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My first reaction was to blame myself. But how could I have known, or even guessed? Eddie Quinlan. Nobody, loser, shadow-man without substance or purpose. How could anyone have figured him for a thing like that?
Somebody I can talk to, somebody who'll understand—that's all I want.
No. What he'd wanted was somebody to help him justify to himself what he was about to do. Somebody to record his verbal suicide note. Somebody he could trust to pass it on afterward, tell it right and true to the world.
You want to do something, you know? You want to try to fix it somehow, put out the fires. There has to be a way.
Nine dead, five wounded, one of the wounded in critical condition and not expected to live. Not that way.
Souls burning. All day long, all night long, souls on fire.
The soul that had burned tonight was Eddie Quinlan's.
There is a tale behind this tale. It was nominated for an Edgar for best short story of 1978 by the Mystery Writers of America, and didn't win for one major reason: I didn't vote for it. It so happened that in 1979 I was chairman of the five-person MWA committee whose task it was to select five nominees and a wi
Strangers in the Fog
Ha
Startled, Ha
Ha
The man stood staring down at the roll of canvas near Ha
"I happen to live here." Ha
"Private graveyard, too?"
"My dog died earlier this evening. I didn't want to leave him lying around the house."
"Must have been a pretty big dog."
"He was a Great Dane," Ha
The man came forward a few steps, warily. Ha
"You got a telephone I can use?"
"That would depend on why you need to use it."
"I could give you a story about my car breaking down," the big man said, "but then you'd just wonder what I'm doing down here instead of up on the Coast Highway."
"I'm wondering that anyway."
"It's safe down here, the way I figured it."
"I don't follow," Ha
"Don't you listen to your radio or TV?"
"Not if I can avoid it."
"So you don't know about the lunatic who escaped from the state asylum at Tescadero."
The back of Ha
"Happened late this afternoon," the big man said. "He killed an attendant at the hospital—stabbed him with a kitchen knife. He was in there for the same kind of thing. Killed three people with a kitchen knife."
Ha
The big man said, "They think he may have headed north, because he came from a town up near the Oregon border. But they're not sure. He may have come south instead—and Tescadero is only twelve miles from here."
Ha
"I came up from San Francisco with a girl for the weekend," the big man said. "Her husband was supposed to be in Los Angeles, on business, only I guess he decided to come home early. When he found her gone he must have figured she'd come up to this summer place they've got and so he drove up without calling first. We had just enough warning for her to throw me out."
"You let this woman throw you out?"
"That's right. Her husband is worth a million or so, and he's generous. You understand?"
"Maybe," Ha
"That's my business."
"Then how do I know you're telling me the truth?"
"Why wouldn't I be?"
"You might have reasons for lying."
"Like if I was the escaped lunatic, maybe?"
"Like that."
"If I was, would I have told you about him?"
Again Ha
"For all I know," the big man said, "you could be the lunatic. Hell, you're out here digging a grave in the middle of the night—"
"I told you, my dog died. Besides, would a lunatic dig a grave for somebody he killed? Did he dig one for that attendant you said he stabbed?"
"Okay, neither one of us is the lunatic." The big man paused and ran his hands along the side of his coat. "Look, I've had enough of this damned fog; it's starting to get to me. Can I use your phone or not?"
"Just who is it you want to call?"
"Friend of mine in San Francisco who owes me a favor. He'll drive up and get me. That is, if you wouldn't mind my hanging around your place until he shows up."
Ha
The big man nodded and stood without moving. Ha
When he was finished he picked up the lantern, then gestured with the shovel, and the big man came around the grave. They went up along the edge of the creek, Ha
"You have a name?" Ha
"Doesn't everybody?"