by Amy Gutman
long-sleeved shirt.
6
Jamison shook his head. “I haven’t really done much.”
7
“But you have. You’ve been here through everything. I don’t 8
know how to thank you.”
9
The warmth of the words was at odds with her voice, which 10
was little more than polite. From her face, he had no idea what 11
she was thinking. Since the attack, she seemed to have retreated 12
somewhere deep inside herself. Perhaps all her energies were con-13
sumed in the complex act of healing.
14
He thought back to when they’d first spoken by phone, when 15
she called him out of the blue. At the time, he believed it was 16
something more than a simple professional call. When he sug-17
gested that they meet for dinner, he could tell that she was 18
pleased. But then everything had changed in that single terrible 19
night.
20
Now that he was here, he felt strangely awkward. He’d come as 21
a friend, paying a visit, and yet he barely knew her. He glanced 22
toward her bookshelf at a small arrangement of framed photo-23
graphs. His eyes lit on one of a young black woman standing by 24
the Eiffel Tower.
25
Melanie’s eyes followed his.
26
“That’s my best friend, Vivian. She flew back from a vacation 27
in Greece after she heard what happened.”
28
He noted the careful choice of words, the avoidance of specifics.
29
He wanted to ask about her parents, if they’d come to see her yet.
30
But, again, he didn’t know her well enough to broach such a sen-31
sitive subject. He settled for something more general.
32
“I’m glad you weren’t alone through this.”
33
“Not at all,” she said. “My fiancé, Paul, has been wonderful.
34
He’s been here every day.”
S 35
He saw it then, the square-cut diamond, glittering on her left R 36
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hand. It hadn’t been there in the hospital, he was sure of that.
2
Though perhaps they’d removed her jewelry as a matter of policy.
3
“So you’re getting married.” He managed a smile. “That’s won-4
derful. I didn’t know. Is this a recent development?”
5
“Not exactly.” She fingered the diamond ring. How could he 6
not have seen it? “We . . . we’d been having some problems, but 7
we’ve managed to work things out. After what happened, I real-8
ized that it was time for me to grow up. Paul showed me that I 9
could count on him. There’s a lot to be said for that.”
10
“Yes,” Jamison said quietly. “It’s an important quality.”
11
Looking at her, damaged and frail, he had a sudden insight.
12
She’d been fighting some sort of private battle, and now she’d 13
given up. From something in her tone when she spoke of Paul, he 14
didn’t believe that she loved him. But love was always a high-15
stakes game, and Melanie was opting out. At this point, he al-16
most said something, then thought better of it. After all, who was 17
he to question her decision?
18
She gave him an opaque blue-eyed look, then smoothly 19
changed the subject. “How’s the investigation going? Are there 20
any new developments?”
21
“Nothing concrete,” he said.
22
They were just marking time.
23
“I still don’t think that Lester Crain is the man who attacked 24
me. I’ve looked at a lot of pictures and I . . . I just don’t think 25
that’s him.”
26
Jamison nodded. “I know,” he said. “They — the detectives —
27
they’re considering everything you told them.”
28
“I had a feeling that they wanted it to be Crain. I mean, it 29
wasn’t like they tried to pressure me. They just kept telling me to 30
take my time. They wanted me to be sure.”
31
They talked for another hour or so, about nothing in particu-32
lar. So many subjects — everything important — seemed to be 33
off-limits. The wedding was planned for September, at Paul’s 34
mother’s house in Southampton. They planned a small, quiet af-35 S
fair, just close friends and family. She talked about going back to 36 R
work, maybe in a month or two. She still had headaches and 3 0 8
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spells of dizziness, but they were getting less frequent. Her firm 1
had been more supportive than she’d ever have imagined. The 2
partners had agreed to defer her consideration for partnership un-3
til next year.
4
When he got up to leave, she insisted on walking him to the 5
door. Even that slight effort seemed to take something out of her.
6
Before leaving, he surprised himself by briefly pulling her close.
7
“Take care of yourself,” he murmured, then softly closed the door.
8
9
h
10
I used to be a nicer person.
