by Thomas Perry
“You,” he interrupted. “We have you. Or I do, anyway.”
“Very sweet,” she said. “I love stupidity in a man. The time could come when the situation gets to be impossible—you lose track of me, or Dahlman ends up dead, or the police show signs that they’re ready to put you away. At that point what I want you to do is this: go to Jake’s house without letting anyone follow you. I’ll leave a packet with him. It will have identification for both of us, passports, a lot of cash, and things like that. There will be an address in the packet. Go there and wait for me.”
“What if you don’t show up? You know how flighty and unreliable women are. How long should I wait?”
“If I’m alive, I’ll be there. If I’m dead, what will I care? You have my permission to fly to the Middle East and start recruiting a harem.”
“Hmmm,” he said. “Something to consider.”
“Of course, you’d be wise to make sure I’m really dead.”
“I’ll wait at least an hour before I get started. By the way, how in the world am I going to get anywhere if the police are about to arrest me?”
“I’m not sure if I should tell you. But I will as soon as I’ve gotten a better look at who’s doing the watching.”
“Jane?”
“No, I won’t give you advice on how to find the women. Find your own women.”
“I’m being serious.”
“All right.”
“I’m sorry. I’m sure you know that, but I have to say it anyway. If I had known what was going to happen—that this was going to destroy our lives—I would never have gotten you into it.” He looked at her sadly. “I’m sure you know that, too.”
She shrugged. “There’s always more than one way to look at it. If we hadn’t done this, you would have found Dahlman murdered in his hospital bed. That’s not speculation—I saw the two men on their way to do it. Then we would have had to try to live with the knowledge that a man you admired and owed a big debt came to us for help, but you refused because you wanted to keep your nice, safe life. Could you do it? Could I? It wouldn’t have killed us, but that wasn’t the person I wanted to marry. I wanted to give myself to a big, strapping, manly blockhead who could be counted on to sacrifice himself to my every whim. But if you wouldn’t for Dahlman, you wouldn’t for me either. This sort of behavior is what I wanted, I guess. So I deserve it.”
“Thanks,” said Carey. “I knew I could find comfort in there somewhere.”
“Where?”
“ ‘Manly.’ It has a positive, endearing connotation, and definite sexual overtones.”
“It does not.”
“Oh?” said Carey. “It certainly does. Try the reversal test. What if I were describing you and used the word ‘womanly’?”
She thought for a moment, then shrugged. “Okay, you got me. I must have been thinking about you in shameful, lustful ways. Pull over there at the curb.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“You’re a prude all of a sudden?” She laughed. “No, but I’d like to drive. This is probably the last time when there can’t possibly be anybody spying on us or eavesdropping. If they happened to spot us on the way to the hotel I picked out, I would be a very disappointed girl.”
16
Marshall sat behind the cashier’s counter of the little gas station on a chair that must have been purchased in the sixties. The burlap-colored upholstery had a texture like military webbing, and six cigarette burns that were becoming familiar to him. The chrome on the frame had worn thin and begun to show rust specks. He said, “So you were sitting right where I am now?”
Dale Honecker said, “Yes sir,” and nodded his head emphatically. “I heard a car, so I stood up to look.”
“What could you see from here?”
“The old guy, and a woman driving. She gets out—”
“Wait,” said Marshall. “She gets out. Which side?”
“This side. He’s on the other side.” Marshall thought about it. The gas cap on a Toyota Camry was on the left side, so she should have been on the other side of the pumps, where she wouldn’t have to drag the hose across the car to fill it.
“Are you sure?”
“Uh … yes.” So she was trying to keep the passenger away from the gas station, where the boy couldn’t see him, thought Marshall.
“Then what?”
“Then she gets out, walks in, hands me a twenty, and says she’s going to fill it.”
“Describe her,” said Marshall.
“Long, dark hair …”
“How old?”
“I don’t know. Maybe twenty-five. Thin, pretty.”
“Eye color?”
“I don’t remember.”
“What were you thinking?”
“I … I don’t understand.”
“It’s very late at night. A car pulls up. You probably haven’t seen many cars since around midnight. You look out the window. Why?”
“Because you get kind of jumpy sitting here alone in this lighted room all night. When somebody pulls in, I take a look to see if they look like they might rob me.”
“Good. So what did you think when you saw this car?”
“I guess I felt kind of relieved. An old guy and this woman probably aren’t about to stick me up.”
“It’s kind of an odd combination, though, isn’t it? You didn’t recognize Dahlman right away, did you?”
“No.”
“So you had to think they were something else, right?”
“I guess so.” Then he amended it. “I didn’t really think.”
“You’re a night cashier in a self-service station,” said Marshall. “When I used to work dull night shifts, and somebody came in, I used to play a little game, and sort of make up stories about them. You’ve got an old guy who pulls in with a woman maybe a third of his age, it’s kind of interesting.”
The young man looked alarmed. “I didn’t make none of this up.”
