“How?” Uhlig and Nevins asked in unison.
“My involvement came about because of an article in the
He stopped there, waiting for disagreement. None came.
“The letter prompts the article. The article prompts Graciela Rivers. Graciela Rivers prompts me. Like dominoes.”
A thought suddenly occurred to him. He remembered the man in the old foreign car watching from across the street the first time he visited the Sherman Market. He realized the car matched the one he had seen speeding from the marina lot the night he chased the intruder.
“I think Noone was watching me all along,” he said. “Watching his plan unfold. He knew when it was time to get into my boat and plant the evidence. He knew when to call you.”
He looked at Nevins, whose eyes shifted away and out the windshield.
“You got an anonymous call? What was said?”
“Actually, it was an anonymous message. Taken down by the overnight person. It just said, ‘Check the blood. McCaleb has their blood.’ That was it.”
“It fits. That was him. Just another move in the game.”
They were silent for a while. The windows were beginning to fog with the heat and their breath.
“Well, I don’t know how much of this we’ll ever confirm,” Nevins said. “Certainly a lot of maybes.”
McCaleb nodded. He doubted any of it would ever be confirmed because he doubted Noone would ever be identified or found.
“Okay, then,” Nevins continued. “I guess we’ll be in touch.”
He opened his door and the others followed. Before he got out, Uhlig reached over the seat and tapped McCaleb’s shoulder with a harmonica.
“It was on the floor back here,” he said.
As Arrango stepped out onto the asphalt, McCaleb lowered his window and looked up at him.
“You know, you could’ve busted it. It was all there in the book. It was waiting for you.”
“Fuck you, McCaleb.”
He walked away, following the two agents back toward Noone’s garage. McCaleb smiled slightly. He had to admit that in spite of everything he still wasn’t above the guilty pleasure of tweaking Arrango.
McCaleb sat in the car for a few more minutes before leaving. It was late, past ten o’clock, and he was wondering where to go. He had not talked to Graciela yet and he looked forward to the task with a mixture of dread and relief, the latter coming from knowing that one way or another their relationship would be clearly defined soon. The problem he had was that he wasn’t sure that he wanted to deliver his tidings at night. His news seemed better delivered during the unflinching light of day.
He put his hand on the ignition and took one last look up the drive toward the lighted garage where his life had been so brutally changed. He saw that the light cast from the garage and across the driveway was moving. He guessed that the overhead light had been disturbed somehow and was swinging. Something occurred to him then and he took his hand off the ignition.
McCaleb stepped out of the Taurus and without hesitation ducked under the yellow tape. The uniform officer in charge of entry to the crime scene said nothing. He had probably inferred-wrongly-that McCaleb was a detective, having watched three of the lead investigators walk down and sit in the car with him.
He walked to the periphery of the light and waited until he could catch Jaye Winston’s eye. She was standing with a clipboard and writing down descriptions of the warehouse’s contents. Every item in the place was being tagged and taken.
When Winston stepped out of the way of one of the technicians, she glanced out into the darkness and McCaleb caught her attention with a wave. She walked out of the garage and over to him. She had a cautious smile on her face.
“I thought you were clear. Why aren’t you gone?”
“I’m going. Just wanted to say thanks for everything. You gettin’ anything in there?”
She frowned and shook her head.
“You were right. Place is clean. Latents guys haven’t even found a smudge. There are prints on the computer but my guess is that they are yours. I don’t know how we’re going to track this guy. It’s like he was never here.”
He signaled her closer when he noticed Arrango step out of the garage and put a cigarette in his mouth.
“I think he made a mistake,” he said quietly. “Get your best latents man and go to the Star Center. Have him laser the light tubes in the ceiling of the interview room. When I was setting up the hypnosis session, I took down some lights and handed them to Noone. He had to take them from me or he might give himself away. There might be prints.”
Her face brightened and she smiled.
“It’s on the tape of the session,” he said. “You can tell them it was your find.”
“Thanks, Terry.”
She clapped him gently on the shoulder. He nodded and started walking back to the car. She called after him and he looked back.
“Are you all right?”
He nodded.
“I don’t know where you are going. But good luck.”
He waved and turned back toward his destination.
Once again she opened the door before he got there. This woman who cares so much as to watch and wait for me, he thought as he stepped to the door. Now I must crush her heart.
“Terry, where have you been? I’ve been so worried.”
She rushed from the door and embraced him. He felt his will weaken but not break. He pulled her around to his side and led her back in with his arm around her shoulder, holding her close for what might be the last time.
“Let’s go in,” he said. “I have things to tell you.”
“Are you all right?”
“For now.”
They went to the living room and he sat next to her on the sectional. He held both her hands in his.
“Raymond in bed?”
“Yes. What is it, Terry? What’s wrong?”
“It’s over. They haven’t caught him yet but they know who it is. Hopefully, they’ll get him soon. I’m in the clear.”
“Tell me.”
He squeezed her hands. He realized that his were sweating and let hers go. It felt as if he were letting loose a fallen bird that he had nursed back to health. He felt that he would never hold her hands again.
“Remember that night we talked about faith and how hard it is for me to have it?”
She nodded.
“Before I tell you everything, I want you to know that in the last few days-actually, in all the time that I’ve known you-I have felt something inside of me coming back. It’s a faith of some sort. Maybe a belief in something. I
