I thought about Gibbons’ landlady looking to make a buck. One hundred thousand volts, busting open her heart at the seams.
“So you sent Pollard to see the landlady,” I said.
“Again, beyond my control. Pollard was simply supposed to see if she had the file and grab it.”
“And that brings us to Nicole,” I said. “You talked to her at the Drake. She told you about Elaine Remington’s shirt.”
“I couldn’t let her get a look at that evidence.”
“I know, Bennett. At first I thought you might have sent Pollard, but then I thought again. There was no other key card used that night, which meant Nicole herself let the killer into the lab. Had to be someone she knew. Had to be someone she trusted. Had to be you, Bennett.”
A well-manicured woman came close by walking her bichon frise. She gave us both a proper Gold Coast smile and moved past. Davis dropped the cigar between his legs.
“It could have been different with us,” he said. “But that was her decision. Long time ago. This thing here. I had no choice. None at all.”
Davis looked up and spread his hands.
“To be honest, if I thought I could get away with it, I’d do it again. Not easy to live with, but hell, there it is.”
I counted to ten and kept my hand away from the gun at my hip. Maybe that was what Bennett wanted. Law and order’s express lane. He wasn’t going to get it. Not from me. Not today.
“You know what I wonder about?” I said. “The endgame. Where would it have ended? How would you ever get out?”
My former friend just shrugged.
“Grime gets executed.”
“And then?”
“And then Daniel Pollard disappears and the problem goes away.”
“Maybe call in a guy like Joey Palermo for that?”
“You know about that, too. Interesting.”
Bennett Davis smiled. The last one I ever saw.
“So what happens now?” he said.
“Walk with me,” I said.
The two of us got up and walked.
“You have another cigar?”
Davis cut one for me and I lit up.
“You remember The Godfather Part Two, final scene?” I said.
“Yeah.”
“Michael sends Tom Hagen to see Frankie Pentangeli in the pen.”
“Yeah, Michael. I remember.”
“Frankie asks Tom the same question. Tom tells Frankie what the Romans did when their plot against the emperor failed.”
“They went into a hot bath and opened up their veins.”
“That’s exactly what they did, Bennett. Now, your family is never going to get taken care of and I don’t think you deserve a hot bath. But an Italian friend of mine did give me a bit of advice I’ll pass along.”
Then I told Davis about Vinnie DeLuca and his cannolis and about eating a bullet in a bathroom stall.
“DNA comes back in three days, Bennett. Then the state takes over. And whoever else decides they need you dead.”
“Fair enough,” Davis said.
“More than you deserve.”
Davis sat back down on a bench.
“Going to sit here awhile and think.”
“Good-bye, Bennett.”
I began to walk away. Twenty yards later Davis’ voice plucked at my shoulder.
“One more thing, Michael.”
I stopped but didn’t turn.
“You never answered my question about the nine millimeter,” he said. “Same gun used on Gibbons and Pollard. One thing I know for sure. It wasn’t me.”
I began walking again. Bennett Davis didn’t deserve an answer. Of all the things he told me, however, the last rang truest of all.
CHAPTER 54
My plane landed in Tulsa at a little after seven o’clock in the morning. I had turned my cell off for the flight and powered it on as I drove across the Kansas state line.
The DNA on Daniel Pollard had been a rush job but worth it. A full match to Elaine Remington’s rape, the Grime unknowns, and the tears left on Miriam Hope’s bedsheets. Diane would break the story sometime tomorrow. There would be a press conference after that. Then it would go national, and it would be crazy. For a minute I thought about Bennett Davis. He’d either eat a bullet or be in cuffs by tomorrow night. I was rooting for the former. My cell phone buzzed. It was Rodriguez.
“Hey.”
“You getting there?” he said.
“I think so.”
“You sure we don’t want to call in any help on this?”
“I got it. You worry about Davis.”
“Speaking of which, we got the rest of the CODIS run back on Pollard.”
“Let me guess,” I said. “Nothing.”
“How did you know?”
“Bennett told me Pollard took Grime’s advice, started using a condom years ago.”
“How many do you think he did?”
“Lots,” I said.
“Just rape?” Rodriguez said.
I thought about Miriam Hope, talking to Daniel Pollard, trying to save her life, trying to buy a few more decades of loneliness.
“He knifed the old man in the apartment,” I said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more.”
“Yeah, the cold squad is going through its old homicides. See if they can find any more links.”
“Has anyone talked to Grime yet?”
“Not yet. We’ll pay him a visit this week.”
“Okay. I should be back in Chicago tonight.”
“No chances on this, Kelly. You want me to move here, you call.”
I flipped my phone shut and passed a sign that read SEDAN, KANSAS, 22 MILES. I pulled over and took out the street file. Elaine’s hospital admittance form had a name for next of kin but no address. My client herself had provided the town the night I picked her up in Cal City. Not a lot, but enough to give it a try.
I pulled in to Sedan a half hour later. It wasn’t much of a town, a mile’s worth of boarded-up storefronts and a load of dust. At the end of the strip was a five-story hotel that took up an entire block. It was boarded up, too. I cruised right through, didn’t see a soul.
Down the road a bit, I pulled up behind a couple of cowboy hats. They were sitting in a pickup, waiting for the light to change. Problem was, there was no light. Just two country roads, intersecting in a field of mud. I got out of my car and walked forward.
“Looks nicer in the summer. When it’s full of corn.”
