." She smiled apologetically. "Christy thinks L07 215 everything she puts on is beautiful."

L07 216 "Well, it is," Laurie said. "It's a L07 217 perfectly beautiful new sweater."

L07 218 A few minutes later they started back for the clinic. L07 219 "Suppose," Justin said, "that little girl, very L07 220 absorbed in what she was doing, wandered too close to the road and L07 221 someone grabbed her, put her in a car, disappeared with her and L07 222 abused her. Do you think that years later she should blame L07 223 herself?"

L07 224 L08 1 <#FROWN:L08\>7:45 A.M., THURSDAY

L08 2 MANHATTAN

L08 3 Although she hadn't slept much thanks to her late-night call, L08 4 Laurie made it a point to arrive at work a little early to L08 5 compensate for having been late the day before. It was only seven L08 6 forty-five as she mounted the steps to the medical examiner's L08 7 office.

L08 8 Going directly to the ID office, she detected a mild L08 9 electricity in the air. Several of the other associate medical L08 10 examiners who usually didn't come in until around eight-thirty were L08 11 already on the job. Kevin Southgate and Arnold Besserman, two of L08 12 the older examiners, were huddled around the coffeepot in heated L08 13 debate. Kevin, a liberal, and Arnold, an arch-conservative, never L08 14 agreed on anything.

L08 15 "I'm telling you," Arnold was saying when L08 16 Laurie squeezed through to get herself some coffee, "if we L08 17 had more police on the streets, this kind of thing wouldn't L08 18 happen."

L08 19 "I disagree", Kevin said. "This kind of L08 20 tragedy-"

L08 21 "What happened now?" Laurie asked as she L08 22 stirred her coffee.

L08 23 "A series of homicides in Queens", Arnold said. L08 24 "Gunshot wounds to the head from close range."

L08 25 "Small-caliber bullets?" Laurie asked.

L08 26 Arnold looked at Kevin. "I don't know about that L08 27 yet."

L08 28 "The posts haven't been done yet," Kevin L08 29 explained.

L08 30 "Were they pulled out of the river?"

L08 31 "No"; Arnold said. "These people were L08 32 asleep in their own homes. Now, if we had more police presence - L08 33 "

L08 34 "Come on, Arnold!" Kevin said.

L08 35 Laurie left the two to their bickering and went over to check L08 36 the autopsy schedule. Sipping her coffee, she checked at who was on L08 37 autopsy besides herself and what cases were assigned. After her own L08 38 name were three cases, including Stuart Morgan. She was pleased. L08 39 Calvin was sticking by his promise.

L08 40 Noting that the other two cases were drug overdose/toxicity L08 41 cases as well, Laurie flipped through the investigator's reports. L08 42 She was immediately dismayed to see that profiles of the deceased L08 43 resembled the previous suspicious cases. Randall Thatcher, thirty - L08 44 three years old, was a lawyer; Valerie Abrams, thirty-three, was a L08 45 stockbroker.

L08 46 The day before she'd feared there'd be more cases, but she'd L08 47 hoped her fears wouldn't materialize. Obviously that wasn't to be L08 48 the case. Already there were three more. Overnight her modest L08 49 series had jumped one hundred percent.

L08 50 Laurie walked through Communications on her way to the medical L08 51 forensic investigative department. Spotting the police liaison L08 52 office, she wondered what she should do about the suspected L08 53 thievery at the Morgan apartment. For the moment she decided to let L08 54 it go. If she saw Lou she might discuss the matter with him.

L08 55 Laurie found Cheryl Myers in her tiny windowless office.

L08 56 "No luck so far on that Duncan Andrews case," L08 57 Cheryl told her before she could say a word.

L08 58 "That's not why I stopped by," Laurie said. L08 59 "I left word last evening with Bart that I wanted to be L08 60 called if any upscale drug overdose cases came in like Duncan L08 61 Andrews or Marion Overstreet. I was called last night for one. But L08 62 this morning I discovered that there were two others that I wasn't L08 63 called on. Have you any idea why I wasn't called?"

L08 64 "No," Cherryl said. "Ted was on last L08 65 night. We'll have to ask him this evening. Was there a L08 66 problem?"

L08 67 "Not really," Laurie admitted. "I'm L08 68 just curious. Actually I probably couldn't have gone to all three L08 69 scenes. And I will be handling the autopsies. By the way, did you L08 70 check with the hospital about the Marion Overstereet L08 71 case?"

L08 72 "Sure did," Cheryl said. "I spoke with L08 73 a Dr. Murray and he said that they were just following policy L08 74 orders from you."

L08 75 "That's what I figured," Laurie said. L08 76 "But it was worth a check. Also, I have something else I'd L08 77 like to ask you to do. Would you see what kind of medical records L08 78 you can get, particularly surgical, on a woman by the name of L08 79 Martha Schulman. I'd love to get some x-rays. I believe she lived L08 80 in Bayside, Queens. I'm not sure of her age. Let's say around L08 81 forty." Ever since Jordan had told Laurie about his L08 82 secretary's husband's shady dealings and arrest record, she'd had a L08 83 bad feeling abort the woman's disappearance, particularly in view L08 84 of the odd break-in at Jordan's office.

L08 85 Cheryl wrote the information down on a pad on her desk.

L08 86 "I'll get right on it."

L08 87 Next Laurie sought out John DeVries. As she'd feared, he was L08 88 less than cordial.

L08 89 "I told you I'd call you," John snapped when L08 90 Laurie asked about a contaminant. "I've got hundreds of L08 91 cases besides yours."

L08 92 "I know you're busy," Laurie said, " L08 93 but this morning I have three more overdoses like the three I had L08 94 before. That brings the body count to a total Of six young, L08 95 affluent, well-educated career people. Something has to be in that L08 96 cocaine, and we have to find it."

L08 97 "You're welcome to come up here and run the tests L08 98 yourself," John said. "But I want you to leave me L08 99 alone. If you don't I have to speak to Dr. Bingham."

L08 100 "Why are you acting this way?"

L08 101 Laurie asked. "I've tried to be nice about L08 102 this."

L08 103 "You're being a pain in the neck," John L08 104 said.

L08 105 "Fine," Laurie said. "It's wonderful to L08 106 know we have a nice cooperative atmosphere around here."

L08 107 Exasperated, Laurie stalked out of the lab, grumbling under her L08 108 breath. She felt a hand grip her arm and she spun around, ready to L08 109 slap John DeVries for having the nerve to touch her. But it wasn't L08 110 John. It was one of his young assistants, Peter Letterman.

L08 111 "Could I talk to you a moment?" Peter said. He L08 112 glanced warily over his shoulder.

L08 113 "Of course," Laurie said.

L08 114 "Come into my cubbyhole," Peter said. He L08 115 mentioned for Laurie to follow him. They entered what had L08 116 originally been designed as a broom closet. There was barely enough L08 117 room there for a desk, a computer terminal, a file cabinet, and two L08 118 chairs. Peter closed the door behind them.

L08 119 Peter was a thin, blond fellow with delicate features. To L08 120 Laurie he appeared as the quintessential graduate student, with a L08 121 marked intensity to his eyes and demeanor. Under his white lab coat L08 122 was an open-necked flannel shirt.

L08 123 "John is a little hard to get along with," he L08 124 said.

L08 125 "That's an understatement," Laurie answered.

L08 126 "Lots of artists are like that," Peter L08 127 continued. "And John is an artist of sorts. When it comes L08 128 to chemistry and toxicology in particular, he's amazing. But I L08 129 couldn't help overhearing your conversations with him. I think one L08 130 of the reasons he's giving you a hard time is to make a point with L08 131 the administration that he needs more funding. He's slowing up a L08 132 lot of reports, and for the most part it makes little difference. I L08 133 mean the people are dead. But if your suspicions are right it L08 134 sounds like we could be in the lifesaving business for a change. So L08 135 I'd like to help. I'll see what I can do for you even if I have to L08 136 put in some overtime."

L08 137 "I'd be grateful, Peter", Laurie said. L08 138 "And you're right."

L08 139 Peter smiled self-consciously. "We went to the same L08 140 school," he said.

L08 141 "Really?" Laurie said. "Where?"

L08 142 "Wesleyan," Peter said."I was two years L08 143 behind you, but we shared a class. Physical chemistry."

L08 144 "I'm sorry but I don't remember you," Laurie L08 145 said.

L08 146 "Well, I was kinda a nerd then. Anyway, I'll let you L08 147 know what I come up with."

L08 148 Laurie returned to her office feeling considerably more L08 149 optimistic about mankind with Peter's generous offer to help. Going L08 150 through the day's autopsy folders, she came up with only a few L08 151 questions on two of the cases similar to her question about Marion L08 152 Overstreet. Just to be thorough she called Cheryl to ask her to L08 153 check them out.

L08 154 After changing in her office, Laurie went down to the autopsy L08 155 room. Vinnie had Stuart Morgan "up" and was well prepared L08 156 for her arrival. They started work immediately.

L08 157 The autopsy went smoothly. As they were finishing the internal L08 158 portion, Cheryl Myers came in holding a mask to her face. Laurie L08 159 glanced around to make sure Calvin wasn't in sight to complain that L08 160 Cheryl had not put on scrubs. Happily he wasn't in the room.

L08 161 "I had some luck with Martha Schulman," she L08 162 said, waving a set of x-rays. "She'd been treated at L08 163 Manhattan General because she worked for a doctor on the staff. L08 164 They had recent chest film which they sent right over. Want me to L08 165 put it up?"

L08 166 "Please," Laurie said. She wiped her hands on her apron L08 167 and followed Cheryl over to the x-ray view box. Cheryl stuck the L08 168 x-rays in to the holder and stepped to the side.

L08 169 "They want them back right away," Cheryl L08 170 explained.

L08 171 "The tech in x-ray was doing me a favor by letting them L08 172 out without authorization."

L08 173 Laurie scanned the x-rays. They were an AP and lateral of the L08 174 chest taken two years before. The lung fields were clear and L08 175 normal. the heart silouette looked normal as well. Disappointed, L08 176 Laurie was about to tell Cheryl to remove the films when she looked L08 177 at the clavicles, or collarbones. The one on the right hand had s L08 178 slight angle to it two-thirds along its length, associated with a L08 179 slight increase in radiopacity. Marsha Schulman had broken her L08 180 collarbone some time in the past. Though well healed, there had L08 181 definitely been a fracture.

L08 182 "Vinnie," Laurie called out. "Get L08 183 someone to bring the x-ray we took on the headless L08 184 floater."

L08 185 "See something?" Cheryl asked.

L08 186 Laurie pointed out the fracture, explaining to Cheryl why it L08 187 appeared as it did. Vinnie brought the requested X-ray over to the L08 188 view box. He snapped the new film up next to Marsha Schulman's.

L08 189 "Well. look at that!" Laurie cried. She pointed L08 190 to the fractured clavicle. they were identical o both films. L08 191 "I think we'r looking at the same person," she L08 192 said.

L08 193 "Who is it?" Vinnie asked.

L08 194 "The name is Marsha Schulman," Laurie said, L08 195 pulling down the x-rays from the Manhattan General and handing them L08 196 over to Cheryl. Then she asked Cheryl to check if Marsha Schulman L08 197 had had a cholecystectomy and a hysterectomy. She told her it was L08 198 important and asked her to do it immediately.

L08 199 Pleased with this discovery, Laurie started her second case, L08 200 Randall Thatcher. As with her first case of the day, there was L08 201 essentially no pathology. The autopsy went quickly and smoothly. L08 202 Again Laurie was able to document with reasonable certainty that L08 203 the cocaine had been taken IV. By the time they were sewing up the L08 204 body, Cheryl was back in with the news that Marsha Schulman had L08 205 indeed had both operations in question. In fact, both had been L08 206 performed at Manhattan General.

L08 207 Thrilled by this additional confirmation, Laurie finished up L08 208 and went to her office to dictate the first two cases and to make L08 209 several calls. First she tried Jordan's office, only to learn that L08 210 Dr. Scheffield was in surgery.

L08 211 "Again?" Laurie sighed. She was disappointed L08 212 not to get him right away.

L08 213 "He's been ding a lot of transplants lately" L08 214 Jordan's nurse explained. "He always does quite a bit of L08 215 surgery, but lately he's been doing even more."

L08 216 Laurie left word for Jordan to call back when he could. Then L08 217 she called police headquarters and asked for Lou.

L08 218 To Laurie's chagrin, Lou was unavailable. Laurie left her L08 219 number and asked that he return her call when he could.

L08 220 Somewhat frustrated, Laurie did her dictation, then headed back L08 221 to the autopsy room for her third and final case of the day. As she L08 222 waited for the elevator she wondered if Bingham might be willing to L08 223 change his mind about making some kind of public statement now that L08 224 there were six cases.

L08 225 When the elevator doors opened, Laurie literally bumped into L08 226 Lou. For a moment they looked at each other with embarrassment.

L08 227 "I'm sorry," she said.

L08 228 "It was my fault," Lou told her. "I L08 229 wasn't looking where I was going."

L08 230 "I was the one who wasn't looking," Laurie L08 231 said.

L08 232 Then they both laughed at their self-conscious behavior.

L08 233 "Were you coming to see me?" Laurie asked.

L08 234 "No," Lou said, "I was looking for the L08 235 Pope. L08 236 L09 1 <#FROWN:L09\>The next morning the President and Mrs. Roosevelt L09 2 attended services at St. John's Episcopal Church. The sermon was L09 3 satisfactorily bland and pleased the great majority of the L09 4 parishioners. The First Lady said a silent prayer for the soul of L09 5 Christian Asman. She tried to concentrate on the service and not to L09 6 think of what circumstance had led to the death of the young L09 7 lawyer.

L09 8 At the suggestion of Harry Hopkins, he and not the President L09 9 issued the White House statement on the death of a staff member: L09 10 "'He was just the finest type of man you could imagine,' L09 11 said Harry Hopkins, head of WPA and Asman's boss in the Executive L09 12 Wing. 'I guess the chief regret the President and I have is that we L09 13 didn't get to know him any better than we did. When a man does his L09 14 work faithfully and competently, often you don't have much occasion L09 15 to get personally acquainted with him.'"

L09 16 The morning papers carried a brief account of Asman's death and L09 17 printed the statement without comment. The Post, for example, L09 18 said:

L09 19 Christian Asman, an attorney on the White House staff, L09 20 was found dead last night in an alley between G and H streets. L09 21 Police say Asman died of gunshot wounds. They have no suspect in L09 22 the shooting.

L09 23 Asman, a graduate of Harvard and Harvard Law, was an attorney L09 24 in New York City before joining the staff of the White House L09 25 approximately a year ago. He was unmarried, and no family has been L09 26 identified.

L09 27 Harry Hopkins, by whom Christian Asman was employed, said 'He L09 28 was just the finest type of man you could imagine ...'

L09 29 Back in her office on the second floor of the White House, Mrs. L09 30 Roosevelt turned over a fresh page in her yellow tablet. Even L09 31 before Stan Szczygiel and Ed Kennelly arrived, she had written a L09 32 list:

L09 33 Who might have killed Mr. Asman?

L09 34 Senator Fisher (unfortunately).

L09 35 Miss Fisher (very unlikely).

L09 36 Congressman Metcalf (jealousy?).

L09 37 Miss Dempsey (but why?).

L09 38 What is connection with Miss O'Neil?

L09 39 Who was 'older woman' at Farragut?

L09 40 Person not yet identified.

L09 41 Kennelly nodded as he scanned the list. "We have our L09 42 work cut out for us, hmm? So where do we start?"

L09 43 "I suggest," said Mrs. Roosevelt, "that L09 44 we simplify our work by eliminating the unlikely suspects first. It L09 45 is highly unlikely, it is not<&|>sic!, that Miss Fisher killed Mr. L09 46 Asman. Even so, I suppose we are obliged to clear up any doubt on L09 47 that score. We must know if Miss Fisher's relationship with Mr. L09 48 Asman was the cause of the severance of the romantic relationship L09 49 between her and Congressman Metcalf. If it was, then conceivably L09 50 Congressman Metcalf resented that and - Well. You see what I L09 51 mean."

L09 52 Stan Szczygiel shook his head over the list. "It's that L09 53 last entry that bothers me most," he said. "'Person L09 54 not yet identified.' I've begun to think that half the population L09 55 of Washington might have wanted to kill Christian Asman. After all L09 56 - we have to face it - he wasn't really a very nice L09 57 fellow."

L09 58 "Do you want to read the autopsy report?" L09 59 Kennelly asked.

L09 60 "I don't like to read them," said Mrs. L09 61 Roosevelt. "They are always so -"

L09 62 "Clinical," said Kennelly.

L09 63 She could not help but smile.

L09 64 "Anyway, there are no surprises," said L09 65 Kennelly. "Asman was killed by two shots from a L09 66 thirty-eight caliber revolver, fired at close range. One bullet L09 67 tore open the left side of his heart. The other went through his L09 68 left lung. At the time of his death he had consumed enough alcohol L09 69 to put his blood-alcohol level at oh-one-nine percent - which means L09 70 he was drunk. Good and drunk."

L09 71 "Did anyone find his coat and hat?" she L09 72 asked.

L09 73 "Yes. When everybody left the Hi-Ho Lounge, there was L09 74 an extra hat and coat."

L09 75 "'Hi-Ho Lounge.' Oh, dear!"

L09 76 "Are there any witnesses to Mr. Asman's having been in L09 77 the Hi-Ho Lounge? Did anyone see him leave?"

L09 78 "We're checking. The bartender and the waitresses are L09 79 scattered all over the city, it being Sunday. We'll talk to them L09 80 tomorrow evening."

L09 81 "Does it sound to you like a professional L09 82 killing?" asked Mrs. Roosevelt.

L09 83 "Well, whoever did it was calm and cool," said L09 84 Kennelly.

L09 85 "Sunday ..." she said quietly. "I think you two L09 86 gentlemen deserve the rest of the day off. I'm afraid there's not L09 87 much we can do, anyway."

L09 88 Maybe there wasn't much for them to do the rest of that day. L09 89 But there was plenty for her.

L09 90 That afternoon the First Lady attended an outdoor meeting on L09 91 the Ellipse. It was held outdoors because the people who had come L09 92 could not afford to rent a hall. They were farmers displaced by the L09 93 combined tragedies of the Depression and the Dust Bowl. Not many L09 94 could even afford to come to Washington. Many were there as L09 95 representatives of friends and neighbors who had collected money to L09 96 make it possible for them to come - and, even so, some of them had L09 97 ridden in boxcars or hitchhiked. They had come in mid-winter L09 98 because this was their slow season, when they could give their time L09 99 to a visit to the capitol in hope of making the government hear L09 100 their pleas.

L09 101 They were there this winter to urge Congress to enact the L09 102 Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Bill, which was designed, they had L09 103 heard, to make it possible for them to make their living as L09 104 farmers, the only thing they knew how to do, and get off the relief L09 105 rolls.

L09 106 There were only a few hundred of them. They were ragged. Some L09 107 of them looked malnourished.

L09 108 Mrs. Roosevelt talked with a girl who said she was eighteen L09 109 yeas old. She was pregnant. Her bulging belly was not quite covered L09 110 by a frayed black coat fastened with safety pins in place of L09 111 missing buttons. She wore a pair of man's high-top shoes, several L09 112 sizes too big for her. Her dirty hair was stringy, her complexion L09 113 splotched.

L09 114 "My dear, should you have come?" the First Lady L09 115 asked. "In your condition, it might have been better if you L09 116 had stayed at home."

L09 117 "Home done come, Ma'am," said the girl.

L09 118 "I ... I'm sorry. How do you mean your home L09 119 -?"

L09 120 "We-uns live in our truck. Me and the ol' man and the L09 121 baby ...and th' other baby, comin'. Come from West Virginia. Ain' L09 122 nothin' else to do. Ain' got no land no more. Ain' got no work. L09 123 Might's well come see if we can argue for some help."

L09 124 Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace was standing beside the L09 125 First Lady, listening.

L09 126 "Do you know who we are?" Mrs. Roosevelt asked L09 127 the girl.

L09 128 The girl shook her head.

L09 129 "This is Mr. Wallace, Mr. Henry Wallace, the secretary L09 130 of agriculture. And I am Mrs. Roosevelt."

L09 131 The girl's mouth fell open, and she glanced back and forth L09 132 between them; but the First Lady remained uncertain that the girl L09 133 knew who she and Wallace were.

L09 134 "We are going to do all we can to help you, dear. L09 135 Everything we can. As quickly as we can."

L09 136 Mrs. Roosevelt did not make a speech that day. In the damp cold L09 137 of that February afternoon, she met and talked personally with L09 138 nearly every one of the farmers and their wives.

L09 139 On Monday morning the First Lady telephoned the Georgetown home L09 140 of Senator John Fisher shortly after ten o'clock - when, she had L09 141 surmised, the senator himself would have left the house for Capitol L09 142 Hill. As she had anticipated, Joan Fisher answered. Mrs. Roosevelt L09 143 asked her if she would mind stopping by the White House at her L09 144 earliest convenience. Joan Fisher said she could be there in an L09 145 hour. Her tone suggested that she suspected the invitation was L09 146 actually a summons.

L09 147 Mrs. Roosevelt spent that hour dictating her column and going L09 148 through mail. The young woman was prompt and arrived by eleven.

L09 149 Instinctively, the First Lady was prepared to like Joan Fisher. L09 150 She was one of those striking blondes who might have been L09 151 obtrusively spectacular; but she had subdued her appearance in a L09 152 measured way that suggested she was embarrassed about being so L09 153 beautiful, but couldn't help it. She had on a black knit wool L09 154 dress, with skirt at mid-calf length as style dictated. She wore a L09 155 strand of pearls and a small diamond in a gold setting on her right L09 156 hand.

L09 157 Conceding inwardly that her imagination might have escaped L09 158 discipline, Mrs. Roosevelt thought she saw something more in Joan L09 159 Fisher: that the young woman was a little cynical and world-weary, L09 160 as well as discouraged and unhappy.

L09 161 "I am sorry to have to ask you to come to see me on L09 162 such an unfortunate occasion, Miss Fisher. I know the death of Mr. L09 163 Christian Asman must distress you deeply."

L09 164 Joan Fisher shrugged, as though the death of Asman only added L09 165 another element to a burdensome life. "He was a L09 166 friend," she said quietly.

L09 167 "Miss Fisher," said Mrs. Roosevelt a little L09 168 more firmly, "I have to ask you some rather personal L09 169 questions. I have asked you to come here, since I believe it will L09 170 be easier for you to talk to me than it would be to talk to an L09 171 investigator from the District Police."

L09 172 "He was murdered," the young woman said L09 173 dully.

L09 174 "More than that, he was a suspect in another L09 175 murder."

L09 176 Joan Fisher's eyes widened. "Chris ... My god, who L09 177 could he have murdered?"

L09 178 "For the moment, I will not answer that question. What L09 179 I want to know is, can you think of anyone he might have wanted to L09 180 kill?"

L09 181 Joan Fisher shook her head slowly.

L09 182 "Then, can you think of anyone who might have wanted to L09 183 kill Mr. Asman?"

L09 184 "My father, of course," she answered. L09 185 "He threatened to do it."

L09 186 "I feel I can hardly ask you if you think it's possible L09 187 your father did it."

L09 188 "Go ahead and ask me. I'll tell you. It's possible. I L09 189 don't think he did, but he could have. Chris was killed - what? L09 190 Eight-thirty or nine o'clock? My father was not at home. Saturday L09 191 night is his poker night. They don't begin to play until nine. It's L09 192 possible he shot Chris and went on to his poker game. Not likely, L09 193 but possible."

L09 194 "So you yourself were at home Saturday L09 195 evening?"

L09 196 "Do you think I killed him?"

L09 197 "No. But we may as well hear you say you L09 198 didn't."

L09 199 "My father's poker night is my mother's bridge L09 200 night," said Joan Fisher. "Three of her friends L09 201 were at the house all evening. I serve their drinks and L09 202 food."

L09 203 Inwardly Mrs. Roosevelt was relieved: for the young woman, L09 204 first, but also to have a name off her list of suspects.

L09 205 "Your father says you were at one time engaged to marry L09 206 Congressman Metcalf."

L09 207 "Yes. We broke off the engagement about three months L09 208 ago."

L09 209 "I said I have to ask personal questions. Was your L09 210 relationship with Mr. Asman the reason you and the congressman L09 211 parted?"

L09 212 "No, not really. I don't think you could say L09 213 that."

L09 214 "Were you seeing Mr. Asman when you were still engaged L09 215 to Congressman Metcalf?"

L09 216 Joan Fisher was becoming increasingly disturbed by the L09 217 questions; whether from outrage over their violation of her privacy L09 218 or because the questions were about to elicit something she didn't L09 219 want to tell, Mrs. Roosevelt could not be certain. But the young L09 220 woman's face had stiffened. Her lips were rigid.

L09 221 "I began to see Chris when I was still engaged to L09 222 Vern," she said curtly.

L09 223 "Mr. Asman seems to have had a singular appeal to young L09 224 women," said the First Lady. "I have become aware L09 225 that he dated at least one other in the week before he L09 226 died."

L09 227 "Name your one other," Joan Fisher demanded.

L09 228 "Correct me if I am mistaken," said Mrs. L09 229 Roosevelt, "but I believe you were with Mr. Asman at the L09 230 Farragut Bar on Thursday evening. He took you home in a taxi. Then L09 231 -"

L09 232 "We were being followed!"

