Dead Mann Walking

by Stefan Petrucha

  My mind had little else to bounce off of other than itself, but I kept thinking of Nell, and Misty, and the fact that I finally knew what had happened to Lenore. Once, as I sat there, I even remembered, I think, what it felt like to love my wife. It was possible, I guess, that if I got out of here I could convince someone what’d happened even without the recording. Colby Green would want to know, but I wasn’t about to write or call him. If he was my best bet, there were times during the long, slow days when I thought those camps might not be so bad.

  About a week later, they let Misty in to see me. She was so worried about the broken foot and all the tears in my skin, she forgot to be angry with me for locking her in the Dumpster.

  “Nice dress,” I said with my best grin as the guard locked the door. No lie. It was sleek and auburn. Was it already fall? She’d carry it nicer if she wasn’t weighed down by the heavy bag. It threw off her posture, made her look like a schoolgirl struggling with too many books.

  “They wouldn’t let me bring you new clothes,” she said apologetically.

  I shrugged. “Be like lipstick on a pig anyway.”

  She tsked, put the bag down, and opened it. “You don’t look so bad. Nothing I can’t fix.”

  Inside I saw books and papers. I started to ask, but Misty made a face like she didn’t want to talk about that yet. Instead, she pulled out her own sewing kit and some Krazy Glue.

  She started with the foot, checking pictures in an anatomy book to see where the pieces should go, then using the glue on the bone. Whenever she got a piece together, she’d hold it tight for a slow count of sixty. I knew better than to make a peep until it set. It might dry wrong, or get stuck to Misty’s hand.

  Half an hour later, the bones roughly in place, she was the one who started talking.

  “New law was passed this morning,” she said, threading the needle.

  “I heard the guards grumbling about something. Camps or fires?”

  She shook her head. “It was a close vote. Everyone had to compromise.”

  “Camps, then fires? The other way around would be ridiculous.”

  “All chakz have to register, carry photo ID. They’ve got a test worked out, supposed to tell how likely it is for a chak to go feral. You take it once a month. Pass and you’re free for another thirty. Fail and you’re . . .”

  “In the camps.”

  “Yeah. Or the fires.”

  Triage of the dead. It was almost like the cells in Green’s basement. I tried to whistle, but that trick never worked. What I managed was more like blowing a raspberry.

  “Doubt I’d pass now.”

  She looked up from her work. “I’ll help you study. We’re in this together, right?”

  I smiled, tried to make it warm. “Right. Thanks. Sorry about the Dumpster.”

  The muscle reconnected, she stitched the skin. I felt the needle go in and out, but there wasn’t much pain to speak of.

  “Was it worth it?” she asked. “Nearly getting yourself buried?”

  “Got any easier questions I can answer first?”

  “No.”

  “Fine. Yes and no. I didn’t find the recorder, but if I hadn’t tried, I would’ve gone crazy.”

  “And that girl chak pulled you out,” she said. Now it was her turn to smile. Finished sewing, she waved at my foot. “Come on; try it out.”

  The little flap of muscle still working, I managed to move my ankle. I even stood and circled the cell. I didn’t say anything, but my foot didn’t feel exactly right.

  She nodded. “Better stay off it for forty-eight hours until the glue completely sets.”

  I sat on the cot and tried not to look disappointed, but Misty could read me.

  As she loaded up another line of nylon thread for the smaller gash in my neck, she said, “They say if a chak gets ripped a second time, old wounds can heal. Even bone.” She looked up at me. When I didn’t say anything, she added, “We do still have some money.”

  An image of Ashby’s powdered bones shivering in the moonlight popped into my head, along with a thought. Maybe Boyle had saved enough to get the kid an extra RIP, hoping to fix his brain, and that was the unexpected result.

  “I’m already worried I can’t ever really die. Why push it?”

  She tsked. “I can’t keep patching you up like this. Could you think about it, at least?”

  “One crisis at a time, okay?” I answered, indicating the jail cell.

  The neck only took a couple of stitches. “How’s your tongue?”

