Damned if it wasn’t Cathy Calvin standing there, practically wringing her hands with nervousness.
“Must have taken a lot of investigative skill to find me here,” I said. “I’m impressed.”
“Quit it, Mike. Please? I came to – I won’t even say apologize, I know that’s no good.”
She was right, and I started to tell her so. But she actually seemed sincere. I noticed, too, that she’d changed out of her usual businesswoman combat uniform into a light, summery dress. It made her look softer, more feminine – really quite pretty.
“Just because I didn’t run you in doesn’t mean it’s finished,” I said. “The department’s going to be all over your editors.”
“They deserve it. I mean, I’m not just blaming them. I knew how wrong I was. It’s just? -” She stepped into the room, closing the door most of the way behind her. I could smell her perfume in the warm, still air. “This job makes you crazy,” she said. “The competition’s unbelievable. It’s turned me into a monster. When I started thinking about what I’d done, I just came apart.”
She drifted closer. It was clear that she wanted comforting, and I admit I was tempted to let her slip inside my arms and nestle her face against my chest.
But that temptation was easy to brush aside.
“My job hasn’t made me a nicer guy, either, Cathy,” I said. “But you’ve got to know where to draw the line – it goes with the turf. I figure when the day comes that I can’t find that line anymore, that’s the day I hand in my badge.”
My tone was no more inviting than my words. She stopped her approach.
“I’m leaving you a peace offering,” she said. She took an envelope out of her purse and dropped it on the table, then retreated to the door.
“Go ahead and hate me, Mike,” she said. “I just want you to know I’m really not like that. I’m not.”
Then she was gone.
Of course she wasn’t really like that, I thought. Not until the next time she stood to gain by it.
Inside the envelope was a copy of the Teacher’s original e-mail to her.
And on the bottom, he’d left her a Yahoo Instant Messaging ID where he could be contacted: TEECH1.
Through my clenched teeth, I called Calvin a bitch for not giving me this right away. Peace offering, my ass. Then I sat at my desk and tried to decide what to do with it.
Setting up a trace was difficult and complicated. In order to get the Internet company to assist, court orders would first have to be procured, and even then it could turn out that the message could have come from a public library or a college.
I made up my mind that we didn’t have time for that, and took a stab in the dark. Quickly, I created a Yahoo Instant Messaging ID for myself.
Then I sent a message to the Teacher.
MIKE10: Got your mission statement.
What happened next blew me away. After only a brief pause, an answer came back.
TEECH1: What did U think?
It was him!
MIKE10: Very interesting. Could we meet?
TEECH1: U R a cop aren’t U?
I debated lying, then decided against it. Treating the guy like he was stupid wouldn’t get us anywhere.
MIKE10: Yes. I’m a detective with the NYPD.
TEECH1: I didn’t mean to kill those cops, Mike. I like cops. They R among the few left in this world who actually believe in good and evil. But I needed to escape. What I’m doing is bigger even than the lives of 2 good people.
MIKE10: Maybe I could help U get your message across.
TEECH1: I’m doing just fine, Mike. Death and murder get people’s rapt attention. Their ears R perking up BIGTIME.
Chapter 44
Hovering tensely over my keyboard, I tried a different tack.
MIKE10: Maybe if U talked to someone U could work out your problem in a different way.
TEECH1: Don’t even go there. I don’t have problems. I solve them. People think they can keep on screwing others with impunity. Why? Because they have money. Money is scrap paper with a number written on it. It doesn’t make U immune to your human responsibilities.
MIKE10: The clerk and the maitre d and the stewardess didn’t have money. Something else about them must have bothered U. I really do want to understand U, so please tell me. Why did U murder them?
TEECH1: Murder?
MIKE10: U R the same person who shot those people?
TEECH1: Of course. I only object to the word. Murder implies that those animals I wiped out were human beings. Their families should say a prayer and thank me for emancipating those pathetic slugs from the ignoble slavery that was their existence.
Now we’re getting somewhere, I thought.
MIKE10: R U doing God’s work?
TEECH1: Sometimes I think so. I can’t claim to know how God intercedes in the world. But it could be through me. Why not?
Teacher? The only class this guy could teach was how to be nuts.
MIKE10: I can’t believe that God would want U to kill people.
TEECH1: He works in mysterious ways.
MIKE10: What R U going to do next?
TEECH1: YR. IDTS. Wouldn’t U like to know. Now I said it to those cops, and I’ll say it to U. Stay out of my way. I know U think U need to catch me, but I’d take a real serious re-eval on that if I were U, Bennett. Because if U or NE1 else gets between me and what needs 2B done, I swear to Almighty God I’ll kill U B4 U get a chance to blink.
Christ on a bike, he knew who I was! He must have figured it out from the Times article. Why hadn’t Calvin just printed my home address while she was at it?
MIKE10: Guess I’ll have to take my chances.
TEECH1: That’s a dangerous way to think, Bennett. That’s what those two in the train car thought. Right before I erased them from existence. When is my mission statement going out?
I passed my hands through my hair, forcing my distraught brain to think fast. Getting his message to the world was obviously very important to him. Maybe we could use that to gain some leverage or draw him out.
MIKE10: We can’t let that happen. Not until we get something in return.