L09 233 "By the police," said the First Lady. L09 234 "I told you Mr. Asman was suspected of murder. In any L09 235 event, he took you home. Then he went to the Gayety Burlesque L09 236 Theater, where he met a Miss Stormy Skye, a striptease dancer. He L09 237 took her home, and she spent the night with him."

L09 238 L10 1 <#FROWN:L10\>"Every effort will be made to keep the matter L10 2 confidential, Mr. Gillsworth," he said. "What L10 3 exactly is it?"

L10 4 Our client drew a deep breath. "About three weeks L10 5 ago," he began, "a letter arrived at our home L10 6 addressed to my wife. Plain white envelope, no return address. At L10 7 the time Lydia was up north visiting cousins in Pawtucket. L10 8 Fortunately she had left instructions to open her mail and forward L10 9 to Rhode Island whatever I thought important and might require her L10 10 immediate attention. I say 'fortunately' because this particular L10 11 letter was a vicious threat against Lydia's life. It spelled out L10 12 the manner of her murder in such gruesome and sickening detail that L10 13 it was obviously the product of a deranged mind."

L10 14 "Dreadful," my father said.

L10 15 "Did the letter give any reason for the L10 16 threat?" I asked.

L10 17 "Only in vague terms," Gillsworth said. L10 18 "It said she must die to pay for what she is doing. That L10 19 was the phrase used: 'for what she is doing.' Complete insanity, of L10 20 course. Lydia is the most innocent of women. Her conduct is beyond L10 21 reproach."

L10 22 "Do you have the letter with you, Mr. L10 23 Gillsworth?" father asked.

L10 24 The poet groaned. "I destroyed it," he said. L10 25 "And the envelope it came in. I hoped it might be a single L10 26 incident, and I had no wish that Lydia would ever find and read L10 27 that piece of filth. So I burned it."

L10 28 Then we sat in silence. Gillsworth had his head averted, and I L10 29 was able to study him a moment. He was a tall, extremely thin man L10 30 with a bony face split by a nose that ranked halfway between Cyrano L10 31 and Jimmy Durante.

L10 32 He was wearing a short-sleeved leisure suit of black linen. L10 33 With his mighty beak, scrawny arms, and flapping gestures he looked L10 34 more bird than bard. I wondered what a young coed had seen in the L10 35 poet that persuaded her to plight her troth. But it's hopeless to L10 36 try to imagine what spouses find in each other. It's better to L10 37 accept Ursi Olson's philosophy. She just shrugs and says, L10 38 "There's a cover for every pot."

L10 39 The silence stretched, and when the seigneur didn't ask the L10 40 question that had to be asked, I did.

L10 41 "But you've received another letter?" I L10 42 prompted Gillsworth.

L10 43 He nodded, and the stare he gave me seemed dazed, as if he L10 44 could not quite comprehend the inexplicable misfortune that had L10 45 befallen him and his wife. "Yes," he said in a voice that L10 46 lacked firmness. "Two days ago. Lydia is home now, and she L10 47 opened the letter, read it, showed it to me. I thought it even more L10 48 disgusting and frightening than the first. Again it said that she L10 49 must die for what she was doing, and it described her murder in L10 50 horrendous and obscene detail. Obviously the work of a homicidal L10 51 maniac."

L10 52 "How did your wife react to the letter?" my L10 53 father asked gently.

L10 54 Gillsworth shifted uncomfortably in his wing chair. L10 55 "First," he said, "I must give you a little L10 56 background. My wife has always been interested in the occult and in L10 57 psychic phenomena. She believes in supernatural forces, the L10 58 existence of spirits, ESP, and that sort of thing." He L10 59 paused.

L10 60 I was curious and asked, "Do you also believe in those L10 61 things, sir?"

L10 62 He made one of his floppy gestures. "I don't believe L10 63 and I don't disbelieve. Quite frankly, the supernatural is of minor L10 64 interest to me. My work is concerned with the conflict between the L10 65 finite expression of the human psyche and the Ur-reality concealed L10 66 with it. I call it the Divine Dichotomy."

L10 67 My father and I nodded thoughtfully. What else could we do?

L10 68 "To answer your question, Mr. McNally," L10 69 Gillsworth continued, addressing mein papa, L10 70 "my wife reacted to the letter with complete serenity. You L10 71 may find it remarkable - I certainly do - but she has absolutely no L10 72 fear of death, no matter how painful or horrid its coming. She L10 73 believes death is but another form of existence, that we pass from L10 74 one state to another with no loss, no dimination of our powers, but L10 75 rather with increased wisdom and added strength. This belief - L10 76 which she holds quite sincerely, I assure you - enables her to face L10 77 her own death with equanimity. And so that letter failed to L10 78 frighten her - if that was its purpose. But it frightens me, I L10 79 can tell you that. I suggested to Lydia that it might be wise if L10 80 she returned to Rhode Island for an extended visit until this whole L10 81 matter can be cleared up."

L10 82 "Yes," father said, "I think that would be L10 83 prudent."

L10 84 "She refused," Gillsworth said. "I then L10 85 suggested both of us take a trip, perhaps go abroad for a long L10 86 tour. Again she refused. She will not allow the ravings of a L10 87 lunatic to alter her life. And she is quite insistent that the L10 88 matter not be referred to the police. She accepts the entire L10 89 situation with a sangfroid that amazes me. I cannot take it so L10 90 lightly. I finally won her permission to seek your counsel with the L10 91 understanding that you will make no unauthorized disclosure of this L10 92 nasty business to the police or anyone else."

L10 93 "You may depend on it," my father said L10 94 gravely.

L10 95 "Good," the poet said. "Would you care to see L10 96 the second letter?"

L10 97 "By all means."

L10 98 Gillsworth rose and took a white envelope from his outside L10 99 jacket pocket. He strode across the room and handed it to my L10 100 father.

L10 101 "Just a moment, please," I said. "Mr. L10 102 Gillsworth, I presume only you and your wife have touched the L10 103 letter since it was received."

L10 104 "That's correct."

L10 105 "Father," I said, "I suggest you handle it L10 106 carefully, perhaps by the corners. The time may come when we might L10 107 wish to have it dusted for fingerprints."

L10 108 He nodded and lifted the flap of the opened envelope with the L10 109 tip of a steel letter opener taken from his desk. He used the same L10 110 implement to tease out the letter and unfold it on his desktop. He L10 111 adjusted the green glass shade of his brass student lamp and began L10 112 to read. I moved behind his shoulder and peered but, without my L10 113 reading glasses, saw nothing but a blur.

L10 114 Father finished his perusal and looked up at the man standing L10 115 before his desk. "You did not exaggerate, Mr. L10 116 Gillsworth," he said, his voice tight.

L10 117 "Would you read it aloud, sir?" I asked him. L10 118 "I'm afraid I left my glasses upstairs."

L10 119 He read it in unemotional tones that did nothing to lessen the L10 120 shock of those words. I shall not repeat the letter lest I offend L10 121 your sensibilities. Suffice to say it was as odious as Gillsworth L10 122 had said: a naked threat of vicious murder. The letter was L10 123 triple-distilled hatred.

L10 124 Father concluded his reading. The client and I returned to our L10 125 chairs. The three of us, shaken by hearing those despicable words L10 126 spoken aloud, sat in silence. The pater looked at me, and I knew L10 127 what he was thinking. But he'd never say it, never dent my ego in L10 128 the presence of a third person. That's why I loved him, the old L10 129 badger. So I said it for him.

L10 130 "Mr. Gillsworth," I said as earnestly as I L10 131 could, "I must tell you in all honesty that although I L10 132 appreciate your confidence in me, I am beyond my depth on this. It L10 133 requires an investigation by the local police, post office L10 134 inspectors, and possibly the FBI. Sending a threat of physical harm L10 135 through the mail is a federal offense. The letter should be L10 136 analyzed by experts: the typewriter used, the paper, psychological L10 137 profile of the writer, and so forth. It's possible that similar L10 138 letters have been received by other Palm Beach residents, and yours L10 139 may provide a vital lead to the person responsible. I urge you to L10 140 take this to the proper authorities as soon as you can."

L10 141 My father looked at me approvingly. "I fully concur L10 142 with Archy's opinion," he said to Gillsworth. "This L10 143 is a matter for the police."

L10 144 "No," the poet said stonily. "Impossible. Lydia L10 145 has expressly forbidden it, and I cannot flout her L10 146 wishes."

L10 147 Now my father's glance at me was despairing. I knew he was L10 148 close to rejecting Gillsworth's appeal for help, even if it meant L10 149 losing a client.

L10 150 "Mr. Gillsworth," I said, leaning toward him, L10 151 "would you be willing to do this: Allow me to meet and talk L10 152 with your wife. Let me try to convince her how seriously my father L10 153 and I take this threat. Perhaps I can persuade her that it really L10 154 would be best to ask the authorities for help."

L10 155 He stared at me an excessively long time. "Very L10 156 well," he said finally. "I don't think it will do a L10 157 damned bit of good, but it's worth a try."

L10 158 "Archy can be very persuasive," my father said L10 159 dryly. "May we keep the letter, Mr. Gillsworth?"

L10 160 The poet nodded and rose to leave. Handshakes all around. My L10 161 father carefully slid the opened letter into a clean manila file L10 162 folder and handed it to me. Then he walked Roderick Gillsworth out L10 163 to his car. I carried the folder up to my cave and flipped on the L10 164 desk lamp.

L10 165 I put on my glasses and read the letter. It was just awful L10 166 stuff. But that wasn't what stunned me. I saw it was on good L10 167 quality paper, had been written with a word processor, and had an L10 168 even right-hand margin.

L10 169 How does that grab you?

L10 170 3 L10 171 I went to sleep that evening convinced that the Peaches letter L10 172 and the Gillsworth letter had been written on the same machine, if L10 173 not by the same miscreant. But what the snatching of a cranky cat L10 174 had to do with a murderous threat against a poet's wife, the L10 175 deponent kneweth not.

L10 176 I awoke the next morning full of p. and v., eager to devote a L10 177 day to detecting and sorry I lacked a meerschaum pipe and L10 178 deerstalker cap. Unfortunately I also awoke an hour late, and by L10 179 the time I traipsed downstairs my father had left for the office in L10 180 his Lexus and mother and Ursi had taken the Ford to go L10 181 provisioning. Jamie Olson was seated in the kitchen, slurping from L10 182 a mug of black coffee.

L10 183 We exchanged matutinal greetings, and Jamie - our houseman and L10 184 Ursi's husband - asked if I wanted a 'solid' breakfast. Jamie is a L10 185 septuagenarian with a teenager's appetite. His idea of a 'solid' L10 186 breakfast is four eggs over with home fries, pork sausages, a deck L10 187 of rye toast, and a quart of black coffee - with maybe a dram of L10 188 aquavit added for flavor. I settled for a glass of OJ, buttered L10 189 bagel, and a cup of his coffee - strong enough to numb one's L10 190 tonsils.

L10 191 "Jamie," I said, sitting across the table from him, L10 192 "do you know Leon Medallion, the Willigans' L10 193 butler?"

L10 194 "Uh-huh," he said.

L10 195 Our Swedish-born houseman was so laconic he made Gary Cooper L10 196 sound like a chatterbox. But Jamie had an encyclopedic knowledge of L10 197 local scandals - past, present, and those likely to occur. Most of L10 198 his information came from the corps of Palm Beach servants, who L10 199 enjoyed trading tidbits of gossip about their employers. It was L10 200 partial recompense for tedious hours spent shining the master's L10 201 polo boots or polishing milady's gems.

L10 202 "You ever hear anything freaky about Leon?" I L10 203 asked.

L10 204 "Like he might be inclined to pinch a few pennies from L10 205 Mrs. Willigan's purse or perhaps take a kickback from their L10 206 butcher?"

L10 207 "Nope."

L10 208 "How about the cook and the maid? Also L10 209 straight?"

L10 210 Jamie nodded.

L10 211 "I know Harry Willigan strays from the hearth," I L10 212 said. "Everyone knows that. What about his missus? Does she L10 213 ever kick over the traces?"

L10 214 The houseman slowly packed and lighted his pipe, an old L10 215 discolored briar, the stem wound with adhesive tape. L10 216 "Mebbe," he said. "I heard some hints."

L10 217 "Well, if you learn anything definite, pass it along to L10 218 me, please. Their cat's been swiped."

L10 219 "I know."

L10 220 "Have you heard anything about the Gillsworths, the L10 221 poet and his wife?"

L10 222 "She's got the money," Jamie said.

L10 223 "That I know."

L10 224 "And she's tight. He's on an allowance."

L10 225 "What about their personal lives?" L10 226 L11 1 <#FROWN:L11\>"Mrs. Williams, I know this is difficult L11 2 for you, but I'd appreciate it if you answered the question. Was it L11 3 difficult to remember that the driver's hair was L11 4 gray?"

L11 5 "No. I remember that it was gray."

L11 6 "Didn't you earlier say, 'I think it was L11 7 gray'?"

L11 8 "Yes, I think that's what I said."

L11 9 "You think you said, 'I think it was L11 10 gray'?"

L11 11 "Yes."

L11 12 "Does that mean you're not sure it was L11 13 gray?"

L11 14 "No, I'm sure it was gray."

L11 15 "Then why did you say you only thought it was L11 16 gray?"

L11 17 "Because it was a long time ago, and it's hard to L11 18 remember. My daughter was killed, damn you!"

L11 19 Oh boy, I thought. There it goes. Right up the chimney.

L11 20 "Your Honor," Atkins said, getting to his feet, L11 21 "I ask that the court excuse Mrs. Williams's outburst. But L11 22 I would like to object at this time to the way the defense is L11 23 badgering and harassing the witness. By my count, she has repeated L11 24 some five times that the person she saw driving that car had gray L11 25 hair. The defense attorney insisting that she repeat the color L11 26 over and over again isn't going to change the color. She has L11 27 testified that ..."

L11 28 "Is this your closing argument, Mr. Atkins?"

L11 29 "No, Your Honor, I was merely ..."

L11 30 "Your objection is overruled. I do not believe that Mr. L11 31 Hope was harassing the witness. Jury will ignore all of Mr. L11 32 Atkins's comments following his objections. Witness will confine L11 33 herself to answering the questions and will make no further L11 34 comments on the merits of the case. Proceed, Mr. Hope."

L11 35 "Just a few more questions," I said. L11 36 "Mrs. Williams, when is the first time you saw the L11 37 defendant, Mary Barton?"

L11 38 "I saw her on television the day she was L11 39 arrested."

L11 40 "I mean in person. When did you first see her in L11 41 person?"

L11 42 "Today."

L11 43 "In this courtroom?"

L11 44 "Yes."

L11 45 "Had you ever seen her before today?"

L11 46 "No."

L11 47 "Never saw her on your street, did you? Pineview and L11 48 Logan, isn't that what you said?"

L11 49 "Pineview. The corner of Logan."

L11 50 "Never saw her on Pineview Street, did you?"

L11 51 "No."

L11 52 "Lurking about? Or walking past the house?"

L11 53 "No."

L11 54 "Did you ever see her at the bus stop?"

L11 55 "No."

L11 56 "Abbott Avenue and Suncrest Drive, isn't that where you L11 57 said the bus stop is?"

L11 58 "Yes."

L11 59 "Just outside the entrance road to the L11 60 development."

L11 61 "Yes."

L11 62 "You never saw Mary Barton waiting there at the bus L11 63 stop, did you?"

L11 64 "No."

L11 65 "Or walking past it?"

L11 66 "No."

L11 67 "Never saw her anywhere in the vicinity of your home, L11 68 isn't that true?"

L11 69 "I never saw her."

L11 70 "Or in the vicinity of Suncrest Acres?"

L11 71 "I never saw her anywhere near there. But L11 72 ..."

L11 73 "Did you ever see her in the vicinity of the Judy L11 74 Cornier Elementary School?"

L11 75 "No."

L11 76 "That's the school your daughter attended, isn't L11 77 it?"

L11 78 "Yes."

L11 79 "And you never saw Mary Barton there, waiting in the L11 80 area where the children load onto the buses, did you?"

L11 81 "No."

L11 82 "Or anywhere in the neighborhood surrounding the L11 83 school?"

L11 84 "I never saw her near the school, no."

L11 85 "Are you familiar with Galin Memorial Park?"

L11 86 "I know where it is."

L11 87 "Have you ever been there?"

L11 88 "Once or twice."

L11 89 "Ever see Mary Barton in that park?"

L11 90 "No."

L11 91 "How about the G&S Supermarket? Do you know L11 92 it?"

L11 93 "No."

L11 94 "Never been there?"

L11 95 "Never."

L11 96 "Then you couldn't possibly have seen Mary Barton L11 97 there, isn't that so?"

L11 98 "I never saw her there."

L11 99 "Mrs. Williams ... did your daughter ever mention L11 100 having been approached by a woman answering the description of Mary L11 101 Barton?"

L11 102 "No."

L11 103 "Did your daughter give you any reason to believe that L11 104 she was being stalked by a woman answering Mary Barton's L11 105 description?"

L11 106 "No, she didn't. But ..."

L11 107 "Yes, please tell me," I said.

L11 108 This was a risk. I didn't know what she might say, and a lawyer L11 109 should never ask a question to which he does not already know the L11 110 answer. But at the same time, I didn't want the jury to think I was L11 111 cutting her off. Tell me, I'd said, inviting her to elaborate. But L11 112 now I was holding my breath.

L11 113 "I had the feeling someone was watching L11 114 her."

L11 115 "Your Honor?" I said.

L11 116 "I'll allow that," she said, and turned to the L11 117 jury. "I want to explain to you," she said, L11 118 "that this is admissible only as to the witness's state of L11 119 mind and not as to the truth of whether or not someone was L11 120 actually watching. Go ahead, Mr. Hope."

L11 121 "I'm sure you worried a great deal about your L11 122 daughter," I said.

L11 123 "I did."

L11 124 "The way any mother would worry about her L11 125 seven-year-old daughter going off into the world alone."

L11 126 "Yes."

L11 127 "But you didn't have any real reason to expect she L11 128 was in imminent danger, did you?"

L11 129 "No."

L11 130 "That is, you didn't actually see anyone who might L11 131 pose a threat to her."

L11 132 "No, I just had this feeling."

L11 133 "Well, feelings aside, you certainly never saw Mary L11 134 Barton near any of the places your daughter frequented, did L11 135 you?"

L11 136 "No."

L11 137 "Your home ... her school ... the bus stop L11 138 ...?"

L11 139 "No."

L11 140 "In fact, did you ever see Mary Barton anywhere L11 141 near your daughter?"

L11 142 "No."

L11 143 "Thank you, no further questions," I said.

L11 144 "No further questions," Atkins said.

L11 145 "Let's adjourn till tomorrow at nine," L11 146 Rutherford said.

L11 147 8 L11 148 The distances troubled Toots most.

L11 149 "What I don't understand," she told Warren, L11 150 "is why she would've started her rampage ..."

L11 151 "Well, if she did it," Warren said.

L11 152 "Well, we have to believe she didn't do L11 153 it."

L11 154 "Amen," Warren said.

L11 155 "But for the sake of argument, if she did it, why L11 156 would she've started her rampage ..."

L11 157 "If you can call it that," Warren said.

L11 158 "Call it whatever you want to call it, okay? An L11 159 extended adventure, okay? Why would she've started it so far from L11 160 home?"

L11 161 "Why indeed?"

L11 162 "Take a look at this map," she said.

L11 163 They were in a diner on the South Tamiami Trail, sitting in the L11 164 booth closest to the door. All day long, they'd been trying to come L11 165 up with something on Charlotte Carmody. So far, they had nothing. L11 166 But nothing looked better over dinner. Warren had ordered a couple L11 167 of hamburgers and a glass of beer. Toots had ordered turkey breast L11 168 and Swiss on rye, no mayo, but lots of mustard. She was drinking a L11 169 glass of milk. The day she'd kicked cocaine, she also stopped L11 170 drinking anything alcoholic. Substance abuse was substance abuse. L11 171 That's what she'd learned and that's what she believed.

L11 172 The diner was decorated with Santa Clauses and red and green L11 173 bells hanging from red and green tinsel stretched from corner to L11 174 corner. A sickly-looking, artificial, miniature white Christmas L11 175 tree was on the corner near the cash register. Nothing down here L11 176 ever looked Christmasy. Warren wondered why they even bothered. He L11 177 took a look at the map.

L11 178 Somerset, where little Jenny Lou Williams had lived before her L11 179 disappearance, was some ninety-eight miles from Calusa. Toots had L11 180 marked the town with the numeral 1 in a circle. It was close enough L11 181 to Eagle Lake to make it an attractive inland location, but its L11 182 real advantage was its proximity to all the lakes in Osceola L11 183 County, one of the loveliest areas in all Florida. Moreover, Route L11 184 17 was a major north-south artery, providing easy access to other L11 185 parts of the state.

L11 186 "The next one was snatched in Alietam," Toots L11 187 said, and put her finger on the circled numeral 2. L11 188 "Kimberly Holt. About forty miles outside L11 189 Calusa."

L11 190 For the most part, the towns dotting this inland part of the L11 191 state were featureless and unattractive; even the landscape looked L11 192 dry and dusty, dotted with scruffy palmettos and cabbage palms, L11 193 gnarled scrub oaks twisting mossy branches against a brassy sky.

L11 194 "And finally," Toots said, poking her L11 195 forefinger at the circled numeral 3, "little Felicity L11 196 Hammer was grabbed right here in Calusa. Now, it's entirely L11 197 possible that Mary Barton drove the ninety-some-odd miles for L11 198 Calusa to Somerset in search of her first victim ..."

L11 199 "That would've meant almost a two-hundred-mile round L11 200 trip," Warren said.

L11 201 "Exactly my point. That's a lot of traveling, L11 202 Warren."

L11 203 "It is."

L11 204 "Mary isn't stupid ..."

L11 205 "Far from it."

L11 206 "So why'd she range so far afield? Didn't she realize a L11 207 stranger in any of the dinky little towns would be noticed? And L11 208 remarked upon? And remembered later? Do you see my point, Warren? L11 209 If she planned to bury her victims in her own backyard, why not L11 210 choose them in Calusa, kill them in Calusa, the way she L11 211 finally did with Felicity?"

L11 212 "You're making Matthew's closing argument."

L11 213 "I'm making the only argument he's got," L11 214 Toots said, and shook her head. "I'll tell you something, L11 215 Warren, if we don't come up with something to impeach Carmody when L11 216 she takes the stand ..."

L11 217 "I know," Warren said.

L11 218 "She's the one we really have to worry about. L11 219 She's the one who saw Mary burying that kid."

L11 220 "Yeah," Warren said glumly.

L11 221 Toots was silent for a moment.

L11 222 Then she said, "You think she's innocent?"

L11 223 "I hope she is," Warren said.

L11 224 The voter registration list from which they were working named L11 225 the residents of 603 Palmetto Court as Bradley Morse and Nettie L11 226 Morse, presumably his wife. The Morses lived in the same sort of L11 227 cinder-block and stucco house that Mary lived in. In fact, all of L11 228 the houses here in Crescent Cove, as the development was called, L11 229 were of the same inexpensive construction, creating the look of a L11 230 hastily constructed 1930s shantytown. Actually, the houses had been L11 231 built in the late fifties, when Calusa was experiencing a boom that L11 232 would transform it from a sleepy fishing village to a city of L11 233 fifty-thousand-plus people.

L11 234 Despite its name, Crescent Cove wasn't on water. If it had L11 235 been, the homes here would have become treasures to be purchased, L11 236 bulldozed, and replaced with houses costing half a million bucks or L11 237 more. In the state of Florida, the only thing more precious than L11 238 cocaine was water. The Cove in the development's name came L11 239 from pure whimsy. The Crescent was somewhat architecturally L11 240 founded in that the layout of the development was in fact L11 241 semicircular, the outermost rim containing more houses than the L11 242 innermost, which was called a court because of its comparative L11 243 coziness. The only mildly interesting house in Crescent Cove L11 244 belonged to Mary Barton. And the only thing that made it special L11 245 was the garden in which the dead little girls had been found on a L11 246 sunny September morn. There were five houses in the semicircle that L11 247 formed Crescent Court. Lights were burning in all five of them.

L11 248 They'd started their canvass of Mary's neighborhood on her own L11 249 block and had worked inward over the past several days until they L11 250 were now at the development's hub. There weren't many more houses L11 251 to go, and so far they'd been unable to turn up anything Matthew L11 252 could use against Charlotte Carmody when the state attorney called L11 253 her. Given Atkins's chronological approach, they hoped that L11 254 wouldn't be for some time yet. But if he changed his mind and L11 255 decided to put her on tomorrow -

L11 256 "Watching television," Toots said, and nodded L11 257 toward the house ahead. She'd based her conclusion on the fact that L11 258 the light showing in one of the front rooms, presumably the living L11 259 room, had a bluish cast to it. Warren didn't ask her how come she L11 260 knew the people in there were watching television. He himself knew L11 261 that if you wanted to fool a burglar into thinking you were home L11 262 watching the TV, you screwed a blue light into one of your lamps, L11 263 drew the blinds, and felt at least partially safe when you went out L11 264 on the town.

