Mortal Fear (3 page)

Drewe Cole is smart.

Her smile widens to a pixie grinsomething I havent seen much latelyand then she heads off for the kitchen. I take a last look at the Chicago figures and follow.

Our house would be something of a curiosity to anyone not born into a farm family. It began seventy-five years ago as a square, one-story structure just large enough to shelter my maternal grandfather and grandmother (who married at the ages of nineteen and sixteen, respectively) and the first children they expected. But as the farm prospered and more children arrived, my grandfather began adding on roomsfirst with a doggedly logical symmetry, later, apparently, anywhere he could most easily tack them on. The result is something like a wooden house of cards built by an eight-year-old. Moving from room to room often involves a sudden stepping up or down to a slightly different elevation, though since I grew up in this house, I no longer sense these changes consciously.

The heart of the house is the kitchen. It is a long room, and too narrow. I once thought of tearing out a wall and expanding it, but a black carpenter friend told me that since the entire house seemed held to this core by some form of redneck magic, Id do better to enjoy rubbing asses with my wife whenever we passed between the stove and the opposite counter at the same time. That turned out to be good advice.

Are we richer or poorer today? Drewe asks from the sink. She is already rinsing off the chicken.

About even, I say, taking a heavy cast-iron skillet out of the oven and laying it on a hot gas burner.

Her question is perfunctory. The truth is that with ten
contracts in play, which is about average for me these days, I could onlyin the absolute worst contingencylose about fifty thousand dollars. This would not seriously affect us.

I am good at my real job.

Save any lives today? I ask. My question is not perfunctory. Drewe is an OB-GYN. She delivers the babies that my father (a family practitioner) would have delivered thirty years ago. She doesnt usually deal with car accidents or shootings, but she often handles traumatic births.

She answers my question with a quick shake of her head and plops the chicken breasts into the sizzling skillet. I am peppering them liberally when she asks, What about EROX?

She has purposefully botched the acronym, pronouncing it as a disc jockey would: E-Rocks. EROS stands for Erotic Realtime On-line Stimulation. Drewe substitutes the X to emphasize the prurient nature of the network. Nine months ago she did not do this. She was as fascinated by the forum as I was, and our sex life had blossomed with her fascination. Nine months ago she spoke of EROS in a tone befitting the Greek god of love and desire.

Now it ranks just above phone sex. Barely.

Something really bad happened, I tell her.

Drewe looks up from a can of LeSueur peas with apprehension in her eyes.
Family,
she is thinking.
Who died?

Karin Wheat was murdered last night.

Her eyes widen. The author? New Orleans Karin Wheat?

I nod. It was on CNN. You believe that?

Sure. Anybody whos had movies made of their booksand has fans as weird as she doesis bound to rate some national airtime. I bet itll be on
Hard Copy
in an hour.

Shes probably right. Should I watch? I know from experience that facts will be sparse and titillation rampant. On the other hand, Drewe cant stand more than ten minutes of
Crossfire
.

You sound really upset, she says, eyeing me with genuine concern.

I look away for a moment, disguising my mental stocktaking with an appraising glance at the chicken. How much to tell? She was on EROS, I say, not wanting to sound guilty but knowing I do.

What? Why didnt you tell me?

I look up, some defiance in my eyes. You havent wanted to hear anything about EROS for months, Drewe. Karin only joined a few weeks ago.

She lifts her chin and studies me. So its
Karin,
she says finally. Youve talked to her on-line?

Sure. The usual sysop guidance.

Please. She fits the pea can into the opener and drowns any reply with a grinding flourish. I go back to the chicken.

Have you had sex with her on-line? she asks, not looking at me.

I sigh angrily. The woman is
dead,
Drewe.

Jesus, she says, and dumps the peas into a pot. I should be on
Hard Copy
. My Husband Fucks Famous Females Electronically.

I surrender. Drewe is even angrier about EROS than I thought.

Do they know who did it? she asks in a deadpan voice.

No. I flip the chicken breasts. But I think I might.

Drewe and I watch
Hard Copy
with a mixture of fascination and disgust. Dramatic camera angles, sexual innuendo, and spooky black-and-white video of Karin Wheats New Orleans mansion (complete with artificially generated fog) give the broadcast a Victorian, Jack-the-Ripper feel. Drewe does not comment as the segment runs, and I find myself rehashing my dinner-table interrogation.

I answered her incisive questions between bites of chicken and dirty rice, taking care not to set her off by revealing more than necessary. She wanted to know why I would even notice six women terminating service among five thousand subscribers. I focused on the technical side of it, explaining that these six women had been active users who suddenly disappeared from the forums yet continued paying their EROS fees, which are expensive by anyones standard. I mentioned nothing about blind-draft accounts or my close relationships with some of the women.

