“The black man? Yes. Knocked him out with her lamp and dragged him into the room, scratched Kimberly’s dead fingernails across his face, left incriminating evidence all over. He was like a madman; completely demented. He said he wanted the scene to look as gruesome as possible so that no one would ever forget. But it was more personal than that. I realized he’d harbored a real hatred of me all that time, despite his amiability-he hated me for my money, my relationship with Kimberly, even my health. He told me time and again how he was going to end up in a wheelchair and that I was going to pay for that. He told me he did things to Kimberly, and that she’d done things to him, that were guaranteed to get at me. He was totally unbalanced.”
“What do you mean, ‘he did things to Kimberly’?”
He rubbed his forehead again. “They were sexual in nature. When he first came to see her that night, I guess he threatened her or something. He said she made love to him-orally, that is. He claimed it was her choice, but I don’t believe it. Then he killed her, tied her down, arranged the scene, and finally he masturbated on her-just before he left. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. He was watching me like a hawk as he was telling me all this, looking for my reaction. I felt I was with a monster.”
He was slumped over in his seat by now, his hands c lasped behind his neck, as if warding off an avalanche. He raised his head and sought my eyes with his. Tears were on his cheeks. “I was terrified. Terrified of him, of what he’d done, of what it would mean if it came out. I didn’t know what to do.”
“So you did nothing.”
“No. Not even after he was off the drug and was normal again and tried to make amends.” height='0em'›
“Make amends?”
“Well, that’s what it seemed like. He became friendly again, dropping by here after hours, telling me about his stock market coups. But I remained scared of him forever after. It was like waiting for Mr. Hyde to reappear; instead, it was Colonel Stark who appeared.” He paused and wiped his eyes.
“What happened when it started coming out-when Stark did his little number and the newspapers grabbed hold of it?”
He gave an enormous sigh. He seemed utterly exhausted. “We were like two men in a sinking lifeboat; totally different from one another but bound together, you know? We spent more time together these last few weeks than we had since Kimberly’s death. I never would have imagined any of this happening to me-not in a million years… I’m glad it’s over.”
“You may not feel that way when all this comes out.”
“I don’t have much choice, do I?”
“Not any more.” Unlike, I thought, ten minutes ago.
34
I groped for the phone with my eyes still closed, hoping the call would be brief enough that I could handle it without fully waking up.
“Gunther?” It was James Dunn.
I opened my eyes. “What?”
“What the hell are you doing? You sound half asleep.”
“I am. Tony sent me home. Said I was a hazard to operations.” I looked at my watch. It was seven o’clock at night.
“Sorry. Thought you’d want to know the judge kicked Teicher loose at the arraignment.”
“What?” I sat straight up.
“Released on his own recognizance.”
“But what about protecting him from Stark?”
“Stark has made no threat against him, real or implied, as the saying goes.”
“But he’s a witness, goddamn it.”
“To what? All the principals are dead.”
“How about Bill Davis?”
“He’s being processed out anyway, and as quietly as possible I might add. That’s a hint, by the way, in case you decide to rub noses with Katz again.”
“Where’s Teicher now?”
“I think he went home.”
I hung up and dialed Brandt. “You hear about Teicher?”
“Yeah. I didn’t want to wake you up.”
“Dunn did the honors. What are we going to do about it?”
There was a pause. “Not much we can do.”
“Stark’s going to kill him.”
“Why? Teicher was going to marry the girl. That’s hardly a killing offense, even if it didn’t work out.”
“Stark doesn’t know that; he just knows Teicher knocked her up-that’s a capital crime in his book. Jesus, Tony, what the hell have you been doing all this time? Paying me lip service? Why did you let me do all that razzle- dazzle with the shotguns at Teicher’s office?”
“You told me that was to squeeze him for a confession.”
“Well, it was, but all I did was soup it up a little. The threat is real, believe me.”
There was a momentary silence at the other end. “What makes you so sure?”
I couldn’t believe I had to replow this field. The frustration made me blurt out: “Because by approaching Teicher like a platoon of Marines, we’ve all but challenged Stark to knock him off. I thought you understood that.”
Brandt’s voice went totally flat. “It wasn’t clear. Why did you go home without laying it out?”
“I thought Teicher would be locked up for a while. The arraignment wasn’t supposed to be until tomorrow. Look, I don’t know what I thought. Maybe I got cold feet, setting Teicher up as bait.”
“You sure choose your moments to be coy.”
I let a petulant flash of anger cover my guilt. “I told you he was in danger. I told Dunn that, too. What the hell did you guys think? That I’d suddenly gone soft in the head? Hasn’t Stark proved he’s nutty enough for something like that? Teicher’s all we have left, for God’s sake.”
“All right, all right, let’s drop it. You challenged him to a duel and Teicher’s the prize. We better get him back under cover. I’ll send a patrol out to his house now to sit on him until you get there.”
I fumbled with my clothes in a blind fury. Once I’d set the ball in motion, I should have covered it like a blanket. There was no excuse for slacking off at the last moment. I’d been complacent and stupid and scared to play by Stark’s rules to the end. As I slammed the door behind me, I inanely swore it wouldn’t happen again.
As it turned out, I was lucky. I found Teicher intact at his home, a patrol car parked out front. But he was obviously not a happy man.
“What do you want?” A superior emphasis was placed on the “you.”
“I just heard you were out of custody. I came to arrange security.”
He gave me a sour expression. “From what my lawyer tells me, you’re the one I should need security against.”
“What did he tell you?”
“That you lured me into confessing; it was blatant entrapment, and it’ll get thrown out of court. He said if I’d kept my mouth shut, my wife would still be with me and I’d se and Itill have a job.”
I was surprised at the speed of his demise. “You travel with a fast crowd.”
“Fuck you, too.”
“None of that abrogates your responsibility to Bill Davis.”
“Don’t give me that.” He turned his back and walked into the house. I followed him. “The only novelty of a man like that being in jail is that he’s innocent of this particular crime.”
I liked him better when he was a bowl of jelly. “I don’t really care if your case is thrown out of court. My job