“I don’t mean that,” said Marshall. “I meant you might have thought, ‘This is a father and daughter. He’s sick, and she’s taking him to the emergency room, but suddenly she sees she’s out of gas. So she’s in a hurry, maybe looking scared.’ Or, ‘This is some rich old guy who’s making a fool of himself with a woman who’s probably a hooker.’ Or, ‘This is an undercover policewoman who’s taking the editor of the local paper on a ride-along to show him a crime scene.’ ” Marshall paused and waited. The young man’s blue eyes were opaque, like marbles.
“I guess the last one.”
Marshall wondered if he had heard correctly. “You mean you thought the woman was a police officer?”
“No,” said Dale. “I didn’t think anything. But if it was one of them, that would probably be the one. She wasn’t scared or nervous, and she seemed kind of … tough. Not like prostitutes.”
“Have you seen prostitutes?”
“Yes … not exactly. I mean I think I’ve seen them, but seeing them on a street isn’t proof that’s what they are. What I mean is she didn’t look like the ones looked that I thought might be.”
“Was she carrying a purse?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think so.” He blinked and seemed to achieve clarity. “No. She pulled the money out of her jacket pocket.”
“Wearing jewelry?”
“No.”
“Not even a ring or a watch?”
“Maybe.”
Marshall felt sorry for the boy. He said, “Okay. We’ll get back to her. You took her money, turned on the pump, and sat down again to watch TV.”
“No. She asked for the men’s room key. I gave it to her, then sat down. The news was on. I saw the picture of Dr. Dahlman, and he looked familiar. It was because I’d just seen this old guy in the car. But I wasn’t sure. So I took the mop like I was going to swab the men’s room. When he came out I got a good look. It was him.”
“You’re forgetting something.”
“I am?”
“The gun. It’s usually hidden by
the cash register, over here?”
The boy nodded.
“What made you decide to take it with you?”
“I thought it was the smart thing to do. I mean, the guy was supposed to be a killer, right?”
“That’s what I hear.” Marshall felt tired, but he decided that it was part of his job. The kid was nineteen, and he had a long way to go. “Let’s talk about that for a minute. You’re alone. You see a man who’s a killer, so you pick up a gun. What were you planning, a citizen’s arrest?”
“Me? No. I just wanted to see if it was him.”
“If it was, what would you do—shoot him?”
“Call the police.”
“If that’s what you wanted to accomplish, I have a suggestion. You see him. You duck down behind this counter, pick up the phone, and call the police right then. By the time he finishes filling up and using the men’s room and paying, it’s possible the cops could be here. At that time of night they’re usually not too busy, and out here they can drive a hundred miles an hour without fear of killing anybody. They might very well have ended it right then. Or, you could have waited until the car left, watched which way it went, and then called the police.”
The boy was confused. “But I wasn’t sure.”
“I understand the way you felt. But I’ve known a lot of cops over the years. They like getting called out for nothing a lot better than they like working around bodies.”
The boy’s unlined face seemed to elongate. “It was for self-defense.”
Marshall’s eyebrows knitted and his dark eyes looked apologetic. “I sympathize with you. There are so many decisions in a situation like this. One of the problems is that armed killers don’t react the way you want them to. If you pull out a gun and say, ‘Freeze,’ they hardly ever do. They try to shoot you. They don’t hesitate, but you do. Or they turn and run, and you have to decide. Maybe this is just some guy, running because a gas station attendant suddenly pulled a gun on him, and he has no idea he resembles some wanted killer. But maybe he’s a killer running to get behind something and open up on you. If he’s guilty, you can’t let him reach cover. He knows you recognized him, and he knows you’re alone late at night, and that the next thing you’re going to do is call the police. If you make it to the phone, his chances will go from so-so to zero.” Marshall rapped on the wallboard beside him and listened. “This wall won’t stop a bullet.” He seemed to remember something. “And in this case, you’ve got this woman to figure out.”
“To figure out?”
“Well, who could she be?”
“I don’t know.”
“That puts you in a hard place. You saw on TV that the man is suspected of being a killer, but there wasn’t anything on the news about her. It could be she’s a hostage.”
“He let her come in to pay. She couldn’t be.”
“Maybe he’s got her month-old baby lying on the back seat. Maybe she’s a hitchhiker he picked up, who knows nothing about any of this.” Marshall gave him a moment to assess the possibilities and dream up a few of his own. “On the other hand, it could be she’s an armed killer too. Before guns come out you’ve got to make a decision about her. Either protect her, or kill her—it’s hard to do anything in between, because all a gun can do is put holes in people. Will you put one in her?”
The boy was lost, floundering. His blue eyes squinted, blinked, but this time it didn’t seem to clear his mind.
Marshall pressed him. “Suppose you were in that position right now. What would you do about her?”
“I don’t know.”
“Make your best choice. Now.”
“I don’t know!” He was sweating, frustrated, angry. “What? What’s the right answer?”
“You fired a round. Did you know what you were shooting at?”
“I fired through the door. I heard bangs, and I thought they were shooting at me.”
“Who was?”
“Whoever was shooting.”
“And what they really were doing was nailing the door shut. Right?”
“I guess so … well, yeah.”
Marshall nodded and thought for a moment. “You’ve worked in a gas station for a while. You must know that firing blind through a door in the direction of the pumps is a little risky. You must have thought you were saving your life. In that half second you had a brief, clear vision of what you were shooting at. Was it him, or was it her?”
