Olson continued, 'When the funeral's over, Lil and I are coming back, with Tom, and the Bentons, and the Packards, when Charlie doesn't have to work, and we'd like to stay for a week or two and hope you catch this guy, but we'd like to stay and see what you do.'
'That's no problem at all. We can meet every day to keep you up to date.'
'Is Amnon Plain's murder related directly to Alie'e?' Lester Moore asked.
'We don't know,' Rose Marie said. 'We have to treat it as though it is.'
Lucas jumped in. 'I was at Plain's apartment. Whoever killed him, planned it. There was nothing impulsive about it. The other murder had an ad hoc quality they feel different.'
'Two separate killers?' Tom Olson said.
'Possibly. They may be relatedthey may even have been done by the same personbut I personally think Plain was killed by another person.'
'When you say 'person,' are you being politically correct or are you not sure whether the killer was a male or female?' Lester Moore asked.
'I'm being politically correct,' Lucas said. 'We had a series of very cold, execution-style murders done by a woman, just this past summer. But that's very rare. I think the killer's male. He may even have been seen.'
'Well, I hope you find him,' the elder Olson said. He looked at his wife and son and said, 'Let's go get Alie'e.'
When the door closed, Lucas, Rose Marie, and Milton sat in silence for a few seconds, then Rose Marie asked, 'Did you see them on television?'
'No.'
'It's like people get media training somewhere,' Rose Marie said. 'In here, Mrs. Olson sits in her chair like a turtle on a rock, but when you see her on TV, she's the perfect mom. She's as good as most of the professionals you see on the news shows. Every hair in place, except the ones that shouldn't be. She's perfectly distraught. She personifies exactly what a distraught mothershould be like. And the kid'
'I wouldn't want to meethim in a dark alley if he was pissed at me,' Milton said. 'He's supposed to be some kind of holy guy, but he said, 'horseshit.' '
'Horses shit even around holy people,' Lucas said.
'Besides,' added Rose Marie, 'he was clinically correct. That was a load of horseshit. Lester Moore picked up on it, too. There were no secrets, because we don't have any.' She brooded about that for moment, then said, 'I think I've heard his name, Lester Moore. Maybe when I was up on the Hill?'
Milton shook his head. 'It's a famous name.'
'Really?' Rose Marie was curious.
'A guy named Lester Moore was killed in some place like Tombstone, or Dodge City, and was buried on Boot Hill. His epitapth said something like, 'Here lies Lester Moore, Two Shots From a. 44, No Les, No More.' '
'Really?'
'Really.'
Rose Marie said to Lucas, 'We've had some time, now. Now they're gonna start cooking us, the press is. When the funeral's over with, they're all gonna come back here, and we better have something besides horseshit.'
Lucas had three messages: one from Catrin that said, 'Please call before three,' one from Del, and a last one from Sherrill. He called Sherrill first. She answered the cell phone, then said, 'I'll call you back in fifteen seconds.' In fifteen seconds, his phone rang, and Sherrill said, 'I think you better come down here and talk with Jael.'
'Why?'
'Some kind of father-figure thing, I think, and all the scars you guys got,' she said, and she sounded serious. 'She wants to talkactually, I think she wants to confess something to you.'
'She'
'No, no, she didn't kill anyone,' Sherrill said.
'Then why doesn't she confess it to you? You got scars.'
'Because she's not interested in me. With you, she's thinking it over. Women would much rather confess to a guy they're thinking about sleeping with, because they thinkthat way, they might have some control over him.'
'Ah.'
'So when can you come down?'
'Pretty goddamn quick, but I've got a couple of calls to make. See you in twenty minutes.'
Lane stuck his head in as Lucas was hanging up. 'I'm heading out to Fargo.'
'Why?' Lucas punched in Del's number.
'Because I was looking at Tom Olson's alibi for the night Alie'e was killed. It's loose, and I need to talk to a guy out there. And I've got all the genealogical shit you could ever ask for.'
Del's phone started ringing, and Lucas asked, 'When will you be back?'
'Tonight, late, or midmorning tomorrow.'
Del said, 'Hello?' and Lucas lifted a hand to Lane. 'Take off.' Del asked, 'What?' and Lucas said, 'I was talking to Lane So what's happening with the deal, and the warrants?'
'The warrants on Bee and Logan are in the works. Manny Lanscolm is taking Outer's statement right now. We could move in an hour.'
'Call me,' Lucas said. 'Make sure that the warrants specify computer files and disks.'
He dialed Catrin's number. The phone rang twice, and Catrin picked it up.
'I'd like to talk again,' she said. Her voice was low, tight, anxious. 'I know you're busy with the Alie'e thing but could we meet in St. Paul, somewhere, tomorrow?'
'Sure, I guess.' He gave her the name of a restaurant near St. Anne's, told her how to find it. 'It's got those old-fashioned high plastic booths,' he said. 'We can talk.'
Jael. He was looking forward to seeing her again.
Sherrill met him at the door and said, 'She's back in her studio. As long as you're here, I'm gonna run out and get a cheeseburger.'
'All right.'
Jael Corbeau was sitting on a wooden stool, wearing a clay-spattered apron over jeans and a loose flannel shirt, the sleeves rolled over her elbows. She was turning a cream-colored juglet in her hands. She looked up when Lucas came in. Her eyes were rimmed in red, her nose red and a little swollen; she was still striking. 'This thing is three thousand years old,' she said. 'Look how nice it is.'
She handed him the juglet; it was the size of a hand grenade, with a soft, porous surface. 'Where'd you get it?'
'My mother gave it to me, because of my name. Amnon got one, too. They come from Israel, the north part of the country, the Galilee.'
'I don't know Israel.' He handed the juglet back. 'You wanted to talk?'
'Where's Marcy?'
'Since I was here, she went to get a bite,' Lucas said.
'Okay. So why don't we walk?' Jael said. 'I wouldn't mind getting out for a while. Did you bring your gun?'
The last question came with a small hint of humor in her eyes, and Lucas nodded. 'Not only that, but it's got a hair trigger.'
'Now I feel completely safe,' she said. But as they stepped outside, she said, 'Do you really think somebody might be trying to hurt me?'
'I don't know, but there's no point in taking a chance.'
'I'm not sure I'd be missed that much.'
'Maybe not, but if you were killed, the media would trash us. That's what we're trying to avoid.'
She smiled now. 'NowI feel safe. You've got a selfish motive for keeping me alive.'
'Damn right.'
They walked along for a while in the cold air, and then Jael asked, 'What's the thinking on Sandy Lansing?'
'Well, she's kind of a mystery,' Lucas said. 'She wasn't a hotel executive, and she had no family money, but she had great clothes, a nice apartment, drove a Porsche, and apparently snorted a massive amount of cocaine, which is not free of charge. We're trying to figure out where the money came from. We thought maybe it was sex, that she was taking care of rich people at Brown's, but that seems unlikely now.'
