IN THE DARK, page 30
“Phone the police first,” Jane told Gail. “They’ve gotta get up to the house for Linda and Marjorie. Do you know the address?”
Gail shook her head. “You can call the cops, okay? You’ll come in with us…”
“I can’t.”
“What?”
“I’m going to drop you two off and disappear. I can’t get mixed up with cops and stuff.”
“You can’t? How come?”
“Any sort of attention, and I’m… I ran away from my husband a few months ago. He used to… do terrible things to me. He’ll kill me if he finds me. And I know he’s looking. He even has private investigators searching for me. They check the newspapers… even a general description of me, and they’ll figure it’s a lead and come looking. If they have any idea where I am, they’ll tell him and… God only knows what he’ll do to me. I might be better off with Savile and his pals.”
“No, you wouldn’t,” Gail said.
“I have to be kept out of this.”
“You saved our lives.”
“Looks that way.”
“I’ll never do anything to hurt you.”
“Me neither,” Sandra said from the back seat, and snuffled.
“Why don’t you say it was a guy who saved you?” Jane suggested.
“If that’s what you want.”
“Sure,” Sandra said.
“But why were you there?” Gail asked. “Why, really?”
“I went in to find the envelope. It has money in it. I was just after the money. I had no idea about any of the other things.”
“You didn’t know we were there?”
“Nope.”
“So… you just found us by accident?”
“I’m not sure how much of an accident it was,” Jane said, “on the part of whoever put the envelope there. You didn’t see who put it there?”
“I felt it behind me, that’s all. I didn’t see it until you showed it to me.”
“The guy who wired you to the wall must’ve known it was there,” Jane said.
Or put it there, himself.
“Guess so.”
She suddenly wondered if Mog was one of the men she’d shot. She had always suspected that a mission would eventually bring her face-to-face with him, but…
If one of those guys was Mog, what was he doing butt-naked in the Show Room with his buddies watching a Streisand movie and stuffing his face with popcorn when he knew I’d be coming?
That didn’t make any sense.
But the envelope had been in plain sight on the wall. The guy who wired up Gail couldn’t possibly have missed it.
He had to be Mog.
No, not necessarily. The guy who put it there might’ve been following Mog’s instructions.
But he might’ve been Mog.
“What did he look like?” Jane asked.
Gail shook her head. “He wore a mask. One of those leather masks with zippers. Red leather. It covered his whole head. It made him look like… an executioner.”
“What about the rest of him?”
“He was big. He was awfully big. Maybe six-four. And he was all muscles. His… he had a huge thing. I mean, it was terrible. It was way too big, but he… he managed.” Gail turned her head away and stared out the window.
“Are you sure about his size?”
“Are you kidding?”
Jane felt an odd tightness in her throat.
Even though she hadn’t seen any of them standing up, she was certain that none of the three guys in the Show Room had been over six feet tall.
The man who’d fixed Gail to the wall with barbed wire was nobody Jane had shot.
I do believe that I’m about to scream.
Cut it out, she told herself. Whoever he was, wherever he might’ve been, you’re away from him now. You’re safe. We’re all safe. No call for panic, here.
She stopped for a red light, and realized she was only a block or two away from Standhope Street. She looked over at Gail. “Was there anything else about him? Tattoos, a birthmark, any sort of scars…?”
Gail nodded.
“What?”
She looked at Jane and frowned. “He didn’t have any tan at all. None. A guy like that, you’d figure him for a sun-worshipper, you know? But he was white all over. It gave me the creeps.”
From the back seat, Sandra said, “I never saw a guy like that.”
“I didn’t either till tonight,” Gail said.
“He wasn’t at the dances?” Jane asked.
“No, he sure wasn’t. Or if he was, he must’ve been somewhere out of sight. I never laid eyes on him till he came into my room… a couple of hours before you showed up.”
“Man,” Jane muttered. “He’s gotta be the one who put the envelope there.”
“I just hope to God I never see him again.”
Slowing as she approached Standhope, she asked, “Which way?”
“Go right.”
Right. Away from Brace’s apartment. Thank God.
“It’ll be a few more blocks,” Gail told her.
“Do you live with somebody?”
“My folks. They’re probably out of their minds. They probably think I’m dead. Look, couldn’t you come in and meet them? I mean, you saved my life. They’ll really want to meet you.”
“Not tonight. The fewer people who see me… Maybe I’ll get in touch with you sometime after all this has blown over.”
“That’d be great.”
“Remember about saying I’m a man, okay?”
“I won’t forget,” Gail said.
“Me neither,” Sandra said.
“And don’t tell what kind of car I drive. Say it’s some other kind. How about a Jeep Cherokee?”
“That sounds good. What color?”
“Black.”
“Okay.”
From the back seat, Jane heard, “A black Jeep Cherokee.”
“Do we know your name?” Gail asked.
“No. The fewer things you need to lie about, the better. The cops’ll ask you what I look like, so maybe you should just describe me the way I am—except turn me into a male.”
