Albert didn’t answer. Then he raised his eyes and stared at Spencer, who felt a chill run down his back. He was sure it had nothing to do with the weather. All of a sudden Spencer understood that he could die any moment, right now, right here, in the middle of the snow-covered mountains, and Aristotle sure as hell wouldn’t be digging him up with his paws.
How could he have been so careless and come to a deserted place with someone he didn’t know? He came without backup, without any knowledge of what or who he was dealing with. Spencer realized that while he was certainly going through the motions of an investigation, he was not taking any of Kristina’s friends seriously.
Albert must have read his mind, because his cold brown eyes got colder as he said, ‘Don’t worry, now. I didn’t kill her and I won’t hurt you.’ He paused. ‘Did you get scared there? Did you think that if I was backed into a corner, I might just strike out at you?’ He laughed loudly. ‘Don’t worry, Detective O’Malley. I’m not in any corner I do not want to be in. You’re right, we did know each other briefly before we came to Dartmouth. I can tell you all about it, but I don’t see how it has anything to do with Kristina’s death.’
‘That’s not for you to ask or decide, Albert,’ said Spencer.
‘You’re right. What do I know? I’m only a philosophy major.’
You’re a liar, too, thought Spencer. ‘Let’s go,’ he said roughly.
Albert started to walk to the car and then stopped. ‘Wait a minute,’ he said. ‘Hold on. I’ll be right back.’
‘You’re not going anywhere.’
‘Wait. I just have to get something.’
‘No, Albert. You won’t.’
‘I’ll be right back,’ he said, and started to walk toward the house.
In an instant, Spencer was in front of him. ‘Albert. I said no, and I mean it. No. I don’t know what you’re going to get up there, and you aren’t getting it.’
Albert stared him down, not moving away, not flinching, not blinking. ‘Detective O’Malley, I want to get her coat,’ he said patiently, slowly, his black eyes flashing. ‘Kristina left her coat here and I want to get it for her. Come with me, if you want.’
‘Albert, don’t make me arrest you. I’ll gladly have you spend the night in jail.’
But the words didn’t have the same effect on Albert that they had had on Jim. Albert wasn’t going into a career in politics. Albert didn’t look as if he cared if he spent a night in jail, and his words bore Spencer out. ‘Detective,’ said Albert, ‘a night in jail for Kristina’s coat. It’s a deal.’
Spencer stepped closer, pulling out his Magnum and pointing it at Albert’s face. ‘Don’t move,’ he said menacingly. ‘Turn around and walk back to my car, and get in. Don’t take another step.’
Albert did not back away, his steely expression fearless. ‘Or what, detective? Are you going to kill me?’
‘Turn around and walk back, Albert,’ Spencer said through gritted teeth.
Albert smiled a wide-toothed, friendly smile. He and Spencer were standing four feet away from each other. Albert continued to smile. Then in one instant, his left leg flew up, knocking the Magnum out of Spencer’s hands. The gun landed ten feet away.
Albert never stopped smiling. T have a black belt in karate,’ he said.
Spencer stepped forward and punched Albert hard in the solar plexus, sending him down on the ground. Standing over him, Spencer grabbed Albert’s arm and twisted it behind his back. ‘And I’m an officer of the law, you son of a bitch, and you will not threaten me, do you hear?’
Albert only panted in reply. Spencer yanked him up and, still twisting his arm up high, walked Albert quickly to the car, throwing him in the backseat. Then Spencer radioed Ray Fell to come right away.
Spencer picked up his gun and stood near the Impala, pointing the cocked Magnum at Albert.
At first they didn’t speak. Albert just sat in the back, not looking at Spencer.
Through the car door, Spencer heard Albert’s voice. ‘Good move, Detective O’Malley, but of course, if someone wanted you dead, you’d be dead already.’
Spencer did not skip a beat, though his heart did. ‘And you’d be on your way to the chair, Mr Maplethorpe.’
Albert leaned to the window, flashing his white-toothed smile. ‘Who says I’d get caught?’