  I clucked it against the roof of my mouth. “Dry as chalk, but working. Any idea what happened to that chak-girl, aka Nell Parker? Unless, of course, you’re jealous.”

  “I have half a mind to stitch your lips up.”

  “I wouldn’t blame you. But . . . ?”

  “She was released last week. That’s all I know. The police have been trying like crazy to connect you to the bomb, but they can’t. Every time they try to make a circumstantial case, there’re articles in the paper tearing them apart.”

  I was about to ask why, but she put a finger to her lips and shushed me. She lowered her head and whispered, “I can’t let anyone hear this, but I think I figured out Turgeon’s real name.”

  I nearly bolted to my feet, but she held my shoulders and kept me down. “Hess, they can’t know I’m telling you this. I didn’t exactly get the information legitimately. I had to get friendly with one of the guys in records.”

  I flashed her an angry look. She slapped my forehead. “Don’t judge me! He was nice, treated me with some respect, and I’ve done worse for lots less. We’re even going to NA meetings together. Anyway, that’s why I’m not supposed to know what I know. I don’t want him getting in trouble for letting me use his computer.”

  She’d already done whatever it was she’d done, and I didn’t feel like I was in a position to lecture her. Besides, the part about the meetings sounded good. “What did you find?”

  “Took me a while, going through records of spousal murders. There’re thousands, Hess; it’s like everyone gets killed by their lover.”

  “I know, I know. Get to the point.”

  “Fine. About seven years back, this guy James Derby was executed for beating his wife to death. He had a history of abuse. There was a bloody golf club with his prints and DNA all over the handle. He pled guilty, so no one looked too close. His stepson, Lamar, inherited his business. Inside of a year Lamar sold everything and vanished with a shitload of cash.”

  The next part, like it usually happens with exonerations, was almost an accident.

  “Then a university crime lab class gets ahold of the case for practice. A student notices some bruising on her neck, like strangulation. Those wounds were swabbed, too, but never tested. They gave him the extra samples, thinking he’d just find more James Derby DNA. Maybe he started choking her and moved up to the club. But it wasn’t his DNA. It belonged to Lamar. Hess, the bastard murdered his own mother, then planted his stepfather’s golf club at the scene. Why would someone do that?”

  I whispered back, “Because he blamed her for driving away the men in his life, his daddies. At least, that’s what he said.”

  “But it still doesn’t make sense. Why would James Derby go to the death chamber to protect him?” she said.

  I shrugged. “Guilt? He abused the kid’s mom, right? Probably felt responsible, even if it wasn’t him. Didn’t realize the boy was a sociopath. Or maybe he’d just given up on life. It happens, y’know.”

  “You think it’s him?”

  I nodded. “Sounds like it. It fits. Good work. No, great work. Lamar Derby. Shit, no wonder he changed it to Turgeon.”

  I sat up and gave her a hug.

  “So maybe you can double back? Find the same evidence and get Lamar convicted posthumously?”

  “It sure as hell is something to do. But first Booth would have to let me out of here.”

  She made a face. “I’m trying, Hess. There isn’t a lawyer in the city who’ll
take your case, and the bail is more money than we’ve got. I could sell some stuff, try to borrow.”

  “Don’t. Save the money. They can’t keep me here forever, and it turns out I’ve got more patience than I thought.”

  She nodded, but I wasn’t sure she meant it.

  “Misty,” I said, grabbing her wrists. “You’ve done a lot for me. More than I can say, but stop now. Don’t you spend that money on bail. And no more being ‘friendly’ for favors.”

  She seemed offended. “I told you, it’s not like that. He was nice to me.”

  “I don’t care if he’s Prince Charles and plans to make you his queen. Sleep with who you want, but not for favors. Promise?”

  “Okay! I promise.”

  I still wasn’t sure she meant it.

  35

  I thought about that name a lot over the next few days.

  Lamar Derby. Lamar. Derby.