The sound of a small laugh came from Gail. “That’s pretty good. Do you do this sort of thing a lot?”
“Not really.” Jane slowed and turned a corner.
“Hey.”
“I know.” She swung to a curb in front of a dark house and killed her headlights. “I want to let you off here.”
“We’re still two blocks… Oh. Yeah. I get it. This’ll be fine.”
“I’d like to drop you off at your door, but…”
“No, this is great.” She turned toward Jane. “I think… I’d like us to be friends. It isn’t just what you did. There’s something about you that… hell, you’re gonna start thinking I’m a lesbian or something…”
“Not that there’s anything wrong with it.”
Gail laughed. “Right. But I’m not. But I really like you. I sort of feel like we might have a lot in common, or… I don’t know.”
“I know. And I think you’re right.”
“So… is there a way for me to get in touch?”
“I’ll get in touch with you. Don’t worry, I know your name and where you work. And almost where you live.”
“Okay, then.”
“Okay.”
Gail reached over and squeezed Jane’s wrist. “Take care.”
“You, too.” She looked over her shoulder. “You, too, Sandra.”
“Thanks. And thanks for getting me out of there.”
Gail climbed out of the car and opened a rear door. As she helped Sandra out, Jane said, “Remember to lie for me, gals.”
“You bet,” Gail said.
“Yeah,” said Sandra. “And thanks again.”
“My regards to the hubby.”
Sandra laughed in a way that sounded almost happy.
Then Gail shut the door.
As they started across the street, Jane swung away from the curb. She watched them in the side mirror. In the white bedsheets, they looked like a couple of overgrown trick-or-treaters out in ghost costumes on the wrong night.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Back on Standhope, she drove in the direction of the Royal Gardens apartment complex.
I won’t even stop, she told herself. I’ll just take a look at the place, just to… Why? Just to torture myself? Just to rub it in how I lost him and now when I really need someone—not someone, Brace—now when I need him, I can’t go to him?
I don’t need him. Hope he rots, the filthy son-of-a-bitch. Him and his cute little teeny-bopper slut.
As she drove along, she realized that her right buttock hurt from the imprint of the pistol. Shifting her weight, she reached back, pulled the weapon out of her pocket, and sighed. She tucked it between her thighs.
Could always reload and pay them a visit, she thought. Blow ‘em both away. No big deal, just running up the score a bit.
It made her feel sick to think about it, even in a joking way. I don’t want to shoot anybody! It was bad enough shooting those three…
A block from the Royal Gardens, she turned off Standhope and headed for home.
She supposed she ought to get rid of the gun. If she kept it, she might end up using it again. Besides, she was in danger from the law as long as she had the murder weapon in her possession. The Godfather movie had taught her that. And the lesson had been reinforced by plenty of other movies, and scads of crime novels. It was a physical link to the shootings. Being caught with it could mean real trouble.
But what if I need it?
I won’t need it, she told herself.
So how do I get rid of it? she wondered. Throw it off the bridge? Right, so Rale or Swimp or some kid can fish it out of the creek and use it on someone? Toss it in a dumpster? Bury it? Gotta think of a way to dispose of the thing so nobody’ll have a chance of ever finding it.
Best way to make sure nobody gets their hands on it, she thought, is to keep it myself.
I don’t want it! What if I use it again?
I won’t, she told herself. I’d just better keep it. That way, I’ll know who has it.
Besides, no telling how Mog got the pistol in the first place. What if he went to a gun shop and bought it under my name? Could he do that? Hell, why not? He gets into my locked house and writes on me whenever he gets the urge, shouldn’t be any big trick putting my name on a few government forms.
I’d damn well better hang on to the thing.
If I get rid of the ammo…
Up the street, a car was parked at the curb in front of her house. It looked very much like Brace’s old Ford.
Even before she spotted Brace, she knew that it was his car. It had to be his. He’d come to see her, and she was about to face him and she suddenly felt squirmy and hot deep down.
I don’t need this. Oh, God. What does he want? Why tonight? I don’t need this. I don’t!
As she steered into the driveway, her headlights swept across Brace. He was sitting on the front stairs, leaning way back with his elbows on the stoop.
Jane moaned.
To find Brace here seemed almost more strange and dream-like than what had happened back at the house on Mayr Heights.
She climbed out of her car and approached him. She felt sick with despair and hope. Brace stood up as she walked toward him.
“What do you want?” she heard herself ask as she stopped in front of him. Her voice sounded far away and cold. She felt as if her whole body were trembling, inside and out.
Brace stepped forward and put his hands on her upper arms. His touch made Jane flinch.
“Don’t,” she said.
Instead of letting go, he held her and moved up close against her.
“Damn it!” She shoved him away.
This time, he did let go. He took a step backward and frowned at her. “I don’t care about your game,” he said, his voice soft. “You can run around chasing Mog’s envelopes from now till hell freezes over, I’ll go along with it. I’ll worry like crazy every time you step out of the house for one of your missions, but I won’t get in your way. I won’t let it come between us. The past week has been… I was fine before I met you, but…” He shook his head. “I can’t get along without you—not now, not any more.”
