True Evil

Natchez Indians by French troops from New Orleans, in retaliation for a rebellion in the previous year-1729.

Chris shielded his eyes with the flat of his hand and studied the crest of the nearer mound. A small silhouette appeared against the sky. He wasn't sure that the shadow figure was Alex Morse, but he walked in that direction anyway. He scanned the village grounds as he walked, sighting half a dozen tourists near the Temple mound, all moving in groups of two.

He breathed harder as he climbed the mound, but it was nothing compared to Emerald Mound north of the city. There the Natchez had constructed an earthen analog of the Mayan structures in the Yucatan, though anthropologists believed that no direct connection existed.

'It's been twenty minutes,' said the silhouette above him.

When Chris reached the crest, he recognized Morse. She had exchanged her wet biking garb for khakis and a pale yellow top. He saw no sign of her gun. Maybe it was in the brown handbag that lay at her feet.

'What do you have to show me?'

'We're pretty exposed here,' Morse said. 'Can we move somewhere else?'

'Jesus. I guess so. St. Catherine's Creek runs through this site. There's a path under those trees over there that leads down to it.'

'Fine.'

She started in that direction without waiting for him. Chris shook his head in frustration, then followed.

Along the path, the trees changed from oak to elm and then to cottonwood. Thick stands of bamboo appeared on either side, and then they were walking on damp beige sand. The humid air smelled of dead fish. Only two years ago, Chris recalled, one of the most beautiful young girls in the city had been killed along this creek-not far away from here, in fact. Tom Cage's son had defended the prime suspect in the case-a Natchez internist, of all people-and only by exonerating the suspected physician had Penn Cage escaped the ill feeling that had attached to his client during the investigation. But escape he did, for less than two months later Penn had been voted into the mayor's office during a special election.

'How far away is this creek?' Morse asked, breathing hard and sweating harder.

'Fifty more yards.'

'Should we just stop here?'

'No. We're in mosquito heaven.'

The trees gave way to an empty sandbar, beyond which lay a wide, placid creek. The calm water was misleading. During thunderstorms, Chris had seen the creek reach a depth of twenty feet as it swept through town carrying massive tree trunks along like matchsticks. It had been that way on the day that poor girl was murdered-

'That's far enough,' said Morse, stopping in the middle of the sand. 'Put your game face on, Doctor.'

Chris clenched his fists at his sides.

She opened her purse and handed him a sheet of printer paper still damp with ink. It was a photograph of Thora standing face-to-face with Shane Lansing. Behind them was a seamless sheet of black granite that Chris recognized as the face of the fireplace in the great room of their new house in Avalon. Thora's face was highly animated-seemingly by anger, but he couldn't be sure-and she was gesturing with both hands. Lansing was listening with a submissive expression Chris had never seen on his face before. It was difficult to read what was being discussed, but the two of them were standing very close together-definitely in each other's space, though not quite at an intimate distance.

'Where did you get this?' Chris asked.

'You know where.'

'I mean how did you get it? And when?'

'I took that picture forty-five minutes ago. I printed it in my car on a portable Canon.'

Chris felt unsteady on his feet. Thora was wearing the same silk top and blue scarf she had worn to his office only minutes ago, and she had said nothing about talking to Shane Lansing. 'You sneaked into the house with them?'

'I shot it through a window. I was tired of you telling me I'm full of shit. That I have no proof of anything.'

Chris looked downstream at a fifty-foot bluff covered with thick, green kudzu. 'What do you think this picture proves?'

'That your wife is doing something besides giving Dr. Lansing the threepenny tour of your house. This is their third meeting this week.'

'Did you hear what they said?'

'I couldn't get close enough without her seeing me.'

Chris walked over to a large driftwood log and sat down heavily.

'Dr. Shepard?'

He didn't reply. He was thinking of last night, when he and Thora had made love on the couch in his studio. Of Thora's efforts to get pregnant…her surprise plans for his studio…'I know this looks bad,' he said in a monotone, holding up the picture. 'But it doesn't prove they're having an affair. Maybe Lansing is having problems at home. Maybe he's confiding in Thora about something.'

Morse opened her mouth in astonishment. 'You're acting like a wife, Chris. A long- suffering wife defending her cheating husband to her family and friends.'

'Goddamn it,' he said in a low voice, 'you don't know Thora.'

'Maybe you don't either.'

He looked up. 'You're saying she got it on with Shane Lansing, then drove straight to my office to give me a kiss?'

'You've got to wake up, Chris! Adulterers lie like that all the time. My fiance left my best friend's bed, then came straight to my apartment and had sex with me. He never even showered. But maybe that's just my life. Did Thora tell you she came to your office to give you a kiss?'

Chris looked away and dropped the photo on the sand. 'What else did she do today?'

'The usual. She ran, she showered, she swam at the country club. Then she drove to Mainstream Fitness for her weight lifting. She showered again there, then started walking to Planet Thailand.'

He nodded distantly.

'At the last minute, her cell phone rang. She took the call, then suddenly turned around and went back to her car. That's when she drove out to Avalon.'

Chris looked up sharply. 'Thora didn't eat at Planet Thailand?'

'No. What did she tell you?'

I ate with Laura Canning at Planet Thailand today…. No, I'm full of sushi….

'Chris?'

He couldn't look at Morse. An equivocal photo was one thing, an outright lie was another.

'She lied to you, didn't she?' Morse said. 'If you still have any doubts, check her cell phone bill. You can do it online. There'll be a call from Lansing at twelve twenty-eight p.m. today. You have the picture that proves she met him immediately afterward, and you know she lied to you about where she was during lunch. Once you put those things together-'

'I get it, okay!' Chris snapped, turning away. 'Just give me a minute here!'

Alex walked down to the water's edge, leaving Dr. Shepard to absorb the new reality at his own pace. It was the lie that did it, she thought with satisfaction. She could have talked until she went hoarse and Shepard might have remained in denial. He was even prepared to make excuses explaining the photograph. But now that didn't matter. Thora had damned herself with a single lie.

It hadn't even been a necessary lie, Alex reflected. But that was human nature, as her father had explained many times. When people got into the habit of lying, they came to depend on it as a means of sliding easily through life. Thora probably hadn't even considered the risk of that little fib. After all, she had planned to eat lunch at the Thai restaurant. And Chris would never check on something so small….