“ The bat was discovered below the bed, fresh blood on it,” Landry whispered into Alex's ear as if afraid Kim could hear through walls. “We'd assumed it was the victim's blood, but now, maybe not.”
Alex recalled Kim's having mentioned a ball bat the night before. Had she seen it below the bed when she'd fallen? Not likely, since she'd been out cold before she hit the ground.
Kim continued speaking as Thomas Whiley. “Been beaten by my father most my life…” A distinct bayou dialect was beginning to filter into her voice. “Wasn't going to take no beatin' from nobody no more, ever… and when she come at me, I grabbed up that bat. Hit him good once't, but he was insane strong, didn't even feel it; jus' grabbed the bat from me. I tripped up and 'fore I hit the floor, she come down on me with a spiked heel to my head. Don't 'member him puttin' me 'cross the bed. Woke up with the knife in me…”
“ He, she, him, her, what's his real sex, Thommie?” pressed Dr. Longette. “Louisville slugger…”
“ What?”
“ The bat… it was my Louisville slugger. Didn't slow him up a hog's breath, though.”
There was a moment of silence as Dr. Longette turned to face the glass and raise his shoulders. Is she under? Yes. Is she faking this? Maybe, but to do so, she'd have to have one hell of a mind, he thought.
“ TTiomas is my real name. Thomas Peterson Whiley the Second. But now I'm a woman. I'm Marie… Marie Dumond. Died a woman and will be one in eternity. Please bury me as a woman.”
“ We'll… we'll do what we can to respect your wishes, Thommie.”
“ Marie…please, Marie.”
“ Yes, of course.”
“ No one'll claim my body anyways, like what come of poor Vic's body… I watched from my car. Guess I'll be buried by the state, another nobody.”
“ We're looking into your true identity, Thomas,” Dr. Longette assured the disembodied spirit. “We'll find your family. Your passing will not go unnoticed.”
“ Name on my driver's license purchased from a paper mill on Quincey.”
Sincebaugh had seen the beautiful job that someone had done on Marie Dumond's driver's license. He knew that for the right amount of cash, anything could be had on Quincey Street in New Orleans. Of course, Dr. Desinor would know that too, having grown up in the city.
“ I'll be dead…Marie'll be dead, and nobody'll know who she is, and nobody'll care…”
Sincebaugh, from behind the glass, muttered in Landry's ear, “Got that right…”
“ We care,” said Dr. Longette. “We really do.”
“ What about Marie? Do you care about Marie?”
“ Is there anything more, anything at all, that you want to tell us, Marie?” he asked, deflecting the question.
“ E… he… he really didn't mean it. He… E just wasn't himself.”
“ Wasn't himself how?”
“ Crazed… beside himself… I think in his right mind, he couldn't've done it. It was when he became she.”
“ E then is a cross-dresser too, you mean?”
Captain Landry turned to Sincebaugh. “I want a line on this E guy, where he hangs, what he does, where he goes, who he goes with, all of it.”
“ I've never heard of anyone on the street goes by that or Easy, but we'll certainly follow up.”
“ Looks like your instincts were good all along, Alex. The killings are not aimed at the gay community from outside forces, but rather from within the gay community itself; one of them is killing his own, and the key has to be this guy, E or Easy. Doesn't ring any bells, huh?”
“ You know how many of these guys are transient. They come and go like the pigeons. Still, thought I knew all the street names, but no… no, sir, it doesn't. We can run 'im through the computer, see what kicks out.”
“ Either way, Alex, you nailed it, gay community.”
“ Transvestite community, French Quarter.”
“ What's the difference?”
“ Big difference in their ranks. Not all transvestites are gay, not all gay men are cross-dressers.”
“ As in not all bats live in caves? Give me a break, Alex.”
“ As in not all gays are HIV positive, Captain. Look, I'll be at my phone, see what I can dig up on our man E. I've seen enough of this hocus-pocus.”
“ You've seen enough, but you're willing to investigate this E character based solely on a psychic's recall under hypnosis? I'll tell you what, Alex, if this E guy turns out to be our man, this hocus-pocus will have been worth every dime, my friend.”
“ And if it doesn't pan out? You gonna give her the heave-ho? You gonna bring the tent down on this… circus?”
“ I'll certainly try, Alex, but as you know, it's rather out of my hands…”
“ Do Stephens and Meade know about this session with Dr. Longette?''
“ No, thought we'd keep this among us for now, and Dr. Desinor was obliging.”
“ And Dr. Coran?”
“ No FBI for now.”
With that news, Sincebaugh felt a bit relieved. Good move, Captain, he wanted to shout. Anything to ax Lew Meade from the new deal. “I'll go find Big, and we'll see what we can scrounge up on this Easy guy.” Alex knew that he'd combine the search for E with the search for Susie Socks, the alleged cousin to Davey “Pigsty” Gilreath.
27
May the light fade from your eyes, so you never see what you love. May your own blood rise against you. and the sweetest drink you take be the bitterest cup of sorrow. May you die without benefit of clergy; may there be none to shed a tear at your grave, and may the hearthstones of hell be your best bed forever.
Matthew Matisak pretended an aimless, wandering gait along the streets of New Orleans, a free man, his attention on the final steps that would bring him to the coming, decisive duel with her, Jessica Coran. He fully expected to take his due from her, after wrapping up a few loose ends, and this time he would be completely in control, all arrangements having been made- All systems a go and me aglow, he wickedly thought. This time her own blood would rise against her to become his absolutely and forever.
He had thoughtfully mapped out how they would meet, how he would lead her into his snare, what his final meal would be like, for it would be supplied by her and it would be his last. She would so fulfill him that he would have nowhere afterward to turn. He would have reached his personal zenith. So he would destroy himself while her blood was coursing through him, taking a part of her into eternity with him.
The means was at hand. He had already prepared and tested the equipment on a young girl he'd found wandering about the Greyhound bus station the night before. All was operational at the location he had paid well for.
He had paid top dollar for the portable dialysis machine which would remove Jessica's lifeblood in a controlled fashion and filter it into him in just as controlled a fashion. He planned to O.D. on her blood, to burst his own blood vessels with an overabundance of the good stuff. “What a way to go,” he told himself.
Not riddled with bullets, not electrocuted or gassed, not plummeting to his death during an escape or progressively rotting away in a cell, but to die in a fashion befitting such a demonic force as himself, in a manner which he would have chosen, master of his own fate. He intended to be literally imploded from within by her blood- at least all his arteries and veins would detonate, so full would they become with their commingling of blood.
It was so rare and evil an idea that it could not have been born overnight, but rather had crept up in