L11 265 This was a Tuesday night, not a big night out in Calusa, though L11 266 nowadays not too many people were going out to eat, anyway. More L11 267 often than not, even on Saturday nights, people were staying home. L11 268 Renting a video, sending out for pizza, that was about all they L11 269 could afford for an evening's entertainment. In most cities and L11 270 towns, you didn't go out because you couldn't afford it. In other L11 271 cities and towns, you didn't go out because you were afraid you'd L11 272 get killed on the streets. A thousand points of light were shining L11 273 in living rooms all over America, a real legacy. L11 274 L12 1 <#FROWN:L12\>"The local minister, man named Orestes L12 2 Tillis," Jackie said. "He wants to be a state L12 3 senator."

L12 4 "Anyone would," I said. "So Hawk and I L12 5 are going to clean up Double Deuce and you're going to cover it, L12 6 and Marge Eagen is going to be able to charge more for commercial L12 7 time on her show. And Rev Tillis will get elected."

L12 8 "I know you're being cynical, but I guess, in fact, L12 9 that's the truth. On the other hand, if you do clean up Double L12 10 Deuce, it really will be good for the people there. Regardless of L12 11 Marge Eagen or Orestes Tillis. And whoever killed that child and L12 12 her baby ..."

L12 13 "Sure," I said.

L12 14 "He's just mad," Hawk said, "because he L12 15 likes to think he's a catcher in the rye."

L12 16 "I'm disappointed that I didn't figure it out something L12 17 was up."

L12 18 "I don't follow this," Jackie said.

L12 19 "Hawk seemed to be helping people for no good reason. L12 20 Hawk doesn't do that."

L12 21 "Except you," Hawk said.

L12 22 "Except me," I said. "And Susan, and L12 23 probably Henry Cimoli."

L12 24 "Who's Susan?" Jackie said.

L12 25 "She's with me," I said.

L12 26 "I thought of money, or getting even, or paying some L12 27 thing off. I never thought of you."

L12 28 "Me?"

L12 29 "He's doing it for you."

L12 30 Jackie looked at Hawk. Her hand still rested quietly on his L12 31 thigh.

L12 32 "That why you're doing it, Hawk?" she said.

L12 33 "Sure," Hawk said.

L12 34 She smiled at him, as good a smile as I'd seen in a while - L12 35 except for Susan's - and patted his thigh.

L12 36 "That's very heartwarming," she said.

L12 37 Hawk smiled back at her and put one hand on top of her hand as L12 38 it rested on his thigh.

L12 39 Good heavens!

L12 40 CHAPTER 12

L12 41 As soon as we pulled into the Double Deuce quadrangle the L12 42 Reverend Tillis and a woman with short gray-streaked hair came out L12 43 of the building. Tillis had on a dashiki over his suit today. The L12 44 woman wore faded pink jeans and a Patriots sweatshirt. Hawk got out L12 45 of the car as they approached. Neither of them looked at me.

L12 46 "This is Mrs. Brown," Tillis said. "She L12 47 has a complaint about the Hobarts."

L12 48 Hawk smiled at her and nodded his head once.

L12 49 "Go ahead," Tillis said to her.

L12 50 "They been messing with my boy," the woman L12 51 said. "He going to school and they take his books away from L12 52 him and they take his lunch money. I saved out that lunch money and L12 53 they took it. And one of them push him down and tell him he better L12 54 get some protection for himself."

L12 55 The woman put both hands on her hips as she talked and her face L12 56 was raised at Hawk as if she were expecting him to challenge her L12 57 and she was ready to fight back.

L12 58 "Where's your son?" Hawk said.

L12 59 She shook her head and looked down.

L12 60 "Boy's afraid to come," Tillis said.

L12 61 Hawk nodded.

L12 62 "Which one pushed him down?"

L12 63 The woman raised her head defiantly. "My boy won't L12 64 say."

L12 65 "You know where I can find them?" Hawk said.

L12 66 "They hanging on the corner, Hobart and L12 67 McCrory," she said. "That's where they be hassling L12 68 my boy."

L12 69 Hawk nodded again. I got out of the car on Hawk's side. Jackie L12 70 got out the other.

L12 71 "What you planning on?" Tillis said to Hawk.

L12 72 "I tell you how to write sermons?" Hawk L12 73 said.

L12 74 "I represent these people," Tillis said. L12 75 "I got a right to ask."

L12 76 "Sure," Hawk said. "You know Jackie, I L12 77 guess."

L12 78 Tillis nodded and put out his hand. "Jackie. Working on L12 79 that show?"

L12 80 "Tagging along," she said.

L12 81 "Figure this is for us?" I said.

L12 82 "See what we do," Hawk said. "Otherwise L12 83 no point to it. It ain't exactly the crime of the L12 84 century."

L12 85 "Mrs. Brown, I think you and I should allow Hawk to L12 86 deal with this," Reverend Tillis said, making it sound L12 87 regretful. Hawk grinned to himself.

L12 88 There was no one in sight as we walked across the project. L12 89 Jackie stayed with us. I looked at Hawk. He made no sign. It was L12 90 warm for April. Nothing moved. The sun shone down. No wind stirred. L12 91 Jackie took a small tape recorder out of her shoulder bag.

L12 92 Ahead of us was a loud radio. The sound of it came from a van, L12 93 parked at the corner. A couple kids were sitting in the van with L12 94 the doors open. Major leaned against a lamp-post. The big L12 95 kid that Hawk had nailed last time was standing near him. The L12 96 others were fanned out around. There were eighteen of them. I L12 97 didn't see any weapons. The music abruptly shut off. The sound of L12 98 Jackie's heels was suddenly loud on the hot top.

L12 99 Major smiled at us as we stopped in front of him. I heard L12 100 Jackie's tape recorder click on.

L12 101 "What's you got the wiggle for, Fro?" Major L12 102 said. "She for backup?"

L12 103 The kids fanned out around him laughed.

L12 104 "Which one of you hassled the Brown kid?" Hawk L12 105 said.

L12 106 "We all brown kids here, Fro," Major said.

L12 107 Again laughter from the gang.

L12 108 Hawk waited. Still no sign of weapons. I was betting on the L12 109 van. It had a pair of doors on the side that open out. One of them L12 110 was open maybe six inches. It would come from there. I wasn't L12 111 wearing a jacket. The gun on my hip was apparent. It didn't matter. L12 112 They all knew I had one, anyway. Hawk's gun was still out of sight L12 113 under a black silk windbreaker he wore unzipped. That didn't matter L12 114 either, they knew he had one to.

L12 115 "What you going to do, Fro, you find the hobo that L12 116 hassed him?" Major said.

L12 117 "One way to find out," Hawk said.

L12 118 Major turned and grinned at the audience. Then he looked at the L12 119 big kid next to him.

L12 120 "John Porter, you do that?"

L12 121 John Porter said "Ya," which was probably half the L12 122 things John Porter could say. From his small dark eyes no gleam of L12 123 intelligence shone.

L12 124 "There be your man, Fro," Major said. L12 125 "Lass time you mace him, he say you sucker him. He ain't L12 126 ready, he say."

L12 127 Hawk grinned. "That right, John Porter?"

L12 128 The cork was going to pop. There was no way that it wouldn't. L12 129 Without moving my head I kept a peripheral fix on the van door.

L12 130 John Porter said, "Ya."

L12 131 "You ready now, John Porter?" Hawk said.

L12 132 John Porter obviously was ready now. His knees were flexed, his L12 133 shoulders hunched up a little. He had his chin tucked in behind his L12 134 left shoulder. There was some scar tissue around his right eye. L12 135 There was the scar along his jawline, and his nose looked as if it L12 136 had thickened. Maybe boxed a little. Probably a lot of fights in L12 137 prison.

L12 138 "Care to even things up for the sucker punch?" L12 139 Hawk said.

L12 140 "John Porter say he gon whang yo ass, Fro," L12 141 Major said. "First chance he get."

L12 142 The laughter still skittered around the edges of everything L12 143 Major said. But his voice was tauter now than it had been.

L12 144 "Right, John Porter?" Major said.

L12 145 John Porter nodded. His eyes reminded me of the eyes of a Cape L12 146 buffalo I'd seen once in the San Diego Zoo. He kept his stare on L12 147 Hawk. It was what the gang kids called mad-dogging. Hawk's grin got L12 148 wider and friendlier.

L12 149 "Well, John Porter," Hawk said, friendly as a L12 150 Bible salesman, "You right 'bout that sucker punch. And L12 151 being as how you a brother and all, I'll let you sucker me. Go on L12 152 ahead and lay one upside my head, and that way we start out even, L12 153 should anything, ah, develop."

L12 154 John Porter looked at Major.

L12 155 "Go on, John Porter, do what the man say. Put a charge L12 156 on his head, Homes."

L12 157 John Porter was giving this some thought, which was clearly L12 158 hard for him. Was there some sort of trickery here?

L12 159 "Come on, John Porter," Major said. L12 160 "Man, you can't fickle on me now. You tol me you going to L12 161 crate this Thompson first chance. You tol me that, Homes." L12 162 In everything Major said there was derision.

L12 163 John Porter put out a decent overhand left at Hawk, which L12 164 missed. Hawk didn't seem to do anything, but the punch missed his L12 165 chin by a quarter of an inch. John Porter had done some boxing. He L12 166 shuffled in behind the left with a right cross, which also missed L12 167 by a quarter of an inch. John Porter began to lose form. He lunged L12 168 and Hawk stepped aside and John Porter had to scramble to keep his L12 169 balance.

L12 170 "See, the thing is," Hawk said, "You're L12 171 in over your head, John Porter. You don't know what you are dealing L12 172 with here."

L12 173 John Porter rushed at Hawk this time, and Hawk moved L12 174 effortlessly out of the way. John Porter was starting to puff. He L12 175 wasn't quite chasing Hawk yet. He had enough ring savvy left to L12 176 know that you could get your clock cleaned by a Boy Scout if you L12 177 started chasing him incautiously. But chasing Hawk cautiously L12 178 wasn't working. John Porter had been trained, probably in some L12 179 jailhouse boxing program, in the way to fight with his fists. And L12 180 it wasn't working. It had probably nearly always worked. He was L12 181 6'2" and probably weighed 240, and all of it muscle. He might not L12 182 have lost a fight since the fourth grade. Maybe never. But he was L12 183 losing this one and the guy wasn't even fighting. John Porter L12 184 didn't get it. He stopped, his hands still up, puffing a little, L12 185 and squinted at Hawk.

L12 186 "What you doing?" he said.

L12 187 Major stepped behind John Porter and kicked him in the butt.

L12 188 "You fry him, John Porter, and you do it now," L12 189 Major said.

L12 190 There was no derision in Major's voice.

L12 191 "He can't," Hawk said, not unkindly.

L12 192 John Porter made a sudden sweep at Hawk with his right hand and L12 193 missed. The side door of the van slid an inch and I jumped at it L12 194 and rammed it shut with my shoulder on someone's hand, someone L12 195 yelled in pain, something clattered on the street. I kept my back L12 196 against the door and came up with the Browning and leveled it sort L12 197 of inclusively at the group. Hawk had a left handful of John L12 198 Porter's hair. He held John Porter's head down in front of him, and L12 199 with his right hand, pressed the muzzle of a Sig Sauer automatic L12 200 into John Porter's left ear. Jackie had dropped flat to the L12 201 pavement and was trying with her left hand to smooth her skirt down L12 202 over her backside, while her right hand pushed the tape recorder as L12 203 far forward toward the action as she could.

L12 204 Somewhere on the other side of McCrory Street a couple of birds L12 205 chirped. Inside the truck someone was grunting with pain. I could L12 206 feel him struggle to get his arm out of the door. A couple of gang L12 207 members were frozen in midreach toward inside pockets or under L12 208 jackets.

L12 209 "Now this time," Hawk was saying, "We L12 210 all going to walk away from this."

L12 211 No one moved. Major stood with no expression on his face, as if L12 212 he were watching an event that didn't interest him.

L12 213 "Next time some of you will be gone for good," L12 214 Hawk said. "Spenser, bring him out of the L12 215 truck."

L12 216 I kept my eyes on the gang and slid my back off the door. It L12 217 swung open and a small quick-looking kid no more than fourteen, in L12 218 a black Adidas sweatsuit, came out clutching his right wrist L12 219 against him. In the gutter by the curb, below the open door, was an L12 220 automatic pistol. I picked it up and stuck it in my belt.

L12 221 "You all walk away from here, now," Hawk said. L12 222 No one moved.

L12 223 "Do what I say," Hawk said. There was no anger L12 224 in his voice. Hawk pursed his lips as he looked at the gang members L12 225 standing stolidly in place. Behind him Jackie was on her feet L12 226 again, her tape recorder still running, some sand clinging to the L12 227 front of her dress.

L12 228 Hawk smiled suddenly.

L12 229 "Sure," he said.

L12 230 He looked at me.

L12 231 "They won't leave without him," Hawk said.

L12 232 I nodded. L12 233 L13 1 <#FROWN:L13\>"So what is it, Lieutenant, you gonna read me L13 2 my rights?" He began to chuckle deep down in his chest. The L13 3 chuckle quickly became a cough so violent it worried Koesler.

L13 4 When the coughing finally stopped, Tully said, "No, L13 5 Carl ... not yet, anyway. Just some questions. You gonna invite us L13 6 in?"

L13 7 Costello did not appear eager to reply. He peered at the group L13 8 on the porch one by one, studying each unhurriedly as he had L13 9 studied Tully earlier. Then he got to Koesler. Costello pulled up L13 10 short. "Hey, you a father? You a Catholic L13 11 priest?"

L13 12 For the first time in his life Koesler was reluctant to L13 13 identify himself. He had no idea what would follow the admission L13 14 that he was, indeed, a priest. Was the whole family in on the L13 15 killing of Father Keating? Probably. Did the whole family know that L13 16 Guido had confessed the murder to him? Probably not.

L13 17 "Wassamatter," Costello said good-naturedly, L13 18 "you forget if you're a father or not?"

L13 19 Koesler reddened. "No ... of course not. Yes, I'm a L13 20 priest, a Catholic priest. Father Koesler."

L13 21 "You should watch the company you keep, L13 22 Father." Costello chuckled again, and again it developed L13 23 into a coughing spasm. He turned his head slightly to address his L13 24 grandson standing behind him. "Wassamatter with you, L13 25 anyway, sonny? You see a father on the porch and you don't invite L13 26 him in? What are you - a Catholic or what?"

L13 27 "Sorry, Gampa. I woulda done that, but the father came L13 28 in this package deal. I didn't think you'd want the heat in L13 29 here."

L13 30 "We got better hospitality than that, Sonny." L13 31 He turned back to the group. "Come on in, fellas ... and L13 32 good lady. Though I must tell you, Lieutenant, if you hadn't had L13 33 the father along, you woulda had to have some paper with you to get L13 34 in. But ..." It was a verbal shrug. "... what the L13 35 hell; it's a short life."

L13 36 Tully entered first. But Costello stood back waiting for L13 37 Koesler to cross the threshold. "You bless my home with L13 38 your presence, Father.

L13 39 "Hey," his voice raised only slightly, "Momma: L13 40 Come see who come to visit us."

L13 41 As Mangiapane and Moore entered, with Sonny bringing up the L13 42 rear, from somewhere in the back of the house, probably the L13 43 kitchen, since she was drying her hands on an apron, came a L13 44 gray-haired woman. Though she might have been of a certain age, she L13 45 was still quite attractive; she had held on to her youthful figure L13 46 remarkably.

L13 47 "Father," Costello announced, "here is my wife, L13 48 Vita. Vita, see who this is. It's ... uh ... Father ... uh L13 49 ..."

L13 50 "Koesler," the priest supplied. He caught the surprise L13 51 in her eyes. Evidently this home did not get a lot of priest L13 52 visitors.

L13 53 "Welcome, Father," she said. "You bless L13 54 our home with your presence." She walked quickly to L13 55 Koesler, took his hand with both of hers, and kissed it. L13 56 Instinctively he started to pull away, thought better of it, and L13 57 left his hand in Vita's clasp.

L13 58 Koesler had almost forgotten that once that had been a L13 59 time-honored custom. Long ago, when newly ordained priests blessed L13 60 people, the faithful would kiss the hands that so recently had been L13 61 anointed with holy oil. Even then, Koesler had felt squeamish about L13 62 the practice.

L13 63 Then, also in those early days, sometimes the elderly ailing L13 64 people would kiss his hands when he brought them Communion.

L13 65 He wondered about what he had seen and heard just now. Somehow, L13 66 though he knew it was far too facile, Koesler expected all Italians L13 67 - as well as Poles, Irish, and Hispanics - to be Catholic. But he L13 68 never would have expected to be greeted so warmly and with such L13 69 faith by the Mafia or their family. He was reminded of how L13 70 comfortable and at home Jesus always seemed to be in the presence L13 71 of outcasts and those whom society branded as hopeless sinners. He L13 72 resolved to meditate on this later when he could be alone in L13 73 prayer.

L13 74 For the moment, despite the cordial welcome, he had to be on L13 75 his guard. There was still the secret to protect.

L13 76 Vita Costello, after a few more words of welcome for Koesler - L13 77 and an invitation to dinner, which the priest graciously declined - L13 78 returned to the rear of the house whence emanated appetizing aromas L13 79 of marinara and meatballs.

L13 80 Carl Costello led the way into a spacious living room, which L13 81 looked as if it had been furnished in the twenties and thereafter L13 82 left untouched. The elderly gentleman moved with deliberation to a L13 83 chair that appeared to be both comfortable and his. Behind the L13 84 chair Remo stood almost at attention. He might have been a guardian L13 85 angel or a sentry.

L13 86 Koesler and Tully each picked an easy chair; Moore sat on the L13 87 couch. Mangiapane remained standing behind the couch, mirroring L13 88 Remo's angel-or-sentry stance.

L13 89 Costello held up his left hand, with the index and middle L13 90 fingers extended. For a moment Koesler wondered why the don was L13 91 giving the peace sign. But Remo quickly lit a cigarette and placed L13 92 it between the upraised fingers. Koesler now knew the source of L13 93 Costello's cough.

L13 94 "Now, gentle lady and gentlemen," Costello L13 95 began, "in what way can we be of service to L13 96 you?"

L13 97 Innocent or guilty of whatever, Carl Costello was cool. He L13 98 might easily, thought Koesler, have been a conscientious citizen L13 99 eager to help the police in any possible way.

L13 100 "Carl," Tully said, "you heard we got a missing L13 101 priest in Detroit?"

L13 102 "Bloomfield Hills, I heard, Lieutenant." L13 103 Costello was almost apologetic.

L13 104 Tully nodded. "He lives in Bloomfield Hills. He's a L13 105 Detroit priest."

L13 106 "It was on the radio and TV, is how I know," L13 107 Costello said. "I don't get around in those circles too L13 108 much anymore."

L13 109 "The last anyone saw of him - that we've talked to - he L13 110 was heading for Detroit. That was Friday afternoon last. No one's L13 111 heard from him since."

L13 112 "Is that so!" Costello said. Impossible to tell L13 113 whether the expression was sincere or sardonic. "Perhaps he L13 114 will return soon."

L13 115 "It's been four days, Carl. That's too long to be L13 116 missing."

L13 117 "It is indeed. But there is always hope. Sonny, why L13 118 don't you drop over by church tonight and have a Mass said for L13 119 ..." Costello looked to each of his four visitors for L13 120 assistance.

L13 121 The long pause proved too much for Koesler. "John L13 122 Keating," he said, "Father John L13 123 Keating."

L13 124 Costello nodded good-naturedly toward the priest. L13 125 "Thank you, Father.

L13 126 "Sonny, write that down: Father John Keating - wait: Father, L13 127 maybe you would say the Mass."

L13 128 Koesler felt most uncomfortable. If he consented, Costello L13 129 would offer him money. Which he would refuse. He - most Detroit L13 130 priests - no longer accepted Mass stipends. Costello would insist; L13 131 there would be explanations. All very inappropriate.

L13 132 "I'm sorry, Mr. Costello," Koesler said. L13 133 "Our parish is booked solid for weeks with Mass intentions. L13 134 I am praying for him though." All of that was true. L13 135 However, the prayers were for the repose of Keating's soul.

L13 136 "I understand, Father," Costello said. He L13 137 turned his head. "Sonny, go to Holy Family. They can't be L13 138 so busy. Have the Mass said."

L13 139 "Right, Gampa." Remo was writing down the L13 140 name.

L13 141 "Carl," Tully spoke pointedly, "get L13 142 serious."

L13 143 How serious can I get, Costello's gesture implied.

L13 144 "You know anything about the missing L13 145 priest?"

L13 146 "Me! I live in Bloomfield Hills? I should know this L13 147 priest?"

L13 148 "He's worked other parishes, some in Detroit, even L13 149 Little Italy. You could know him from lots of places."

L13 150 "Anybody could know him from lots of places, L13 151 Lieutenant. Come on, why me?"

L13 152 Tully's storied patience was wearing thin. "Carl, guess L13 153 whose car that is out there that's attracting all that L13 154 attention?"

L13 155 Costello leaned forward and craned for a better view of the L13 156 bustle practically outside his front window. "Well, now, L13 157 Lieutenant, I learned to add. The kind, you know, where two plus L13 158 two equals four. I'd guess that since you been asking me all these L13 159 questions about a missing priest named Father Keating, which I've L13 160 never seen in my life, and since the car in question is parked L13 161 almost in front of my house, I would guess that that car belongs to L13 162 the missing priest, Father Keating." Costello looked at L13 163 Tully with the wide-eyed innocence of a schoolchild who hopes his L13 164 answer is the right one. "How'm I doin'?"

L13 165 "Until we came in your house and started questioning L13 166 you, you weren't curious about what all those police officers were L13 167 doing with that car?"

L13 168 "I seen cops before."

L13 169 "You didn't see that car before today?"

L13 170 "I didn't say that."

L13 171 "You did see the car before today."

L13 172 "I didn't say that either."

L13 173 "One of your neighbors has been watching it for four L13 174 days. That's why he called the cops and reported a suspicious L13 175 vehicle."

L13 176 "He done good."

L13 177 "And you?"

L13 178 "I mind my own business. There's a law against L13 179 that?"

L13 180 "You want us to believe there's no connection between L13 181 you and that car? That it's just a coincidence that a car owned by L13 182 a person who's been missing four days ends up practically in front L13 183 of your house?"

L13 184 "I don't care what you believe."

L13 185 The conversation was getting a bit intense. It was Costello who L13 186 tried to defuse it. With a tone of calm reason, he said, L13 187 "Look, Lieutenant, what it this? We both know I've been L13 188 around the block a few times. If I done anything to this priest - L13 189 and God forbid I did! - I'm gonna have his car parked in front of L13 190 my house? Like I hang a red flag from the car's antenna? Be L13 191 reasonable, Lieutenant. Gimmee credit for being more than a dumb L13 192 school kid!"

L13 193 "Maybe one of your family left it there."

L13 194 "And I didn't check into it?"

L13 195 "You didn't notice the car until today."

L13 196 "I didn't say that. Besides, Lieutenant, why would I L13 197 have anything to do with a missing priest?"

L13 198 "Maybe one of your family had something to do with it. L13 199 Maybe Guido. Maybe Remo. Sonny here doesn't look too L13 200 clean."

L13 201 Remo stiffened. Costello checked him with a gesture.

L13 202 Yes, yes, yes, Koesler thought. Guido! Go after L13 203 Guido.

L13 204 "Look, Lieutenant," Costello said, L13 205 "nobody here had anything to do with your missing priest. L13 206 Ain't there supposed to be a motive for this kind of thing? Why L13 207 would we mess with a priest? Especially a priest from Bloomfield L13 208 Hills?"

L13 209 "That's what we want to find out, Carl. Why? Somebody L13 210 want him iced bad enough to hire a hit? Unpaid bills? Lots of L13 211 possibilities."

L13 212 Yes, yes, yes, Koesler thought. Gambling L13 213 debts. Why isn't this ESP working? It was Guido and it was L13 214 gambling debts. Can't you hear my thoughts, Lieutenant Tully? L13 215 Can't you read my mind?

L13 216 "You been reading too many detective stories, L13 217 Lieutenant. Whoever put that car there probably had a grudge or L13 218 something. We didn't have nothin' to do with it."

L13 219 "You didn't have anything to do with the car. You L13 220 didn't have anything to do with the priest."

L13 221 "What I said."

L13 222 "Then you won't mind if we look around your house, eh, L13 223 Carl? You got nothin' to hide."

L13 224 For the first time, Costello's demeanor became deadly serious. L13 225 "For that, Lieutenant, you gotta have some L13 226 paper."

L13 227 Tully rose. Koesler and Moore followed suit. "We'll be L13 228 back."

L13 229 The four found themselves out on the sidewalk. Only a few of L13 230 the gawkers turned to look at them, and those spared only a L13 231 momentary glance. The police checking out the abandoned car were L13 232 far more interesting.

L13 233 "Anyone's rump get hit by that door?" L13 234 Mangiapane asked.

L13 235 Moore laughed. "We did get ushered out rather L13 236 firmly," she agreed.

L13 237 But Tully was all business. "Manj, stay here. Make sure L13 238 that we question everybody in every house on this block. L13 239 Neighboring blocks too. We ought to be able to find somebody who L13 240 saw something out of place - anything odd. That car didn't just L13 241 grow there.

L13 242 "Angie, get a warrant. I want our people to go through L13 243 every inch of that place. Somebody there is in on this. Maybe not L13 244 the whole family. But someone.

