by Greg Iles
“If you’re Tiny McSwain, Dwight Stone sent me.”
He stops, his eyes narrowed. “Who are you?”
“Better for you if you don’t know. Stone told me you’d help me.”
“Somebody heard shots up near the mesa,” he says suspiciously. “Was that Dwight?”
“It was the people trying to kill him. Him and me both.”
“I’ll call the sheriff. Where’s Dwight?”
“He’s back by the creek. He told me not to call anybody. He said everything would be over by the time anybody could get to him, and if not, they’d get killed for nothing.”
“Those his words?”
“Near enough.”
Tiny nods. “Then we don’t call anybody.”
“There are at least two men up there, probably more.”
“Stone’s a tough old boy. What did he tell you to do?”
“He said tell you to take me to an airport.”
“Which airport?”
“Denver. And he said do it quick.”
Tiny motions for a T-shirt-clad woman at a table to get behind the bar, then takes a set of keys from his pocket. “Let’s go, friend.”
“Hey,” calls the woman. “Where are you going, if anybody asks?”
“If anybody asks, me and this guy went back up the Slate to help Dwight.” Tiny McSwain looks at his customers, who are staring indifferently at me. “Nobody else says different.”
Blank nods from the drinkers.
“My Bronco’s parked out back,” he says. “Let’s go.”
The Quiet Game
CHAPTER 36
I am standing at the Continental Airlines gate in Baton Rouge, searching the crowds of travelers for Daniel Kelly as fear slowly devours me from the inside. A week ago I stood a few yards from here, entranced by the sight of Livy Marston. Now I stand shaking from adrenaline and lack of sleep, wondering whether Dwight Stone survived the night, and whether I will live to defend myself at my slander trial, which is scheduled to begin in less than twenty-four hours.
Kelly should have been here hours ago, but I’ve seen no sight of him. A dozen businessmen who could be FBI agents have passed me, stared at me, even bumped into me, but none has tried to stop me. So far, anyway. If Kelly doesn’t show in the next five minutes, I’m going to try to reach Natchez on my own.
Last night Tiny McSwain drove me all the way to Denver and dropped me at an airport motel. I paid cash and checked in under a false name, then lay in the chilly darkness, unable to sleep. Twice I lifted the phone to call the Colorado state police and send them up the mesa after Stone. I had visions of him lying wounded beside the Slate River, his attackers dead, him dying but savable if he reached a surgeon in time. But Stone’s orders came back to me, and each time I set the phone down.
Instead I called Sam Jacobs in Natchez, being fairly sure that his phone would not be tapped. The geologist promised to visit Caitlin Masters first thing in the morning and, through her, instruct Kelly to be at the Baton Rouge airport by ten a.m. and to meet every plane arriving from Dallas after that time. I know Jacobs well enough to know he followed through.
But Kelly isn’t here.
When I did finally close my eyes last night, I saw nightmarish images of Leo Marston raping Livy as a child, forcing her into a conspiracy of silence, raising her in a schizophrenic world of material bounty and spiritual agony, somehow maintaining such a hold on her that she still allowed him sexual access at the age of eighteen. When I pondered the nature of that hold, I felt the dread and horror I felt the first time I saw Roman Polanski’s Chinatown. The dread came when Faye Dunaway told Jack Nicholson that the young woman she had been hiding was her daughter and her sister. The horror arrived with the next line when Jack, reaching for a thread of sanity, asked about her father: “He raped you?” and Dunaway looked up and slowly shook her head. All sanity spun away with this terrible confession. I remember something similar from reading Anais Nin in college, that Nin had seduced her father several times; but Nin had been profligate in her sexual adventures, and besides, she was French. The idea of Livy Marston voluntarily having sex with her father simply would not set in my mind as reality.
“Continental Airlines passenger Penn Cage, please pick up the nearest white courtesy phone.”
It takes a moment for my name to sink in, but when it does, my fear escalates to alarm. The caller could be Kelly or Caitlin, but it could also be someone who means me great harm.
“Continental Airlines passenger Penn Cage, please pick up the nearest white courtesy phone.”