11
The words flickered through Melanie’s mind as she leaned 12
against her door. She could still feel Mike Jamison’s embrace, his 13
hands against her shoulders. The way she’d acted, he had to 14
think that she’d barely noticed his kindness. But she was tired, so 15
very tired. She’d done the best she could.
16
Her life might not be the life she’d planned, but it was the life 17
she had. You tried to do everything right, but things still fell 18
apart. Investments failed. Husbands left. Terrible things oc-19
curred. You had to play the hand you were dealt. That’s what she 20
was doing.
21
There was no point in looking back, imagining what might 22
have been. Crossing the room, she picked up the phone and 23
punched in Paul’s number.
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
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Thursday, May 18
C
1
a l l i e ? I just saw the paper.”
2
That was all Martha needed to say. Callie knew that the news 3
was out.
4
“Which paper?” Callie asked. Not that it really mattered.
5
News like this would travel like wildfire via the AP. If one paper 6
had gone with the story, all of them would have it.
7
“It was in the Globe, ” Martha said. “I don’t know about the 8
others.”
9
Morning sun glimmered faintly through the kitchen window.
10
A few minutes before nine o’clock. The beginning of another day.
11
“What did it say?” Callie asked. She was surprised at how calm 12
she felt. Maybe because for the past few days she’d expected the 13
ax to fall.
14
“Except for the part about . . . your past, there wasn’t a whole 15
lot new. They talked about how Anna was kidnapped. There was 16
a lot about Tennessee.”
17
“Did they say there was some sort of connection?”
18
“A connection?” Martha said.
19
“Oh, never mind,” Callie said. “I’m not sure what I mean.”
20
She could tell that Martha was waiting for her to say some-21
thing more. But all she wanted was to get off the phone and let 22
the news sink in. And she needed to see the paper itself, to find 23
out what it said.
24
“Martha,” she said, “I’m sorry, but I’ve really got to go. I need 25
to talk to Anna about this. I’ll try to call you back, okay?”
26 S
She’d barely hung up the phone when it rang again. Assuming 27 R
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it was Martha, who’d forgotten something, she quickly picked it 1
up. But it wasn’t Martha; it was a man. Mike Jamison’s voice.
2
“You’ve heard the news,” she said. It was a statement, not a 3
question.
4
“The news? I . . . no, I slept late. Actually, I just got up.”
5
“I just got a call from a friend. It’s out now, the part about my 6
past.”
7
She could hear him flipping through a newspaper. “Ah,” he 8
said.
9
“What are you looking at?” she asked.
10
“The Washington Post, ” he said. “It’s not much of a story, really.
11
A single column on an inside page.”
12
“Oh,” said Callie. She was staring out the window. The back-13
yard was green and empty, just like on a normal day. The sun had 14
slipped behind a cloud. It looked like it was getting colder.
15
“I’m sorry,” Jamison said, “if this is making things harder.”
16
She shrugged, then realizing he couldn’t see her, said, “I’m okay.
17
So much has happened in the past week, I’m still pretty numb.
18
Maybe it will hit me later, but right now, I’m okay.”
19
“Listen,” he said, “the reason I’m calling is to be sure you’re 20
taking precautions. I still have serious doubts that Crain is the 21
only killer.”
22
“You don’t think he kidnapped Anna, do you?” Callie’s voice 23
was low.
24
“I wish I could say something different,” he said. “But no, I 25
really don’t.”
26
Callie sat down heavily. “So who then? Who could it be?”
27
“Profiling isn’t really a science, it’s more like a kind of art. My 28
impressions are usually pretty accurate, but not a hundred per-29
cent.”
30
“So what are you thinking?” Callie asked. “Do you have any 31
ideas?”
32
“I think it’s someone familiar with your neighborhood, some-33
one who may have children. He knows about crime scene inves-34
tigation. He’s meticulous, a long-range planner.”
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“You think . . . it’s someone in law enforcement? Someone with 2
that kind of background?”
3
“A few years ago, I would have said that, but you can’t say 4
these days. With all the true crime books, TV shows, the infor-5
mation is out there.”
6
“You know, they investigated my ex-boyfriend. He had an al-7
ibi, though. He was out of town, in New York, the night that 8
Anna was kidnapped.”