L13 245 "I'll take the father home. I want to check with L13 246 Organized Crime, see what they've got on this family. OC ought to L13 247 have the latest sheet on Costello. I got a hunch if I let OC know L13 248 what's going on, they might be able to put some pressure on the L13 249 family."

L13 250 L14 1 <#FROWN:L14\>Her question appealed to the teacher in him. L14 2 Imagine being here as many years as Elaine had been and not knowing L14 3 about the Black Museum. Every time he said the phrase, Phil dropped L14 4 his voice into Orson Welles register, he couldn't help it, but of L14 5 course Elaine would not have heard that old radio program.

L14 6 "It's time you saw it. Anything on right L14 7 now?"

L14 8 "Your calendar is clear."

L14 9 "Have someone cover for you."

L14 10 They took the elevator to the basement and went through a L14 11 heating tunnel to a building across the street from the courthouse, L14 12 emerging into the furnace room. The door out of there was not flush L14 13 with the floor and Elaine had to lift her foot over the sill. L14 14 Captain Keegan shut the steel door of the furnace room behind them. L14 15 They now stood in a large, low-ceilinged basement filled with rows L14 16 and rows of filing cabinets. He took her to the area where recent L14 17 cases were found and led her down an aisle. In a minute he was L14 18 unlocking a drawer. Elaine stood close beside him when he pulled it L14 19 out. It was filled with packages wearing red tags that bore a case L14 20 number and then an exhibit number.

L14 21 "We'd need a list to know what each number L14 22 represents."

L14 23 Elaine reached into the drawer and began squeezing the L14 24 packages, but she could not find what was certainly a purse. L14 25 "I can see the purse so plainly as it lay on the table of L14 26 exhibits at the trial. You'd think I could detect it through a L14 27 layer of paper."

L14 28 "We're not even sure it's here. Didn't you come across L14 29 that list when you made the report?"

L14 30 She wasn't sure. Women. Phil wondered if she coveted that L14 31 purse. Well, there was no way she was going to get it. He should L14 32 have thought of the list before taking her over here. Or she should L14 33 have. He pushed the drawer shut and locked it.

L14 34 "Was Jones her real name, Captain?"

L14 35 "There'd be a court record if she changed it. When and L14 36 where. We didn't pursue that. No need to."

L14 37 "How would we have done that?"

L14 38 "An APB, then hope. My guess would be L14 39 Vegas."

L14 40 Finally Elaine tired of talking of the Wilson murder. Murder, L14 41 not alleged murder. The woman had been tried, convicted, and L14 42 sentenced and Phil Keegan didn't give a damn about the appeal. L14 43 Lawyers would enter an appeal for Judas Iscariot. Appeals were a L14 44 form of legal harassment of the judicial and jury system.

L14 45 Back in his office he put the Black Museum key in his desk L14 46 drawer and went off to have a cup of coffee with Cy Horvath.

L14 47 "Cy, what was Stacey Wilson's name before she changed L14 48 it?"

L14 49 "Jones."

L14 50 "No. I mean before she changed it to Jones?"

L14 51 Cy's face was impassive through half a minute's thought. L14 52 "Did she?"

L14 53 "Just for the fun of it, find out, will L14 54 you?"

L14 55 "Vegas?"

L14 56 "That would be my guess."

L14 57 Elaine's question had bugged him, as if there was some stone L14 58 they had left unturned in investigating the murder of Marvin L14 59 Wilson. Chief Robertson was still sitting on the report, unsure L14 60 whether to release it to the press. Phil would give him half a day L14 61 more, then he would leak it. Stacey Wilson's attorneys were already L14 62 asking what Chief Robertson had to hide.

L14 63 12 L14 64 Cy Horvath felt toward Phil Keegan as a son feels toward his L14 65 father, which meant that he could see the faults of the man as well L14 66 as his strengths. Keegan was the best cop Cy knew, but then he was L14 67 Cy's model, so how could he fail to meet the standard? He was L14 68 hard-headed, cool-minded, methodical, tenacious. He refused to be L14 69 deflected by side issues, he kept to the job, he got results.

L14 70 Usually. Most of the time. It is not in the nature of the job, L14 71 or of live, to be successful every time. But failure should be L14 72 explained by factors over which one had no control. Phil Keegan had L14 73 been a cop a long time and time had taken its toll, no doubt of L14 74 that. Phil Keegan made mistakes. But Cy Horvath had not imagined he L14 75 would live long enough to question one of Phil's successes.

L14 76 The case against Stacey Wilson had been too easy. The pieces L14 77 fell into place without much effort on their part. Billy Wheaton L14 78 stuck to his story that Stacey had been in the Lucky L14 79 Tyke, the McNaughtons reluctantly testified that she had been L14 80 away from the house during the days in question, a massive life L14 81 insurance policy taken out on Marvin Wilson in her favor came to L14 82 light. The nature and occasion of the marriage was public L14 83 knowledge. Phil was right to say the case was open and shut. He was L14 84 right, too, that Robertson was an idiot to stonewall when the L14 85 appeal was filed. Finally the chief released the report Elaine had L14 86 written up but only when he was told it was already in the hands of L14 87 the press. The beasts in the press room having been fed, Phil was L14 88 rightly expecting nothing but praise for a job well done, if any L14 89 stories appeared. The news had been the unavailability of a report. L14 90 No one but the defense lawyers had professed any interest in its L14 91 contents.

L14 92 When Phil asked about Stacey's name before the legal change, Cy L14 93 didn't want to tell his boss he had already checked out the Vegas L14 94 courts. He reported to Phil after an hour.

L14 95 "Already?"

L14 96 "The fax," Cy said. And that is how he had L14 97 communicated with Vegas months ago.

L14 98 "One, the change was made in Vegas. Here's the L14 99 newspaper item."

L14 100 He slid the faxed news story he'd just taken from his desk to L14 101 Keegan. The captain read it with a scowl. it was far from a perfect L14 102 transmission.

L14 103 "It doesn't say what her name was."

L14 104 "That's right."

L14 105 "Check the court." He tilted the page toward L14 106 the window and squinted. "Judge Melbourne."

L14 107 Cy slid two other items toward Keegan. Melbourne's obit and a L14 108 form from Vegas saying that the records requested could not be L14 109 provided.

L14 110 "Why the hell not?"

L14 111 "Because they don't have them. They're missing. Maybe L14 112 they don't keep records like that past a certain date. I don't L14 113 know. Should I pursue it?"

L14 114 "Does it matter?"

L14 115 "I don't see how."

L14 116 "Neither do I."

L14 117 "What made you wonder about it."

L14 118 "Elaine asked."

L14 119 Cy turned to look at the plumb young woman plinking away at her L14 120 computer in the outer office.

L14 121 "What's this date on these transmissions?" L14 122 Keegan was holding the fax messages an inch from his nose with his L14 123 glasses pushed up on his forehead.

L14 124 "When they were sent."

L14 125 "February?"

L14 126 "I wondered at the time."

L14 127 Cy knew Keegan wouldn't chew him out for it but he didn't like L14 128 it. He shouldn't. But that was the problem with the Stacey Wilson L14 129 investigation. They took what was offered them without much L14 130 questioning. Now Keegan had to wonder why Cy months before and L14 131 Elaine recently had thought of something he hadn't. So what if it L14 132 meant nothing? You didn't decide that before the fact. That was L14 133 what he had learned from Captain Keegan.

L14 134 They had given Billy Wheaton a bit of a hard time when he L14 135 placed Mrs. Wilson in the boat, nothing like what the defense L14 136 lawyers did at the trial, but not just taking the word of a known L14 137 drunk. Poor Billy had gone on such a toot after the trial he had L14 138 reeled right out of the world.

L14 139 Stacey Wilson had insisted she was at the farm all the while L14 140 her husband was out on his fatal boat ride. The McNaughtons who L14 141 worked at the farm had to testify they could not say she was L14 142 there.

L14 143 "You didn't see her?"

L14 144 "No."

L14 145 "She didn't ask for any meals to be L14 146 prepared?"

L14 147 "No."

L14 148 "She had no visitors?"

L14 149 "No."

L14 150 "Took no phone calls?"

L14 151 "No."

L14 152 "Had her bed been slept in?"

L14 153 "No."

L14 154 So it had gone at the trial, for both Mr. and Mrs. McNaughton L14 155 and each question had shot another hole in Stacey's claim to have L14 156 been at the farm. Why did she say she'd been there when it was so L14 157 easily disproved? Cy checked the sequence and found that when she L14 158 made the claim to have been on the farm, Billy Wheaton had not yet L14 159 come forward. She didn't care whether the story held up, because L14 160 she didn't think it would matter. If she hadn't been on the boat L14 161 she could have claimed to be in Las Vegas or on the moon, it L14 162 wouldn't have mattered as long as she hadn't been placed in the L14 163 boat with her husband. Cy Horvath could not get rid of the thought L14 164 that, crazy as her alibi was, it was the lie of a woman innocent of L14 165 murder, not guilty of it. But if she was not in the boat with L14 166 Marvin and not in the house, she must have been somewhere and with L14 167 someone. If not, she'd just say. The only thing that made sense, L14 168 granting her everything else, was the revealing who that someone L14 169 was endangered her more than standing trial for murder.

L14 170 So what would he have done differently if he had been in L14 171 Keegan's shoes? Talk to Stacey? With her it had been name, rank, L14 172 and serial number form the start.

L14 173 Monahan from the prosecutor's office accepted Cy's offer of a L14 174 drink but when they got across the street to the Pueblo ordered L14 175 coffee. The bartender looked at him.

L14 176 "That pot's been brewing since morning."

L14 177 "Then it ought to be ready."

L14 178 "What'll you have, Horvath, milk?"

L14 179 "You got buttermilk?"

L14 180 "As a matter of fact I do."

L14 181 "Give me a glass."

L14 182 The bartender, who could not have remembered it, said it was L14 183 like Prohibition or something. Nobody drank anymore.

L14 184 "He should have been with me last night," L14 185 Monahan said ruefully. "I still can't believe I got through L14 186 this day. God knows what I did."

L14 187 "You going to handle our side when the Wilson case L14 188 comes up?"

L14 189 "I could handle that one in my sleep. I could have L14 190 handled it today."

L14 191 "She's guilty?"

L14 192 "As charged."

L14 193 "If she isn't, she sure is dumb."

L14 194 "Killing her husband is dumb enough."

L14 195 "No, but think if she really didn't. Just entertain the L14 196 thought. Geez, we depended on Billy Wheaton. He should have seen L14 197 two of her if she was in the boat."

L14 198 Monahan liked that, but laughing made his head ache. The coffee L14 199 didn't help, but it gave him something to do in a bar that could L14 200 not bring him further pain.

L14 201 "Take Billy out of the picture and what do we have? A L14 202 woman claiming to be where it's easy as pie to show she L14 203 wasn't."

L14 204 "Dumb," Monahan agreed.

L14 205 "She isn't dumb."

L14 206 Monahan thought about that. "If she's so damned smart L14 207 why didn't she just enjoy what she had while she had it? He dumps L14 208 her, it's a golden parachute. She outlives him, she's got it made. L14 209 Why press matters? Why buy the stupid insurance policy?"

L14 210 "That's like saying she was at the house."

L14 211 "Exactly." Monahan paused. "I L14 212 think."

L14 213 "Who's she protecting? Or who is a greater threat than L14 214 life in the slammer?"

L14 215 "Thank God for Billy Wheaton."

L14 216 "Yeah. May he rest in peace."

L14 217 "Amen. Cy, he was the key to our case."

L14 218 And what would Stacey's story have been if Billy had come L14 219 forward earlier, before she claimed to have spent those days at the L14 220 farm? He would have liked to put that question to the lady herself L14 221 but, one, she wouldn't tell him and, two, he had no excuse to pay L14 222 her a visit at Joliet.

L14 223 The booth they sat in gave them a view of the street outside L14 224 and the courthouse across the street, a convenience for those L14 225 playing hooky in the Pueblo. As Cy looked across the street, Elaine L14 226 McCorkle came skipping down the courthouse steps. Cy was struck by L14 227 the girlishness of her gait and then he saw why. A man awaited her L14 228 at the foot of the steps. They embraced and then, arms around one L14 229 another's waists, hips bumping rhythmically, they came across the L14 230 street. L14 231 L15 1 <#FROWN:L15\>How young she had been! She'd worn a full skirt L15 2 that blew against her slender body, her long black hair free about L15 3 her shoulders, and John hadn't changed from his waterman's gear, L15 4 his face as brown as his arms in their rolled-up plain sleeves. L15 5 They had walked together on hard, wet sand, and hadn't touched each L15 6 other by so much as a finger. Yet they'd moved close in spirit, and L15 7 they both knew very well what was happening.

L15 8 For Alex this had been nothing like her feelings for Rudy L15 9 Folkes, or for Juan Gabriel. This was her first young love L15 10 -totally abandoned, without caution or forethought. The acceptance, L15 11 each of the other, had been complete as they walked together on the L15 12 sand. Something utterly magical had taken hold of them that L15 13 evening. Something dangerous.

L15 14 For her, there had been no choice. It had not been difficult to L15 15 see one another. They had found delicious, secret places along the L15 16 Tidewater shores for their lovemaking -never anything as mundane as L15 17 a room or an ordinary bed. Sometimes it was a field where L15 18 wildflowers bloomed, or perhaps the russet ground beneath pine L15 19 trees. And how they had talked, opening their hearts to each other. L15 20 The stoicism of island men had broken down in John. It seemed that L15 21 each had understood the other as no one else ever could. That L15 22 belief, of course, had been their greatest mistake.

L15 23 Curiously, she had felt no betrayal toward Juan Gabriel. Not L15 24 then. She knew that nothing could change the special devotion she L15 25 felt for her husband, but this new love, that she'd never before L15 26 experienced, had risen in her so strongly that it swept all else L15 27 away. There'd been no thought of the future, or of who might be L15 28 hurt. How could this much happiness hurt anyone?

L15 29 Only one insurmountable problem existed between John and L15 30 herself. John wanted to marry her and she already was married. Juan L15 31 Gabriel was an old man -in John's eyes -and he felt she deserved a L15 32 young man's love. Someone with whom she could build a life, with L15 33 whom she could have children. Her marriage to Juan Gabriel had L15 34 brought only one child -a boy who had died as a baby before they L15 35 had come to this country. There had been no more pregnancies, L15 36 though they'd tried. What she hadn't understood was the deep island L15 37 tradition of morality that governed John, even though the part of L15 38 him that was like his mother could throw off such restrictions for L15 39 a time.

L15 40 In some strange way, Alex's relationship with John seemed to L15 41 exist in another dimension that had nothing to do with her everyday L15 42 life. In this way she avoided thought, avoided the truth of what L15 43 was happening, even the truth about herself. John was sure about L15 44 his life. He wanted to go on with the old ways of the men of L15 45 his family and be a waterman on Chesapeake Bay out of Tangier L15 46 Island. He found the dangers and uncertainties of that life to his L15 47 taste. So, he pleaded with Alex to divorce Juan Gabriel and come to L15 48 live on the island as his wife. The fact that divorce would never L15 49 be possible for Juan Gabriel meant nothing to Juan. He had the L15 50 arrogance of a young man and the rock-hard immovability of all his L15 51 island-bred ancestors. He could never understand Juan Gabriel's L15 52 principles, or that Alex Montoro had lived an entire L15 53 life-time as a ballerina before she even turned twenty-one. L15 54 Even his mainland upbringing had not touched that fierce, hard L15 55 core. He was a gentle man, whose hidden, inner fierceness came to L15 56 frighten her. At first, time spent with John existed on a different L15 57 plane. An unreal plane, perhaps. Something deep within Alex knew L15 58 she could never leave Juan Gabriel, never go to live on that tiny, L15 59 bleak island, burying herself forever. Perhaps she had buried L15 60 herself in Virginia, but at least she had done so with someone who L15 61 understood who she had once been, someone who valued her in ways L15 62 John could never understand. So her refusal wasn't entirely L15 63 cowardice on her part. An unexpected strength had risen in her -a L15 64 will strong enough to overcome the emotions she felt in John L15 65 Gower's arms. Perhaps it was a newly awakened sense of herself, of L15 66 John, of Juan Gabriel. And she made her choice.

L15 67 In dark moments, when she was being honest with herself, she L15 68 knew there had been another reason for her decision not to leave L15 69 Juan Gabriel. His terrible burst of violence back in Lima was L15 70 something she could never forget. It was always there at the back L15 71 of her mind as a warning, and more frightening than the same L15 72 element in John. Perhaps something in Alex herself had attracted L15 73 passionate, loving, possessive men, with a depth of violence in L15 74 their nature.

L15 75 Juan Gabriel had not been young -even then he was already in L15 76 his fifties -so it was not the violence of youth that had betrayed L15 77 him. A hot Spanish anger existed just beneath the surface, ready to L15 78 explode. When she looked back now she could not be sure that her L15 79 motive had been one of loyalty to her husband, or fear of what he L15 80 might do. If she had followed John Gower, they both might be long L15 81 dead by now. The gun she had seen in Juan Gabriel's safe had been a L15 82 warning.

L15 83 After she made her choice, there had been times when she wasn't L15 84 sure she wanted to go on living. Times when she'd cried herself to L15 85 sleep because John had married Emily. She was unable to be friends L15 86 with Emily any longer, and there was loss for her there, too L15 87 -something Emily, in her innocence, had never understood. Alex L15 88 could not have endured seeing them together and hearing how happy L15 89 they were in their marriage, since Emily could turn herself into a L15 90 proper Tangier wife.

L15 91 Alex had dealt with pain before, and she dealt with it again, L15 92 carrying on with her life so that Juan Gabriel was never hurt. The L15 93 only time she had ever doubted Juan Gabriel's love -so many years L15 94 later -had been when he had shown her his ebony carving of the L15 95 black swan. She winced at the memory, and was glad that the carving L15 96 had been misplaced over the years since his death. She remembered L15 97 packing it away, but she couldn't remember where. It was just as L15 98 well, she never wanted to see it again.

L15 99 Strange that she had loved two men named John -two L15 100 high-spirited men who could hide their deepest feelings.

L15 101 When Dolores was born, Juan Gabriel had been exultant with L15 102 pride, and he had not questioned this sudden miracle. He had wanted L15 103 this daughter, and from the time she was a baby Dolores had given L15 104 him an equal love. Sometimes Alex recognized John in Dolores, but L15 105 Juan Gabriel never suspected, and she could be grateful for L15 106 that.

L15 107 John Gower never saw his daughter, nor did she ever tell him it L15 108 was his child she bore. Nevertheless, with some sixth sense, she L15 109 felt that he knew. Perhaps, that was why he now wanted to see his L15 110 granddaughter Susan. Perhaps he had a right to see her? The L15 111 child of the child of his young love.

L15 112 To break the spell of her thoughts, Alex reached out to a pad L15 113 of yellow paper upon which Juan Gabriel had written a few lines. L15 114 The pad had remained here on his writing table, untouched since L15 115 he'd left it there. Oddly enough, the lines he'd written were about L15 116 Tangier Island -only snippets of information. He had never written L15 117 his novel using the island. Yet he had been picking up the idea L15 118 again all those years later, shortly before he became ill.

L15 119 She read the words:

L15 120 Indians occupied the island before the white man came. Perhaps L15 121 a thousand years before John Smith sailed into its harbor.

L15 122 2 1/2 miles long. 1 mile wide. 7 feet above sea level. Fragile, L15 123 vulnerable to hurricanes.

L15 124 Residents are of English descent. Elizabethan English can still L15 125 be heard. The men catch crabs, oysters, fish of various sorts, L15 126 clams. They are called watermen.

L15 127 The island has a strange beauty of its own and is peopled with L15 128 men and women inbred and strong enough to survive all that is asked L15 129 of them.

L15 130 Alex stopped reading because Juan Gabriel had started to set L15 131 down a hint of the island's eerie magic. He'd remembered the L15 132 sunsets, and he had imagined a storm and written words of tense L15 133 description. John had belonged to those generations of survivors, L15 134 as Alex could never have belonged.

L15 135 She set down the pad, not wanting to be drawn back -unable to L15 136 help herself.

L15 137 John! His ruggedly handsome young face was as clear in her mind L15 138 as though she'd seen him yesterday. There'd been times when she'd L15 139 forgotten how he looked -but every feature was there now, breaking L15 140 her heart all over again. To her he would remain always young and L15 141 strong and passionate. And he would remember her as the girl he had L15 142 loved so desperately. She had been beautiful then. She had the L15 143 photographs to prove it. So how could she bear to destroy his L15 144 memory of her with the reality of old age?

L15 145 She'd continued to hold Juan Gabriel's pencil in her fingers, L15 146 and she set it back in the jug, pricking her thumb with the sharp L15 147 point as she did so. She regarded the lead mark as though it was L15 148 somehow important -a link between present and past.

L15 149 There was still a question she didn't know how to answer. What L15 150 if Susan had a right to know this story, and to meet her L15 151 grandfather before it was too late? How was she to decide?

L15 152 It was always, so quickly, too late.

L15 153 Four L15 154 Susan climbed the two flights of stairs to the tower room, L15 155 finding that the last steps took a special effort. She felt utterly L15 156 weary, yet wide awake, her thoughts whirling in confusion. What she L15 157 needed now was to be alone in a quiet space, so that she needn't L15 158 think at all.

L15 159 In a little while she would take a hot, soaking bath to help L15 160 her fall asleep, but for now she wanted only to lie down and rest. L15 161 Without undressing, she lay full-length on the bed and closed her L15 162 eyes. At once the faces and incidents of the day began to flash L15 163 through her mind, and there was no way to dismiss them.

L15 164 What did she think of her grandmother, now that she had met L15 165 her? The young pictures of her as a ballet dancer had been L15 166 fascinating, and Susan wanted to know more about that time. Yet the L15 167 beautiful young girl in the photographs seemed to have little L15 168 connection with a woman grown weary and remote from life. How could L15 169 she hope to feel any affection for a woman so old and austere?

L15 170 The encounter with Theresa at the foot of the stairs haunted L15 171 her. Why could she remember nothing of what had happened when her L15 172 mother died? There had been moments, in the past, when some glimmer L15 173 of memory had risen, only to escape when she tried to grasp it.

L15 174 In the end, unwillingly, her thoughts turned to Peter Macklin. L15 175 The small, adoring child who had loved him still existed in some L15 176 part of her mind -perhaps more vividly than anything else from the L15 177 past. She felt unhappy and concerned because of the things Eric L15 178 Townsend had revealed so carelessly -perhaps maliciously -but she L15 179 must not get involved. In a few days she would have all the answers L15 180 she needed and she would be gone. Nothing that existed here in L15 181 Virginia need ever affect her again.

L15 182 Deep in her subconscious a faint voice was laughing. It's L15 183 already too late, it seemed to be saying, and she told it to L15 184 be quiet.

L15 185 Lying down wasn't going to work. She couldn't rest while her L15 186 mind was so active. She threw a sweater over her shoulders and went L15 187 outside to the small balcony that circled the tower. The sky was L15 188 dark except for millions of stars. A few clouds covered the L15 189 moon.

L15 190 L16 1 <#FROWN:L16\>I took a shower and touched up my shave, then put L16 2 the TV news on and listened to fifteen minutes of it with my feet L16 3 up and my eyes closed. Around five-thirty I called Kenan Khoury and L16 4 told him I'd made some progress, although I didn't have anything L16 5 specific to report. He wanted to know if there was anything he L16 6 could do.

L16 7 "Not just yet," I said. "I'll be going L16 8 back to Atlantic Avenue tomorrow to see if the picture fills in a L16 9 little more. When I'm done there I'll come out to your place. Will L16 10 you be there?"

L16 11 "Sure," he said. "I got no place to L16 12 go."

L16 13 I set the alarm and closed my eyes again, and the clock L16 14 snatched me out of a dream at half past six. I put on a suit and L16 15 tie and went over to Elaine's. She poured coffee for me and Perrier L16 16 for herself, and then we caught a cab uptown to the Asia Society, L16 17 where they had recently opened an exhibit that centered on the Taj L16 18 Mahal, and thus tied right in with the course she was taking at L16 19 Hunter. After we'd walked through the three exhibit rooms and made L16 20 the appropriate noises we followed the crowd into another room, L16 21 where we sat in folding chairs and listened to a soloist perform on L16 22 the sitar. I have no idea whether he was any good or not. I don't L16 23 know how you could tell, or how he himself would know if his L16 24 instrument was out of tune.

L16 25 Afterward there was a wine-and-cheese reception. "This L16 26 need not detain us long," Elaine murmured, and after a few L16 27 minutes of smiling and mumbling, we were on the street.

L16 28 "You loved every minute of it," she said.

L16 29 "It was all right."

L16 30 "Oh boy," she said. "The things a man L16 31 will put himself through in the hope of getting laid."

L16 32 "Come on," I said. "It wasn't that bad. L16 33 It's the same music they play at Indian restaurants."

L16 34 "But there you don't have to listen to it."

L16 35 "Who listened?"

L16 36 We want to an Italian restaurant, and over espresso I told her L16 37 about Kenan Khoury and what had happened to his wife. When I was L16 38 finished she sat for a moment looking down at the tablecloth in L16 39 front of her as if there were something written on it. Then she L16 40 raised her eyes slowly to meet mine. She is a resourceful woman, L16 41 and a durable one, but just then she looked touchingly L16 42 vulnerable.

L16 43 "Dear God," she said.

L16 44 "The things people do."

