Eleven Days (29 page)

“A motive, maybe, but that’s not his style. Killing them like that wouldn’t occur to him. Coercion is his strongest suit. If he thought there was a leak, Phyllis or Elizabeth would take care of it for him. The weakest parts of his group up here were Kenneth Mills and McGuire. Kenny was being handled well by Elizabeth, and McGuire was being taken care of by his own conscience and Phyllis and Peggy. He had it sacked.”

“I hope you’re right,” I said. “He looked pretty Satanic to me.”

“You want to meet a real Satanic individual,” said Saperstein, “wait till you find our killer. There’s a Satanic psychopath. In the flesh.”

“Think so?” asked Hester.

“Know so,” said Saperstein. “You profiled him—you
know he’s psychotic. I profiled him, too.” He tapped his head. “Up here. This boy’s a real Satanist. No mumbo jumbo, none of the trappings the showman uses. In fact, the supposedly Satanic ‘clues’ at the scene may not have been made to throw us off the track. They may have been a ‘statement’ by a Satanic ascetic. I think our killer really believes he works for Satan.”

I thought about that. Could be.

I looked at my watch. “The ten minutes are up.” I stood.

“Let him wait for a few minutes,” said Saperstein. “He’s had his mind made up for nine minutes already. Let him sweat. He’s gonna get anxious now. He’s gonna want to impress us with his decision. Let us know how smart he is. He’s gonna be driven to tell us, by his own ego, about a lot of things. Give him another ten.”

“You’re sure of yourself, aren’t you?” said Hester.

Saperstein leaned back in his chair and contemplated his coffee cup. He looked up at her. “Yeah, I am. About Oswald. I feel like I’ve known him for years.” He folded his hands behind his head. “I’m savoring Oswald Traer, because I’m on firm ground with him, and I have him where I want him. Because when we’re done with Oswald, we go for the killer. And he scares me to death.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because our Oswald here is human. I don’t think that our killer is. Not in the way we define it. He’s a vicious, methodical robot. When he’s in this mode, his mind is clear, and so is his conscience. He’s not going to be easy to stop. Or to catch.”

He brought his hands down to the table and pushed his chair back. “Let’s get him.”

I brought him back into the kitchen.

“You want your attorney present?” asked Saperstein.

“That’s hardly necessary. What I’m considering telling you has no inculpatory properties whatsoever.”

“Good.”

“I’m going to advise you of your rights again, anyway,” said Hester. “It’ll make me feel better.”

“Whatever pleases you, my dear.”

Having placated the goddess Miranda, we got down to business.

“Well …”

“Rachel is staying at the Willmont Hotel in Cedar Rapids, under the assumed name of Allison Crowley.”

“How original,” said Saperstein.

“She thought so.”

“Can she identify the killer?”

“She says she can.”

“Did she tell you what happened that night?” asked Hester.

“Yes.”

“What did she tell you?”

He considered for a moment. “You should really ask her.”

“We will,” said Hester. “Why don’t you tell us, anyway.”

“Just a second,” I said. “Let’s get Hal.”

“Who is he?” asked Traer.

“DCI agent, working the homicides.”

“That’s acceptable to me,” he said.

I went to the back office, very pleased.

Hal looked up as I came in. So did Lamar.

“What did he have to say?” asked Hal.

“Hi, boss.” I grinned at Lamar. “Glad to see you working.”

“Uh-huh,” grunted Lamar. Distracted.

You bet, I thought. Just the way he was when somebody of consequence pitched a bitch about one of us.

“Rachel is in the Willmont Hotel in CR, under the name of Allison Crowley. She can ID the killer, and she’s told Traer what happened that night, and he’s about to tell us, so I thought you might like to hear. And I think we
ought to get ahold of CRPD and get her picked up right away.” I grinned so hard it hurt.

“I’ll be damned.”

He picked up the phone and was telling CRPD where Rachel was when I headed back to the kitchen. Lamar caught up to me in the hall.

“Carl …”

“Yeah?” I stopped. The hall was about the only place at the office where you could have a private conversation these days.

“Good work … I’m taking Theo off the case.”

I must have looked shocked.

He nodded. “Has to be done. But keep it quiet.”

“He screwed up something important, didn’t he?”