Thankfully Drewe focused on Miles Turner and his successful attempt to prevent me from initiating an internal investigation by EROS itself. She too has known Miles since our childhood. He based his objections to an investigation on the issue of privacyclient confidentiality in his wordsand his argument holds water. The female CEO of EROS is serious enough about privacy to insure the secrecy of each subscribers identity to one million dollars. This unique step in the world of on-line services went a long way to ensure the exponential growth of her small and costly corner of the digital world. I can only guess what kind of explosion my decision to
involve the police will cause at EROS headquarters in New York.

When
Hard Copy
cuts to commercial, Drewe commandeers the kitchen table and telephone to remotely dictate the past few days accumulation of medical charts. For some reason, patient charts are the one duty my super-organized spouse cannot or will not deal with in a timely manner. The color-coded stacks she brings home from her office are often covered with threatening Post-it notes penned by the hospital records administrator, warning in Draconian tones that Drewes staff privileges are about to be revoked.

As her monotonic dictation voice drifts through the house, I retreat to my office and pick up one of the five guitars hanging on the wall above the twin bed I crash on when Im in manic trading mode. I choose a Martin D-28S, with a classical-width neck but steel strings. I slip through some chord changes without thought, letting my mind and fingers run where they will. The music would surprise a casual listener. I am a good guitar player. Not quite a natural, but smooth enough to make a living at it. This is my old job.

I am a failed musician.

The memories of that career still sting. I pick up the instrument more often now, but three years ago I did not touch a guitar or sing for twelve straight months. Even now, I never play my own songs. I just do what Im doing now, letting whatever part of my brain that controls this function have free rein, and set my mood on automatic pilot.

Sometimes I surprise myself.

Like now. I have somehow wound a soft jazz thing full of arpeggios and chord extensions into the intro of Still Crazy After All These Years. I realize I love the sneaky seventh at the end of that line: I met my o-old lover on the street last night
whang
. What the hell, I think, singing on through the song and ending up quite unintentionally with potential murder. Now I sit by my window and I watch the cars. And I fear Ill do some damage one fine day. But I would not be convicted by a jury of my peers.... As I finish to a nonexistent ovation, I realize
Drewe is standing inside the door of my office. Its her first time in six weeks.

Sounds good, she says. Really good.

It feels good.

Thinking about an old lover?

No. A jury of my peers. Where do you think they all went?

She smiles ruefully. They grew up, got married, and had kids.

Like most men, I have blindly blundered back into our running argument. Having a baby. I suppose a lot of couples our age are in the midst of this debate. Up north and out west anyway. Down South most couples still tend to have their kids in their twenties.

Not us.

Our careers are partly to blame. Itinerant musicians and exhausted medical students are rarely in an ideal position to start a family, even if they are married, which Drewe and I werent until I gave up music. But thats not all of it. For the past three yearsour total married lifewe have led a fairly settled existence, and our combined incomes are almost embarrassingly large. My parents are dead, but Drewes recently crossed the line from gentle jibes to outright questioning of my reproductive capabilities.

If only my sperm count were the problem. Like a lot of people, I have my secrets. Some are small, born in moments when I could have been painfully frank but chose not to be. Others are more serious and invariably involve women other than my wife.

Dont jump to conclusions. From the moment Drewe and I took our marriage vows, I have not touched another womans naked flesh. But somehow that is small comfort. For the secret that haunts me now is more dangerous than adultery, more shameful. If I were Catholic, I suppose I would call it a mortal sin.

No, Im not gay.

But I am afraid.

When the telephone finally rings, Drewe and I have been asleep for hours. I spring awake in a sitting position
like one of my Scottish ancestors groping for his sword but find a cordless phone in my hand instead.

Hello?

Mr. Cole?

I blink, trying to clear my eyes and brain simultaneously. Um... what?

This is Detective Michael Mayeux. NOPD. We spoke this afternoon?

Drewes sleeping body blocks my line of sight to the clock radio. What time is it?

Three-twenty in the morning. Sorry, but I just got around to checking those names you gave me. Those six women?

Sure. I sense a strange gravity in Mayeuxs voice.

Harper? Drewe sits up in bed and points at the window. Theres someone outside. Look.

Prickly flesh rises on my shoulders as I realize that our curtains are being backlit by what must be car headlights. We never have visitors at this hour. We rarely have visitors at all.

Stay here, I tell her. Ill get a gun.

Please dont do that, Mr. Cole. Mayeuxs voice startles me. If youll look out your window, I think youll see a patrol car.

Cairo County doesnt have a police department, I say, moving warily toward the window.