L16 45 "There's just no end, is there? No bottom to L16 46 it." She took a sip of water. "The cruelty of it, L16 47 the utter sadism. Why would anyone - well, why ask why."

L16 48 "I figure it has to be pleasure," I said. L16 49 "They must have gotten off on it, not just on the killing L16 50 but on rubbing his nose in it, jerking him around, telling him L16 51 she'll be in the car, she'll be home when he gets there, then L16 52 finally letting him find her in pieces in the trunk of the Ford. L16 53 They wouldn't have to be sadists to kill her. They could see it as L16 54 safer that way than to leave a witness who could identify them. But L16 55 there was no practical advantage in twisting the knife the way they L16 56 did. They went to a lot of trouble dismembering the body. I'm L16 57 sorry, this is great table talk, isn't it?"

L16 58 "That's nothing compared to what a great pre-bedtime L16 59 story it makes."

L16 60 "Puts you right in the mood, huh?"

L16 61 "Nothing like it to get the juices flowing. No, really, L16 62 I don't mind it. I mean I mind, of course I mind, but I'm not L16 63 squeamish. It's gross, cutting somebody up, but that's really the L16 64 least of it, isn't it? The real shock is that there's that kind of L16 65 evil in the world and it can come from out of nowhere and zap you L16 66 for no good reason at all. That's what's awful, and it's just as L16 67 bad on an empty stomach as on a full one."

L16 68 We went back to her apartment and she put on a Cedar Walton L16 69 solo piano album that we both liked, and we sat together on the L16 70 couch, not saying much. When the record ended she turned it over, L16 71 and halfway through Side Two we went into the bedroom and made love L16 72 with a curious intensity. Afterward neither of us spoke for a long L16 73 time, until she said, "I'll tell you, kiddo. If we keep on L16 74 like this, one of these days we're gonna get good at L16 75 it."

L16 76 "You think so, huh?"

L16 77 "It wouldn't surprise me. Matt? Stay over L16 78 tonight."

L16 79 I kissed her. "I was planning to."

L16 80 "Mmmm. Good plan. I don't want to be alone."

L16 81 Neither did I.

L16 82 Four

L16 83 I stayed for breakfast, and by the time I got out to Atlantic L16 84 Avenue it was almost eleven. I spent five hours there, most of it L16 85 on the street and in shops but some of it in a branch library and L16 86 on the phone. A little after four I walked a couple of blocks and L16 87 caught a bus to Bay Ridge.

L16 88 When I'd seen him last he'd been rumpled and unshaven, but now L16 89 Kenan Khoury looked cool and composed in gray garbadine slacks and L16 90 a muted plaid shirt. I followed him into the kitchen and he told me L16 91 his brother had gone to work in Manhattan that morning. L16 92 "Peter said he'd stay here, he didn't care about work, but L16 93 how many times are we gonna have the same conversation? I made him L16 94 take the Toyota so he's got that to get back and forth. How about L16 95 you, Matt? You getting anywhere?"

L16 96 I said, "Two men about my size took your wife off the L16 97 street in front of The Arabian Gourmet and hustled her into a dark L16 98 blue panel truck or van. A similar truck, probably the same one, L16 99 was tailing her when she left D'Agostino's. The truck had lettering L16 100 on the doors, white lettering according to one witness. TV Sales & L16 101 Service, with the company name composed of indeterminate initials. L16 102 B&L, H&M, different people saw different things. Two people L16 103 remembered an address in Queens and one specifically recalled it as L16 104 Long Island City."

L16 105 "Is there such a firm?"

L16 106 "The description's vague enough so that there are a L16 107 dozen or more firms that would fit. A couple of initials, TV L16 108 repair, a Queen address. I called six or eight outfits and couldn't L16 109 come up with anybody who runs dark blue trucks or who had a vehicle L16 110 stolen recently. I didn't expect to."

L16 111 "Why not?"

L16 112 "I don't think the truck was stolen. My guess is that L16 113 they had your house staked out Thursday morning hoping your wife L16 114 would go out by herself. When she did they followed her. It L16 115 probably wasn't the first time they tailed her, waiting for an L16 116 opportunity to make their play. They wouldn't want to steal a truck L16 117 each time and ride around all day in something that's liable to L16 118 show up any hour on the hot-car sheet."

L16 119 "You think it was their truck?"

L16 120 "Most likely. I think they painted a phony company name L16 121 and address on the doors, and once they completed the snatch they L16 122 painted the old name out and a new name in. By now I wouldn't be L16 123 surprised if the whole body's repainted some color other than L16 124 blue,"

L16 125 "What about the license plate?"

L16 126 "It had probably been switched for the occasion, but it L16 127 hardly matters because nobody got the plate number. One witness L16 128 thought the three of them had just knocked over the food market, L16 129 that they were robbers, but all he wanted to do was get inside the L16 130 store and make sure everybody was all right. Another man thought L16 131 something funny was going on and he did take a look at the plate, L16 132 but all he remembered was that it had a nine in it."

L16 133 "That's helpful."

L16 134 "Very. The men were dressed alike, dark pants and L16 135 matching work shirts, matching blue windbreakers. They looked to be L16 136 in uniform, and, between that and the commercial vehicle they were L16 137 driving, they appeared legitimate. I learned years ago that you can L16 138 walk in almost anywhere if you're carrying a clipboard because it L16 139 looks as though you're doing your job. They had that edge going for L16 140 them. Two different people told me they thought they were watching L16 141 two undercover guys from INS taking an illegal alien off the L16 142 street. That's one reason nobody interfered, that and the fact that L16 143 it was over and done with before anyone had time to L16 144 react."

L16 145 "Pretty slick," he said.

L16 146 "The uniform dress did something else, too. It made L16 147 them invisible, because all people saw was their clothing, and all L16 148 they remembered was that both of them looked the same. Did I L16 149 mention that they had caps on, too? The witness described the caps L16 150 and the jackets, things they put on for the job and got rid of L16 151 afterward."

L16 152 "So we don't really have anything."

L16 153 "That's not really true," I said, "We L16 154 don't have anything that leads directly to them, but we've got L16 155 something. We know what they did and how they did it, that they're L16 156 resourceful, that they planned their approach. How do you figure L16 157 they picked you?"

L16 158 He shrugged. "They knew I was a trafficker. That was L16 159 mentioned. That makes you a good target. They know you've got money L16 160 and they know you're not going to call the police."

L16 161 "What else did they know about you?"

L16 162 "My ethnic background. The one guy, the first one, he L16 163 called me some names."

L16 164 "I think you mentioned that."

L16 165 "Raghead, sand nigger. That's a nice one, huh? Sand L16 166 nigger. He left out camel jockey, that's one I used to hear from L16 167 the Italian kids at St. Ignatius. 'Hey, Khoury, ya fuckin' camel L16 168 jockey!' Only camel ever I saw was on a cigarette pack."

L16 169 "You think being an Arab made you a target?"

L16 170 "It never occurred to me. There's a certain amount of L16 171 prejudice, no question about it, but I'm not usually that conscious L16 172 of it. Francine's people are Palestinian, did I mention L16 173 that?"

L16 174 "Yes."

L16 175 "They have it tougher. I know Palestinians who say L16 176 they're Lebanese or Syrian just to avoid hassles. 'Oh, you're L16 177 Palestinian, you must be a terrorist.' That kind of ignorant L16 178 remark, and there are people who have bigoted ideas about Arabs in L16 179 general." He rolled his eyes. "My father, for L16 180 instance."

L16 181 "Your father?"

L16 182 "I wouldn't say he was anti-Arab, but he had this whole L16 183 theory that we weren't actually Arabs. Our family's Christian, L16 184 see."

L16 185 "I wondered what you were doing at L16 186 St.Ignatius."

L16 187 "There were times I wondered myself. No, we were L16 188 Maronite Christians, and according to my old man we were L16 189 Phoenicians. You ever hear of the Phoenicians?"

L16 190 "Back in biblical times, weren't they? Traders and L16 191 explorers, something like that?!"

L16 192 "You got it. Great sailors, they sailed all around L16 193 Africa, they colonized Spain, they probably reached Britain. They L16 194 founded Carthage in North Africa, and there were a lot of L16 195 Carthaginian coins dug up in England. They were the first people to L16 196 discover Polaris, that's the North Star, I mean to discover that it L16 197 was always in the same spot and could be used for navigation. They L16 198 developed an alphabet that served as the basis for the Greek L16 199 alphabet." He broke off, slightly embarrassed. "My old man talked L16 200 about them all the time. I guess some of it must have soaked L16 201 in."

L16 202 "It looks like it."

L16 203 "He wasn't a lunatic on the subject, but he knew a lot L16 204 about it. That's where my name comes from. The Phoenicians called L16 205 themselves the Kena'ani, or Canaanites. My name should be L16 206 pronounced Keh-nahn, but everyone's always said L16 207 Kee-nan."

L16 208 "Ken Curry' is the message I got yesterday."

L16 209 "Yeah, that's typical. I've ordered things on the phone L16 210 and they turn up addresses to Keane & Curry, it sounds like a L16 211 couple of Irish lawyers. Anyway, according to my father the L16 212 Phoenicians were a completely different people from the Arabs. They L16 213 were the Canaanites, they were already a people at the time of L16 214 Abraham. L16 215 L17 1 <#FROWN:L17\>Again Richie was quickly aware. "Don't L17 2 speed up. Gradually slow down, drive him nuts. He won't hit you L17 3 unless you stop without warning."

L17 4 This took a lot of nerve, for as soon as John began subtly to L17 5 decelerate, the truckdriver sounded shattering blasts of his horn. L17 6 The only way to persist in the tactic was to avoid looking in the L17 7 mirror, grit your teeth, and put your being on automatic pilot. He L17 8 had once successfully employed the technique as a passenger on a L17 9 light aircraft in stormy skies. Whether it would have worked again L17 10 he was not to determine now, for after another mile, by which point L17 11 he was still going better than forty, the highway became positively L17 12 spacious, with two full lanes separated by a grassy median strip L17 13 from the two that went the other way.

L17 14 His sigh of relief, however, proved premature: the truck stayed L17 15 directly behind him even when both vehicles had gained the wider L17 16 road. Furthermore, the deafening sound of the horn had become L17 17 constant.

L17 18 When he quickly changed lanes, so did the truck.

L17 19 "Okay," Richie cried in elation. "We got him L17 20 now!"

L17 21 What scared John about this sort of dueling was the L17 22 irrationality of it. He put the accelerator to the floor. The car L17 23 responded more vigorously than he had anticipated and sprang out to L17 24 a substantial lead on the truck. But the driver of the larger L17 25 vehicle was quick to answer what he took as a challenge. It was L17 26 unfortunate that, as John could see only now that the highway began L17 27 an ascent, the powerful tractor had no trailer in tow, which L17 28 undoubtedly meant that Sharon's little car would be no match for L17 29 its brute power even when going uphill.

L17 30 "Christ, why doesn't a cop come along L17 31 now?" He regretted the need to express fear in L17 32 Richie's presence. Though he was going flat out, the truck was L17 33 overtaking him, its windshield reflecting the sun in an L17 34 impenetrable glare. He still could not see the driver.

L17 35 "We're in luck," Richie shouted, over the noise L17 36 of an engine at maximum power. "A cop would only take the L17 37 bastard's side. Don't worry. We've got him now!"

L17 38 An empty boast if there ever was one! John had reached the L17 39 crest of the rise and looked down a long slope of highway on which L17 40 its weight would give the truck an even greater advantage in speed. L17 41 Furthermore, several cars were in sight ahead, in each lane, so L17 42 that he might be trapped behind them in either. To be sure, were L17 43 they driven by good citizens, perhaps by some effort of them all in L17 44 concert the truck would be the one so confined or captured. Then, L17 45 too, car phones and emergency CB sets were commonplace. An L17 46 observant and law-loving driver might well alert the state police L17 47 to such conspicuous and illegal slipstreaming.

L17 48 Yet while entertaining such fantasies, John was aware that no L17 49 help would be forthcoming. Though accompanied by, and in fact L17 50 responsible for the well-being of, two other souls (both of them L17 51 strangers, so that while providing little effective company, they L17 52 denied him privacy), he stood alone.

L17 53 But Richie suddenly helped. "Let him get right up L17 54 against you in the right lane, then suddenly switch to the left. L17 55 You can maneuver a lot quicker than him. He can't turn that fast at L17 56 speed without being in danger of losing it. Soon as you get over, L17 57 slow down some. He'll have to go on by. Once we get behind him, L17 58 we'll own his ass."

L17 59 But who wanted it? John looked forward only to seeing the last L17 60 of the menace. To him the driver was a potential homicide, without L17 61 a motive: he yearned for no revenge on such a depraved human being. L17 62 Naturally, if he saw a cop he would report the incident, but that L17 63 was another thing entirely. As to 'letting' the truck ride his back L17 64 bumper, it had arrived there once more without his permission and L17 65 would stay there. What Richie had suggested was better than L17 66 that.

L17 67 He gave a warning to his passengers, and Richie heeded it, L17 68 seizing the handhold above the upper left corner of his door, but L17 69 Sharon apparently did not, and when he made his abrupt lane-switch, L17 70 he heard the sound of her body being flung across the backseat by L17 71 centrifugal force.

L17 72 Richie's tactic worked! The truck thundered by in the right L17 73 lane, its rushing bulk and giant brutal wheels even more L17 74 frightening than its seemingly static and one-dimensional image had L17 75 been in the mirror. By such a simple device, the thing that could L17 76 have flattened them was now rendered harmless. Perhaps the madman L17 77 behind its wheel would roar on to threaten other defenseless L17 78 motorists. If so, who cared? Quite a natural feeling at this L17 79 instant. In the next, he would continue to look for a policeman.

L17 80 Now he was able to ask Sharon, "Are you okay back L17 81 there?"

L17 82 She mumbled an affirmative. At such a time there was surely an L17 83 advantage in being tranquilized.

L17 84 "Okay," Richie said eagerly. "Now let's nail L17 85 him."

L17 86 The truck was already fifty yards ahead, John having diminished L17 87 his speed so as to fall far behind and thus recede from the L17 88 immediate memory of the driver, who might just be crazy enough to L17 89 retain a grudge. Nowadays you were always hearing about people who L17 90 on the occasion of traffic squabbles produced the guns they carried L17 91 in their cars for just such a purpose, and shot adversary motorists L17 92 or even others who were faultless.

L17 93 "Forget about the bastard," John said. L17 94 "Good riddance." He was relieved to see Richie L17 95 accept this with a stoical shrug and fall back into the seat, L17 96 slumping so low that he could barely see over the dashboard. John L17 97 had feared that a need for revenge might be the man's dominant L17 98 emotion. What was his own? He was conscious of a lifetime urge to L17 99 do right. This put him at a frequent disadvantage, as in the case L17 100 of the tailgating truck. It was true that he had now escaped from L17 101 the situation, but it was unfair that he had been in it in the L17 102 first place. He had given no rational offense. How could one do so L17 103 by driving in an orderly manner at the speed limit? To behave L17 104 otherwise would endanger the lives of human beings: that was what L17 105 had been at issue, not the narrow concerns of traffic law.

L17 106 Richie grumbled, down in his slump, kicking the firewall. L17 107 "Those kind of people make me mad: they don't have any L17 108 respect."

L17 109 All John wanted to do was get to Hillsdale, and back, without L17 110 further incident. What Richie said might be true, but nothing could L17 111 be done about it beyond complaining, and John hated to waste his L17 112 time in negative lament.

L17 113 "How big a town is Hillsdale?"

L17 114 "I don't know."

L17 115 "Have you lived there long?" John glanced at L17 116 him. "Do you live there at all?"

L17 117 Richie grinned. "I said I did, didn't I?"

L17 118 "Well, that's where I'm taking you."

L17 119 "Then that's where I'm going." Without emerging L17 120 from his slump, Richie made a long reach for the knobs of the L17 121 radio.

L17 122 "Do you mind?" John asked. "I don't L17 123 want to hear any music now." He did not quite understand L17 124 why he had said that. Had he been alone he would have switched on L17 125 the radio and listened to almost anything but elevator music, L17 126 though what he preferred were the records popular when he was in L17 127 the latter years of high school, which to younger people were L17 128 already far out of date.

L17 129 "Do you ever enjoy yourself?" It was Richie's L17 130 sudden question and bore an implication John did not care for.

L17 131 "I've done some things in my day. I wasn't always L17 132 married, with little kids. I've been around."

L17 133 "I'm talking of right now," Richie said. L17 134 "You interested in some partying? We'll pick up a couple L17 135 bottles." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. L17 136 "She's got everything else. Maybe go to a motel, do it L17 137 right."

L17 138 "Oh, come on," John complained. "Just L17 139 let that-"

L17 140 "Think I'm kidding? Should of seen what she had in her L17 141 purse. That's why she was so worried about the cop back there. L17 142 Junkie bitch."

L17 143 John was hit hard by this information. He lacked the spirit to L17 144 ask Sharon to confirm or deny, but assumed she would have protested L17 145 had the charge been baseless. He did not even wish to know what L17 146 sort of drugs were at issue.

L17 147 "I'm dropping you off in Hillsdale and then going L17 148 straight home. Since this is the only form of transportation L17 149 available to me, I'm driving myself home in this car." He L17 150 had made the latter statement for Sharon's benefit, should she L17 151 herself be (despite her professed fear of Richie) inclined to L17 152 acquiesce in the proposal, and looked for her in the mirror, but L17 153 she was presumable lying on the seat and could not be seen.

L17 154 "Just an idea," Richie said.

L17 155 John saw something that brought him back to the moment. A L17 156 quarter mile ahead, the truck that had tailgated him was parked on L17 157 the shoulder, which had widened with the broadening of the highway. L17 158 Instantly chilled, he would have turned and run if he could, but L17 159 the road was one-way and at this point on the median the simple L17 160 grass had given way to bushes, so it was not physically possible to L17 161 perform an illegal U-turn and head back where they had come from - L17 162 for such he might well have done, in a sudden and unprecedented L17 163 access of mortal fear.

L17 164 In another moment, however, he again was in command of himself. L17 165 The truckdriver was surely not waiting for him, but rather L17 166 immobilized by mechanical trouble. John was in fact instantly L17 167 ashamed of himself and grateful that he had said or done nothing L17 168 that could have revealed his fright to Richie, whom he glanced at L17 169 now.

L17 170 Richie, too, had already seen the truck. "Hey, L17 171 look!"

L17 172 "I guess he's broken down," John said L17 173 hopefully.

L17 174 Richie eyed him. "Maybe we just ought to stop and ask. L17 175 Maybe he's in real trouble."

L17 176 John took refuge in a sardonic tone. "I doubt it's life L17 177 or death." They were not far from the truck now, but he had L17 178 yet to see the driver.

L17 179 "Pull in," Richie said abruptly. "You L17 180 can stay in the car if you want. I'll see what's what."

L17 181 Insulted by the implied slur on his courage, John accelerated L17 182 onto the shoulder and then had to brake hard, skidding on the loose L17 183 dirt and gravel, to stop the car before it collided with the rear L17 184 of the truck.

L17 185 He jumped out, in a certain disorder. He disliked hearing the L17 186 sound his old sneakers, normally quiet, made on the gritty L17 187 shoulder. Before he reached the truck, the driver's door was hurled L17 188 open. A burly figure emerged and did not jump but rather descended L17 189 to the ground with the deliberation of the overweight.

L17 190 So that his intentions could not be misinterpreted, John L17 191 quickly said, "Hi. Anything we can help you out L17 192 with?"

L17 193 The driver wore a dirty plaid shirt but was clean-shaven and L17 194 pinkly scrubbed of skin. He spoke in some kind of hick accent. L17 195 "You mess around with me, and I'll make you cry." L17 196 He was taller than John and wider, but much of his poundage L17 197 consisted, visibly, of lard, and he looked to be about forty. He L17 198 held a metal bar.

L17 199 John had not been in a fight since childhood, and in fact had L17 200 not been offered one since then. But now that he was out of the car L17 201 and actually in this situation, he was not unduly apprehensive. He L17 202 was a salesman, and knew how to talk to people.

L17 203 "Hey, I just stopped to see if I could help L17 204 out." He smiled. "Really. We thought you just might L17 205 be in some trouble."

L17 206 "I ain't," said the truckdriver. L17 207 "You are." He lowered his heavy head, on which L17 208 the thick hair looked freshly combed.

L17 209 "Now take it easy," John said, suppressing his L17 210 annoyance. "I mean it. If your radio's out, I'll be glad to L17 211 make a call for you at the next phone. L17 212 L18 1 <#FROWN:L18\>Mr. Beck looked at Anthony, perhaps with the hope L18 2 that he would say something in answer to the implied invective, L18 3 perhaps with the expectation of Anthony's offering some word of L18 4 comfort or support to his former wife. When Anthony said nothing, L18 5 Mr. Beck continued quickly.

L18 6 "You'll need to let me know where and when the services L18 7 are to be held and where she's to be interred. We've a lovely L18 8 chapel here if you'd like to use that for the service. And - of L18 9 course, I know this is difficult for you both - but you need to L18 10 decide if you want a public viewing."

L18 11 "A public ...?" At the thought of his daughter L18 12 being put on display for the curious, Anthony felt the hair bristle L18 13 on the backs of his hands. "That's not possible. She isn't L18 14 -"

L18 15 "I want it." Glyn's nails, Anthony saw, were L18 16 going completely white with the pressure she was exerting against L18 17 her palms.

L18 18 "You don't want that. You haven't seen what she looks L18 19 like."

L18 20 "Please don't tell me what I want. I said I'll see her. L18 21 I'll do so. I want everyone to see her."

L18 22 Mr. Beck intervened with, "We can do some repairs. With L18 23 facial putty and makeup, no one will be able to see the full extent L18 24 of -"

L18 25 Glyn snapped forward. Like a self-preserving reflex, Mr. Beck L18 26 flinched. "You aren't listening to me. I want the damage L18 27 seen. I want the world to know."

L18 28 Anthony wanted to ask, "And what will you L18 29 gain?" But he knew the answer. She'd given Elena over to L18 30 his care, and she wanted the world to see how he'd botched the job. L18 31 For fifteen years she'd kept their daughter in one of the roughest L18 32 areas of London and Elena had emerged from the experience with one L18 33 chipped tooth to mark the only difficulty she'd ever faced, a brawl L18 34 over the affections on an acne-scarred fifth former who'd spent a L18 35 lunch hour with her instead of his steady girlfriend. And neither L18 36 Glyn nor Elena had ever considered that uncapped tooth even a L18 37 minute lapse in Glyn's ability to protect her daughter. Instead, it L18 38 was for both of them Elena's badge of honour, her declaration of L18 39 equality. For the three girls whom she had fought could hear, but L18 40 they were no match for the splintered crate of new potatoes and the L18 41 two metal milk baskets which Elena had commandeered for defensive L18 42 weapons from the nearby greengrocer's when she'd come under L18 43 attack.

L18 44 Fifteen years in London, one chipped tooth to show for it. L18 45 Fifteen months in Cambridge, one barbarous death.

L18 46 Anthony wouldn't fight her. He said, "Have you a L18 47 brochure we might look at? Something we can use in order to decide L18 48 ...?"

L18 49 Mr. Beck seemed only too willing to cooperate. He said, L18 50 "Of course," and hastily slid open a drawer of his L18 51 desk. From this he took a three-ring binder covered in maroon L18 52 plastic with the words Beck and Sons, Funeral Directors L18 53 printed in gold letters across the front. He passed this across to L18 54 them.

L18 55 Anthony opened it. Plastic covers encased eight-by-ten colour L18 56 photographs. He began to flip through them, looking without seeing, L18 57 reading without assimilating. He recognised woods: mahogany and L18 58 oak. He recognised terms: naturally resistant to corrosion, rubber L18 59 gasket, crepe lining, asphalt coating, vacuum plate. Faintly, he L18 60 heard Mr. Beck murmuring about the relative merits of copper or L18 61 sixteen-gauge steel over oak, about lift and tilt mattresses, about L18 62 the placement of a hinge. He heard him say:

L18 63 "These Uniseal caskets are quite the best. The locking L18 64 mechanism in addition to the gasket seals the top while the L18 65 continuous weld on the bottom seals that as well. So you've maximum L18 66 protection to resist the entry of -" He hesitated L18 67 delicately. The indecision was written plainly on his face. Worms, L18 68 beetles, moisture, mildew. How best to say it? - "the L18 69 elements."

L18 70 The words in the binder slid out of focus. Anthony heard Glyn L18 71 say, "Have you coffins here?"

L18 72 "Only a few. People generally make a choice from the L18 73 brochures. And under the circumstances, please don't feel you must L18 74 -"

L18 75 "I'd like to see them."

L18 76 Mr. Beck's eyes flitted to Anthony. He seemed to be waiting for L18 77 a protest of some sort. When none was forthcoming, he said, L18 78 "Certainly. This way," and led them out of the L18 79 office.

L18 80 Anthony followed his former wife and the funeral director. He L18 81 wanted to insist that they make the decision within the safety of L18 82 Mr. Beck's office where photographs would allow both of them to L18 83 hold the final reality at bay for just a while longer. But he knew L18 84 that to call for distance between them and the fact of Elena's L18 85 burial would be interpreted as further evidence of inadequacy. And L18 86 hadn't Elena's death already served to illustrate his uselessness L18 87 as a father, once again underscoring the contention which Glyn had L18 88 asserted for years: that his sole contribution to their daughter's L18 89 upbringing had been a single, blind gamete that knew how to L18 90 swim?