“Mmmmm.” The boy was straining, trying to see it and feel it again.
“Who?”
“Him.”
“Are you sure?”
“Him. I was afraid of being killed, and he was the killer. I saw him right there a few seconds before, coming out. I wasn’t thinking about where she was. When I heard the bangs, I fired at him.”
“But not her.”
“Not her.” He was full of indignation and shame. “Who is she?”
Marshall shrugged. “You’re the only one who’s seen her. When you thought your life depended on it, what you guessed was that she wasn’t the problem. So for the moment, she’s a woman he picked up who doesn’t watch much TV.”
“But I’m not sure of any of it.”
Marshall said, “No, but one thing we know is, if they’re both hardened killers, neither of them is any great shakes at it.”
“Why?”
“All they had to do was look at the hole in the men’s-room door, and fire eight or ten rounds at it. Then you and I wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
Marshall stood in the lot at the Reliable rental agency in Akron and watched the forensics team going over the car again. The preliminary notes were in his hand, and he knew that what the two women and two men were doing now was wasting time. In his twenty-two years as an agent he had watched this ritual hundreds of times. The F.B.I.’s big edge was in lab work. If there was something in the car that they had missed the first time—really, the first four times, because there was only room in the car for one person to search—then it was probably a sample that wasn’t big enough for the lab to analyze.
The car had a few hairs left by unidentified people, none of whom happened to be a female with long dark hair or a gray-haired male over fifty. There were fingerprints of the sales agent who had moved the car to the cleaning area, the man who had vacuumed it, hosed it off, and wiped the chrome and windows, then filled the gas tank and parked it in the ready space. It had a few prints on the hood latch, the air filter cover, and the gas door from the man’s colleagues in Youngstown.
The part about Youngstown had brought its own complex of worrisome facts. The car had been rented in Youngstown by a woman named Kathy Sirini, whose credit card bills went to a P.O. box in New York City. Someone had turned the car in at Akron, fifty miles west of Youngstown and a day later. Marshall’s experience told him that things didn’t look good for Kathy Sirini. Someone—presumably Kathy Sirini—had been seen at a gas station, heading west in this car with a man suspected of killing another woman. The car was left in the rental lot at the airport, but Kathy Sirini hadn’t bought a ticket. She hadn’t rented another car. She hadn’t made any new charges with her credit card, although it had been three days since then and she was far from home.
The New York office was trying to find her apartment now, but the P.O. box made it difficult. A lot of young single women in New York lived with roommates or boyfriends who had signed the lease—or in rent-controlled apartments in the names of people who had moved on decades ago. It was possible that whoever cared about Kathy Sirini wasn’t going to report her missing until she was a week late at the end of her vacation, or she missed the family reunion in Nebraska. Kathy Sirini was almost certainly dead.
The case had begun with the kind of disorder that most undermined Marshall’s sense of well-being. The death of a young woman doctor was disturbing: it seemed to have exacerbated the sense of waste that he always felt when he came close to a killing. The probability that she had been murdered by a man like Richard Dahlman made Marshall feel
jumpy and unsettled. The case seemed to want to force its own conclusion on the investigator, and the conclusion was that sanity was only a fragile and temporary balance in the human organism, like perfect tuning. At any second, any human being might subtly, invisibly change and start coldly, methodically butchering his friends and neighbors. It was not inconceivable that such a thing could happen, and a good many people close to the case seemed to have accepted it already. But from the beginning, Marshall had been turning up facts that didn’t fit, and didn’t go away.
Richard Dahlman was the wrong kind of man for the sudden, self-destructive kind of murder. The ones who did this were younger—fifty at the oldest. They were rarely successful in life, and seldom well-educated. They were modern society’s casualties: men who kept getting dead-end jobs and then losing them, getting connected with some woman and then losing her too, because the failure or the bitterness or the accumulating evidence that the future was never going to be any different drove her off. Each time one of them loaded all of the clips for his assault rifle and barricaded himself in his apartment, the newsmen would say it was totally unexpected, and it was. But after the investigation had been completed, Marshall always found a list of incidents—threats that got more and more specific, outbursts that were more and more violent—that retroactively charted a kind of downward trajectory.
Dr. Dahlman seemed to have no trajectory. He had succeeded at everything. He had maintained what appeared to be a loving marriage for over thirty years, until his wife’s death, and nobody had yet found any evidence that her death had been suspicious. He had raised a set of normal, or at least high-functioning, children, and had managed to gain the respect of a couple of generations of other doctors.
The evidence the police had found seemed to show that Dahlman had quietly developed some festering mental delusion that had led him to kill his partner. The strange little shrine to his secret hatred of his victim was standard, recognizable evidence of madness. There were the usual photographs, the little possessions like pens and notes that he could have taken without her missing them. That was what searches turned up when a killer heard supernatural voices and saw the act as sacrifice or fulfillment of some metaphysical destiny. But the killing itself didn’t fit the pattern. It should have been ritualized in some way, not faked as an interrupted burglary. That was what killers did when they wanted to collect on an insurance policy.