Страница 19 из 89
Her body went into spasms and she emitted a low and frantic moan, over and over. Dwayne knew she had discovered the dead body next to her.
He rolled her so she was again lying on her back, still moaning. She was terrified to look over at Dwayne’s dead father now, and kept her wide, wide eyes fixed on the ceiling. She began kicking with both legs together, so he wrapped the sheet tightly around them so she could kick in only a limited way.
Dwayne stood over Maude, knowing she was helpless. The knife was still jutting from his father’s chest.
Dwayne removed the knife. It slid out easier than it had gone in. He held it where Maude had to look at it. She screamed into the knotted tie, one of his father’s favorites. Dwayne was sure no one could hear her outside the room, much less outside the house. Smiling down at her, he laid the knife gently across her exposed throat. Her horrified eyes were fixed on him. She couldn’t look away. Beneath the horror, she was pleading.
Dwayne couldn’t get out of mind how easily his father had died. Had passed on, or over. Or descended into hell.
Maude was going to have to suffer for both of them. For what they did. For who they were. For who and what he had become.
At the end, the final moment of her life, the begi
Leaving the knife where it was, feeling her frantic gaze follow him, he crossed to the bureau and picked up the pack of cigarettes lying next to his father’s wallet and keys. There was an expensive gold lighter there, too.
He walked back to the bed and lit a cigarette, though he didn’t smoke.
They both knew he didn’t smoke.
He watched her watch the cigarette as he moved closer.
18
Qui
“Renz has decided to go large with the media,” she said.
Qui
Helen smiled and said, “Pearl will kill you, if that cigar doesn’t.”
“How would she know?” Qui
Helen continued to smile.
He put the cigar back. “I’m assuming Renz instructed you to tell me about the going-public-with-all-guns plan.”
“Yeah. He’s curious as to your reaction.”
“Actually, I agree with him. It’s all going to leak out anyway. At least this way, all the cards will be on the table.”
“Per Renz’s instructions, I’ve made myself available to be interviewed, instead of him, on the Mi
“Was Mi
“About like a cat getting declawed.”
Qui
“Mi
“Not a good idea,” Qui
“So, not all the cards will be on the table.”
“Maybe a few up my sleeve.”
Helen crossed her arms. She already had her long legs crossed. She seemed to be settling in with more to say. “Wa
“You’re going to ask for my cigar,” Qui
“Not hardly.”
“Okay. Think about what?”
“Lots of things, all pertinent.”
Qui
“Our killer, whether he’s the original D.O.A. or not, is going to take another victim soon.”
Qui
“The mass murder—six women, for God’s sake—was a mistake. Even if the killer might see it as a stroke of good fortune. When he entered Andria Bell’s room, he had no idea the co
“Could have been that way,” Helen said.
“Okay. When he’d finished making Andria helpless, he herded the women into the adjoining suite and threatened one so that she helped tie and gag the others. He bound and gagged the remaining one—his terrified helper—then he had his idea of fun.”
“Not for long, though,” Qui
“It was Andria the killer wanted to get busy with,” Helen said. “Andria was the one who had information he wanted. The Richard Speck act with the other five was done partly out of necessity and enjoyment, and partly because the killer wanted to make a splash in the news. Wanted to be somebody right away.”
“He got that,” Qui
“He never will get as much as he wants. The point is, whether he would have killed five, ten, or fifteen women in that hotel suite, the effect on whatever drives him will be the same as if he killed only one.”
“Think so?” Qui
Helen nodded. “Obsessions compel action on a mental timetable, not a body count.”
Qui
Helen said, “He’s whetted his appetite, and in a big way.”
“You go
“Yes. We’ll see what she has to say.”
“Won’t she be the one asking the questions?”
“She’ll think so.”
Qui
Helen smiled. “Soon as I get outta here, you can fire up that cigar.”
But Qui
Qui
The whole damned family was like that.
For a moment it u
19
Jeanine Carson’s date, Thomas Gu
He saw her, smiled, and her doubts disappeared in a part of her mind where she didn’t want to go.
Limping slightly, he came toward her on the sidewalk, where she was waiting just outside her apartment building. “I didn’t think you’d come down and meet me,” he said. His smile caused a long but faint scar on the side of his face to crinkle. Somehow sexy. He seemed pleased that she was displaying such eagerness. Flattered. “I brought this for you.” He drew from beneath the folded raincoat a bottle of red wine. “It’s Australian, and it’s great. A friend tipped me off about it.”
“Does it go with Vietnamese food?”
“Sure. It goes with anything. If you’re thinking about that Vietnamese restaurant two blocks down, then we’re thinking in the same cha
“So happens I am,” she said, telling herself that this might be an omen, the way their minds were synchronized. Feeling better about Thomas Gu