L18 91 "Here they are." Mr. Beck pushed open a set of L18 92 heavy oak doors. "I'll leave you alone."

L18 93 Glyn said, "That won't be necessary."

L18 94 "But surely you'll want to discuss -"

L18 95 "No." She moved past him into the showroom. There were L18 96 no decorations or extraneous furnishings, just a few coffins lined L18 97 up along the pearl-coloured walls, their lids gaping open upon L18 98 velvet, satin, and crepe, their bodies standing on waist-high, L18 99 translucent pedestals.

L18 100 Anthony forced himself to follow Glyn from one to the next. L18 101 Each had a discreet price tag, each bore the same declaration about L18 102 the extent of protection guaranteed by the manufacturer, each had a L18 103 ruched lining, a matching pillow, and a coverlet folded over the L18 104 coffin lid. Each had its own name: Neapolitan Blue, Windsor Poplar, L18 105 Autumn Oak, Venetian Bronze. Each had an individually high-lighted L18 106 feature, a shell design, a set of barley sugar end posts, or L18 107 delicate embroidery on the interior of the lid. Forcing himself to L18 108 move along the display, Anthony tried not to visualise what Elena L18 109 would look like when she finally lay in one of these coffins with L18 110 her light hair spread out like silk threads on the pillow.

L18 111 Glyn halted in front of a simple grey coffin with a plain satin L18 112 lining. She tapped her fingers against it. As if this gesture bade L18 113 him to do so, Mr. Beck hurried to join them. His lips were pursed L18 114 tightly. He was pulling at his chin.

L18 115 "What is this?" Glyn asked. A small sign on the L18 116 lid said Nonprotective exterior. Its price tag read L18 117 pounds200.

L18 118 "Pressed wood." Mr. Beck made a nervous L18 119 adjustment to his Pembroke tie and rapidly continued. "This L18 120 is pressed wood beneath a flannel covering, a satin interior, which L18 121 is quite nice, of course, but the exterior has no protection at all L18 122 save for the flannel itself and to be frank if I may, considering L18 123 our weather, I wouldn't be at all comfortable recommending this L18 124 particular coffin to you. We keep it for cases where there are L18 125 difficulties ... Well, difficulties with finances. I can't think L18 126 you'd want your daughter ..." He let the drifting quality L18 127 of his voice complete the thought.

L18 128 Anthony began to say, "Of course," but Glyn L18 129 interrupted with, "This coffin will do."

L18 130 For a moment, Anthony did nothing more than stare at his former L18 131 wife. Then he found the will to say, "You can't think I'll L18 132 allow her to be buried in this."

L18 133 She said quite distinctly, "I don't care what you L18 134 intend to allow. I've not enough money for -"

L18 135 "I'll pay."

L18 136 She looked at him for the first time since they'd arrived. L18 137 "With your wife's money? I think not."

L18 138 "This has nothing to do with Justine."

L18 139 Mr. Beck took a step away from them. He straightened out the L18 140 small price sign on a coffin lid. He said, "I'll leave you L18 141 to talk."

L18 142 "There's no need." Glyn opened her large black L18 143 handbag and began shoving articles this way and that. A set of keys L18 144 clanked. A compact snapped open. A ballpoint pen slipped out onto L18 145 the floor. "You'll take a cheque, won't you? It'll have to L18 146 be drawn on my bank in London. If that's a problem, you can phone L18 147 for some sort of guarantee. I've been doing business with them for L18 148 years, so -"

L18 149 "Glyn. I won't have it.

L18 150 She swung to face him. Her hip hit the coffin, jarring it on L18 151 its pedestal. The lid fell shut with a hollow thud. "You L18 152 won't have what?" she asked. "You have no rights L18 153 here."

L18 154 "We're talking about my daughter."

L18 155 Mr. Beck began to edge towards the door.

L18 156 "Stay where you are." Angry colour patched L18 157 Glyn's cheeks. "You walked out on your daughter, Anthony. L18 158 Let's not forget that. You wanted your career. Let's not forget L18 159 that. You wanted to chase skirts. Let's not forget that. You got L18 160 what you wanted. All of it. Every bit. You have no more rights L18 161 here." Chequebook in hand, she stooped to the floor for the L18 162 pen. She began to write, using the pressed wood coffin lid as L18 163 support.

L18 164 Her hand was shaking. Anthony reached for the L18 165 cheque-book, saying, "Glyn. Please. For God's L18 166 sake."

L18 167 "No," she said. "I'll pay for this. I don't L18 168 want your money. You can't buy me off."

L18 169 "I'm not trying to buy you off. I just want Elena L18 170 -"

L18 171 "Don't say her name! Don't you say it!"

L18 172 Mr. Beck said, "Let me leave you," and without L18 173 acknowledging Glyn's immediate "No!" he hurried from the L18 174 room.

L18 175 Glyn continued to write. She clutched the pen like a weapon in L18 176 her hand. "He said two hundred pounds, didn't L18 177 he?"

L18 178 "Don't do this," Anthony said. "Don't L18 179 make this another battle between us."

L18 180 "She'll wear that blue dress Mum got her last L18 181 birthday."

L18 182 "We can't bury her like a pauper. I won't let you do L18 183 it. I can't."

L18 184 Glyn ripped the cheque from the book. She said, L18 185 "Where'd that man get off to? Here's his money. Let's L18 186 go." She headed for the door.

L18 187 Anthony reached for her arm.

L18 188 She jerked away. "You bastard," she hissed. L18 189 "Bastard! Who brought her up? Who spent years trying to L18 190 give her some language? Who helped her with her schoolwork and L18 191 dried her tears and washed her clothes and sat up with her at night L18 192 when she was puling and sick? Not you, you bastard. And not your L18 193 ice queen wife. This is my daughter, Anthony. My daughter. Mine. L18 194 And I'll bury her exactly as I see fit. Because unlike you, I'm not L18 195 hot after some big poncey job, so I don't have to give a damn what L18 196 anyone thinks."

L18 197 He examined her with sudden, curious dispassion, realising that L18 198 he saw no evidence of grief. He saw no mother's devotion to her L18 199 child and nothing that illustrated the magnitude of loss. L18 200 "This has nothing to do with burying Elena," he L18 201 said in slow but complete understanding. "You're still L18 202 dealing with me. I'm not sure you even care much that she's L18 203 dead."

L18 204 "How dare you," she whispered.

L18 205 "Have you even cried, Glyn? Do you feel any grief? Do L18 206 you feel anything at all beyond the need to use her murder for a L18 207 bit more revenge? And how can anyone be surprised by that? After L18 208 all, that's how you used most of her life."

L18 209 He didn't see the blow coming. She slammed her right hand L18 210 across his face, knocking his spectacles to the floor.

L18 211 "You filthy piece of -" She raised her arm to L18 212 strike again.

L18 213 He caught her wrist. "You've waited years to do that. L18 214 I'm only sorry you didn't have the audience you'd have L18 215 liked." He pushed her away. She fell against the grey L18 216 coffin. But she was not spent.

L18 217 She spit out the words: "Don't talk to me of grief. L18 218 Don't you ever - ever - talk to me of grief."

L18 219 She turned away from him, flinging her arms over the coffin lid L18 220 as if she would embrace it. She began to weep.

L18 221 "I have nothing. She's gone. I can't have her back. I L18 222 can't find her anywhere. And I can't ... I can never ..." L18 223 The fingers of one hand curled, pulling at the flannel that covered L18 224 the coffin. "But you can. L18 225 L19 1 <#FROWN:L19\>Chapter 1

L19 2 ENJOYING A RARE MOMENT of relaxation, Gordon Barclay swiveled L19 3 in his chair and watched a loaded freighter make its ponderous way L19 4 across Puget Sound. For most men turning sixty meant winding down, L19 5 taking fewer risks, planning for oblivion. To Barclay it seemed as L19 6 if the ride had just begun.

L19 7 He heard a light rap on the door - Nancy with his letters to L19 8 sign. He pivoted so he could watch her from the corner of his eye L19 9 while pretending to scrutinize a document. Her dress was one he L19 10 hadn't seen before, a pink flowery sort of thing with a lace collar L19 11 and made of a silky fabric that swung playfully on her narrow hips. L19 12 She laid the letters on his desk.

L19 13 "The Wilson interrogatories went out today, and I L19 14 called and confirmed the trial date on Mastriani. Word Processing L19 15 says your brief and jury instructions will be done by L19 16 five."

L19 17 "I'd sure be up a creek without you, my dear, wouldn't L19 18 I?" He took the stack of letters from her and quickly L19 19 scribbled his signature on each one. He hated proofreading and L19 20 trusted that her typing was accurate.

L19 21 "How was lunch at Fuller's?" asked Nancy.

L19 22 "As usual, the restaurant was sublime, the company L19 23 ridiculous." Barclay lowered his voice. "I trust L19 24 you'll never tell Walt Wiley at Trans-Pacific Casualty what I L19 25 really think of him."

L19 26 "Your biggest client? I'd never dream of it. Did he L19 27 wear that awful seersucker suit again?"

L19 28 "No, today's was worse - blue and white houndstooth L19 29 made of some sort of fabric that looked like spun Styrofoam. He L19 30 ordered homogenized milk with lunch, made them cook his tournedos L19 31 of beef well done, and asked the waiter for more bread L19 32 four times. Oh, before I forget. Would you round up two tickets to L19 33 the Sonics game for next Wednesday? I discovered that our friend L19 34 Walt's a basketball fan."

L19 35 "But I thought you hated basketball."

L19 36 "I like basketball exactly as much as I like Walt L19 37 Wiley."

L19 38 She giggled. "I see. Anything else?"

L19 39 "Not right now, thanks. Oh, and, uh, about that Friday L19 40 night you were asking me about? I'll see what I can manage, but I'm L19 41 not sure yet if Adele's definitely going to be out of town. You L19 42 know how she is about making decisions." Barclay L19 43 shrugged.

L19 44 Nancy frowned, looked as if she wanted to say something, then L19 45 changed her mind and turned to leave. As Barclay watched her go, a L19 46 ray of sunlight fell on her hair, bringing out the golden L19 47 highlights. He remembered what she'd looked like playing tennis, L19 48 her long brown legs in a short white skirt. She'd practically L19 49 danced on the court. Despite the difference in their ages he'd L19 50 beaten her in all three sets.

L19 51 Once Nancy was out of the room, he slipped on the reading L19 52 glasses he never wore in public and turned toward his overflowing L19 53 in-basket. The top item was another memo about the law firm's L19 54 annual dinner-dance on Saturday night. Now that was something he L19 55 wished he could get out of. Those damned parties were always boring L19 56 as hell, and it was going to be on that blasted boat again - L19 57 impossible to leave early. But he couldn't skip out, not after L19 58 having made such a fuss about trying to hire Annie MacPherson. She L19 59 and her partner were supposed to be there to meet the executive L19 60 committee. No sense in taking chances now after weeks of laying the L19 61 groundwork. The partners would be voting at the meeting on L19 62 Wednesday, and it was imperative that they approve this merger. If L19 63 MacPherson got out of his grasp, his entire plan could go down the L19 64 toilet.

L19 65 Barclay's face betrayed no emotion when he saw the next item in L19 66 his correspondence. Like the other notes he'd received, it was in a L19 67 sealed envelope, on office stationery, with his name neatly typed L19 68 in the center. Below it the words EXTREMELY PERSONAL AND L19 69 CONFIDENTIAL were highlighted in blue.

L19 70 As he reached for the envelope, Barclay's pulse quickened and L19 71 he felt his face grow warm. He slashed it open with a letter L19 72 opener. Inside was a single sheet of paper that looked just like L19 73 the others. He skimmed it quickly:

L19 74 TO: GORDON BARCLAY

L19 75 FROM: AN INTERESTED PARTY

L19 76 RE: YOUR FUTURE, ASSHOLE

L19 77 IT'S ME AGAIN, BIG GUY. THE ONE WHO KNOWS EVERYTHING. YOU L19 78 AIN'T IN PARADISE ANYMORE, TOTO.

L19 79 ARE YOU GONNA COME CLEAN AND TAKE IT LIKE A MAN, OR AM I GONNA L19 80 HAVE TO

L19 81 HUNT

L19 82 YOU

L19 83 DOWN?

L19 84 Barclay shuddered. He didn't need to read the note a second L19 85 time. He unlocked his personal filing cabinet and shoved the paper L19 86 and envelope in next to the others. Then, eyes closed, he took L19 87 several deep breaths, fighting the urge to do something rash.

L19 88 When he could feel his heart beating normally again, he buzzed L19 89 Nancy and asked for some tea.

L19 90 Chapter 2

L19 91 KNIFELIKE JABS of pain throbbed in Annie's arches and jolted up L19 92 her calves as she walked across the terminal building to the L19 93 restroom. The overly bright fluorescent lights in the ladies' L19 94 lounge gave her freckled skin a bluish cast and turned her red-gold L19 95 hair the color of kelp. She wondered if it was too late to bolt.

L19 96 She felt absurd. Even though the invitation said L19 97 semi-formal, the strapless black dress and the Italian L19 98 instruments of torture masquerading as shoes were totally out of L19 99 character for her. She tugged at the top of her dress and prayed it L19 100 would stay in the right place all evening.

L19 101 Combing her hair, Annie took several deep breaths and tried to L19 102 get into the right frame of mind for this party. All week Joel L19 103 Feinstein, her law partner, had been reminding her how important it L19 104 was that they make a good impression tonight. After several years L19 105 of struggling, their two-person partnership was about to L19 106 self-destruct. It was no one's fault. Sure, Annie felt guilty about L19 107 having taken a three-month leave of absence, but the real blow had L19 108 come when Joel's largest client, a local savings and loan, had been L19 109 bought out by a California bank. They might have squeaked by if L19 110 their professional liability carrier hadn't picked that moment to L19 111 double their malpractice insurance premium. What had been a minor L19 112 blowup at the beginning of the year had, by April, escalated into a L19 113 financial Chernobyl.

L19 114 That was when Kemble, Laughton, Mercer, and Duff had called to L19 115 propose a merger. KLMD was one of the Northwest's largest law L19 116 firms; it had seemed like a gift from the gods. But mega-law firms L19 117 didn't merge with small partnerships without first taking a good, L19 118 hard look. Annie and Joel had been subjected to endless hours of L19 119 interviews. The books had been pored over, accounts receivable L19 120 tallied, client names run through the computer to check for L19 121 conflicts of interest.

L19 122 Now all that remained was to see if the big fish liked the L19 123 small fish enough to gobble it up. And Annie MacPherson felt just L19 124 like a mackerel about to be fed to Moby Dick.

L19 125 Joel and his wife, Maria, were waiting for Annie outside. The L19 126 Kemble, Laughton party was being held on the Alki Lady, a L19 127 vintage ferryboat from the 1920s specially refurbished for such L19 128 elegant affairs. As soon as all of the guests were aboard, they'd L19 129 begin a nighttime cruise around Seattle's Elliott Bay.

L19 130 "Do you realize we're going to be trapped on a boat L19 131 with over two hundred lawyers with no means of escape?" L19 132 Annie asked.

L19 133 "You can always jump," said Joel. "That L19 134 dress of yours has almost as much fabric as a swimsuit."

L19 135 "Knock it off, Feinstein, before I tell you what you L19 136 look like in that monkey suit."

L19 137 Formally dressed couples ranging in age from their late L19 138 twenties to their midsixties were heading for the docked boat. L19 139 Annie was greatly relieved to see that hers wasn't the only L19 140 strapless dress in the crowd.

L19 141 "I feel so dowdy all of a sudden," said Maria, L19 142 looking around at the sequins and plunging necklines. "But L19 143 what could I do? They don't make sexy evening gowns in my L19 144 size." Joel's wife stood barely five feet tall and normally L19 145 weighed about hundred pounds. In her tasteful black maternity dress L19 146 she bore a striking resemblance to an olive on a toothpick. L19 147 "And forget what Joel says. I think your dress looks L19 148 fantastic. I wish I had the guts to wear something like L19 149 that!"

L19 150 "So do I," Annie replied.

L19 151 For a fleeting moment she wondered what David Courtney would L19 152 think if he could see her right now. For the three months she'd L19 153 spent on his sailboat in the South Pacific she'd worn nothing but L19 154 shorts, swimsuits, and a lot of sunscreen, with her biggest L19 155 decision being what to fix for lunch. But that had all ended when L19 156 she'd left the boat in February, Annie reminded herself. It no L19 157 longer mattered what David Courtney thought.

L19 158 "Now remember, Annie," said Joel nervously, L19 159 "tonight's our last chance to make this deal work. I don't L19 160 need to tell you what bankruptcy can do to a lawyer's L19 161 reputation."

L19 162 "You already have, Joel. About four times."

L19 163 "Don't fret so much, honey," said Maria. L19 164 "You're starting to sound like your mother."

L19 165 "That world-class worrier? No way. I'm strictly an L19 166 amateur."

L19 167 "Practice makes perfect," said Annie.

L19 168 "You two sure know how to gang up on a guy. Now listen. L19 169 I'm going to spend my time with the corporate folks, and you've got L19 170 to try to meet the guy who heads up the insurance defense group, L19 171 right? What was his name again?"

L19 172 "Oh, damn. I'm drawing a blank." She caught L19 173 Joel's anxious glance. "I can do this, I really L19 174 can."

L19 175 Joel scowled.

L19 176 One of the senior partners, a genial man in a plaid cummerbund L19 177 and matching bow tie, was playing host and ushering the crowd up L19 178 the stairs to the deck where drinks were being served. HHHe beamed L19 179 when he saw Annie and Joel, shook their hands, got their names L19 180 wrong, and assured them he would catch up later to see how they L19 181 were doing.

L19 182 "Now don't you be intimidated," he chortled, L19 183 "we're quite a wild bunch when we get L19 184 going."

L19 185 "Oh, I'm sure of that," said Annie.

L19 186 He thrust out a hip and snapped his fingers. "Party L19 187 down, as the kids say!"

L19 188 Annie smiled feebly in response and didn't resist as the L19 189 surging crowd carried her into the salon. She gave a last look at L19 190 Joel, easy to spot since he towered a good head above the crowd. He L19 191 flashed her a thumbs-up and then she was on her own.

L19 192 A score of waitresses circled the crowd taking drink orders. L19 193 After Annie ordered a glass of white wine, she took a moment to L19 194 survey the crowd. Barclay. Gordon Barclay. How could she have L19 195 forgotten one of the most prominent trial attorneys in the state? L19 196 If the merger went through, she'd be working in his insurance L19 197 defense group, and his vote at the upcoming partners' meeting would L19 198 be crucial. She wasn't quite sure where to start looking for L19 199 him.

L19 200 "So the rumors are true after all." The voice L19 201 behind her sounded vaguely familiar. Annie turned. "Jed L19 202 Delacourt? What are you doing here?"

L19 203 "You obviously don't read your alumni newsletter. I L19 204 work here. It'll be six years next week. Fabulous dress by the L19 205 way."

L19 206 "Thanks."

L19 207 With his fair hair and boyish good looks John Edward Delacourt L19 208 III looked no older to Annie than he had ten years earlier when L19 209 they had graduated together from the University of Washington Law L19 210 School. They hadn't been close friends. Jed, newly arrived from L19 211 Boston smelling of old money, had had little to do with anyone who L19 212 wasn't on Law Review, wealthy, or both. Annie had been neither.

L19 213 "I thought you went to work for the public defender's L19 214 office after law school?"

L19 215 "Mm-hmm," he said, grabbing a prawn from a passing tray L19 216 and popping it into his mouth. He wiped a touch of cocktail sauce L19 217 from the side of his mouth. "Foolish me, thinking I'd be L19 218 happier helping the poor than making money for myself. It only took L19 219 me a few years to wise up. Kemble, Laughton made me an offer I L19 220 couldn't refuse.

L19 221 L20 1 <#FROWN:L20\>19 L20 2 Jessie awoke in the mild, milky light of dawn with the L20 3 perplexing and ominous memory of the woman still filling her mind - L20 4 the woman with her graying hair pulled back in that tight L20 5 countrywoman's bun, the woman who had been kneeling in the L20 6 blackberry tangles with her slip puddled beside her, the woman who L20 7 had been looking down through broken boards and smelling that awful L20 8 bland smell. Jessie hadn't thought of that woman in years, and now, L20 9 fresh from her dream of 1963 that hadn't been a dream but a L20 10 recollection, it seemed to her that she had been granted some sort L20 11 of supernatural vision on that day, a vision that had perhaps been L20 12 caused by stress and then lost again for the same reason.

L20 13 But it didn't matter - not that, not what had happened with her L20 14 father out on the deck, not what had happened later, when she had L20 15 turned around to see him standing in the bedroom door. All that had L20 16 happened a long time ago, and as for what was happening right now L20 17 -

L20 18 I'm in trouble. I think I'm in very serious L20 19 trouble.

L20 20 She lay back against the pillows and looked up at her suspended L20 21 arms. She felt as dazed and helpless as a poisoned insect in a L20 22 spider's web, wanting no more than to be asleep again - dreamlessly L20 23 this time, if possible - with her dead arms and dry throat in L20 24 another universe.

L20 25 No such luck.

L20 26 There was a slow, somnolent buzzing sound somewhere close by. L20 27 Her first thought was alarm clock. Her second, after two L20 28 or three minutes of dozing with her eyes open, was smoke L20 29 detector. That idea caused a brief, groundless burst of hope L20 30 which brought her a little closer to real waking. She realized that L20 31 what she was hearing didn't really sound very much like a smoke L20 32 detector at all. It sounded like ... well ... like ...

L20 33 It's flies, toots, okay? The no-bullshit voice now L20 34 sounded tired and wan. You've heard about the Boys of Summer, L20 35 haven't you? Well, these are the Flies of Autumn, and their version L20 36 of the World Series is currently being played on Gerald Burlingame, L20 37 the noted attorney and handcuff-fetishist.

L20 38 "Jesus, I gotta get up," she said in a L20 39 croaking, husky voice she barely recognized as her own.

L20 40 What the hell does that mean? she thought, and L20 41 it was the answer - Not a goddam thing, thanks very much - that L20 42 finished the job of bringing her back to full wakefulness. She L20 43 didn't want to be awake, but she had an idea that she had L20 44 better accept the fact that she was and do as much with it as she L20 45 could, while she could.

L20 46 And you probably better start by waking up your hands and L20 47 arms. If they will wake up, that is.

L20 48 She looked at her right arm, then turned her head on the rusty L20 49 armature of her neck (which was only partially asleep) and looked L20 50 at her left. Jessie realized with sudden shock that she was looking L20 51 at them in a completely new way - looking at them as she might have L20 52 looked at pieces of furniture in a showroom window. They seemed to L20 53 have no business with Jessie Burlingame at all, and she supposed L20 54 there was nothing so odd about that, not really; they were, after L20 55 all, utterly without feeling. Sensation only started a little below L20 56 her armpits.

L20 57 She tried to pull herself up and was dismayed to find the L20 58 mutiny in her arms had gone further than she had suspected. Not L20 59 only did they refuse to move her; they refused to move L20 60 themselves. Her brain's order was totally ignored. She looked L20 61 up at them again, and they no longer looked like furniture to her. L20 62 Now they looked like pallid cuts of meat hanging from butchers' L20 63 hooks, and she let out a hoarse cry of fear and anger.

L20 64 Never mind, though. The arms weren't happening, at least for L20 65 the time being, and being mad or afraid or both wasn't going to L20 66 change that a bit. How about the fingers? If she could curl them L20 67 around the bedposts, then maybe ...

L20 68 ... or maybe not. Her fingers seemed as useless as her arms. L20 69 After nearly a full minute of effort, Jessie was rewarded only by a L20 70 single numb twitch from her right thumb.

L20 71 "Dear God," she said in her grating L20 72 dust-in-the-cracks voice. There was no anger in it now, only L20 73 fear.

L20 74 People died in accidents, of course - she supposed she had seen L20 75 hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of "death-clips" on the L20 76 TV news during her lifetime. Body-bags carried away from wrecked L20 77 cars or winched out of the jungle in Medi-Vac slings, feet sticking L20 78 out from beneath hastily spread blankets while buildings burned in L20 79 the back-ground, white-faced, stumble-voiced witnesses L20 80 pointing to pools of sticky dark stuff in alleys or on barroom L20 81 floors. She had seen the white-shrouded shape that had been John L20 82 Belushi toted out of the Chateau Marmont Hotel in Los Angeles; she L20 83 had seen aerialist Karl Wallenda lose his balance, fall heavily to L20 84 the cable he had been trying to cross (it had been strung between L20 85 two resort hotels, she seemed to remember), clutch it briefly, and L20 86 then plunge to his death below. The news programs had played that L20 87 one over and over as if obsessed with it. So she knew people died L20 88 in accidents, of course she knew it, but until now she had L20 89 somehow never realized there were people inside those people, L20 90 people just like her, people who hadn't had the slightest idea they L20 91 would never eat another cheese-burger, watch another round L20 92 of Final Jeopardy (and please make sure your answer is in the form L20 93 of a question), or call their best friends to say that penny poker L20 94 on Thursday night or shopping on Saturday afternoon seemed like a L20 95 great idea. No more beer, no more kisses, and your fantasy of L20 96 making love in a hammock during a thunderstorm was never going to L20 97 be fulfilled, because you were going to be too busy being dead. Any L20 98 morning you rolled out of bed might be your last.

