prefer not to be home.”
“Okay, Jack. Thank you. I’ll sign off now. Got a few things I need to do.”
“Watch your ass, kemosabe. Posse’s gettin’ ugly.”
When Gurney ended the call, he was standing in the middle of the long room. Madeleine and Kyle were sitting at the table. Kyle was gazing at him in frank amazement. “That’s incredible-that thing with the gloves on the keyboard? Wow. How’d you figure that out?”
“I’m only guessing. I may not have figured anything out. But another problem’s heating up. The arson-unit idiots are being pressured by the fed idiots to question me about the barn.”
Kyle looked incensed. “Isn’t that what that jerk Kramden did when he was here?”
“Kramden took my statement as a witness. Now they want to question me as a suspect.”
Madeleine appeared nonplussed.
“A suspect?” cried Kyle. “Are they completely out of their fucking minds?”
“That’s not all,” said Gurney. “One or more law-enforcement agencies may want to question me about Robby Meese’s death, since I was in Kim’s apartment last evening. So I think it would be best if I weren’t here. Homicide interviews can go on for a long time, and I have an appointment tonight I wouldn’t want to miss.”
Kyle looked angry, stressed, helpless. He walked to the far end of the room and stared into the cold woodstove, shaking his head.
Madeleine’s gaze was fixed on Gurney. “Where will you go?”
“Clinter’s cabin.”
“And tonight…?”
“I’ll wait, watch, listen. See who shows up. Play it by ear.”
“The calm way you talk about it is really frightening.”
“Why?”
“The way you understate everything-when everything is at stake.”
“I don’t like drama.”
There was a silence between them, broken by the sound of cawing in the distance. In the lower pasture, three flapping crows rose from the stubbled grass, climbing in a loose arc to the tops of the hemlocks on the far side of the pond.
Madeleine was taking long, slow breaths. “What if the Good Shepherd walks in with a gun and shoots you?”
“Don’t worry. That won’t happen.”
“Don’t worry?
“What I meant was, there may not be as much to worry about as you think.”
“How do you know that?”
“If he’s checking those bugs, he heard me say that Max and I are meeting at the cabin at midnight tonight. The most reasonable thing for him to do would be to show up a couple of hours ahead of us, decide on the most advantageous location, get his vehicle and himself out of sight, and wait. I think he’ll find the prospect attractive. He has a lot of experience shooting people at night in remote rural settings. In fact, he’s very good at it. He’d see the whole opportunity as low risk, high reward. And he’ll find the familiar elements of darkness and isolation encouraging-almost like a comfort zone.”
“Only if his mind works the way you think it does.”
“He’s an extremely rational man.”
“Rational?”
“Extremely-to the exclusion of any empathetic feelings at all. Which is what makes him a monster, a complete sociopath. But it also makes him easy to understand. His mind is a pure risk-reward calculator, and calculators are predictable.”
Madeleine stared at him as though he were speaking not just another language but a language from another planet.
Kyle’s uncertain voice came from the far end of the room, where he was still standing by the woodstove. “So your idea is basically to show up first? So you’ll be there waiting for him, instead of him being there waiting for you?”
“Something like that. It’s really pretty simple.”
“How sure are you about… all this?”
“Sure enough to go ahead with it.”
In a way it was true. But a more honest answer might have included the fact that it was all relative-his breathing space was almost gone, standing still was not an option, and he couldn’t think of any other way forward.
Madeleine got up from the table and took her cold oatmeal and unfinished toast to the sink. She stared at the faucet for a while without touching it, her eyes full of dread. Then, glancing up with a strained little smile, she said, “It looks lovely out. I’m going for a walk.”
“Aren’t you working at the clinic today?” asked Gurney.
“I don’t have to be there till ten-thirty. Plenty of time. Too nice a morning to stay in the house.”
She went to the bedroom, and two minutes later she emerged in a wild assortment of colors: lavender fleece pants, a pink nylon jacket, and a red beret.
“I’ll be down near the pond,” she said. “I’ll see you before you go.”
Chapter 47
Kyle came over and sat at the table with Gurney. “Do you think she’s all right?”
“Sure. I mean… obviously she’s… I’m sure she’s okay. Being outside always seems to help her. Walking does something for her. Something good.”
Kyle nodded. “What should I do?”
It sounded like the biggest possible question a young man could ask his father. Thinking of it that way made Gurney smile. “Keep an eye on things.” He paused. “How’s your work going? And your school stuff?”
“E-mail is magic.”
“Good. I feel bad about this. I’ve dragged you into something… created a problem in your life where there shouldn’t have been any… created a danger. That’s not something… a parent…” His voice trailed off. He looked out through the glass doors, looked to see if the crows were still perched on the hemlocks.
“You didn’t create the danger, Dad. You’re the one who’s taking care of it.”
“Right. Well… I’d better get ready. I don’t want to find myself hung up with this arson nonsense when I need to be somewhere else.”
“You want me to do anything?”
“Like I said, just keep an eye on things. And you… you know where the…” Gurney gestured toward the bedroom.
“Where the shotgun is. Yep. No problem.”
“By tomorrow morning, with a little luck, everything should be okay.” On that note, which had an emptier ring than he would have liked, Gurney left the room.
There really wasn’t much for him to do before setting out. He checked to make sure his phone was adequately charged. He checked the action of his Beretta and the security of his ankle holster. He went to his desk and got out the folder of information Kim had given him during their first meeting, and he added to it the printouts of the reports Hardwick had e-mailed him. He had quite a few hours left before any kind of confrontation would occur, and he planned to review once again all the facts in his possession.
When he came back out to the kitchen, Kyle was standing by the table, plainly too anxious to sit.
“Okay, son, I’d better be going.”
“Right, then. See you later.” Kyle raised his hand in a determinedly casual gesture-something between a wave