They were the sort of words she would’ve longed to hear—before watching Brace with the girl. Now, they seemed like a mockery.
“You looked like you were doing just fine Monday night,” she said.
He looked confused.
“You and your cute little teeny-bopper slut.”
“What?”
“You’re not the only one who can sneak around and spy on people.”
As he shook his head, a corner of his mouth turned up. “You spied on me, huh? Well, I suppose I deserved it. But what is it that you saw?”
“You know damn well what I saw.”
“Me and my ‘cute little teeny-bopper slut’?”
“You got it, pal.”
“When was this?”
“Oh, come on. You don’t remember? What is it, an everyday occurrence, slipping it to your students?”
“Is that what you think you saw?”
“It’s what I did see.”
“I don’t see how.”
“It was easy. You should’ve been more careful about closing your curtains.”
Brace’s jaw suddenly dropped.
“Ah. You do remember.”
“This was Monday night, around one or two in the morning?”
“Now you’ve got it.”
“You’re the one she saw in the window.”
Jane sneered. “Yeah, me.”
“You scared the hell out of half the people in the building. You’re lucky the cops didn’t get you.”
“You called the cops?”
“I didn’t, personally. Dennis made the call.”
“Dennis?”
“Lois’s husband.”
“Lois?”
“The one who saw you. You really gave her a scare. I went down to their place just after it happened, and she was hysterical. She thought you were a guy, for one thing. And she said you looked insane.”
Jane shook her head. “What’re you trying to…?”
“They were… actually going at it when you looked? No wonder she was so upset. But how could you mistake Dennis for me? We might be about the same size, but the resemblance sure stops there.”
“You trying to say it wasn’t you?”
“Of course it wasn’t me. You didn’t see what you thought you saw, Jane.” He smiled slightly. “So you thought it was me ‘slipping it’ to Lois. That’s what you get for spying.”
“I saw you.”
“Not my face, obviously. Or, if you did, your mind must’ve been playing tricks on you.”
Jane gazed at him. “I know it was you,” she said. She had seen his face. True, the girl’s back had been in the way most of the time, but…
“They were in my old apartment. We traded when they got married, so they could be down by the pool.”
“You traded?”
“It was all on the up and up.”
Jane blinked.
What is going on? she wondered. What is this? Has everything gone crazy?
“Oh, man,” Brace said. “I gave you that business card, didn’t I? It still shows me living in number twelve, so that’s where you… I’m in twenty-two now. I’m directly above twelve. It never occurred to me that you might come over on your own, especially not after you’d dumped me.”
She heard herself say, “What about your mail boxes?”
“What about them?”
“Did you trade mail boxes?”
He frowned and tilted his head a bit like a curious dog. “You were going by the mail boxes. Ah. Well. We thought it’d be a lot easier all around if we just kept our same mail boxes. We didn’t feel like getting into that whole change-of-address hassle…” Brace’s smile returned. “See what happens when you go sneaking around and you don’t really know what’s going on?”
“I’m supposed to believe this?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I would never lie to you.”
“How do I know that?”
“Take my word for it.”
“Yeah. Sure.”
“Let’s take a little drive. I’ll introduce you to Lois and Dennis.”
“Are you kidding?”
“Or you could just look in the window at them.”
“Very funny.”
He checked his wristwatch. “They’re probably still up. Let’s give them a call on the phone.”
“Okay.”
Brace followed her to the front door. She unlocked it and entered. As she let him in, she thought, Why bother calling? I didn’t see his face. It happened the way he said, and I know it.
But she led the way to the end table and stood by the phone.
He picked it up and dialed for directory assistance.
“You mean you didn’t trade phone numbers while you were at it?” she asked.
Boy, I can be such a bitch.
Yeah, and you should see me with a gun.
“Donnerville,” he said into the phone, and smiled at Jane.
“I’d like a number for a Dennis Dickens.” He nodded, then punched the cut-off button and dialed. “Hope I don’t catch him in the middle of ‘slipping it’ to her.”
Jane snarled.
Brace chuckled. “Hi! Dennis!… Yeah. Hey, sorry to bother you at this hour… Good. Look, remember your peeping maniac a few nights ago?… Wanta talk to her?”
“No!” Jane blurted.
“No,” Brace said into the phone, “I’m not kidding. Remember when I was telling you about Jane?… Yeah, the librarian… No, I’m not kidding. She thought she was spying on me. And she’s been mighty upset to think that whatever you were doing to Lois was what I was doing.”
How can he be telling all this to some guy I don’t even know?
Because he doesn’t lie, that’s how.
“Would you talk to her?” Brace nodded and grinned and reached toward Jane with the handset.
She shook her head wildly from side to side.
Into the phone, Brace said, “She’s pretty embarrassed about all this.”
“Give it to me,” she muttered, and snatched away the handset. “Hello?”
