He couldn’t stop rocking. “She was screaming. Screaming real loud. I thought the big one was hurting her.”
I closed my eyes. “So you rushed in to help?”
“And I saw she wasn’t wearing any clothes, and I remember the bad man took all the girls’ clothes away, and I tried to help, and she hit me with-with-that thing.” He was hand-flapping with a frenzy. His voice was never well modulated, but now it sounded as if he was shouting. “Why did she do that? Why did she hurt me? I don’t think people should hurt each other!”
I took his wrists and tried to get him under control. “It was a misunderstanding, Darcy. She wasn’t hurting the other woman. She was just-”
Okay, where did I go from there? Even if O’Bannon had had that little talk with his son, would it have covered activities such as the one he’d just stumbled upon?
“Let’s go back to the car, Darcy,” I said. “We’ll get a custard or something.”
“Why would she scream if she wasn’t hurting? I screamed last night when I stubbed my toe because it hurt and she was screaming and she didn’t have any clothes on and-”
“Come on,” I said firmly. “We’re leaving.”
I made a few excuses to the mistress and got him the hell out of there. Damn it all. I should have seen that coming. Maybe Granger had been right. Maybe I didn’t have any business dragging Darcy to these horrible places. All kinds of traumatic things might be going on inside his head that I knew nothing about. I had enough problems without playing with fire of this magnitude. O’Bannon’s autistic son. Christ, what was I thinking?
Those are bad girls and I know they are and they were doing bad things. Bad people go to hell and I don’t want to go to hell. Mr. Strickland said that we have to behave ourselves and if we didn’t we’d go to hell and he took me by the hand away from the others and told me he knew what I was thinking that I had these ideas and all the boys like me did and we couldn’t control them but I had to or I would be a dirty boy and I would go to hell. Bad girls! And the smell was so yucky on the big girl with the mole under her right knee and the holes all up her arm. Like the smell of Mommy’s dishwashing gloves when Mommy was still alive.
I hope Susan doesn’t stop taking me places even though I had a fit and Dad told me to control myself but I couldn’t help it and I wanted to rip my hair out but I didn’t and I hope Susan doesn’t stop taking me because I was bad but I’m afraid she will because she has been smelling really funny bad and it isn’t funny and Dad wouldn’t let me read the D. H. Lawrence books because he said they would be bad for me and I think this is all scary and I wish people wouldn’t do those things to other people. Bad girls! Bad girls!
Midnight. Most of the operatives had gone home, but Dr. Spencer and several others were still in the hotel ballroom. The phone rang incessantly. He had an hour to go before his shift ended.
“This is really something, isn’t it?” Harv said with his usual conversational panache.
“Did you have a specific
this
in mind,” he replied, “or just a general
this
?”
“This. Everything.” He waved his arm about. “The whole works. Can you believe this operation was pieced together by one woman? What a pistol.”
“A… pistol?”
“Yeah, you know. A hot tamale. Proactive. Ballsy.”
“I don’t see that her efforts have produced much in the way of results.”
“Give her time, Ernie. They will. Everyone knows it. She must have that sick son of a bitch quaking in his boots.”
That might be something of an exaggeration, all things considered. “You seem to be enjoying this assignment.” Which might explain why Herb was still hanging around, even though his shift had ended half an hour ago.
“ ’Course I am. Didn’t I tell you I always wanted to be a cop?”
“Yes, but you weren’t and you still aren’t. You’re a security officer temporarily assigned to a private room. No one here is a cop.”
“I’m a lot closer than I was bagging pickpockets in the blackjack pit. I mean, you can feel the excitement in here. You can breathe it. Makes my whole body tingle. Hell, I’m having a moment as we speak.”
That was really more information than I required, he thought ruefully.
“On this detail, we’re a part of something that matters. The whole world is watching this investigation.”
“The whole world is watching the police investigation. This gang is little better than a well-financed vigilante squad.”
Harv ran a hand through his russet curls. “You’re pretty damn down on this operation. But I know you volunteered for it. Why? If you dislike it so much, why don’t you go back to policing the slot machines?”
Well, there was a very good answer to that question, but he wouldn’t be sharing it with Harv. “I need the money.”
“That bonus in the pay envelope was pretty good, wasn’t it? I may be able to take Elaine on that Halloween holiday she wanted.” He took a handkerchief out of his back pocket and wiped it across his brow. “No disrespect to my Elaine, but Dr. Spencer looks pretty damn good for her age, doesn’t she?”
He made a slight clicking noise with his tongue. “Too much hair. And the plastic surgery was a mistake.”
“Yeah, like you’d kick her out of bed for eating crackers.” He laughed. “The ladies are tough on you little guys, aren’t they?” He gave his co-worker a gentle jab that was not returned.
A few minutes later, a trim black man with a cell phone in each hand approached them. “Which one of you two officers is in charge?”
“I am,” Harv chirped.
He burned. Was that because you’re so incredibly tall? “We’re both of equal rank and stature on this security detail,” he replied.
“Well, the doctor needs someone to drive her to the airport.”
Behind them, Dr. Spencer approached with her usual no-nonsense deliberateness. “Hello again, Ernie. Car’s parked out back, same lot you people use. These bodyguards can get me to the parking lot. But I need a driver. So which of you lucky boys is going to do the honors?”
He cut Harv off before he could speak. “I would be pleased to escort you, ma’am.”
“Sure you wouldn’t mind? It isn’t an official part of your job description.”
“That doesn’t matter. I would be honored.”
“Well, if you’re sure you don’t mind, let’s be off.”
“Maybe I should be the one to go with her,” Harv cut in.
He felt his jaw clenching. Steady, old boy. Steady…
“Well, you’re still on duty, aren’t you?” Harv added.
“My shift ends at one.”