After thirty minutes of Spencer’s standing out in the cold, Ray Fell finally came. Even Ray’s car lumbered, but Spencer was glad to see him. Spencer told Ray to cock his gun and point it at Albert, and if Albert moved, to shoot him. Then he went in the house and searched every room, until he found what he was looking for in the walk-in closet in one of the bedrooms. It was the only thing in any of the closets. An old maroon cashmere coat. Spencer examined it closely – there was nothing in it.
He put the coat to his face. It smelled faintly of musk and soap. Spencer realized the coat smelled like Kristina. He put it to his face again and closed his eyes. He thought of not giving it to Albert, of keeping it for himself. He deeply breathed in the musk and the soap. It would’ve been safe to let Albert take it, but Spencer hadn’t known that. Albert could’ve been hiding an Uzi in one of the closets, for all Spencer knew.
Spencer brought Albert back to the Hanover police station and, after reading him his Miranda rights, threw him in the small cell.
An hour passed. Spencer asked Albert if he wanted to make a call. Albert didn’t answer at first and then said, ‘Look, I don’t want any trouble.’
‘Good,’ said Spencer. “Cause you already got plenty.’
‘I haven’t done anything wrong.’
‘Oh, yeah? Menacing a police officer? Hindering police investigation? You’re lucky I don’t bring you up on assault.’
Albert looked at Spencer through the bars of the cell. ‘Lucky, detective?’
Spencer was so angry he accidentally knocked over a small table lamp when he bolted from the bench.
He called Will at home at eight o’clock in the evening and told him what had happened. ‘You’re crazy,’ said Will. ‘How could you go there all alone?’
‘I didn’t go there alone,’ replied Spencer. ‘I went there with Albert, hoping to have a nice chat.’
‘I see. Is that why you now have him all locked up?’
‘No, I now have him locked up for resisting me.’
‘What are you hoping to prove? It’s Saturday night. The courts are closed, he can’t get bail, he’s got no money for a lawyer –’
‘He should’ve thought of all that, shouldn’t he?’
‘He’s a cocky kid, Spence,’ said Will. ‘So leave him. Go home. Don’t worry about it.’
But Spencer didn’t go home; he couldn’t leave him. He went back behind the offices and sat down next to Albert’s single cell.
Finally Albert said, ‘Are you going to take the cuffs off?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Spencer. ‘I should probably cuff your legs, shouldn’t I?’
Albert didn’t answer, and after a while Spencer called him over and unlocked the cuffs. Rubbing his wrists, Albert sat back down on the bed.
Spencer said from his chair, ‘Give me one good reason I shouldn’t keep you here till Monday morning and then charge you with Kristina Kim’s death.’
‘I’ll give you a good reason,’ replied Albert. ‘Because I didn’t kill her.’
‘How do I know that?’ said Spencer.
‘Because I was sitting with some kid watching a stupid movie, that’s why. Because I …’ He paused. ‘I loved her, that’s why.’ Spencer was quiet.
‘Because I loved her more than anything in the whole world,’ continued Albert. ‘I would rather die than hurt her. I’d take a bullet for her. I’m not scared, detective.’
‘I see that,’ said Spencer.
They were silent. Spencer watched Albert, who sat on the cell bed and stared into his hands. ‘Albert, I don’t understand. I just don’t. Why would you be in love with Kristina and go out with Conni? I mean, what’s the poin
t?’
Albert shrugged, not looking up. ‘I love Conni,’ he said. ‘I’m just not in love with her. But she’s a good person and she loves me, and there’s no reason to hurt her.’
‘To hurt her? You don’t think your not being in love with her hurts her?’
‘I never kept that from her. She knows how I feel. She also knows I’d rather marry her than anybody, because she is a good person.’
‘A good person?’ Spencer caught his breath. ‘Albert, do you understand what you’re saying? Conni might have killed Kristina.’
Albert shook his head vehemently. ‘No,’ he said. ‘No, that’s not possible.’
‘If I were Conni? And you were tormenting me with your lies, and I was suspecting you were sleeping with my best friend? I would have killed her earlier. Her and you too.’
Albert didn’t say anything. Spencer waited. He knew he was grasping at straws. If only those three weren’t going to leave the money to Red Leaves House, he thought. He’d really have something then.