  I recited it slowly, quickly, all sorts of ways, as the light from my little cell window grew long and then receded. Was there still a way? Short of getting the DNA from the other cases retested, I was thinking probably not. I went over it again and again, trying to find an in, but the easiest plan I came up with was to dig him up from the hospital rubble with a teaspoon and get him to confess again.

  I could’ve gone on like that for months, but what Misty thought of as fate had other plans. About a week after her visit, the lock on my cell clicked open. One of the guards stood there, shaking his head.

  “Social visit, Max?” I asked.

  “Nah. Someone posted bail. You’re free.”

  My thoughts went to the obvious. “Fuck. Misty. I don’t want it. Give the money back.”

  “Seeing how much I enjoy your company, I’d love to, but it ain’t up to either of us.”

  “No choice?”

  “Not even if you were a liveblood. Out you go.”

  I followed him down the hall, through some doors, and into the property room. They handed me my wallet and the spare batteries, then asked me to wait for another surprise. I didn’t think they were going to throw a party for me, but I also didn’t expect Tom Booth to step in.

  “You got friends I don’t know about?” he said. As usual, he didn’t look happy. Only now he looked so unhappy, I was starting to think my luck really had changed.

  “You mean the bail? I tried to give it back,” I said.

  “No, not the bail. The newspaper articles, the editorials. All three Fort Hammer papers were hammering away at the case against you. Conspiracy this, conspiracy that.”

  I had no idea what he was talking about, but I decided not to let him know that. “Tom, you getting jaded? Don’t believe in reporters trying to uncover the truth? Can’t be much of a case anyway, seeing as I’m not guilty.”

  He sneered. “Not jaded, Mann, just not stupid.”

  Part of me wanted to get while the getting was good, but I couldn’t help trying to learn a little more. “These newspaper stories. They must be saying there was another bomber, right? Anyone starting to believe them?” I asked.

  The sneer on his face all but disappeared. “Maybe.”

  I straightened. “Enough to get the DA to consider dropping the charges?”

  He hesitated. I twisted my head and gave him a good hard look. Finally he said, “Maybe.”

  Under the circumstances that was better than a yes. “Tom, I know you hate me and I know why. But do you really think I’d blow up a building? For what? Forget everything I’ve been trying to tell you. You’re a decent cop when you pay attention. Does it make any sense?”

  His eyes darted away. Shit. I was impressed.

  “Okay, then. Are you so wrapped up in making this about me, you’d ignore the real crook?”

  “Your imaginary psychopath who D-capped the chakz he loves? He’s buried anyway, isn’t he?”

  Like him, I wasn’t stupid. I knew why he was talking to me. The investigation had gone sour. He was hoping to trick me, get me to reveal something he could follow up on. Even so, it was the most civil conversation we’d had since Lenore died.

  “Yeah, but there were seven or eight heads in that bag, and I only knew about four: Wilson, Odell, Boyle, and the one he called Daddy. Forget me, okay? I’m getting my chak card and going off to summer camp. What about the families out there still thinking Mom or Dad or daughter or son is a killer? Or if there’s a liveblood on death row right now?”

  “You’re full of shit.”

  He was about to walk away, but I was in for a penny and going for the pound. “I’ve got a name, Tom. Lamar Derby. Some kid in grad school pinned his mother’s killing on him. Just check it out. Couple of fun calls, you could match that DNA to the other killings.”

  “Lamar Derby? That’s a new one. You’ve been locked up. Where’d you get the name, from that crack head who stitched you up?”

  Fuck. Misty would kill me. “If it checks out, who cares?” I said. “Two and two equals four? Didn’t you teach me the rest didn’t matter?”

  I went into a little speech about everything I knew. Without the recording, it was a bunch of dangling threads, but if he bought it enough to check the DNA, it could change things for both of us.

  I had to give him credit. As I spoke, he turned his head sideways and looked as if he was thinking about it. I was only about halfway through when he raised his hand to stop me.

  “Give it up, Mann.”

  To anyone who hadn’t studied Tom Booth, that might seem like the end of things, but this time, for a change, I remembered. It was a phrase he’d used back when I was alive and trying to get him to follow some lead that seemed thin. Give it up really meant that he was thinking about it.