L20 99 It's a lot more than a case of might this morning, L20 100 Jessie thought. I think now it's a case of probably. The house L20 101 - our nice quiet lakeside house - may very well be on the news L20 102 Friday or Saturday night. It'll be Doug Rowe wearing that white L20 103 trenchcoat of his I hate so much and talking into his microphone L20 104 and calling it "the house where prominent Portland lawyer L20 105 Gerald Burlingame and his wife Jessie died." Then he'll L20 106 send it back to the studio and Bill Green will do the sports, and L20 107 that isn't being morbid, Jessie; that isn't the Goodwife moaning or L20 108 Ruth ranting. It's -

L20 109 But Jessie knew. It was the truth. It was just a silly little L20 110 accident, the kind of thing you shook your head over when you saw L20 111 it reported in the paper at breakfast; you said "Listen to L20 112 this, honey," and read the item to your husband while he L20 113 ate his grapefruit. Just a silly little accident, only this time it L20 114 was happening to her. Her mind's constant insistence that it was a L20 115 mistake was understandable but irrelevant. There was no Complaint L20 116 Department where she could explain that the handcuffs had been L20 117 Gerald's idea and so it was only fair that she should be let off. L20 118 If the mistake was going to be rectified, she would have to be the L20 119 one to do it.

L20 120 Jessie cleared her throat, closed her eyes, and spoke to the L20 121 ceiling. "God? Listen a minute, would You? I need some help L20 122 here, I really do. I'm in a mess and I'm terrified. Please help me L20 123 get out of this, okay? I ... um ... I pray in the name of Jesus L20 124 Christ." She struggled to amplify this prayer and could L20 125 only come up with something Nora Callighan had taught her, a prayer L20 126 which now seemed to be on the lips of every self-help huckster and L20 127 dipshit guru in the world: "God grant me the serenity to L20 128 accept things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I L20 129 can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Amen."

L20 130 Nothing changed. She felt no serenity, no courage, most L20 131 certainly no widsom. She was still only a woman with dead arms and L20 132 a dead husband, cuffed to the posts of this bed like a cur-dog L20 133 chained to a ringbolt and left to die unremarked and unlamented in L20 134 a dusty back yard while his tosspot master serves thirty days in L20 135 the county clink for driving without a license and under the L20 136 influence.

L20 137 "Oh please don't let it hurt," she said in a L20 138 low, trembling voice. "If I'm going to die, God, please L20 139 don't let it hurt. I'm such a baby about pain."

L20 140 Thinking about dying at this point is probably a really L20 141 bad idea, toots. Ruth's voice paused, then added: On L20 142 second thought, strike the probably.

L20 143 Okay, no argument - thinking about dying was a bad idea. So L20 144 what did that leave?

L20 145 Living. Ruth and Goodwife Burlingame said it at the same L20 146 time.

L20 147 All right, living. Which brought her around full circle to her L20 148 arms again.

L20 149 They're asleep because I've been hanging on them all L20 150 night. I'm still hanging on them. Getting the weight off L20 151 is step one.

L20 152 She tried to push herself backward and upward with her feet L20 153 again, and felt a sudden weight of black panic when they at first L20 154 also refused to move. She lost herself for a few moments then, and L20 155 when she came back she was pistoning her legs rapidly up and down, L20 156 pushing the coverlet, the sheets, and the mattress-pad down to the L20 157 foot of the bed. She was gasping for breath like a L20 158 bicycle-racer topping the last steep hill in a marathon L20 159 race. Her butt, which had also gone to sleep, sang and zipped with L20 160 wake-up needles.

L20 161 Fear had gotten her fully awake, but it took the half-assed L20 162 aerobics which accompanied her panic to kick her heart all the way L20 163 up into passing gear. At last she began to feel tingles of L20 164 sensation - bone-deep and as ominous as distant thunder - L20 165 in her arms.

L20 166 If nothing else works, toots, keep your mind on those last L20 167 two or three sips of water. Keep reminding yourself that you're L20 168 never going to get hold of that glass again unless your hands and L20 169 arms are in good working order, let alone drink from it.

L20 170 Jessie continued to push with her feet as the morning L20 171 brightened. Sweat plastered her hair against her temples and L20 172 streamed down her cheeks. She was aware - vaguely - that she was L20 173 deepening her water-debt every moment she persisted in this L20 174 strenuous activity, but she saw no choice.

L20 175 Because there is none, toots - none at all.

L20 176 Toots this and toots that, she thought distractedly. L20 177 Would you please put a sock in it, you mouthy bitch?

L20 178 At last her bottom began to slide up toward the head of the L20 179 bed. Each time it moved, Jessie tensed her stomach muscles and did L20 180 a mini sit-up. The angle made by her upper and lower body slowly L20 181 began to approach ninety degrees. Her elbows began to bend, and as L20 182 the drag of her weight began to leave her arms and shoulders, the L20 183 tingles racing through her flesh increased. She didn't stop moving L20 184 her legs when she was finally sitting up but continued to pedal, L20 185 wanting to keep her heart-rate up.

L20 186 A drop of stinging sweat ran into her left eye. She flicked it L20 187 away with an impatient shake of her head and went on pedaling. The L20 188 tingles continued to increase, darting upward and downward from her L20 189 elbows, and about five minutes after she'd reached her current L20 190 slumped position (she looked like a gawky teenager draped over a L20 191 movie theater seat), the first cramp struck. It felt like a blow L20 192 from the dull side of a meat-cleaver.

L20 193 Jessie threw her head back, sending a fine mist of perspiration L20 194 flying from her head and hair, and shrieked. As she was drawing L20 195 breath to repeat the cry, the second cramp struck. This one was L20 196 much worse. L20 197 L21 1 <#FROWN:L21\>Wilderness

L21 2 YES, death stalked the city that night, stalked the city like a L21 3 great water wolf. The river - sheer, ruffled, gray, brown, black, L21 4 and khaki - took them into her inhospitable bosom. Why? Why did the L21 5 river want them, and for what?

L21 6 All her life Nell had believed that she would have a L21 7 presentiment if a mishap should befall either of her children. Her L21 8 bones would tell it. Her bloodstream would tell it. Every hair L21 9 would stand on end. Often she had half imagined such a thing - L21 10 indeed, on occasion, went with the delirium of it upon hearing of L21 11 an accident in this street or that, on a motorway or a leafy lane - L21 12 and had waited, and the wait had seemed both necessary and L21 13 ludicrous. She knew the ropes. A policeman or rather two policemen, L21 14 came and knocked on one's door. She had heard that somewhere. Yet, L21 15 as the taxi-driver rattled on about an accident, young people, L21 16 partying, she had no intimation of anything, just felt glad to be L21 17 going home to sleep. It was a Saturday. Party night. A pleasure L21 18 boat had collided with a barge on the Thames, and many were drowned L21 19 or drowning. She felt a flash of dismay, a mockery of the sadness L21 20 to come.

L21 21 When a mother sees two policemen at her front door, she knows. L21 22 She thought it was her younger son, Tristan, was certain that a L21 23 truck had gone off the road in Turkey, where he and his friends L21 24 were spending the summer doing relief work. It was Paddy. He was L21 25 one of the crowd of young people on the pleasure boat and, as he L21 26 was still missing, they had to inform her. Missing. Missing is not L21 27 dead. When a mother knows, she does everything to unknow. She goes L21 28 to her bedroom to dress. She discards the old stockings that she L21 29 had been wearing in the daytime for a new pair. God knows why. She L21 30 says that this is not true, this is a false alarm testing her last L21 31 reservoir of strength. She puts on powder, hurriedly, then returns L21 32 and, as on any normal occasion, offers brandy or tea. The policemen L21 33 say it is better for them to get moving, to get back to the scene, L21 34 since all the force is needed. She sits in a black van with them L21 35 and slowly and solemnly recites, as her own chant, the words of L21 36 Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane: "O, Father, if it be L21 37 possible, let this chalice pass from me." Missing is not L21 38 dead. She says that aloud to the policemen and adds how L21 39 providential the night is, since it is so still, since there is L21 40 scarcely a wind. They recognize that undertow of hope and look at L21 41 each other with eyes in which she believes there are recesses of L21 42 non-hope. She cannot see their eyes but she can see them fidget. L21 43 They have already been there; they have already seen people L21 44 crawling out of the water, senseless, unable to grasp their L21 45 where-abouts, asking, "What's happened? ... What's L21 46 happened?" They have heard the screaming, the disbelief, L21 47 the shouts of crazed, incensed people, and they are not in the L21 48 business of doling out niceties. She has not seen these things yet. L21 49 Now she does. Ambulances bursting from the hospital's steps, their L21 50 lights whirling round and round, but no siren sounding. Ghost L21 51 machines. Inside, commotion, delirium. People who had been inches L21 52 from death asking, asking. Everyone asking; voices charging each L21 53 other across the waiting room. Has Alex been found? L21 54 "Found." The word both urgent and wan. A girlfriend has L21 55 lost her boyfriend. She calls his name, shouts it. He does not L21 56 materialize. She runs, the double glass doors almost swallowing L21 57 her. A man has lost his wife. He stands, a sodden picture of L21 58 despair, with a blanket slipping off, saying quietly, "My L21 59 wife .... My beautiful wife." A younger man weeps for the L21 60 woman he swam with. Where is she, where is she? He describes how L21 61 they held hands - tight, tight - until in the end she slipped away L21 62 from him, eluded his grasp. Was she dead? Was she still L21 63 struggling?

L21 64 Nell is sitting quietly, sitting by herself. She is afraid of L21 65 these people. They pace, then are still, then give reign to some L21 66 outburst. This night has dislodged their reserves of sanity. L21 67 Nurses, who go about with forms and thermometers and blankets, are L21 68 told to piss off. It has the insubstantiality of a dream but it is L21 69 not a dream. It is a raw, raucous, unashamed confrontation with L21 70 life or non-life. The names are shouted incessantly. Samantha and L21 71 Sue and Paul and Jeff. No one says "Paddy", as if no one L21 72 knew him but her. Outside, the sirens now screech with animal L21 73 intonations. Inside, coffee, cups of coffee, a voice asking for L21 74 someone to put another spoon of sugar in, sloshing. Paddy, where L21 75 are you? She has been told to sit and wait. She will be informed L21 76 the moment there is news. Rumors bob up the way she imagines, L21 77 cannot stop herself from imagining, the faces appearing on the L21 78 water. His face. His alone. A body has been found eight miles L21 79 upriver at Hammersmith. A woman's. Not a man's. Not him. Should she L21 80 go to Hammersmith? Did drowned bodies follow one another like L21 81 shoals of fish? She must go somewhere. Paddy, where are you? She is L21 82 told again to sit and wait. They know her name and her son's name. L21 83 It is on a document. Many of the saved are at the hospital. They L21 84 are weeping, claiming that they do not want to live if their L21 85 comrades are dead. Their teeth are chattering, they shiver, their L21 86 features slavered in black mud and ooze.

L21 87 "Where's my mates? Where's my fucking mates?" a L21 88 young man shouts as he enters the hospital. His head is gashed, and L21 89 the blood streaming down his face has black rivulets in it. He is L21 90 telling everyone how cold it is, how cold and how stupid. She runs L21 91 from the building and down a narrow footpath to the riverbank, L21 92 where people are milling and shouting around a posse of police. It L21 93 is dark and deathlike, everything spectral. The police and the L21 94 rescue workers are like shadows giving and taking orders, their L21 95 voices terse. The river is calm but black, a black pit that L21 96 everyone dreads. Calm, black swishings of water. Looking at it for L21 97 the first time, looking at it steadily, she thinks it cannot be. He L21 98 is not in there. He has swum ashore, he is somewhere, he is one of L21 99 the dazed people in blankets, covered in mud. He is asking someone L21 100 to telephone her. He is. he is. She hears the tide, its L21 101 slip-slap against the lifeboats, and she thinks, you have L21 102 not got him. The chains, however, which go clank-clank, tell a L21 103 different story - a death knell. And the line comes, how could it L21 104 not: "A current under sea picked his bones in L21 105 whispers." A young policeman loses control, says how the L21 106 hell does he know what one boat was doing crashing into another. L21 107 Sirens fill the streets and she thinks that if Paddy is still in L21 108 the water, which she now thinks he must be, those sirens will be a L21 109 clarion to him, a reminder that everyone is on the alert, L21 110 everything is being done.

L21 111 "Oh, Paddy, we are coming to you, we are L21 112 coming," she says, and, going over to an officer, she asks L21 113 if there is any way they could light up the water more, give hope L21 114 to those who were still struggling in it. For some reason he thinks L21 115 she is a journalist and tells her to shut her trap. She screams L21 116 back, screams that she is a mother.

L21 117 "Why isn't the water lit, the way it's lit for a L21 118 jubilee or a coronation?" she says, and he looks at her L21 119 with a kind of murderousness and says that those who are still in L21 120 there have had it by now. She lets out half a cry - a short, L21 121 unearthly, broken cry. This shadow, this totem of authority, wishes L21 122 them death. A senior officer tries to calm her, says that they are L21 123 doing everything they possibly can, that any bodies still in the L21 124 water will be found. "Found." There is that word again. She L21 125 asks him if by any chance she can go to the morgue at Southwark in L21 126 the police van, since others are going. He looks at her with the L21 127 candor of a man who has to refuse, and says no, that it would be L21 128 better for her to go back into the hospital and stay put.

L21 129 IN the hospital, a group of young people is silently weeping, L21 130 holding one another and rocking back and forth in grief, like L21 131 children in a play-pen. A boy and two girls. They have lost L21 132 their mate, their mate. The boy had jumped in the water to search L21 133 and had to be hauled out. They rock back and forth, like women in L21 134 labor, giving birth to their grief. Each time they smoke they give L21 135 Nell a cigarette, too. Some time later one of them, a girl, looks L21 136 up and screams. A man is coming toward them. She is afraid it is L21 137 not true. It can't be true. She looks down, she covers her eyes and L21 138 asks them, Jesus, to look up. It is him. It is Justin. He has been L21 139 found. Or has he? Is he a spirit? He walks toward them, in his L21 140 slather of wet clothes, with a strange dazedness. He is holding L21 141 half a rubber life ring. They get up. They all embrace, four L21 142 friends, lost for words, unable to speak. They don't believe it. A L21 143 miracle. Then they do believe it. They cry. They kiss. He cannot L21 144 speak. He cannot say how he swam ashore. He holds up the bit of L21 145 black rubber, refuses to let it go. It saved him. It. Then one of L21 146 them speaks, one of them says that they are going to get out of L21 147 this hellhole and get in his little banger and drive somewhere and L21 148 get booze and get fish and chips, and they are going to ring L21 149 everyone they know and have ever known and give the party of their L21 150 lives, a party that means welcome home, Justin, welcome home.

L21 151 Nell shrinks away from them, and they know why. She is still L21 152 one of the waiting ones. There is nothing to be said. They cannot L21 153 swap with her. Were she the lucky one she would not swap, either. L21 154 It is as primal as that.

L21 155 What she must do is give Paddy strength, send messages to him, L21 156 urge him, tell him to kick, to kick, not to give in. Her breathing L21 157 quickens, and it is as if she, too, has dared the water. Then she L21 158 pauses and says, "Turn over on your back, love, and L21 159 float." She does this unendingly, because there is one L21 160 thing that she cannot unknow: some are trapped in the sunken L21 161 vessel, were caught in a downstairs suite - corpses side by side, L21 162 or cleaving to furniture. The vessel cannot be brought up till L21 163 daylight, when the toll will be taken. He is not among them. She is L21 164 certain of that. He got out - crawled out and swam and is making L21 165 his way, is holding on to a raft, is on a little bit of beach, L21 166 waiting to be picked up. He is that seagull he loves to read about, L21 167 who flew higher than all the other seagulls, up into the lonely L21 168 altitudes; hearing herself say "seagull," she shrieks, L21 169 glimpsing the maelstroms ahead.

L21 170 WAITING. Another day. Parents. Relatives. Police. Waiting at L21 171 the hospital for names to be called out, now for people to go into L21 172 the morgue in back and identify their own. Bodies in glass cubicles L21 173 under sheets - bloated, puffed, disfigured, all prey to the same L21 174 lunatic fate.

L21 175 The policeman lifts a sheet, and what she sees is not a face L21 176 with features but something gray, prehistoric. A purple cowl hides L21 177 the hair and the body. She does not know if it is a boy or a girl. L21 178 L22 1 <#FROWN:L22\>"She thinks it's bullshit," Jimmy L22 2 told me. "Do you think it's bullshit, kid?"

L22 3 I knew he was inviting me to contradict my sister; it made me L22 4 feel like a younger brother instead of an eighth grade girl. I knew L22 5 that if I agreed with him I might get to come along again. But that L22 6 wasn't my reason for saying no. At that moment I believed him.

L22 7 "The kid knows," Jimmy said, and I whispered: L22 8 The kid. The kid. The kid.

L22 9 "This danger thing," Jimmy told us, "is L22 10 only about yourself. It would be criminal to take chances with L22 11 somebody else's life. I would never go over the speed limit with L22 12 you ladies in the car." I hunched my shoulders and burrowed L22 13 into the fragrant back seat. I felt - and I think my sister felt - L22 14 supremely taken care of.

L22 15 My parents were often in the city with my father's doctors, L22 16 occasionally staying over for tests, not returning till the next L22 17 day. They told my sister to take care of me, though I didn't need L22 18 taking care of.

L22 19 Jimmy would drive over when he got through at Babylon Roofing L22 20 and Siding. He loved his job and sometimes stopped to show us roofs L22 21 he'd done. His plan was to have his own company and retire to L22 22 Florida young and get a little house with grapefruit and mango L22 23 trees in the yard. He said this to my sister. He wanted her to want L22 24 it, too.

L22 25 My sister said, "Mangoes in Florida? You're thinking L22 26 about Puerto Rico."

L22 27 One night Jimmy parked in front of a furniture store and told L22 28 us to slouch down and keep our eye on the dark front window. My L22 29 sister and I were alone for so long I began to get frightened.

L22 30 A light flickered on inside the store, the flame of Jimmy's L22 31 lighter, bright enough to see Jimmy smiling and waving, reclining L22 32 in a lounger.

L22 33 When Jimmy talked about testing himself, he said he did it L22 34 sometimes, but I began to wonder if he thought about it always. L22 35 Just sitting in a diner, waiting for his coffee, he'd take the L22 36 pointiest knife he could find and dance it between his fingers. I L22 37 wondered what our role in it was. I wondered if he and my sister L22 38 were playing a game of chicken: all she had to do was cry L22 39 "Stop!" and Jimmy would have won. Once he ate a cigarette L22 40 filter. Once he jumped off a building.

L22 41 One evening Jimmy drove me and my sister over to his apartment. L22 42 He lived in a basement apartment of a brick private house. It L22 43 struck me as extraordinary: people lived in basement apartments. L22 44 But it wasn't a shock to my sister, who knew where everything was L22 45 and confidently got two beers from Jimmy's refrigerator.

L22 46 Jimmy turned on the six o'clock news and the three of us sat on L22 47 his bed. There was the usual Vietnam report: helicopters, gunfire. L22 48 A sequence showed American troops filing through the jungle. The L22 49 camera moved in for a close-up of the soldiers' faces, faces that I L22 50 recognize now as the faces of frightened boys but that I mistook L22 51 then for cruel grown men, happy in what they were doing.

L22 52 My sister said, "Wow. Any one of those suckers could L22 53 just get blown off that trail." On her face was that L22 54 combustible mix of sympathy and smoldering anger, and in her voice L22 55 rage and contempt combined with admiration. I could tell Jimmy was L22 56 jealous that she looked like that because of the soldiers, and he L22 57 desperately wanted her to look that way for him. I knew, even if he L22 58 didn't, that she already had, and that she looked like that if she L22 59 saw a dog in a parked car, in the heat.

L22 60 Jimmy had a high draft number but he went down and enlisted. He L22 61 said he couldn't sit back and let other men do the dying, an L22 62 argument I secretly thought was crazy and brave and terrific. L22 63 Mother said it was ridiculous, no one had to die, every kid she L22 64 counseled wound up with a psychiatric 1-Y. And when Jimmy died she L22 65 seemed confirmed; he had proved her right.

L22 66 On the night of the funeral, Mother told us how Jimmy died. The L22 67 friend who'd accompanied his body home had given a little speech. L22 68 He said often at night Jimmy sneaked out to where they weren't L22 69 supposed to be; once a flare went off and they saw him freaking L22 70 around in the jungle. He said they felt better knowing that crazy L22 71 Kowalchuk was out there fucking around.

L22 72 Mother said, "That's what he said at the service, 'Out L22 73 there fucking around.'"

L22 74 But I was too hurt to listen, I was feeling so stupid for L22 75 having imagined that Jimmy's stunts were about my sister and me.

L22 76 Mother said, "Of course I think it's terrible that the L22 77 boy got killed. But I have to say I don't hate it that now the two L22 78 of them can't get married." L22 79 After that it was just a matter of time till my sister met the L22 80 white dog that Jimmy had sent from the other world to take her to L22 81 Florida.

L22 82 My sister didn't go to Florida, or anyway not yet. Eventually L22 83 she recovered - recovered or stopped pretending. Every night after L22 84 dinner Mother said, "She's eating well. She's L22 85 improving." Talking to strange dogs in the yard was L22 86 apparently not a problem. Father's problem was a real problem; my L22 87 sister's would improve. I knew that Mother felt this way, and once L22 88 more she was right.

L22 89 One night Marcy telephoned, Mother called my sister, and my L22 90 sister came out of her room. She took the phone and told Marcy, L22 91 "Sure, great. See you. Bye."

L22 92 "Marcy knows about a party", she said.

L22 93 Mother said, "Wonderful, dear," though in the L22 94 past there were always fights about going to parties with Marcy.

L22 95 We all stayed up till my sister came home, though we all L22 96 pretended to sleep. My window was over the front door and I watched L22 97 her on the front step, struggling to unlock the door, holding L22 98 something bulky, pressed against her belly. At last she disappeared L22 99 inside. Something hit the floor with a thud. I heard my sister L22 100 running. There was so much commotion we all felt justified rushing L22 101 downstairs. Mother helped my father down, they came along rather L22 102 quickly.

L22 103 We found my sister in the kitchen. It was quiet and very dark. L22 104 The refrigerator was open, not for food but for light. Bathed in L22 105 its glow, my sister was rhythmically stroking a large iguana that L22 106 stood poised, alert, its head slightly raised, on the butcher block L22 107 by the stove.

L22 108 In the equalizing darkness my father saw almost as well as we L22 109 did. L22 110 "Jesus Christ," he said.

L22 111 My sister said, "He was a little freaked. You can try L22 112 turning the light on."

L22 113 Only then did we notice that the lizard's foot was bandaged. My L22 114 sister said, "This drunken jerk bit off one of his toes. He L22 115 got all the guys at the party to bet that he wouldn't do it. I just L22 116 waded in and took the poor thing and the guy just gave it up. The L22 117 asshole couldn't have cared very much if he was going to bite its L22 118 toes off."

L22 119 "Watch your language," Mother said. L22 120 "What a cruel thing to do! Is this the kind of teenager L22 121 you're going to parties with?"

L22 122 "Animals," my father said. After that there was a L22 123 silence, during which all of us thought that once my father would L22 124 have unwrapped the bandage and taken a look at the foot.

L22 125 "His name's Reynaldo," my sister said.

L22 126 "Sounds Puerto Rican," said Mother.

L22 127 Once there would have been a fight about her keeping the L22 128 iguana, but like some brilliant general, my sister had retreated L22 129 and recouped and emerged from her bedroom, victorious and in L22 130 control. At that moment I hated her for always getting her way, for L22 131 always outlasting everyone and being so weird and dramatic and L22 132 never letting you know for sure, what was real and what she was L22 133 faking.

L22 134 Reynaldo had the run of my sister's room, no one dared open the L22 135 door. After school she'd lie belly down on her bed, cheek to cheek L22 136 with Reynaldo. No one asked my sister what she and Reynaldo L22 137 discussed. And in a way it was lucky that my father couldn't see L22 138 that.

L22 139 One night the phone rang. Mother covered the receiver and said, L22 140 "Thank you, Lord. It's a boy."

L22 141 It was a boy who had been at the party and seen my sister L22 142 rescue. Reynaldo. His name was Greg, he was a college student, L22 143 studying for a business degree.

L22 144 After he and my sister went out a few times, Mother invited L22 145 Greg to dinner. I ate roast beef and watched him charm everyone but L22 146 me. He described my sister grabbing the iguana out of its L22 147 torturer's hands. He said, "When I saw her do that, I L22 148 thought, this is someone I want to know better." He and my L22 149 parents talked about her like some distant mutual friend. I stared L22 150 hard at my sister, wanting her to miss Jimmy, too, but she was L22 151 playing with her food, I couldn't tell what she was thinking.

L22 152 Greg had a widowed mother and two younger sisters; he'd gotten L22 153 out of the draft by being their sole support. He said he wouldn't L22 154 go anyway, he'd go to Canada first. No one mentioned Reynaldo, L22 155 though we could hear him scrabbling jealously around my sister's L22 156 room.

L22 157 Reynaldo wasn't invited on their dates and neither, obviously, L22 158 was I. I knew Greg didn't drive onto the ice or break into L22 159 furniture stores. He took my sister to Godard movies and told us L22 160 how much she liked them.