But not much, Spencer realized. He didn’t have an eyewitness. He didn’t have a murder weapon. He didn’t even have a motive. What he had was no case.
Also … what he had was a whole lot of emotions whirling in a frenzy around one dead girl. That was enough. That was plenty. Kristina had been killed. There had been two knees on her chest and there was blood under her nails.
Spencer was torturing Albert, and he knew it, but it was as if Albert were under Spencer’s nails.
There was a time when Spencer could look at a person and know something important about him; Andie had said that was Spencer’s special gift to the world. Not that he wasn’t a smart man, she said, because he was, and not that he wasn’t a handsome man, because he was. But Spencer Patrick O’Malley had an instinct in him like a lost wolf’s. What happened to it? Spencer wondered.
‘Look, I don’t know anything about you,’ Spencer said at last. ‘Except that you lied to me and you struck out at me.’
‘I didn’t strike out at you – you were pointing a gun at my face. I’m sorry about the incident up there. You just caught me off guard.’
Spencer stood up. ‘I caught you off guard?’ He laughed, walking toward the doors. ‘Good night, Albert. The night duty officer will bring you a sandwich and something to drink.’
Coming toward the iron bars, Albert said, ‘You’re going to leave me in here?’
Spencer smiled. ‘I thought you weren’t afraid.’
And with that he left and went home.
Spencer came back for Albert at seven o’clock Sunday morning. The patrolman who was watching him said to Spencer, ‘You know, the guy didn’t lie down once. He just sat there the whole night with his head in his hands.’
Spencer felt a twinge of guilt. Unlocking the cell, he opened the door and said, ‘Come on, Albert. Time to go.’
Without saying anything, Albert got up and walked out.
‘Need a ride home?’ Spencer asked Albert.
Turning to Spencer, Albert said very quietly, ‘I need her coat, please.’
Again, a twinge of guilt nagged at Spencer as he got Kristina’s coat from the trunk of his Impala.
Spencer felt threatened by Albert. There was an unknown quantity to him that unsettled Spencer. Maybe because Albert wasn’t afraid, and Spencer was always wary of people who weren’t afraid.
They had so little to lose.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Constance Tobias
Where have you been?’ Will Baker whispered vehemently as Spencer walked in on Monday morning. ‘I’ve been looking everywhere for you.’
Spencer nodded silently. ‘I’ve been … you know …’ He trailed off. ‘I took a drive.’
‘A drive? Where?’
‘Connecticut.’ Spencer paused and felt himself paling. ‘Will, I’ve got a lot to tell you. I found Kristina’s mother. Katherine Sinclair.’
‘Who? God, Tracy! You gotta stop taking these drives in the middle of a murder investigation. First that Albert guy, now this. Plus you look like shit. What’s wrong with you?’
Spencer threw his car keys on the desk. ‘Have you listened to a word I said, Will?’
‘Very carefully. What does Kristina’s mother have to do with this mess? Listen, I’ve got something to tell you, too.’
‘What’s going on?’ said Spencer, taking off his coat. He was unwilling to defend himself.
Will took Spencer by the arm and dragged him away into the hall. Through a partly open door, Spencer saw Frankie Absalom sitting alone in the questioning room.
‘What’s this?’ Spencer asked. ‘What’s going on?’
‘He came back last night. I called and called you.’
‘What’s up? He has something new to say?’
Will widened his eyes meaningfully. ‘He says yes. But he refused to talk to anyone but you.’
Spencer made a move to go inside; Will held him back. ‘First the chief wants to see you.’
‘Immediately?’
‘Sooner.’
When Spencer closed the door behind him, Ken Gallagher slammed half a dozen newspaper down on his gray Formica desk. ‘Tracy, where the hell were you yesterday?’
‘I was –’
‘Baker must have called your house a thousand times! Did he tell you? Franklin Absalom said he needed to speak to you urgently, and you were nowhere to be found!’ Gallagher shouted the last part. ‘He said he wouldn’t speak to anyone but you. So where the hell were you?’
‘That’s what I’m trying to tell you, sir –’
‘So tell me! Goddammit, I thought you were conducting a murder investigation!’
