for now, sharing it only with Leonard Chang. She agreed without reservation.
'Whatever you do, say nothing to Frank Patterson on the matter,' Lucas said.
'I have no intention of doing that.'
They parted company with Lynn Nielsen. As they went for the car, Meredyth said, 'Wish we had some notion of Lauralie's whereabouts.'
'We find her, we find the boyfriend, and we can shut them down.'
'Wish I could be a hundred percent certain one way or the other of any part I played in helping shape this woman's obsession. Wish I could see those records at the courthouse.'
'Tonight? Open the Harris County courthouse records? That'd also take a warrant signed by a judge. Tomorrow's another day, Mere.'
'Another day and possibly another horrible mailing to you or me or both of us.'
He pulled her into his arms and hugged her close. 'It'll be all right. I promise you, it's going to be all right.'
They drove from the restaurant down a series of meandering streets until Lucas pulled to the curb in a residential neighborhood. An Interstate overpass sliced the street in two, and cutting his engine, Lucas said, 'I want you to stay right here, Mere. I'll be right back.'
'Where the hell are we, Lucas? And where're you going?'
'Katherine Croombs's house. There're lights on inside. I'm going to have a look-see.'
'But without a warrant, what'11 happen?'
'I'm not going to break in, just determine if she's inside or not,' he said, climbing from the driver's seat.
'And how're you going to do that?'
'Old Indian sleuth trick,' he said, standing in the rain.
'What trick?'
'I'll knock.' With that, he sprinted to the door.
Meredyth nervously watched him climb the stairs of the rundown tenement house. She listened to the whirring, whining, and roaring of cars, trucks, and buses whizzing by on the Interstate overhead. 'Think I'd drink myself to death if I had to listen to this all day long,' she muttered to the interior of the car. She glanced again at Lucas, now speaking to someone on the porch, an elderly lady who had probably caught him peeking in at Katherine's windows.
Then she saw Lucas coming back to the car. He opened the door, got in, turned on the ignition, and started away from the curb. 'Dead end,' he said.
'Whataya mean, dead end? What did you learn from the neighbor?'
'Says no one's been living below her. She's had an eye out for the daughter herself, wants to know who's going to pay the water and electric bills, neither of which were turned off. Says she's having it all turned off if she doesn't hear from Lauralie by morning.'
'Then Lauralie did live there for a time after the mother's death?'
'Yes, for a month and a half. She says the girl went from saccharine sweetness when she first arrived to a bitch during and after the funeral.'
'So the woman-'
'— Mrs. Crane-'
'— saw Lauralie at the funeral?'
'She was at the funeral, no thanks to Lauralie. She had to get the information from the police report in the Chronicle, and from there she called the funeral home for the details of when and where. Says Lauralie didn't invite her or any of Katherine's cronies, and when Mrs. Crane arrived with several others in tow, Lauralie hadn't a word for her or any of Katherine's few friends and neighbors. She also said that Katherine had been off the bottle and was making an effort to please Lauralie, allowing her to live with her, feeding her, buying her things, all that. But Mrs. Crane says Lauralie never showed the least gratitude or appreciation for Katherine's efforts. It's likely what drove her back to drinking that night, she says.'
'So where is Lauralie now?'
'Got to be she's with the boyfriend, Mr. Mystery, his pad.'
'Her personal butcher. You think he helped her in poisoning her mother?'
'According to Mrs. Crane, she never once saw Lauralie with a man. She came to think her a lesbian, and you recall Rachel's take on that back at the convent.'
Meredyth mulled it over. 'AC-DC as her needs required, depending on whom she felt a need to control or manipulate at any given time, be it Father William, Rachel, her mother, and perhaps the killer.'
As they drove through the increasingly clinging fog-a fog doing battle with the orange glow of the city's lights- Meredyth's stress got the better of her. Lucas realized that she was sobbing beside him. He reached out and placed a hand around her neck, rubbing it tenderly.
'I can't believe we can't locate one convent girl recently released on her own from that place,' lamented Meredyth, placing her head on his shoulder. 'And that place. And the lessons of that place, what Lauralie took from there.'
'And what would that be?'
'Just put yourself into her place. Imagine spending your entire life there, without a true home, without parents, without siblings…bullied by the older girls, possibly assaulted by them, possibly molested by a priest, learning only how to connive, he, cheat, steal, destroy people and things, how to sexually manipulate others, until your behavior escalated into something far more sinister…escalating to fire-setting and causing accidents that result in death.'
'It's not your fault or doing, Mere. Don't put all that on your head.''
'No telling what kind of tyrant that Mother Orleans was. Do you think she drove Lauralie to kill her? First attempting to do it by fire, and later helping her down a flight of stairs?'
'We don't know any of this is true,' Lucas objected.
'And-and as for Mother Elizabeth, I've never met anyone more in denial. She knows…down deep, Lucas, she knows Lauralie is a disturbed individual, and not another Rachel-not a child in need of coddling, but a child in need of a straitjacket.'
'Exactly…got that right.' He placed one arm around her as he drove on. 'Time you got your mind off it tonight, sweetheart.'
But she went on. 'And us…look at us…two professionals going round in circles inside a labyrinth she has led us into…a maze created especially for us, and she's got to be laughing at us-Lucas, the big bad Texas Cherokee detective with an uncanny record for tracking down the monsters among us, and Meredyth Sanger, Ph.D, M.D., a forensic psychiatrist well respected in my field, and together we can't find a missing murderous child.'
'Hey, Mere, damn now you've got to go easier on yourself-and me. After all, it's not as if we haven't gotten anywhere. We've come a long-'
'But we haven't. She's still out there somewhere free to do whatever her deranged mind-in cohort with Crazy Joe as you call him-can whip up! And we're no closer to stopping them.'
'Oh, but we are! Thanks to your brilliant mind, we've put together a motive behind all this madness. Mere, not to mention we have put a name to one of the suspects in the abduction of Mira Lourdes. A name and a likeness, which will be placed on the all-points bulletin along with our Mr. X with the mole on his cheek. Tomorrow's papers will carry it, along with the news broadcast. It's on Captain Lincoln's desk.'
'When did you do all this?'
'I used the graduation photo and made out a report while you were in the ladies' room, and left it with our fearless leader. Now, thanks to you, we're that much closer to ending this terror.'
'No, no thanks to me, to her, Lauralie. She has consciously led us to her, Lucas; she wants us to put the puzzle together. Don't forget that. She not only wants to insult us, she wants to control us by controlling every step of the investigation against her. She's shrewd, calculating, and cruel-a terrible combination.'
'All the same, we're a lot closer to closing this thing down than we were before going to the convent. You should take some comfort in that.'
'Where're you taking me now, Lucas? I'm a nervous wreck, so worried about going home, finding another part of Mira Lourdes awaiting me.'
'I don't blame you. I don't relish seeing another of Lauralie and Crazy Joe's gifts either.'