There’s a white phone across the concourse from me, near a bank of pay phones, but I can’t make myself walk over to it. What if Portman’s people are waiting to snatch whoever walks up to answer that call? On the other hand, what choice do I have? The caller could be Daniel Kelly.
“This is Penn,” I say, picking up the phone.
“It’s Kelly.”
“Jesus, are you in the airport?”
“Yes, but we can’t meet. Listen to me, Penn, we only have a few seconds.”
Kelly’s use of my first name rather than the facetious “boss” brings my inner self to attention. “What is it?”
“Portman’s men are in the airport right now. You’re going to have to get home on your own. I’m going to divert these guys, but you have to move fast.”
“I’m listening.”
“My Taurus is parked in sight of the terminal, in the short-term lot, space A-27. The keys are under the mat, and there’s a cell phone under the seat. You got that?”
“A-27.”
“Right. Next: downstairs, near the baggage carousels, there’s an Infiniti Q45 on display. I left a gun sitting on the left inside lip of the rear bumper.”
“Jesus-”
“Listen. You get that gun, get to the car, and haul your ass back to Natchez.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Buy you some time. But you’ve got another problem. I haven’t been straight with you. Nobody at the company has. They’ve reported every move you’ve made to Portman.”
My chest goes hollow. “How do you know that?”
“Because we’re reporting every move you make back to the office. And we don’t usually do that. Our CEO is former FBI, you know. And John Portman could swing a lot of corporate business to Argus any time he feels like it.”
The implications of Kelly’s revelation ricochet through my mind. “Is my family safe?”
“Argus doesn’t kill people. Other than in defense of a client, like the other night. But I’d find myself some new security, just to be on the safe side. Local boys maybe. Buddies are good, family’s better.”
“Kelly… how do I know I can trust you?”
“Because you’re alive. And because I’m telling you this.”
“Why are you telling me?”
A brief silence. “I think it’s got something to do with the way you buried your maid. Now, get your ass out of here. Walk fast, but don’t run. And if you hear shooting, don’t look back.”
His order is an exact echo of Stone’s. “Kelly-”
“We’ll be sharing a Scotch again before you know it. Move out.”
Reluctantly hanging up the phone, I scan the concourse like a tailback picking holes in an offensive line, then start through the crowds at a rapid walk, looking back frequently for signs of pursuit. After clearing the metal detectors, I dodge a golf cart carrying a handicapped woman, then bound down the escalator to the baggage-collection point where Annie and I said goodbye to Caitlin Masters, before we knew who she was.
Parked in the middle of the floor is the Infiniti Q45. Midnight blue. I look around once, then crouch down and reach under the bumper, feeling along the inside lip for Kelly’s gun. My fingers collide with something hard, but as I try to close them around it, the gun clatters to the floor. Glancing around at the people waiting for luggage, I drop to my stomach and sweep my hand across the tile, and the gun skitters into my chest.
&nb
sp; It’s Kelly’s Browning Hi-Power.
I jam the pistol into my waistband beneath my shirt and trot past the rental car desks to the glass doors leading to the outdoor parking lot. I’ve heard no shots or even shouts since my conversation with Kelly, but this actually increases my anxiety. Did he manage to divert whoever was waiting for me? Or is he lying dead beneath a pay phone, the slug from a silenced pistol in his head?
The Taurus is parked sixty yards from the terminal. I can see it from the doors. Exiting the terminal with a group of LSU fraternity guys, I fall in with them until they stop near a Blazer thirty yards from the door, then break for the Taurus at a flat-out sprint. To my surprise, the wind cuts through my jacket with a cold bite. Maybe fall has come to Mississippi at last.
Laying Kelly’s pistol on the seat beside me, I retrieve the keys, crank the engine, and force myself to drive normally as I leave the lot. In ten minutes I’m on Highway 61. Natchez lies eighty miles to the north, but much of the road is two-lane blacktop and heavily traveled by log trucks. The trip can be agonizingly slow during the day.
