'All right. I understand that.'
Gittamon pressed the Play button. The cheap speaker filled with an audible hiss, then a male voice began in mid-sentence:
The Voice: --know you had nothing to do with this, but
that fucker's gotta pay for what he did.
Lucy: Please don't hurt him! Let him go!
The Voice: Shut up and listen! You listen! Cole killed them! I know what happened and you don't, so LISTEN!
Gittamon stopped the tape.
'Is this the man who called you last night?'
'Yes, that's him.'
Everyone in the room watched me, but Richard and Lucy most of all. Richard was slumped back in his chair with his arms crossed, looking sullen, but Lucy was leaning forward, poised at the edge of the table like a swimmer preparing to race. I had never seen her looking at me that way.
Gittamon noted my answer in his pad.
'All right. Now that you're hearing the voice a second time, does anything about it ring a bell? Do you recognize him?'
'No, nothing. I don't know who it is.'
Lucy said, 'Are you sure?'
The sinews and tendons stood taut on her hands and her breath labored as if she was holding an enormous weight.
'I don't know him, Luce.' Gittamon touched the button again. 'All right, then. We'll go on.'
When he pressed the button, their voices overlapped, each shouting to be heard over the other.
Lucy: Please, I'm begging you- The Voice: I was there, lady, I know! They slaughtered
twenty-six people- Lucy: Ben is a child! He never hurt anyone! Please!
The Voice: They were in the bush, off on their own, so they figured, what the fuck, no one will know if we don't tell them, so they swore each other to secrecy, but Cole didn't trust them- Lucy: --tell me what you want! P]ease, just let my son
go- The Voice:--Abbott, Rodriguez, the others---he murdered them to get rid of the witnesses! He fired up his own team! Lucy: He's a baby--!
The Voice:--sorry it had to be your son, but Cole's
gonna pay. This is his fault.
The message stopped.
The tape recorder hissed quietly for several seconds, then Gittamon rewound the tape. Someone shifted
IO4
o5
behind me, either Starkey or Myers, then Gittamon cleared his throat.
I said, 'Jeez. If he knows all that, I must've let one get away.'
The skin under Lucy's eye flickered.
'How can you joke?'
'I'm joking because it's so absurd. What do you want me to say to something like this? None of that happened. He's makihg it up.'
Richard tapped the table.
'How do we know what happened over there or what you did?'
Lucy snapped an irritated glance at him. She started to say something but didn't.
Gittamon said, 'We're not here to make accusations, Mr. Chenier.'
'This asshole on the tape is making the accusations, not me, and to tell you the truth I don't give a rat's ass what Cole did over there. What I care about is Ben, and that this sonofabitch--'
He jabbed at the tape recorder.
'--hates C01e so much that he's taking it out on my son.'
Lucy said, 'Just calm down, Richard. You're making it worse.'
Richard squared himself as if he was worn out and tired of talking about it.
'How totally blind about Cole can you be, Lucille?
You don't know anything about him.'
'I know that I believe him.'
