got in again.
“Turn off your lights.”
Walker obeyed. He looked at Stillman, who was watching him impatiently. “It’s a dirt road,” said Stillman. “Follow it.”
Walker sighed. “I think the term ‘dirt’ is accurate. I’d hardly call this a road.” He cautiously moved forward.
“Keep going. I have a theory I want to check.”
“Does your theory tow stuck cars?”
“Just do it.”
Walker bumped along over the rutted, uneven ground, and then the ride became smoother. The road was so narrow that at times he could tell both front tires were passing over grass at once.
“See the barn ahead?” asked Stillman.
“Yeah.” In the dark field, it was a high rectangle of deeper darkness. Walker drove on slowly. He found that he could see much better than he had expected, and soon he was approaching the black shadow of the barn.
“I got this idea when you said there were no cows,” said Stillman. “Stop.” He got out and ran ahead. In a few seconds, Walker saw his flashlight go on, then sweep the floor of the barn, then go out. When he returned, he said, “It’s empty. Pull inside, and turn around so you’re facing out. Then kill the engine.”
When Walker had done it, he joined Stillman. They began to walk across the field. After a few minutes, Stillman spoke again. “Here’s how we do it: we go up the back of Main Street. There’s a passage. I don’t know if it counts as an alley, because it’s empty ground and unpaved. But it runs behind the row of businesses. Anyway, we walk it without going up Main.”
“Okay,” said Walker.
“When we get to the drugstore, we take a few minutes to see what we’re up against. If we can’t get in, we’ll leave. If we do get in, we’ll do just what we did before. We’ll videotape the records.”
They crossed the second bridge into town and hurried off Main Street before they reached the first street lamp. They made their way up the passage behind the long row of buildings. When they reached the back of the drugstore, Stillman stopped. He examined the windows, and Walker’s heart sank. They all had bars on them.
He saw Stillman’s flashlight go on, then saw the beam of light inside the glass. It moved slowly, then went out. A moment later, it went on again at the next window. Walker went to join Stillman at the back door.
“What do you think?” he whispered.
“It’s a dummy.”
“What?”
“The alarm. It’s not turned on. Maybe it’s not even hooked up. Anyway, there’s no power going to the panel. The indicator light’s not on.” He quickly picked the lock and opened the door. “Come on in.”
Walker stepped inside and closed the door, then ducked low and began to search the back counter. He flicked his flashlight on to confirm his impression, then let it play along each of the walls slowly. He stood up. “It’s not a pharmacy. It’s just a storeroom. There aren’t any prescription drugs.”
“Yeah,” said Stillman. “I’ve been trying to remember that conversation since I looked in the window. I asked the old boy if it was the only drugstore in town. He said yes.”
“There’s nothing here but over-the-counter stuff. There’s not even a locked cabinet.”
“He said drugstore. He didn’t say there was a licensed pharmacist around who could fill prescriptions. People must do that in Keene.” He touched Walker’s arm. “Let’s go.”
They made their way back to the barn, then drove out to the highway. The silence seemed to have settled on Stillman, and he didn’t speak again until they were back in Keene. “I’m going to try working with the phone book. Go think about this some more. If you come up with another way of finding out who the cousin was, I’ll be in my room.”
When Walker opened the door to his room, he looked inside. There, asleep on the bed, was Serena. She heard him, opened her eyes, and said, “Boy, I’m glad that’s only you.”
“So am I,” he said.
“I mean I’m glad you’re alone.”
“Yeah. That’s what I meant too.”
31
Walker awoke, not remembering when he had fallen into a dreamless sleep. He had somehow drifted off with Mary Catherine Casey in his arms, and now she had wriggled out, leaving him feeling cold and alone. He opened his eyes and lifted his head to see her sitting cross-legged beside him, still naked, staring down at him with unblinking catlike patience. He rolled toward her, but she remained motionless, so he propped himself on his elbow. “What?” he said. “Was I snoring or something?”
“I was wondering about you,” she said, “so I decided to see if I could read your mind. Don’t worry: I couldn’t.”
“Want to try again?” he asked.
She gauged the angle of his eyes. “Not necessary.”
“Why are you here?”
“Because when I give somebody my word, I do whatever is necessary to keep it.” Her green eyes remained on his with unwavering intensity.
“Who did you give your word to?”
“You,” she said in mild surprise. “I told you yesterday I was going to drop everything I was doing to find out what you needed to know.”
He frowned. “Look, I’m glad to see you—”
“I noticed that,” she said.
He persisted. “But it never occurred to me that you were going to quit your job.”
She gave a deprecatory toss of her head so slight that Walker saw it as a dismissal. “It wasn’t really a job,” she said. “It was just an arrangement.”
“What kind of arrangement?”
She sighed, as though it were all such old history that he should already have known it. “Constantine’s not IBM. He’s like a pirate ship. You sign on as long as the take is good and you feel like staying aboard. You get a cut of the money. If you stop in a port you want to visit, you get off and Constantine sails on.”
He stared into her eyes for a moment, then decided to ask. “How did you get involved in that, anyway?”
“You don’t approve,” she said. “Tough.”
“You’re not going to tell me?”
She shrugged. “I’m a bad girl.”
“Maybe I’m asking why you’re a bad girl.”
She looked at him as though appraising him, then sighed. “I’m acceptable looking, and I’m very smart. People always noticed the one, but they never noticed the other. They also had all kinds of rules for how I was supposed to behave, and the rules didn’t seem to give me any benefit.”
“I’m not sure I understand,” he said.
“I went to college in engineering. The same men who hit on me—complete with assurances of their love and respect—also assumed that the reason I was getting good grades was that I was sleeping with professors. Since I didn’t sleep with professors, the ones who would have liked me to were resentful. The professors who didn’t like the field filling up with women weren’t glad to see me sitting in the front row. The others just treated everybody equally, which was lousy.” She looked at him closely. “You see? No advantage.”
“You seem to have learned a lot about computers.”
“I liked them. When I got a diploma, I went to work for a company in Irvine that sells computer security. I bumped into Constantine.”
“Did he work there too?”
“Hardly. I was always hearing about the enemy: people who spent their time moving in and out of systems they had no business knowing about. Most of them are kids. It’s always been a cheap thrill for teenaged boys killing