Part of your farm is in Yazoo County, Mayeux replies. That should be Sheriff Buckner from Yazoo City. Know him?

I know who he is. Parting the curtains slightly, I see a white Chevrolet Caprice cruiser sitting in the gravel drive before our house. What the hell is he doing in my driveway at three in the morning?

Calm down, Mr. Cole. Sheriff Buckner is there to ensure your safety.

Right.
Why dont I believe that, Detective?

He is silent too long. I signal Drewe not to speak. What the hell is going on, Mayeux?

Those women you told me about. Theyre all dead.

There is sweat on my face. An instant ago it was not there. I feel it in my hair, on my forearms, behind my
knees. That small intuitive part of me that always suspected the worst has taken possession of my body. I was right. I was right, and I should have acted sooner. All six of them? I ask, my voice barely audible.

Every one was murdered in the last nine months, Mr. Cole. And Ive got to tell you, there are a lot of people around the country right nowpolice officerswho want to talk to you about those women.

I do not even try to convert the chemical cyclone in my brain into coherent words.

Only two of those murders had been connected before tonight, Mr. Cole. They were both in California.

I close my eyes.
Juliet Nicholson. Tara Morgan
.

What wed like you to do, Mayeux says in a friendly voice, if youre not busy tomorrow, that isis drive down to the main station here in New Orleans and talk to us. What do you say to that?

I look back through the window. Sheriff Buckners cruiser is still there, idling low and catlike in the humid darkness.

You think I killed them, I say in a monotone.

Again Mayeux pauses too long. To tell you the truth, Mr. Cole, we dont know what to think. Ive been telling people that you called me with this information, and that if youre the one who murdered them, youd be the last one to do that.

Damn right.

On the other hand, some people tell me that things like that have happened before. A lot more than youd think. Is this one of those strange cases, Mr. Cole?

I was stupid to call you, I say, meaning it. Miles was right.

Miles who? Mayeuxs tone telegraphs an image of him holding a pen over a notebook.

Do I need a lawyer, Detective?

What?
Drewe gets out of bed and hurries to the closet for a housecoat.

Take it easy, Mayeux says. My gut tells me youre just Joe Citizen in this thing, trying to do whats right and getting tangled up in the process. That happens more often than it should, Ill tell you right now. If you want a
lawyer, you bring one along with you. He pauses a beat. But if you want my advice, Id save the money. We just want to know what you know, Mr. Cole. If youve got nothing to hide, you dont need a lawyer. Mayeuxs voice drops in volume. Besides, first impressions are important. Youll look a lot more innocent to certain people if you dont have a lawyer from the get-go.

One things for sure. Detective Michael Mayeux didnt just float into New Orleans on a shrimp boat. He is very good at getting people to do what he wants them to do. This is a talent that I share, and I note the fact like a fighter noting the strength of a potential opponent.

I suppose you expect me to ride down with Sheriff Buckner?

No, sir. Bring your own car, fly a crop duster, whatever you want. Just try to make it before noon. Youve got a very anxious audience down here.

I make a rapid decision. Listen, Detective, no way am I going to fall back asleep after this call. Im going to talk to my wife, then get dressed and drive straight down there. The sooner Im out of all this, the better Ill feel.

Good answer, Mr. Cole.

See you in about five hours.

Ill be waiting for you.

By the time I finish explaining the situation to Drewe, Sheriff Buckners cruiser has quietly disappeared. My wife wants to accompany me to New Orleans, but I talk her out of it. For one thing, she has patients scheduled. For another, I am not sure how deeply the questions of the police will probe. I doubt any man would want his life examined microscopically in the presence of his wife, but lately one of my secrets, like the old shotgun pellet in my calf, has worked its way nearer and nearer the surface. One question with the right edge could slice right through.

I consider calling Miles in New York to tell him what is afoot, then discard the idea. On this point Drewe and I agree. By revealing the name of an EROS client to the police, I have almost certainly exposed myself to a lawsuit. I reassure myself that my perception of lethal danger to other EROS clients justified this breach, but in 1990s
America, who is to say? Jan Krislov, the fifty-six-year-old widow who owns EROS, is a nationally known advocate for the right to privacy. She also has more money than God. Better lawyers, anyway.

Yet beneath this anxiety flows a deeper sense of reservation. Drewe feels it as well. Early in our lives, Miles Turner and I were almost like brothers. Then for many years we hardly saw each other. Not quite a year ago he came back into my life, brought me into EROS. Expand your horizons, said my own personal Mephistopheles. Arent you tired of making money yet? Challenge yourself. Its more fun than youve had since we talked our baby-sitter into taking off her bra.

I am not having fun now.