9
“It’s standard procedure to check boyfriends and husbands.
10
They’re so often the perpetrators. You always look at them first.”
11
“They also looked at one of my classmates, but I think they 12
cleared him too.”
13
There was something tapping at Callie’s mind, but she couldn’t 14
quite get at it. Some faint intuition, a shadowy thought, strug-15
gling to get through.
16
“We’re okay,” she finally said. “We’ve got twenty-four-hour 17
surveillance on top of the home alarm system. Besides, with all 18
the press, no one could get past. I haven’t looked outside yet, but 19
I can just imagine. I mean, after the news in the paper today, I 20
don’t want to think about it.”
21
As she spoke, she heard the swoop of a helicopter, impossibly 22
close overhead. “There,” she said. “Can you hear that? The me-23
dia swat patrol.”
24
“I talked to Steven’s mother,” Jamison said abruptly.
25
“You talked to Brenda?” Callie said. She suddenly felt light-26
headed.
27
“I wanted to get a read on her.”
28
“And . . . what did you find?”
29
“She said one thing that interested me. You and the other 30
women targeted — she claims Steven never blamed you.”
31
“Never blamed us,” Callie repeated. “I’m not sure what you 32
mean.”
33
“Your theory about revenge. You had this idea that Crain could 34
be carrying out some plan that Gage devised. That because Gage 35 S
couldn’t avenge his own death, Crain was doing it for him. But 36 R
based on what Brenda said, Steven never blamed you. And not 3 1 2
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just you, the others too. That’s what Brenda said. Steven thought 1
Melanie did the best she could working on the appeal. He actu-2
ally liked Diane’s book, didn’t care that it made him look bad. I 3
guess he was narcissistic enough to find any book better than 4
none.”
5
“Really,” Callie said. “I’m surprised to hear that. But, you know, 6
even if that’s what he said to Brenda, it’s not necessarily true.
7
Steven lied a lot. Who knows what he really thought? It might 8
even have been a part of the plan. So no one would ever suspect.”
9
“True.”
&n
bsp; 10
“And even if Steven didn’t want revenge, Crain might have 11
wanted it for him. Maybe Crain came up with the plan. Maybe it 12
was his idea.”
13
“I see what you’re saying, but hear me out. When I talked to 14
Brenda, I almost got the sense that Steven was grateful to you.
15
Grateful to the others as well, but especially to you.”
16
“Grateful for turning on him?” Callie said.
17
“Grateful for what came before. You were the closest thing he 18
ever had to real, human contact. At some level, maybe he knew 19
that. Maybe he was grateful for it.”
20
“So what’s your point?” Callie asked sharply. She didn’t want 21
to have this conversation.
22
“Okay, here’s a scenario. Crain has been lying low since he es-23
caped from prison. He’s continued to kill, but he’s hidden the 24
bodies. He learned the techniques from Gage. Then he hears 25
about Massey’s murder, maybe about the black stocking. The in-26
cident serves as a stressor, what we call a triggering factor. At this 27
point, Crain’s control starts to waver. He goes to Maine, just to 28
look. He wants to see where it happened. That’s when he runs 29
into you.”
30
“That’s a pretty big coincidence.”
31
“Okay, so maybe he’s been there a while. He’s not just there for 32
the day. But anyway, once he sees you, the compulsion just grows 33
stronger. He follows you back to Merritt. He’s keeping an eye on 34
you. He isn’t sure what he’s going to do, but he has to do some-S 35
thing. By this point, he’s decompensating. He’s ticking like a R 36
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time bomb. He follows you to the dance in Greenfield and sees 2
Posy Kisch. She’s his perfect victim. That’s when he really loses 3
it. He doesn’t even hide the body.”
4
“So you think Crain’s a red herring. Except for Posy, I mean.”
5
“Right.”
6
“You think someone else kidnapped Anna?”
7
“Right,” he said again.
8
“It’s pretty hard to believe,” said Callie. But then, all of this was.
9
When they’d finished talking, she hung up the phone and 10
went to find Anna. Anna was curled up on the den sofa, clutch-11
ing a purple stuffed cow. On the floor next to the couch was a tray 12