He stared in dismay and she muttered, “Not sure I do myself, it's just… Well, the more I learn about Archer, the more twists and turns I-”
His eyes lit with an unexpected fire she could not at first fathom. He looked about to explode, about to smash the table with his fists.
“ Christ, it's Matisak again, isn't it? I thought you wrote that bastard off? What can a madman in a cell hundreds of miles away possibly know that we don't, Jess?”
She took in a great breath of air and shivered as if a draft passed over her. “I don't know how he does it, Alan, but Matisak has shadowed my every move, my every hunch on this case.”
“ He's just got you spooked.”
“ He's creepy, all right, uncanny.”
“ Bastard's just got you confused, Jess. You must see that.”
“ Confused? Hysterical is what you mean, isn't it?” She looked sternly up at him, her eyes fiery. “That's so convenient for you, Alan: chalk my suspicions up to those of a hysterical woman. Damn you.”
“ I'm just saying that this creep's gotten into your head, maybe.”
“ That's bullshit, Alan, pure-”
“ All right, all right,” he said, trying to calm her. “So you harbor doubts. Tell me about them. Talk to me, Jess.”
She calmed, dabbed with her napkin at a spot of wine she'd spilled and said evenly, “I still think there's something to this Dr. Casadessus at the Street Hospital you got a line on. Where has that led you?”
He scratched his head and said apologetically, “Nowhere, I'm afraid. The guy disappeared like smoke, without a trace.”
“ So you've given up?”
“ I still have men working on it.”
“ Have you ever considered the not so remote possibility that this Dr. Casadessus might be someone close to the case?”
“ You're back to Simon Archer.”
“ I am. Alan, you realize it was rather a convenient coincidence for Archer that Jim Drake was killed by a hit-and-run?”
“ Drake's death is still under investigation.”
“ Have you checked Archer's car for recent repairs?”
“ We have, and it led nowhere.”
“ Then maybe he's got two cars?”
“ You're reaching, Jess.”
“ And what about Dr. Darius?”
“ What about him?”
“ His so-called suicide. Also overseen by Simon Archer.”
“ Jess, you sound like… like-”
“ Don't say it, Alan.”
“- like you've got some sort of vendetta against Archer.”
“ My vendetta is against the Claw, Alan, and in my book a Leon Helfer isn't capable on his own of the damage done by the Claw. He's told us that he fashioned the murder weapon while under the spell of this other man, and that it was designed by the other. He was very specific. He told us that the killer had two claws made but used only one, normally, reserving the kill for himself.”
“ Nobody, Jess, believes what Helfer has had to say.” He put his hand over hers and added, “I know how hard you took Darius' death, but to think that Archer actually helped him out that hospital window, Jess… Well, there's not one speck of evidence to support that contention. I know you got close to Darius. Maybe it's clouded your judgment-”
“ Clouded, confused woman, huh? So we're back to that.”
“ You do admit to being human, to being emotionally involved?” She did not answer this, stubbornly persisting in her own questions instead. “So what're you saying? Helfer killed his boss and his dentist as well?”
“ It seems much more likely that Helfer did these men than Simon Archer, Jess. Look, I'm… we are continuing investigations into both Parke's and Malthuesen's deaths. We have good reason to believe both were murdered, but that leaves Leon as prime suspect in these deaths, and this morning, Leon confessed to both murders.”
No one had bothered to tell her, and she was caught off guard. “Leon'11 confess to anything anyone puts to him now, so long as you promise to keep him safe from the Claw; but tell me this, Alan.”
“ Yes?”
“ Has he confessed to being the Claw?” Before he could answer, she added, “Look at this,” and took from her purse a manila envelope, spreading its contents before him: two electronic photos of Archer's hair which she had taken from the lab.
“ What is it I'm looking at, Jess?”
“ This was taken a few hours ago, and this was on file. It's a strand of Archer's hair.”
“ Does this mean something?”
She explained how she had gotten the first strand, her belief that it was lifted from the body a good seven minutes before Archer arrived on scene.
He looked over the two photos for some time, his features not giving anything away, but his eyes showing a dubious and steady blink, the big hands folding about the photos. “You sure that you labeled it correctly?”
“ Yes! Dammit, I knew you'd say that.”
“ Even if I believe you, Jess, it's slim evidence at best. Do you have anything else on the man?”
She couldn't hide the look of disappointment on her face.
“ D.A. wouldn't touch this. It'd be your word against Archer's, and Archer could make a case for your having a longstanding poisoned relationship that-”
“ Forget it,” she said abruptly.
“ Wait a minute, Jess.”
“ Just forget it, Alan.”
The waiter arrived to clear their dishes, and they fell silent.
After he left, Alan began, “Jess, it's not that I don't believe that you believe-”
“ I won't bore you with any more of my doubts, Alan.”
“ Come on, Jess. That's not fair.”
“ I wouldn't want to bring you down from that high you've been riding since Helfer was cuffed.”
He tossed down his napkin and leaned in across the table. “That's bull, Jessica. I'm not railroading this creep. He's as guilty as guilty gets and-”
“ And so is someone else, someone who drove him, controlled Helfer, gave him a new name, a new identity, and gave him orders.”
“ There's not a shred of forensics evidence to support you, nothing other than Leon Helfer's word, which is less than nothing, Jess.”
“ All true, thanks in large part to Archer, who, by the way, still has not been so much as reprimanded for his part in slowing this investigation.”
“ Internal Affairs is looking into your allegations.”
“ Allegations?”
“ Yes.”
“ And what does Internal Affairs know about hiding evidence in a test tube or beneath a microscope?”
“ Christ, it's not as if Archer conspired with the killer. If he let some things go, if he became a little careless, it was for mundane, perhaps petty reasons.”
“ Well, I'm not so sure.”
She got up to leave, but he stood also and grabbed her by the wrist. “What's that supposed to mean?”
“ I'm still unconvinced he had nothing to do with Dr. Darius' fall prior to his going into the hospital, if not his so-called suicide.”
“ Christ, you really dislike this guy, don't you?”
“ Don't you see? Archer did all he could to slow the progress of the investigation until he was firmly in place
