packets. Nor did he spot the counterfeits, but I don't think anybody on earth would have.
He closed the cases and fastened their clasps, then drew his gun again and stood aside while the dark-haired man came to pick up both of them, grunting with the effort. It was the first sound he had made in my presence.
'Take one at a time,' Callander said.
'They ain't heavy.'
'Take one at a time.'
'Don't tell me what to do, Ray,' he said, but he put down one of the suitcases and went off with the other.
He wasn't gone long, and neither Ray nor I spoke in his absence.
When he got back he hefted the second case and pronounced it lighter than its fellow, as if this meant we'd cheated him on the count.
'Then it should be easier to carry,' Callander said patiently. 'Go ahead now.'
'We oughta plug this cocksucker, Ray.'
'Another time.'
'Fucking dope-dealing cop. Oughta blow his head off.'
When he had gone Callander said, 'You promised us a week. Will you keep your word on that?'
'Longer if I can.'
'I'm sorry about the finger.'
'Fingers.'
'As you prefer. He's difficult to control.'
I thought, But you were the one who used the wire on Pam.
'I appreciate the week's lead time,' he went on. 'I think it's time to try a change of climate. I don't think Albert will want to come with me.'
'You'll leave him here in New York?'
'In a manner of speaking.'
'How did you find him?'
He smiled faintly at the question. 'Oh,' he said, 'we found each other. People with specialized tastes often find each other like that.'
It was an odd moment. I had the sense that I was talking to the person behind the mask, that our circumstances had provided a rare window of opportunity. I said, 'May I ask you something?'
'Go ahead.'
'Why the women?'
'Oh, my. Take a psychiatrist to answer that, wouldn't it?
Something buried in my childhood, I suppose.
Isn't that what it always turns out to be? Weaned too early or too late?'
'That's not what I meant.'
'Oh?'
'I don't care how you got that way. I just want to know why you do it.'
'You think I have a choice?'
'I don't know. Do you?'
'Hmmm. That's not so easy to answer. Excitement, power, just sheer intensity— words fail me. Do you know what I mean?'
'No.'
'Have you ever been on a roller coaster? Now I hate roller coasters, I haven't been on one in years, I get sick to my stomach. But if I didn't hate roller coasters, if I loved them, then that's what it would be like.' He shrugged. 'I told you. Words fail me.'
'You don't sound like a monster.'
'Why should I?'
'What you do is monstrous. But you sound like a human being.
How can you—'
'Yes?'
'How can you do it?'
'Oh,' he said. 'They're not real.'
'What?'