L22 161 One Saturday my sister and Greg took Reynaldo out for a drive. L22 162 And when they returned - I waited up - the iguana wasn't with L22 163 them.

L22 164 "Where's Reynaldo?" I asked.

L22 165 "A really nice pet shop," she said. And then L22 166 for the first time I understood that Jimmy was really dead.

L22 167 Not long after that my father died. His doctors had made a L22 168 mistake. It was not a disease of the retina but a tumor of the L22 169 brain. You'd think they would have known that, checked for that L22 170 right away, but he was a scientist, they saw themselves and didn't L22 171 want to know. Before he died he disappeared, one piece at a time. L22 172 My sister and I slowly turned away so as not to see what was L22 173 missing.

L22 174 Greg was very helpful throughout this terrible time. Six months L22 175 after my father died, Greg and my sister got married. By then he'd L22 176 graduated and got a marketing job with a potato chip company. L22 177 Mother and I lived alone in the house - as we'd had, really, for L22 178 some time. My father and sister had left so gradually that the door L22 179 hardly swung shut behind them. Father's Buick sat in the garage, as L22 180 it had since he'd lost his vision, and every time we saw it we L22 181 thought about all that had happened.

L22 182 My sister and Greg bought a house nearby; sometimes Mother and L22 183 I went for dinner. Greg told us about his work and the interesting L22 184 things he found out. In the Northeast they liked the burnt chips, L22 185 the lumpy misshapen ones, but down South every chip had to be pale L22 186 and thin and perfect.

L22 187 "A racial thing, no doubt," I said but no one L22 188 seemed to hear, though one of Mother's favorite subjects was race L22 189 relations down South. I'd thought my sister might laugh or get L22 190 angry, but she was a different person. A slower, solid, heavier L22 191 person who was eating a lot of chips.

L22 192 One afternoon the doorbell rang, and it was Jimmy Kowalchuk. It L22 193 took me a while to recognize him; he didn't have his beard. For a L22 194 second - just a second - I was afraid to open the door. He was L22 195 otherwise unchanged except that he'd got even thinner, and looked L22 196 even less Polish and even more Puerto Rican. He was wearing army L22 197 fatigues. I was glad Mother wasn't home. L22 198 L23 1 <#FROWN:L23\>When the grisly bundle went rolling down the L23 2 road, it turned into Texas' tragicomic case of

L23 3 HELLO DOLLY, GOODBYE DAVID!

L23 4 by Bill G. Cox

L23 5 Special Investigator for

L23 6 OFFICIAL DETECTIVE

L23 7 The moon rode high and bright over Amarillo, Texas, on the L23 8 Monday night of August 15, 1988. It was a perfect night for riding L23 9 around and listening to music. The usual kinds of music filled the L23 10 airways in this city of 156,000, from country and western to heavy L23 11 metal to rock 'n' roll to golden oldies to easy listening. On a L23 12 moonlit night made for love and romantic music, the tunes sent L23 13 forth by a small radio station on the city's northeast side were L23 14 the choice of some Amarillo listeners. Easy-listening instrumentals L23 15 and vocals - nice to kiss by, if you were so inclined.

L23 16 As it turned out, though, songs such as "Your Cheating L23 17 Heart" and maybe even the real oldie, "Frankie and L23 18 Johnny," would have been more fitting for the shocking L23 19 events that started with a bang at that easy-listening radio L23 20 station.

L23 21 Love and hate - such a thin line between them. Sometimes L23 22 emotions and circumstances combine to blow love all to hell and L23 23 shove it over to the hate side of that narrow line.

L23 24 What started in that easy-listening radio station came to L23 25 public attention with a crashing crescendo on this Monday night L23 26 when the city streets were bathed in moonlight.

L23 27 A young woman was parked in front of a residence waiting for a L23 28 friend to come out when she heard a loud clanking and clattering L23 29 noise. Glancing behind her, she saw a speeding pickup pulling a L23 30 wrapped object behind. The cumbersome bundle seemed to be lashed to L23 31 a conveyance with wheels that jogged and bounced along the street L23 32 like a large beach ball on tough waters. As the pickup flashed by, L23 33 the startled woman got the vivid impression that the bouncing L23 34 bundle was a human body!

L23 35 Even as she wondered if she were imagining things, the woman's L23 36 friend appeared at her car, exclaiming, "Did you see what I L23 37 just saw?"

L23 38 As the pair drove away from the curb, they saw the same pickup L23 39 coming back toward them on the street. They only caught a glimpse L23 40 of a dark figure in the pickup cab, but they noticed that the L23 41 bundle was now gone from the trailing rig that had carried it.

L23 42 A block further down the street, the two witnesses saw the blob L23 43 lying in the middle of the road. They steered gingerly around it L23 44 and pulled up to a house where lights were on to notify the police L23 45 department. They had seen enough to confirm in their minds that the L23 46 wrapped and tied bundle contained a humand body.

L23 47 The police radio room received the call reporting a body in the L23 48 street at 10:11 p.m.

L23 49 A police unit driven by Patrolman Jim Burgess was dispatched to L23 50 investigate the report. However, the patrol car was given the L23 51 address from where the reporting call had come, and when Burgess L23 52 arrived there, he saw nothing that looked like a body in the L23 53 street.

L23 54 At the same time, Patrolman Efrin Contreras, only a short L23 55 distance away, was preparing to drive a prisoner to the city jail. L23 56 The officer had arrested a woman on a charge of prostitution in an L23 57 area frequented by hustlers. Strung along East Amarillo Boulevard L23 58 are cheap motels, strip joints, bars and similar establishments. L23 59 The area that surrounds the boulevard, which some cops refer to as L23 60 "The Strip of Sin," really jumps on Saturday L23 61 nights. On Mondays, the activity is slower, but police still happen L23 62 on a paid-love transaction in progress even on the quiet nights.

L23 63 Contreras had grilled and released the potential john, a L23 64 motorist who the high-heeled lady had solicited on the L23 65 street. The nervous man, relieved not to be in the clutches of the L23 66 law, drove away. But a minute later, Contreras was surpised to see L23 67 the man back again.

L23 68 "It looks like someone has been hit by a car - there's L23 69 a body in the middle of the street down there," he yelled, L23 70 pointing in the direction from which he had come.

L23 71 With the lady of the night still in tow, the uniformed officer L23 72 drove to the spot two blocks away. When he got out of the car and L23 73 looked closer at the trussed bundle, Contreras picked up his radio L23 74 mike and notified the radio clerk of the discovery.

L23 75 Patrolman Burgess heard the radio traffic and sped to the L23 76 nearby location given by his fellow officer. The patrolmen observed L23 77 what appeared to be a portion of a human arm visible from what L23 78 looked like white sheets tied with different sizes of rope.

L23 79 A strong and sickening smell of decomposed flesh was L23 80 immediately apparent as the patrolmen made a cursory examination. L23 81 The brief look was enough for Burgess to return to his police car L23 82 and place a call to the Special Crimes Unit.

L23 83 The Special Crimes Unit is a crack homicide squad peopled with L23 84 specially assigned investigators from the Amarillo Police L23 85 Department and the sheriff's departments of Potter and Randall L23 86 Counties. Amarillo lies in both counties. The Special Crimes Unit L23 87 was created to probe murders in Amarillo and the two-county L23 88 area. Its record of solved crimes and its investigative techniques L23 89 have inspired other police forces in the South-west to set L23 90 up similar homicide units.

L23 91 The Special Crimes roster has an assortment of personalities. L23 92 Lieutenant Sandy Morris, the unit's assistant coordinator, directs L23 93 the field investigations. A veteran homicide detective with more L23 94 then 25 years' experience, he's a crusty individual who has seen L23 95 the "old school" police procedures of hitting the L23 96 sidewalks and tapping informants change with new laws and court L23 97 decisions into the highly skilled forensic police techniques of L23 98 today. The unit includes younger men and women who have come up L23 99 through the ranks to their present jobs of investigators and ID and L23 100 crime technicians.

L23 101 It's a crew that gets a homicide probe off the ground with the L23 102 efficiency of a scientific space launch. They felt lucky that the L23 103 call to duty on this Monday night didn't come in the wee hours of L23 104 the day, which happens to them all too often.

L23 105 Accompanied by a detail of regular duty police officers at the L23 106 crime scene, the Special Crimes Unit force included Lieutenant L23 107 Jimmy Stevens, the crime scene coordinator who was administrator L23 108 and overall unit supervisor at the time; Lieutenant Morris and L23 109 Investigator David Thurman; and Investigator Greg Soltis, an ID and L23 110 crime scene officer. Aided by one of the uniformed officers, L23 111 Investigator Soltis took measurements and drew crime scene diagrams L23 112 in addition to photographing the body and immediate vicinity.

L23 113 Potter County Justice of the Peace Haven Dysart, acting as L23 114 coroner, came to the scene to conduct a preliminary inquest.

L23 115 As the lawmen examined the trussed heap in the street, they saw L23 116 that the body appeared to be wrapped in curtains or drapes instead L23 117 of a sheet as first believed. Underneath, they found that a brown L23 118 plastic garbage sack covered the victim's head, and the feet were L23 119 inside a black plastic bag. The stench hanging in the air was the L23 120 result of the advanced decomposition of the body, which appeared to L23 121 be male. Because of the body's condition, the investigators were L23 122 uncertain of the dead man's race or how he had been killed. The L23 123 body had been trussed with two different-sized ropes, the sleuths L23 124 noted.

L23 125 Questioning the man and woman who had phoned police after L23 126 witnessing the hop-and-skip ride of the body behind the pickup, the L23 127 detectives came up with little information.

L23 128 The witnesses told officers they thought the pickup had been L23 129 blue and white in color. They also thought that the driver had been L23 130 wearing a cap similar to a baseball cap, but they had gotten only a L23 131 glimpse of the driver.

L23 132 Officers were assigned to go house to house in the residential L23 133 area. The neighborhood canvass produced little more than what L23 134 already had been learned.

L23 135 Some witnesses who had been on their front porches and were L23 136 drawn to the speeding pickup and its trailing load by the racket L23 137 they made also mentioned the blue and white colors. Others who had L23 138 seen the strange and noisy ensemble thought the pickup might have L23 139 been another color.

L23 140 Adding to the confusion, one or two witnesses thought the L23 141 blue-and-white pickup was not the one that had carried the bizarre L23 142 bundle, but one that had slowed so its driver could see what was L23 143 left in the middle of the street after the load had been dislodged L23 144 from another pickup. One witness contacted by the investigators L23 145 thought he had seen two persons in the pickup pulling the bundle on L23 146 wheels.

L23 147 All of those who had viewed the unusual scene agreed that the L23 148 pickup had been speeding along Northeast 10th Avenue, going at L23 149 least 50 mph in a residential area limited to 30 mph. The L23 150 mysterious driver had obviously been hellbent for somewhere when L23 151 the towed body was suddenly dislodged by its bumpy, tumultuous ride L23 152 over the pavement.

L23 153 The investigators' search for clues along the trail of the L23 154 fast-moving pickup revealed drag marks and debris at various points L23 155 that confirmed the last ride of the unidentified body had been a L23 156 rough one. The corpse had been separated from the pulling vehicle L23 157 at the intersection of Northeast 10th Avenue and North Arthur L23 158 Street. This was a short distance from the address to which Officer L23 159 Burgess had been dispatched before the body's actual location was L23 160 established.

L23 161 As he looked over the crime scene and heard the stories of the L23 162 witnesses, Lieutenant Morris formulated a theory on which he L23 163 speculated to his colleagues. The veteran homicide sleuth wondered L23 164 why the body had been dragged behind the pickup after being wrapped L23 165 and trussed so compactly. He felt that this indicated the killer L23 166 was a person of small stature and limited strength - perhaps even a L23 167 woman - who had been unable to lift the bound package into the back L23 168 of the pickup.

L23 169 Whatever had been the case, the investigators, who had worked L23 170 about every kind of homicide in the books, agreed on one thing: L23 171 This had to be the most bungled - and weirdest - job of body L23 172 disposal they had ever come across.

L23 173 Presumably, after becoming aware that the body in back was no L23 174 longer aboard, the killer had not bothered to retrace the route ro L23 175 retrieve it for fear of being seen with the misplaced corpse.

L23 176 Lieutenant Morris was of the opinion that the body might have L23 177 been loaded somewhere in the immediate vicinity. Deciding to look L23 178 for the start of the drag trail, which was visible sporadically L23 179 along the street, the lieutenant got into his car, accompanied by L23 180 Investigator Thurman, and drove slowly along the route, scanning L23 181 the streets that intersected Northeast 10th.

L23 182 Meanwhile, after the body had been released from the scene by L23 183 the acting coroner, it was taken to a county building for thorough L23 184 examination and photographing. Soltis was assigned as the ID man L23 185 who would record on film the distasteful sorting out of the L23 186 victim's remains as they were removed from the wrappings.

L23 187 As the outside covering and plastic bags were peeled away, the L23 188 investigators saw that the victim had been nude when encased in the L23 189 crude shroud. The body was that of a well-built man with short L23 190 reddish hair and mustache. On the right shoulder was a tattoo that L23 191 could help in making the identification. The red, yellow, and black L23 192 tattoo depicted a rearing unicorn.

L23 193 A wound that appeared to be a bullet hole was evident in the L23 194 victim's forehead, though it could have been the result of the body L23 195 being dragged on the pavement, the officers thought. As the last L23 196 covering was pulled away, a shell casing dropped to the floor.

L23 197 The examination also revealed abrasions on the buttocks and the L23 198 inside of the thighs, undoubtedly the result of friction during the L23 199 body's extended drag over the rough pavement.

L23 200 There was no clothing or anything else that might contribute to L23 201 the dead man's identification. It looked as though he had been L23 202 slain while naked or had been undressed after the killing to L23 203 prevent identification, the investigators theorized.

L23 204 L24 1 <#FROWN:L24\>Chapter 1

L24 2 I LIKE SUNDAYS. Most Sundays, anyway.

L24 3 Day of rest, day of relaxation. L24 4 Stay-in-bed-and-read-or-watch-old-movies day. Putter day. L24 5 Go-out-and-play day. Do-nothing-at-all day. Good old Sunday.

L24 6 This one, in late June, had clear skies and warm breezes off L24 7 the ocean and the bay- a pair of surprises, since too many June L24 8 days in San Francisco are fog-shrouded and cold. Nature's L24 9 air-conditioning, the locals like to say with pride; keeps the city L24 10 nice and cool while surrounding communities swelter under the hot L24 11 summer sun. Wouldn't have it any other way, they tell outsiders, L24 12 lying through their teeth. If they really meant it, they would not L24 13 take part, as plenty of them do, in the mass weekend exodus to L24 14 those sweltering neighborhood communities. It is only on rare June L24 15 days like this one that these none-too-true-blue San Franciscans L24 16 stay put and take advantage of what they refer to as the city's L24 17 'good-weather attractions.'

L24 18 So what was I going to do on this fine June Sunday? If Kerry L24 19 were available, there were lots of possibilities, beginning with a L24 20 couple of hours of lovemaking and proceeding to a picnic somewhere L24 21 or maybe to the Giants-Cubs game at Candlestick. But Kerry wasn't L24 22 available. One reason was that she had her mother to contend with, L24 23 though maybe not for much longer. Cybil had been sharing Kerry's L24 24 Diamond Heights apartment for nearly seven months now, the result L24 25 of her inability to cope with the death of her husband, Ivan, and L24 26 what remained of her life without him. Difficult and painful L24 27 situation, made even worse by the fact that Cybil had taken an L24 28 irrational dislike to me: I couldn't visit without provoking a L24 29 crisis and could call only when I was certain Kerry was home. This L24 30 had severely curtailed our love life, added an edge of tension to L24 31 what had formerly been a pretty stress-free relationship. Recently, L24 32 though, with the aid of a counseling group called Children of L24 33 Grieving Parents, Kerry had succeeded in convincing her mother to L24 34 move into a Marin County seniors complex. Cybil had agreed to make L24 35 the move by the end of the month. But would she change her mind at L24 36 the last minute? The whole thing was a tale well-calculated to keep L24 37 you in suspense, right up to the last act.

L24 38 The other reason Kerry wasn't available today was that she had L24 39 work to do on one of her ad agency's major accounts. Kerry Wade, L24 40 Bates and Carpenter's new Creative Director. The title had been L24 41 bestowed on her just last week; and along with it and a $5000 L24 42 annual increase in salary went 'greater responsibility,' which L24 43 translated to longer hours and an increased workload. Not such an L24 44 ideal promotion, if you asked me. But nobody had, and I was not L24 45 about to volunteer anything that might dampen her euphoria. The one L24 46 time we'd made love since had been terrific.

L24 47 So. My options for the day were limited. Under normal L24 48 circumstances I could have called Eberhardt and suggested that we L24 49 go watch the Giants get it on with the Cubs. But things were not L24 50 normal between Eb and me, hadn't been for the past two months - L24 51 since Bobbie Jean had called off their planned wedding, for good L24 52 reasons thanks to him, and the fight he and I had had as a result. L24 53 That damned fight. School-boy stuff: I'd lost my head, L24 54 stupidly, and punched him. He still hadn't forgiven me; it worried L24 55 me that maybe he never would. We barely spoke in the office, and L24 56 then only when business made it necessary. The few times I'd tried L24 57 to talk him into having a beer together after work, he'd flatly L24 58 refused.

L24 59 No Kerry, no Eberhardt. Going to the ballgame by myself didn't L24 60 appeal to me; neither did taking a drive or visiting one of those L24 61 'good-weather attractions' alone. Barney Rivera? On impulse I L24 62 called his number, and got his answering machine. Out getting his L24 63 ashes hauled somewhere, probably. Barney Rivera, God's gift to L24 64 women who liked little fat guys with soulful eyes and a line of L24 65 sugar-coated BS. Mentally I ran down the list of my other friends L24 66 ... and a pretty short list it was. Devote your life to your L24 67 profession, turn yourself into a workaholic, and this is what L24 68 happens to you: short-listed as you approach sixty. The few L24 69 others were married, had families. Had lives. Get a life, why L24 70 didn't I?

L24 71 Too old. Besides, I liked the one I had - most of the time.

L24 72 Staying home was out. Too nice a day for that, and already felt L24 73 restless. Open air was what I needed, sunshine on my shoulder, L24 74 people around me, maybe some familiar faces. No blue Sunday for me L24 75 ...

L24 76 Aquatic Park, I thought.

L24 77 Sure, that was the ticket. I hadn't been down there in a while, L24 78 and I always enjoyed myself when I went. What better way to spend a L24 79 quiet Sunday than getting back in touch with your ethnic L24 80 heritage?

L24 81 I went and picked up the car and drove to Aquatic Park, to L24 82 watch the old men play bocce.

L24 83 IN SAN FRANCISCO, in the last decade of the twentieth century, L24 84 bocce is a dying sport.

L24 85 Most of the city's older Italians, to whom bocce was more a L24 86 religion than a sport, have died off. The once large and close-knit L24 87 North Beach Italian community has been steadily losing its identity L24 88 since the fifties - families moving to the suburbs, the expansion L24 89 of Chinatown and the gobbling up of North Beach real estate by L24 90 wealthy Chinese - and even though there has been a small, new wave L24 91 of immigrants from Italy in recent years, they're mostly young and L24 92 upscale. Young, upscale Italians don't play bocce much, if at all; L24 93 their interests lie in soccer, in the American sports where money L24 94 and fame and power have replaced a love of the game itself. The Di L24 95 Massimo bocce courts at the North Beach Playground are mostly L24 96 closed these days; so are the handful of other public courts left L24 97 in the city, including the one in the Outer Mission, where I'd been L24 98 raised. The Potrero district's Monte Cristo Club is still open on a L24 99 regular basis, but it's private. About the only public courts where L24 100 you can find a game every Saturday and Sunday are the ones at L24 101 Aquatic Park.

L24 102 Time was, all six of the Aquatic Park courts were packed from L24 103 early morning to dusk and there were spectators and waiting players L24 104 lined two and three deep at courtside and up along the fence on Van L24 105 Ness. No more. Seldom, now, is more than one of the courts used. L24 106 And the players get older, and sadder, and fewer each year.

L24 107 There were maybe fifteen players and watchers on this Sunday, L24 108 almost all of them older than my fifty-eight, loosely grouped L24 109 around the two courts nearest the street. Those two are covered by L24 110 a high pillar-supported roof so that contests can be held even in L24 111 wet weather. Up until a year ago, the roof was so badly L24 112 weather-worn that it was in danger of collapse. Just when it looked L24 113 as though the courts would have to be shut down, the Italian Consul L24 114 General stepped in and hosted a benefit soccer match that raised L24 115 enough money for the necessary repairs. Viva il L24 116 console.

L24 117 Under the roof are wooden benches; I parked myself on one of L24 118 these; midway along. The only other seated spectator was Pietro L24 119 Lombardi, in a patch of sunlight at the far end, and this surprised L24 120 me. Even though Pietro was in his seventies, he was one of the best L24 121 and spriest of the regulars, and also one of the most social. To L24 122 see him sitting alone, shoulders slumped and head bowed, was L24 123 puzzling.

L24 124 Pining away for the old days, maybe, I thought - as I had just L24 125 been doing. And a phrase popped into my head, a line from Dante L24 126 that one of my uncles had been fond of quoting when I was a kid: L24 127 Nessun maggior dolore che ricordarsi del tempo felice L24 128 nella miseria. The bitterest of woes is to remember old L24 129 happy days.

L24 130 Pietro and his woes didn't occupy my attention for long. The L24 131 game in progress was animated and voluble, as only a game of bocce L24 132 played by elderly 'paesanos can be, and I was soon caught L24 133 up in the spirit of it.

L24 134 Bocce is simple - deceptively simple. You play it on a long, L24 135 narrow packed-earth pit with low wooden sides. A wooden marker ball L24 136 the size of a walnut is rolled to one end; the players stand at the L24 137 opposite end and in turn roll eight larger, heavier balls, L24 138 grapefruit-size, in the direction of the marker, the object being L24 139 to see who can put his bocce ball closest to it. One of the L24 140 required skills is slow-rolling the ball, usually in a curving L24 141 trajectory, so that it kisses the marker and then lies up against L24 142 it - the perfect shot - or else stops an inch or two away. The L24 143 other required skill is knocking an opponent's ball away from any L24 144 such close lie without disturbing the marker. The best players, L24 145 like Pietro Lombardi, can do this two out of three times on the fly L24 146 - no mean feat from a distance of fifty feet. They can also do it L24 147 by caroming the ball off the pit walls with topspin or reverse L24 148 spin, after the fashion of pool shooters.

L24 149 Nobody paid much attention to me until after the game in L24 150 progress had been decided. Then I was acknowledged with hand L24 151 gestures and a few words - the tolerant acceptance accorded to L24 152 known spectators and occasional players. Unknowns got no greeting L24 153 at all. These men still clung to the old ways, and one of the old L24 154 ways was clannishness.

L24 155 Only one of the group, Dominick Marra, came over to where I was L24 156 sitting, And that was because he had something on his mind. He was L24 157 in his mid-seventies, white-haired, white-mustached; a bantamweight L24 158 in baggy trousers held up by galluses. He and Pietro Lombardi had L24 159 been close friends for most of their lives. Born in the same town - L24 160 Agropoli, a village on the Gulf of Salerno not far from Naples; L24 161 moved to San Francisco with their families a year apart, in the L24 162 late twenties; married cousins, raised large families, were widowed L24 163 at almost the same time a few years ago. The kind of friendship L24 164 that is virtually a blood tie. Dominick had been a baker; Pietro L24 165 had owned a North Beach trattoria that now belonged to one of his L24 166 daughters.

L24 167 What Dominick had on his mind was Pietro. "You see how L24 168 he's sit over there, hah? He's got trouble - la L24 169 miseria"

L24 170 "What kind of trouble?"

L24 171 "His granddaughter, Gianna Fornessi."

L24 172 "Something happen to her?"

L24 173 "She's maybe go to jail," Dominick said.

L24 174 "What for?"

L24 175 "Stealing money."

L24 176 "I'm sorry to hear it. How much money?"

L24 177 "Two thousand dollars."

L24 178 "Who did she steal it from?"

L24 179 "Che?"

L24 180 "Whose money did she steal?"

L24 181 Dominick gave me a disgusted look. "She don't steal it. L24 182 Why you think Pietro, he's got la miseria, L24 183 hah?"

L24 184 I knew what was coming, now; I should have known it the instant L24 185 Dominick started confiding in me about Pietro's problem. I said, L24 186 "You want me to help him and his granddaughter."

L24 187 "Sure. You're a detective."

L24 188 "A busy detective."

L24 189 "You got no time for old man and young girl? L24 190 Compaesani?"

L24 191 I sighed, but not so he could hear me do it. "All L24 192 right, I'll talk to Pietro. See if he want my help, if there's L24 193 anything I can do."

L24 194 "Sure he wants your help," Dominick said. L24 195 "He just don't know it yet."

L24 196 We went to where Pietro sat alone in the sun. He was taller L24 197 than Dominick, heavier, balder. And he had a fondness for Toscanas, L24 198 those little twisted black Italian cigars; one protruded now from a L24 199 corner of his mouth. He didn't want to talk at first, but Dominick L24 200 launched into a monologue in Italian that changed his mind and put L24 201 a glimmer of hope in his sad eyes. Even though I've lost a lot of L24 202 the language over the years, I can understand enough to follow most L24 203 conversations. L24 204