“And we don’t want to leave the door unguarded.”
“But if the good doctor is leaving now-”
“I got off half an hour ago. I’ll take her.”
“I could still-”
“No, he’s right,” Spencer said. She was looking at him, staring with an intensity he had not felt before. Did she… see something? Was he too anxious? Was it possible she suspected? “It makes more sense for him to go.”
“Yes, of course,” he said, acquiescing as gracefully as possible. “Take care of the good doctor, Harv. You never know what might happen out there.”
Infernal imp, he thought, swearing to himself as he pushed his way into the break room. He’d almost had the woman exactly where he wanted her, where he needed her. A moment of vulnerability handed to him like a gift. Until Harv, with his inveterate imbecility, pursuing his infinite dreams with his infinite ego, intervened.
He poured himself a cup of the hotel’s mediocre coffee. In truth, he did not feel overly disappointed. Was it possible his heart wasn’t in this work? It had seemed important, but there was no denying that it was not in the plan. And for that matter, the plan had failed to produce its desired results. Perhaps this was a signal that it was time to rest and reconsider. Perhaps he should take a leave of absence, at least until the TV doctor lost her zeal. He could travel, read. And then perhaps-
“Why have you betrayed me?”
The voice was deep and reverberating, shaking him to his core.
“Why have you betrayed me?”
“I-I don’t understand.”
“Why have you strayed?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“What did I tell you to do?”
The voice came from nowhere and everywhere at once, from no one place.
“What did I tell you to do?”
“I made three offerings. Just as the texts prescribed.”
“And were you successful?”
“No. Nothing happened.”
“What have you learned from this?”
“That-that perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps this is not the way.”
“No!”
The dark voice split his skull, knocking him to his knees.
“You failed because your faith was weak.”
“That’s not true. I believed. I did everything I could to-”
“You failed because your offerings were unwilling. They withheld their spirit. You did not ascend.”
“I’ve done everything I know to do.”
“Why did you not take the doctor?”
“I didn’t get a chance. Another man-”
“That is the answer of the weak! The dissembler. The betrayer.”
“No! I-I-”
“Your faith is not strong. That is why Dream-Land did not accept your offerings. To succeed you must be strong.”
“Please-”
“From this moment forward, everything will be different. You will act as prescribed by your destiny. You will be my Instrument.”
“Yes. Yes!”
“Would you know the secret?”
He braced himself against the wall. The voice was so loud, so overpowering. “What-secret?”
“Would you know why you have failed?”
Tears came to his eyes. “Yes. Please!”
“Then I will tell you. But not until you have done what you know you must.”
“But I-I-”
“It is your Destiny. Do this and I will give you the knowledge that you seek.”
“I will. I swear to you. I will!”
It had taken almost half an hour to finish all the checks, sign the papers, and put the bodyguards at ease, but Harv and Dr. Spencer eventually entered the employee parking lot. It was ridiculously dark, Harv thought. Of course, he came out here every night and it had never bothered him before. But it was different when you were on the job. In this blackness, how well could he protect her? How could he know what lurked in the hedge beyond the north perimeter? How could he know who might be watching from one of the balconies? Maybe he should’ve asked those bodyguards to come all the way to the car…
“Best to get right to it, ma’am,” he said, trying to sound very official. Spencer pointed toward the far end of the third row of cars and they headed that way. “I’ve really enjoyed working with your team,” he added.
“I’m glad,” she replied, walking with determination and deliberate speed. “I’m grateful for your assistance.”
“This is a great thing you’re doing. A great thing. If you don’t mind my saying so… you do your daughter proud.”
“Well… thank you.” They rounded the end of the third row and started down it.
“I just wanted to tell you, while I had the chance… and I hope you don’t mind…”
“What is it?”
“Well, this security work, it’s a fine job and all, but it isn’t what I really want to do, you know? I mean, I’d hate to think of me ending up like one of those guys you see at the mall, gray hair and a paunch that stretches out a mile in front of the uniform. So old they don’t let them carry a gun.”
“We all get old, Harvey.”
“Yeah, but you’re doing work that’s important. Not just this but that… that stuff back in New York, helpin’ people find fulfillment and all. Anyway, I just wanted to say-after this is all over and you’ve caught the dirty bastard who took your daughter’s life, if there’s anything I can do for you-”
“If I ever need a security officer, you’ll be the first one I call.”
“Well… yeah. That’d be nice. Or anything. There’s a lot I can do. I’m good with a wood lathe and I make these pillboxes that my wife gives all her friends at Christmas. They really love ’em. I even play a little banjo…”
They reached her car. “You get in the passenger seat, ma’am. I’ll drive.”
“If you don’t mind.” She slid inside.
Harv walked around the back. Just as he came by the trunk, the headlights lit on a car at the far end of the row.
“Who the hell is that?” Harv muttered. He kept walking.
The car peeled out. Tires squealing, accelerating.
Heading straight toward him.
“Son of a bitch,” Harv muttered. “Stop! You’re under arrest!”
The car kept coming. Even faster.
Harv drew his weapon. “Stop!”
Despite the haze of the headlights, Harv realized-it was his own car.
And it was about to kill him.
He fired twice. Both shots hit the windshield. But the car kept coming.
Harv turned, trying to get out of the way. But he wasn’t nearly fast enough. The car surged forward, engine roaring, till it smashed into the back of Dr. Spencer’s car.
Bisecting Harv.
He unbuckled his seat belt and stepped out of the car. Then he paused, gazing down at what was left of his colleague. “Guess you’re not so tall now, huh?”
He opened the passenger-side door. Spencer was conscious, but her eyelids were fluttering. The twisted position of her body told him she had not been wearing a seat belt. A streak of blood ran down the right side of her head. She was breathing rapidly, panting, cowering, her hands clutched to her chest.