“Oh, not really.”

“Then who has he been talking to?”

“He’s just got to get off the case. Personal reasons. That’s all there is. I may be able to tell you later. Not now.” He shook his head, like he was clearing it. “I’ll tell him when he comes in on his next shift, day after tomorrow. So don’t let on, okay?”

I nodded. “Okay with me.” It felt good to share a secret with Lamar. He doesn’t say word one to most people, and admitting a mistake is not easy for him. It kinda got awkward for a second, though.

“You guys gonna do some more interviews in the kitchen?”

I took the hint. Hal caught up and followed me back.

“They should have her in about twenty minutes,” he said.

Traer looked him over when he walked in. Said nothing.

We settled ourselves around the table, making Traer the center of attention. He appeared pleased.

“Okay, Link,” said Hester. “Tell us what Rachel told you.”

Traer settled back and began.

“Rachel came to me Sunday morning, about ten. She was very frightened, and had this story about Peg being killed by Satan. I didn’t believe her, of course. So I called Phyllis and couldn’t get an answer. I thought that strange, but wasn’t too concerned.” He looked around. “She did have a tendency to indulge on weekends, you know.

“Anyway, Rachel had this wild story about Satan being in the house when she came home. She and Peg. She said that the two of them had been in a bar in Maitland, that they’d left Phyllis and Bill and Frank at the house.”

He paused.

“The three of them were, oh, otherwise engaged, or about to be, when the women left.”

He paused again. Just like an attorney, I thought. Pausing for effect.

“They got home sometime after midnight, I believe she said. They didn’t see anyone else at first. They didn’t expect to, you know. The house was apparently rather dark, but there was a light in Phyllis’s bedroom.” He smiled wanly. “That was expected, too, you know? Anyway, apparently Peg went into the other bedroom, to go to bed, and Rachel went into the kitchen to get something. That’s when she noticed the bloody mess on the counter and in the Osterizer.”

He looked at the coffeepot. “May I have some coffee, please?”

I got it for him.

“She said that she didn’t know what it was at first, but when she did, she got real terrified. She went to Phyllis’s bedroom and quietly opened the door and saw Bill.”

Another pause.

“It must have been horrible for her,” he said. “She is a very sensitive girl.”

So sensitive, she got pregnant and had a kid for you to kill, I thought.

“She said that she froze for a moment or two. That she ran to the other bedroom and screamed for Peg. She apparently
had some difficulty communicating what had happened, because she said that Peg slapped her.”

He paused again.

“She took Peg to the bedroom, where Bill was. Peg saw what had happened and ran back to her room to get her clothes. Rachel went to the front door and waited for her. That’s when she said that she saw him—the one she thought was Satan.”

Pause for effect. It was effective.

“He came up from the basement, she said. Very quiet, seemingly very slow, although I suppose that she was so excited it just seemed that way, don’t you? Anyway, she said that he didn’t see her but that Peg yelled to her to get the car, and he heard her. He went to the bedroom and went inside, and Peg was apparently still in there.” He paused. “She never saw Peg again.”

He looked at us. We looked at him. Five cops, all with burning questions. But he wasn’t done yet. We didn’t want to stop his tale here. So we said nothing.

“She went to the car and started it and waited for Peg to come out. She waited for some time, it seems. She said that it seemed like a very long time. But she eventually became convinced that Peg wouldn’t come out. Then the door opened, and she saw him again. She backed the car out and drove away as fast as she could.”

Silence. “Where did she go?” asked Hester. I was proud of myself—somebody else asked before I did.

“I’m not sure,” he said. “I don’t think she is, either. But she eventually went to her friend’s house and called the police.”

“What friend?” I asked, jumping in ahead of Hal by about a tenth of a second.

“The neighbor lady, the one who wanted to join our group—Helen.”

“Helen Bockman?” I asked.

“Yes, I think Bockman is right. The one that Phyllis
was playing with. Rachel knew her. One of the few people that Rachel knows in this area, I’m sure. And she had expressed an interest in us.”

“Yes.” Well, what do you know.