‘I was, and I am,’ said Spencer quietly. ‘I went to see –’
‘Do you know that because of you we had to keep Absalom here overnight?’
‘Why?’
‘Tracy, I’m the one asking questions around here.’ But the chief answered him. ‘Because we don’t know if we have a killer on our hands or what. Now where were you?’
‘In Connecticut,’ Spencer said quickly, lest he be interrupted again.
‘Why?’
‘I went to talk to the dead girl’s mother.’
‘The dead girl’s mother?’ Gallagher gasped and then fell quiet.
Spencer hurriedly continued, ‘Yes, sir. She is very ill, living in a convalescent wing of the Norwalk –’
‘Tracy!’ the chief exclaimed. ‘What do you think, I got quiet to listen to you? I’m goddamn speechless – I don’t have time for this shit. We might have a murderer in custody and you’re telling me about somebody’s mother, for Christ’s sake?’
Spencer willed himself to remain calm and persisted. ‘Sir, not just somebody’s mother. The dead girl’s mother. There are some very troubling th –’
‘O’Malley! Perhaps I’m not making myself clear.’ Gallagher shoved a stack of newspapers toward Spencer. ‘What’s this?’
‘I don’t know, chief,’ said Spencer. ‘What is this?’
‘This, and this, and this.’ Gallagher was shoving the front pages in front of Spencer, banging his index finger at the cover stories. ‘Look. We’re in every paper. Have you read this? Have you?’
Spencer looked up from the papers and quietly said, ‘No, sir. I’ve been too busy to read the newspapers. Sir.’
‘Don’t you sir me, O’Malley!’ Gallagher raised his voice. ‘When I left Thursday, I thought everything was under control.’
‘Everything is under control,’ said Spencer, thinking, except for me in about a minute.
‘Is it? Then what’s this?’ Pointing to the lead story in the main local paper, Gallagher read, ‘"The Hanover Police Department investigation has stalled; sources say there are no new leads and no clues in the crime."’
Gallagher then showed Spencer similar cover stories in the Dartmouth, the Concord Monitor, the Manchester Union Leader, and the Boston Globe.
Spencer looked blankly at the chief. ‘So?’
‘Tracy,’ said Galla
gher ominously, ‘don’t screw with me. I gave you this promotion, I thought you’d prove yourself –’
‘Chief Gallagher!’ Then Spencer lowered his voice. ‘I don’t have time to prove myself.’ He was breathing hard. ‘I’m in the middle of a murder investigation. The papers have no idea. They’re clueless. We’re not going to be letting them in on every piece of evidence we have before we can make a formal charge. You do agree with that policy, chief, don’t you?’
‘O’Malley, don’t patronize me. The papers are making us look bad, and this is our town. I don’t want to be ridiculed by our people and by the college and by Concord because we can’t do our jobs!’
‘Who says we can’t do our jobs?’ Spencer gritted his teeth. ‘It’s the papers who can’t do their jobs.’
‘They’re getting this information from somewhere, aren’t they?’
‘Yes, sir. Maybe a word with our men would be in order about discussing ongoing investigations with the press.’
‘Tracy, the DA’s office is reading this crap, too!’ Gallagher shouted. ‘They think we can’t do our jobs either. The Dartmouth dean himself called Dave Peterson and wanted to know what was being done about finding the girl’s killer.’
‘And the district attorney had no answer,’ retorted Spencer, ‘since he wasn’t in the office. The deputy district attorney – ditto.’
‘Well, they were in the office this morning! I talked to Peterson; he’s fuming. He’s got a whole battery of people on their way here now.’
Spencer thought it would be a relief to have some disinterested ADA take over the case. Spencer then could go back to driving around town and having coffee at Lou’s, maybe having a meal again and going to Murphy’s Tavern again. He could hibernate through the winter again, without having to think of Kristina or her broken family.
Spencer answered the chief. ‘Well, where were the AD As when we really needed them? On Friday they were golfing, and on Saturday and Sunday they were having a weekend off.’ This was a dig at the chief himself, though Spencer didn’t mention him by name. ‘Unlike Will and me, who have worked nonstop since Thursday.’
‘With no results! And I don’t consider going off to Connecticut work.’