I reach under the seat for the cell phone, switch it on, and dial the Natchez Examiner. Caitlin has been handling the transportation of my out-of-town witnesses. Huey Moak and Lester Hinson are scheduled to arrive in Baton Rouge tonight, and we’d planned to have one of the Argus men pick them up.
“Penn?” Caitlin asks, after a minute of hold music.
“Yes. Remember, your phone’s tapped.”
“What’s going on? I’ve been freaking out here.”
“Have you asked any of the Argus guys to pick up the witnesses yet?”
“Not yet. I can call them now.”
“Don’t.”
“Why not?”
“Just don’t. Don’t even mention it. I’ll be there soon, and I’ll handle it. Hang tight until then. Stay inside the newspaper building if you can.”
“Penn, Kelly was acting a little strange before he left. Like I might not see him again.”
You might not. “Things are pretty fluid right now. I’m on my way.”
“Listen. An hour ago my receptionist told me I had a call from the editor of the Rocky Mountain News. When I got to the phone, he told me he was sending a reporter down to cover your trial, and he wanted to know if the guy could use our office facilities.”
“And?”
“He said the reporter’s name was Bookbinder. Henry Bookbinder.”
Bookbinder. Stone’s dead partner. And the Rocky Mountain News is based in Denver. I want to scream with joy, but I just say, “Did he say when this reporter would arrive?”
“Only that he’d be here in time to cover the trial. And there’s something else.”
“What?”
“CNN, Court TV, and some others have been pressing Judge Franklin to allow the trial to be televised.”
“Cameras aren’t allowed in Mississippi courtrooms.”
“I know, but this is a civil case. Apparently if both parties agree, the judge could allow it.”
“But why would Leo agree? Portman would tear him a new one if he did.”
“CNN and the other networks have been saying publicly that if Marston and Portman have nothing to hide, they should have no problem with cameras. It’s a PR nightmare for Portman. It’s extortion, basically. I assume you’d have no objection to cameras?”
“Of course not.”
“Good, because I already told a CNN reporter that you didn’t.”
“That’s fine. Listen, if that ‘reporter’ you mentioned shows up, keep him inside the building until I get there.”
“I will.”
“Thanks. I’ll be there before you know it.”
As I hang up the phone, I yell, “You tough old son of a bitch!” Though he is probably a thousand miles away right now, Dwight Stone is almost certainly alive. If he can reach Natchez by tomorrow morning without being killed, my slander trial will provide more fireworks than the city has seen in decades. And Leo Marston will be indicted for murder. Only now that prospect does not offer even a shadow of the satisfaction it would have two days ago. If I’m right about Leo being Jenny Doe’s father, every judgment I ever made about Livy Marston was wrong. In my mind she has already been transformed from a privileged princess into a tragic figure, a lost girl trying to find her way.
I try to keep the Taurus under the speed limit. A state trooper has haunted this stretch of road for years, handing out tickets like confetti. As the hardwood forest drifts past, I lean back in the seat and force myself to ponder one of the connections that came to me last night in the darkness of the Denver motel. Sometime near dawn a remarkable and frightening idea struck me. A possible link between Del Payton and Leo Marston. Dwight Stone believes Ray Presley randomly chose Del Payton to be murdered. But if my theory of paternal incest is true, there could be a secret link joining the Payton and Marston families, one which Dwight Stone would have known nothing about.
Althea Payton.
Althea is a nurse now. She works in the hospital nursery. But where did she work in the 1960s? Could she have worked for a private physician? A pediatrician perhaps? Is it possible that she noticed some physical evidence of sexual abuse while handling Livy Marston and reported it to the doctor? If she had, what would have been the likely result? In the 1960s sexual abuse of children was grossly underreported, and became public only in the most egregious cases. A man as powerful as Leo Marston would have had little to fear from a doctor, especially if the evidence was equivocal. And even if it wasn’t, would the doctor have the nerve to confront Leo? To bring in the police to investigate the district attorney?
Of course, Leo Marston would never have been to the pediatrician’s office. He wouldn’t have taken time out of his day to carry his daughter to the doctor. Maude would have done that. A pediatrician might have been more comfortable bringing certain suspicious symptoms to the mother’s attention. But if he wasn’t, a compassionate nurse certainly might have. Mother to mother. I can see Althea Payton doing that. Pulling Maude aside and pointing out a couple of things. In the interest of the child.