  For a second, just an instant, as I stood there, I didn’t feel like a chak; I felt like I was a homicide detective talking to his boss. I wasn’t angry with Misty about the money anymore. The moment was worth twice the price. I was even thinking I might deserve what I imagined could happen with Nell.

  But there are no happy endings.

  His shoulders relaxed. Booth was ready to leave again, but I had to go and ruin it all by asking one more question. “Tom, the woman I was arrested with, Nell Parker, what happened to her? Do you know?”

  He looked puzzled, then surprised, as if something with an awful smell had been shoved under his nose. “The stripper chak?”

  Not wanting to push it, I only said, “Yeah.”

  “It was picked up by Colby Green. It gave him a nice big kiss when it saw him.”

  Something collapsed in my chest. “A kiss?”

  “If you can call it that. There was enough tongue involved to tell me I shouldn’t bother pressing charges on it, either.”

  “Colby Green?”

  “You gone deaf?”

  The thought of her back there, dancing for him again, after I . . . when I thought . . .

  Before I knew it, I was pounding the wall, just like when that photo of Booth and Lenore popped up on my computer. Only now it didn’t take one punch to break the plasterboard; it took three.

  Booth remembered it, too. He grabbed me by the shoulders and shoved me out, kicking me along the way. “If you ever say you’re innocent again, I’ll destroy you! Do you understand? Do you? I’ll D-cap you myself!”

  By the time I was sprawled on the sidewalk in front of the police station, yeah, I understood.

  36

  A week later, the heat wave had broken; the air was cool and dry. The threat of decay receded. It was September. I’d just woken up from a dreamless sleep. A pleasant gurgling came from the other room along with the smell of coffee. It smelled kind of nice.

  “You’re up early,” I called to Misty.

  “So’re you,” she said. She stuck her head in. “Got a ten-o’clock with Chester.”

  I slumped into my chair, both it and my bones making little cracking noises. “Another? Didn’t you just go to a meeting yesterday?”

  “Ninety in ninety when you start.”

  “And you already told me
that, right?”

  “A hundred times. Put it on your new recorder.”

  Another way of saying, where the sun don’t shine. New? I stared at the recorder on the desk. The silver strip on the side was wrong. I didn’t recognize it. How could she afford that?

  I was about to ask her when I glanced at the mail piled under it. A manila envelope stuck out from among the delicate whites of unpaid bills. I figured it was a credit card offer gone astray, but then I eyed the return address—Revivals Registration Dept.

  I knew what that meant. Thinking I might as well get it over with, I tore it open. Nice, new, and plastic, my registration card plopped out. Funny how people used to think plastic was fake. There was nothing more real than that card. It was embossed with a name, two dates, and a number. The name was mine, the dates my execution and “revival.”

  The number was mine, too, now, and it meant that unless I reported to a designated chak center within the week, I’d be arrested. If I failed their test, or didn’t have the card’s magnetic stripe updated properly, well, then I’d be arrested, too. After that, who knew? I might be sent to a camp, tossed in a vat of acid, D-capped, buried in a pit, or whatever. There were lots of stories, none of which I liked.

  I called to Misty, “Aren’t you the one who said meetings were crap? Not for you?”

  “No, Hess, that was you.”

  “Was not. What changed your mind?”

  She poked her head in again. I covered the card with a file just in time. Her hair was combed, her blouse clean. The shirt barely covered the spots on her chest where the defibrillation paddles had left small circular scars.

  “There was something about being dead I just didn’t like, no offense.”

  “None taken. Hey, I never asked. No white light, no welcoming relatives?”

  She shook her head. “Nope.”

  I held up the recorder. “How much this set you back?”

  “Twenty bucks, maybe. Why?”

  “Nothing. Just surprised we could afford it after you paid my bail.”

  Her face dropped. “Hess, I told you when you got out, and I’ve told you a dozen times since, I didn’t pay your bail.”