“She said that this Helen was very frightened and that she, Rachel, called the police from her house. She wanted to stay there, I think, but this Helen’s husband woke up, heard part of the phone conversation, and came out and unplugged the phone from the wall, to stop her from saying where she was. He was quite angry and told her that she had to leave. That they didn’t want to be involved at all.”

“Did she know who this man was, the one she thought was Satan?” asked Hal.

“She said not.” He thought for a second. “But I think she was lying.”

“You think she knew him?”

“I’m sure of it. She’d been seeing this man, if it’s the one I think it is, for a while. She’d said he communes with Satan often. That he has ‘used’ her for some time. Just the two of them used to go off together.” He took a sip of coffee. “I think he was the father of the child.”

“But you never knew him?” Hal.

“Never laid eyes on him.”

“Did she ever say what he looked like?” From Hester.

“She said he was very dark, very large. That he moved like a cat, very swift.”

“What does she mean by dark? Was he black?” I asked.

“No, no. Dark means evil. He was very evil.”

“Oh.”

“Do you know what she meant by very large?” I asked.

“Those aren’t her exact words. You have to know Rachel. What she said was something like ‘he was a tall dude,’ if I remember correctly,” he said dryly.

“No other description?”

“Well, yes, there was.” Traer actually giggled. “She’d
said that he had a big dick … and that she could see it that night …”

“What?” said Hester.

“A big dick. You surely know what a dick is.”

“Yeah, I know. But how could she tell that?”

“That night or before?” Traer asked rhetorically. The look he got from Hester made
me
flinch, and it had missed me by a couple of feet. “I’m sorry, I must have forgotten to tell you. He was nude, you see.”

I looked at Hester. I couldn’t resist. “This could complicate a lineup …”

Traer looked at me. “You have a rather unique sense of humor … I like that.”

“I try to control it.”

“You shouldn’t. It makes it easier to talk.”

“So what did you do with Rachel, decide to hide her?” asked Hal.

“Of course not,” said Traer. “I was trying to confirm the incident, and I was trying to decide on the best course of action for her.”

“Big of you. Thinking of her like that,” Hal said.

“Not at all,” said Traer. “After all, I’m her attorney of record. I am constrained by my professional ethics to maintain a constant awareness of the best interests of my client.” He smiled.

“Unless it interferes with yours,” said Hester.

“What do you mean?” Traer asked.

“You give her up to help us get somebody off your ass.”

“Not at all … It is obviously in her best interests for her favorite attorney to continue to stay alive.” He grinned at me. “You’ll appreciate that.”

“I do,” I said, grinning. And thinking, alive in prison, you dummy. For quite a while. It was fascinating to see this man manipulated by his own ego.

“One more question?” said Hester.

“Surely.”

“What Rachel told you doesn’t exactly add up with
what we know.” She looked at him for a moment, interested. “What makes you think she’s not lying to you?”

“She wouldn’t do that.”

Hester grinned. “Don’t be too sure. You middle-aged men are pretty easy.”

By the time we got Traer back in his cell, everybody was looking tired, but nobody felt that way.

CRPD had notified us that they had Rachel Larsen in custody. Lamar had been notified and had decided to call Ed Yarnell out early and send him down for her. Ed would take his wife as matron. They would stop at the DCI office and pick up the fax of the Cleveland PD file. Things were falling into place.

We had found the key. Now it was just a matter of bringing her to the lock. Or so we thought. Everybody was sort of congratulating one another, and the mood was pretty euphoric.

“We’re on a roll again,” said Hal. “Let’s talk to Pastor Rothberg and his wife. They’ve got to be up by now.”

That settled things down a little. You have a tendency to set a sequence of goals in a case, and you sometimes get a little high when you achieve one of them. The reality of Rachel as a goal would settle out soon. She was just a step, but the only one we had been able to define for what seemed to be so long.

“Shouldn’t we get the file from Ohio first?” asked Hester.

“No, I don’t think so,” said Hal. “We have our energy up now, and the file should be here within an hour or two. We can use the fact that it’s coming to put a little pressure on him.”

“True,” said Saperstein. “We have most of the file data, anyway. Anticipation may well do us more good than the file itself.”

I thought about that. Yeah.
The file is coming
. Might be even better than “the file is right here” … yeah. If it’s coming, you don’t know what’s in it. When it’s here, it’s going to be a letdown.