What would Leo have done if Maude had confronted him with such a thing? Denied it, of course. Deny, deny, deny. Then he would have demanded to know the source of Maude’s suspicions. If she told him it was Althea, what then? Killing Althea would certainly silence her. But it was Del who had died, not his wife. Perhaps Leo had initially taken no action. But later, when the necessity arose to kill a black man to make an example for the Georgia carpet magnate, had Leo chosen Del Payton out of some perverse desire to strike back at the woman who had threatened him? A wild scenario perhaps. But Leo long ago demonstrated his penchant for holding grudges. Whatever the case, unraveling the truth of this low tragedy will be a nightmare for everyone involved. The idea of confronting Livy with my deductions leaves me numb.
A few miles before I reach town, I call Sam Jacobs at work, tell him my family might be in danger, and ask for his help. Jacobs is thirty-eight years old, with a wife and two kids, but by the time I arrive at the Prentiss Motel, he is parked outside with a .357 Magnum sitting on the front seat of his Hummer. When I see that, I know I am looking at the Jewish boy who discovered the list of Klansmen and White Citizens’ Council members in his father’s attic with me twenty-five years ago.
With Sam beside me, I inform the three remaining Argus security men that their services are no longer required. It’s an awkward moment, but they say little and leave the motel with expressionless faces. I’m tempted to tell them to pass a message to their boss when they get back to Houston-that he should look forward to a multimillion-dollar lawsuit-but I don’t want to do anything that might hurt Daniel Kelly in the future.
My parents are stunned by my action, but as soon as I explain what Kelly told me, my father gets on the phone and speaks to two patients of his-avid hunters-and they promise to arrive within the hour, loaded for bear. Dad then makes my day by informing me that while I was in Crested Butte, he finally persuaded Betty Lou B
eckham to take the witness stand tomorrow and tell the jury that she saw Ray Presley in the Triton Battery parking lot only seconds after Del Payton died.
What we need now is a new place to stay, a secure location, and it’s my mother who solves this problem. When our house burned, a friend of Mom’s offered us rooms in her bed-and-breakfast, which occupies the slave quarters of her home, Aquitaine, a massive Greek Revival mansion completed in 1843. Not wanting to impose on her friend’s hospitality, Mom declined. But these are special circumstances, and the fall Pilgrimage has just ended, so our staying there won’t cost the chatelaine her peak season fees. One phone call secures us lodgings in the slave quarters of Aquitaine.
Since the fire destroyed most of our things, moving from the motel to the mansion is relatively painless. The two-story slave quarters was sited across the ornamental gardens from the main house, which occupies most of a city block on the north side of town, near Stanton Hall. Once we’re settled in our rooms, I order out for pizza and spend the forty-minute wait playing with Annie in the garden. She dances around the rim of the central fountain like a gymnast, oblivious to the anxiety mounting in the adults as the hours tick down to tomorrow’s trial. That she does not pick up on our feelings shows me just how far she has come in her journey from the hypersensitive state that followed Sarah’s death.
After devouring my share of pizza, I deal with the messages that came in while I was in Crested Butte. Althea Payton called several times, but the most persistent caller was Ike Ransom. Dad says Ike is desperate to talk to me, and that he sounded both angry and afraid during their conservations. I call Althea and give her an encouraging update, editing the violence into a less frightening picture. Nevertheless, she tells me that Del Jr. wants to help me any way he can, and that she’s going to send him over to “help keep the no-goods away” until the trial. In less than an hour, Del arrives carrying a sawed-off shotgun, and takes up a post on the balcony of the slave quarters, overlooking the street.
Which leaves me Ike.
I am not particularly anxious to talk to him after the way he acted at Ruby’s funeral. Whatever the source of his hatred for Leo Marston, it has pushed him into unstable territory. Ike clearly has both a drug and alcohol problem, and since he is unwilling or unable to provide me with any facts that will help prove Marston guilty of murder in a court of law, I see no urgent need to call him.