I am a fool.
He applied the knife.
I must wash the sheets carefully.
65
Lisa Bolt's hospital room smelled like Lysol and spearmint, as if it had just been disinfected by a cleaning lady chewing gum. Lisa was sitting almost completely erect in her cranked-up bed, her back propped against a pillow. She looked thin but surprisingly well. There was a flesh-colored strip of adhesive tape on the side of her neck. A beige turban was wound around her head, obviously to conceal a bandage. She was wearing light makeup but had her eyebrows penciled in as dark slash marks.
The nurse, who was middle-aged and looked like a gaunt, predatory bird, informed them that only two visitors would be allowed in the room. Quinn settled on himself and Pearl.
'Please keep in mind that she's still weak,' the nurse cautioned Quinn.
'Of course we will.'
The nurse glanced at him from the corner of her eye and seemed dubious.
'These are for you, Lisa,' Pearl said with a smile. She placed the vase of flowers on an otherwise bare windowsill and deftly and lovingly adjusted the arrangement.
'Do you want some water?' Quinn asked Lisa, motioning with his head at the plastic glass and pitcher on the tray table rolled close to the bed.
Lisa kept her head on the pillow as she moved it slowly back and forth once to decline. Her head didn't move at all as she looked at Pearl and then at Quinn.
'I owe you an apology,' she said. Her voice was raspy from disuse, or perhaps from the feeding tube that had been recently removed.
'We're glad you're alive,' Quinn told her.
'You owe us the truth,' Pearl said, pushing too hard too fast.
Quinn gave her a look, signaling her to ease up and listen for a while without butting in. She understood it perfectly, and he knew it. Both of them thought it was scary sometimes, the way they could almost read each other's thoughts.
Pearl moved a step back from the bed as Quinn continued. 'It is time for the truth, Lisa.' His tone was not at all threatening.
'I know,' Lisa said. She took a deep breath and swallowed, wincing as if it hurt.
'You're sure about the water?' Quinn asked.
She nodded and then closed her eyes. 'I'm trying to organize my thoughts before I tell you about this.'
'Of course…of course…we understand.'
'It's as if I've been away on a trip.'
'Of course, of course…'
Lisa waited almost a full minute before beginning: 'It started when Chrissie Keller came to my office in Columbus and hired me to see if I could somehow get her murdered twin's case reopened. She told me about her slot-machine windfall and waved a lot of money at me. Enough to convince me to take her on as a client even though I thought there wasn't a chance in hell I could reexamine the NYPD's old investigation and find something that would get them to reactivate the case.' Lisa turned her head to the side, and her eyes teared up. 'Since I didn't think I could help her, I shouldn't have taken her money. I know that.'
'I think it's understandable,' Quinn said. 'You were in business to make money, and someone wanted to hire you. That's how it works in our occupation.' We're all in this together. Allies. 'Go right on with your story, dear.'
Lisa gazed up at him and managed a slight smile. Pearl could hardly stand watching this.
'I knew that to help Chrissie I'd have to be creative,' Lisa said. 'I did some research and decided that since I wouldn't have much pull with the NYPD, maybe I could sort of sublease the case to somebody who would have pull. Somebody like you. To do that, I'd have to be convincing, the way Chrissie was convincing with me. I struck on the idea of pretending at first that I was Chrissie, the surviving twin. Chrissie liked the idea.'
'And why not? It's quite clever.'
Lisa signaled silently that she would like some water now, and Quinn helped her to take a few dribbling swallows.
That earned another smile from Lisa, as if Quinn were Father Teresa. 'My job was to gain your trust,' she said in a somewhat revitalized voice, 'and then shadow the investigation and eventually tell Chrissie who and where the killer was before the police got to him. That last part was important.'
Quinn understood why. Chrissie wanted to get to her sister's murderer first. 'She wanted to be ensured of justice. Her kind of justice.'
'Yes,' Lisa said. 'Chrissie is consumed by a yearning to avenge her twin's death. It's almost as if she herself had been molested, mutilated, and murdered.'
'I take it you mean she feels that way…beyond the norm.'
'Far beyond. If there is such a thing as a norm in this kind of situation. She's obsessed. You know how it can be with twins. It's spooky, almost like two bodies sharing a common mind. And it doesn't seem to stop after death. At least, that's the way Chrissie sees it. And there's something else.'
'Else?' Quinn said, wishing Addie or maybe Helen the NYPD profiler was present to decipher some of the deeper motivations floating around here.
'During the twins' childhood, Tiffany was molested by her father. And whenever that happened, Chrissie was badly beaten where it didn't show. Chrissie, of course, was confused and intimidated and did nothing about it. Nothing to help Tiffany. She feels extremely guilty about that.'
'When you say extremely…'
'Chrissie is driven by guilt and feels she can find redemption by locating, torturing, and then executing Tiffany's killer.'
'So she's using us to try to commit murder.'
'She wouldn't call it murder,' Lisa said.
'I'm not sure I would either,' Quinn said. 'But the way for us is clear: We've got to find and stop her.'
Pearl moved closer to the bed and spoke looking down at Lisa. 'Do you think she might want her kind of justice so badly she'd kill in order to get to the Carver?'
'I do,' Lisa said without hesitation.
'You and Chrissie have been in touch?' Quinn asked.
'I have no idea where she is,' Lisa said.
Sort of an answer, Quinn thought.
The door opened, and the nurse who'd allowed them access to Lisa Bolt entered the room. There was a smaller, younger nurse standing off to the side and behind her. The younger woman, who looked about twelve, was holding a rectangular metal tray containing a lot of rigmarole that included a large hypodermic needle.
'I'm sorry, but we think the patient needs to rest,' the older nurse said.
'Of course,' Quinn said. He started to pat Lisa's hand and then saw all the bruising from intravenous needles. He patted her shoulder instead. 'You rest now, and we can talk later. I hope you feel better having told us this. I know we've been heartened by seeing you awake and looking so much better.'
The older nurse, who knew bullshit when she heard it, pointedly moved out of the way so there was room for Quinn and Pearl to leave.
'Take the best care of her,' Quinn said, as he and Pearl edged past both nurses.
'We will indeed, sir,' the older nurse said. 'It's what we're doing right now.'
Quinn smiled beatifically at the nurse as he held the door open for Pearl.
'Watch out for that one,' Pearl heard the older nurse say to the younger, as she and Quinn found themselves in the hall.
They walked a little way toward the nurses' station and stood near a drinking fountain.
