A Grave Talent

risk, knowing Lewis, then we'll go ahead with it. If not, or if I'm not satisfied with the safeguards, we make other arrangements. Agreed?'

Kate took a deep breath, and committed herself.

'Agreed.'

'Fine. We start with this.' He took an object from his pocket similar to the button that Kate had given Vaun, and slapped it onto the table in front of Lee. 'You will wear this at all times. You push it, and across the street we know something's wrong. If you take it off, I pull Vaun out of the house.'

Lee smiled sweetly at him and stood her ground.

'I rather doubt you'd have any legal basis for moving her around the countryside if she preferred to stay with me, but I shall be happy to cooperate with any reasonable request.'

Kate busied herself with more coffee while Hawkin glowered and Lee smiled like a steel rose. Finally his lips twitched.

'Dr. Cooper. It would bring me considerable reassurance as to the safety of all in this house if I knew that you were carrying that alarm button with you at all hours of the day and night.'

'I do understand, Inspector Hawkin, and I will be most happy to comply. More coffee?'

'Your coffee, my dear young lady, has been one of the few bright spots of the last two weeks, but I think I'll have to refuse a fourth cup and make an appearance at work. I thank you also for breakfast.'

He stood up, and Kate followed him to the door.

'Al, I think Vaun was wanting to see you.'

'I have to be in San Jose ten minutes ago. I'll stop back this evening.'

'Come for dinner.'

'Oh, no, I—'

'Please.'

'All right, I'd enjoy that. If the traffic's bad it'll be after seven.'

'I'll plan for eight. I should warn you, you won't get food like you just had. I'm a lousy cook.' He smiled. 'Will you see the Donaldsons?'

'I'm afraid so.' He sighed. 'How many different ways are there to say, 'Trust me, we're working on it,' when she wants to know everything that's going on? I can't blame her, but it doesn't make things any easier.'

'Glad it's you and not me,' she said frankly, and did the alarm business to let him out. Neither of them looked at the house across and two down, whose upper floor was temporarily occupied by various men and machines. She watched him climb into his car, closed the door, and went to talk to Lee about dinner. As she had expected, Lee insisted on cooking.

That evening Vaun's photograph was on the front page of the paper. Some enterprising amateur with a powerful lens had caught her staring longingly out of her hospital window, looking for all the world like a prisoner in a cell. It was a very clear picture.

Over hot-and-sour soup, beef in black bean sauce, snow peas with shiitake mushrooms, and fried rice, they hammered out the plans for the next few days. Or rather, Hawkin and Kate hammered, Lee commented and made suggestions, and Vaun picked at her food. She kept glancing at the folded newspaper on the side table, with the expression of a person fingering a bruise.

In the end, sitting in front of the fire, they decided that it would have to be Saturday. By then Vaun would be more rested, physically and mentally, Lewis would be feeling safe and anxious to resume, and besides, it would make the Sunday papers.

'I've made preliminary arrangements with a man on the News staff, who's willing to go along with it in exchange for an exclusive and an interview with you,' he said to Vaun, who winced. 'It will, I'm afraid, mean more photographs, and your privacy all shot to hell. I'm sorry.'

'After this afternoon's paper, there's not going to be much of it left anyway. It's a miracle I've managed to get away with it as long as I have.'

'We may find Lewis before that, remember. Every cop in California has seen his picture by now.' His offer of encouragement sounded thin, and Vaun shook her head.

'No, now be honest, Alonzo Hawkin. If you picked him up tonight, what could you possibly charge him with? I'm no expert, but it sounds to me like you have nothing at all that you could take to a jury. Isn't that right?'

'Vaun, that isn't really our responsibility.'

'Of course it isn't, but there isn't much point in arresting somebody if you then have to let him go for lack of any evidence. Don't worry, I do understand what I am to do. There's no point in putting out bait if the tiger doesn't come far enough to make his intent clear, isn't that it? I shall sit and wait for him to come for me, don't worry,' she repeated, but none of the other three liked what was in her face, and in each of them a special gnaw of concern started up.

'I want your promise…' Hawkin began, and Vaun laughed, a bleak, brittle sound.

'No, I'm not about to 'do something foolish,' as they say. I will cooperate, I will do what you tell me to do. Four lovely little human beings have lost their lives on account of me, on account of this gift of mine. It must come to an end.'

There was a cold, dead undertone in her words. Lee started to speak, and stopped. Hawkin cleared his throat.

'So, we're agreed. On Saturday morning you set off for some public place like Golden Gate Park or Fisherman's Wharf, accompanied by these two and a number of other plainclothes along the way. The three of you are photographed by our pet reporter and his cameraman, and you will appear the following morning on the front page of the Sunday paper. We'll give it three or four days, and if he hasn't appeared by then, we'll do it again. You think you'll be up to it? Vaun?'

She pulled herself back from some distant and unpleasant place and focused on Hawkin.

'Yes, yes, whatever you want. I'm sorry, I was just thinking of those three sets of parents. I wonder if they can bring themselves to read the papers anymore. I wonder what impression my smiling face eating a crab cocktail at Fisherman's Wharf will make on them. I would like to speak with them, when this is all over.'

'I think it would do them a lot of good,' said Lee. 'But it might be very hard on you.'

'What does that matter, now?'

'Well,' Hawkin broke in, 'first there's the minor matter of getting this all over. I suggest that a good night's sleep might help. 'Night, all, and thank you, Lee, for yet another ambrosial feast. Are you wearing your button?'

'I am.' She pulled it up from inside her shirt, and dropped it back down.

'Good.' He caught himself. 'Thank you.' He touched Vaun's shoulder lightly in passing, though she seemed not to notice or indeed to notice that he was leaving. Kate stood when he left but allowed Lee to run him through the alarms and waited for the thoughts beneath the black curls to surface. It took several minutes, and Lee was standing in the doorway behind Vaun, also waiting, before Vaun finally spoke.

'You saw that last painting I did, didn't you, Kate?'

'The one with the woman and the child?'

'Yes. You saw it in the studio that day. Gerry had someone bring it to the hospital.' Its terrible beauty had been gouged and shredded beyond recognition, and Hawkin had personally seen it put into the hospital incinerator. 'That was Mrs. Brand, Jemma's mother. Her face stayed with me for eighteen years, how she looked that night when she realized Jemma was dead. I started to dream about her again, last December, and I finally had to paint her. It was one of the most… difficult paintings I ever did,' she said with a terrible calm. 'Possibly one of the best. And now it's gone.'

'Perhaps—' Kate stopped. She heard the thoughtless insult of what she was about to say but plunged on regardless. 'Perhaps you'll do the painting again, one day.'

'Oh, no,' Vaun looked up at them, with the gentle acceptance of finality in her face. 'I said it must come to an end, and it shall. I will not paint again.'

27

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It was a terrifying week. Vaun drifted through the house like a lost soul, her hands in her pockets. She slept a great deal during the day, although her light was often on in the night. She watched the television, sitting down to