بخش 05 - فصل 17

17 When he comes back into the kitchen, Holly is no longer

there, but he can hear her. Holly the Mumbler has turned into Holly the Revival Preacher, it seems. Certainly her voice has that special goodGod-a’mighty cadence, at least for the moment. “I’m with Mr. Hodges and his friend Jerome,” she’s saying. “They’re my friends, Momma. We had a nice lunch together. Now we’re seeing some of the

sights, and this evening we’re going to have a nice supper together. We’re talking about Janey. I can do that if I want.” Even in his confusion over their current situation and his continuing sadness about Janey, Hodges is cheered by the sound of Holly standing up to Aunt Charlotte. He can’t be sure it’s for the first time, but by the living God, it might be.

“Who called who?” he asks Jerome, nodding toward her voice. “Holly made the call, but it was my idea. She had her phone turned off so her mother couldn’t call her. She wouldn’t do it until I said her mother might call the cops.” “So what if I did,” Holly is saying now. “It was Olivia’s car and it’s not like I stole it. I’ll be

back tonight, Momma. Until then, leave me alone!” She comes back into the room looking flushed, defiant, years younger, and actually pretty. “You rock, Holly,” Jerome says, and holds his hand up for a high-five. She ignores this. Her eyes– still snapping–are fixed on Hodges. “If you call the police

and I get in trouble, I don’t care. But unless you already did, you shouldn’t. They can’t find him. We can. I know we can.” Hodges realizes that if catching Mr. Mercedes is more important to anyone on earth than it is to him, that person is Holly Gibney. Maybe for the first time in her life she’s doing something that matters. And

doing it with others who like and respect her. “I’m going to hold on to it a little longer. Mostly because the cops are otherwise occupied this afternoon. The funny part –or maybe I mean the ironic part–is that they think it has to do with me.” “What are you talking about?” Jerome asks.

Hodges glances at his watch and sees it’s twenty past two. They have been here long enough. “Let’s go back to my place. I can tell you on the way, and then we can kick this around one more time. If we don’t come up with anything, I’ll have to call my partner back. I’m not risking another horror show.”

Although the risk is already there, and he can see by their faces that Jerome and Holly know it as well as he does. “I went in that little study beside the living room to call my mother,” Holly says. “Mrs. Hartsfield’s got a laptop. If we’re going to your house, I want to bring it.” “Why?”

“I may be able to find out how to get into his computers. She might have written down the keyboard prompts or voiceac password.” “Holly, that doesn’t seem likely. Mentally ill guys like Brady go to great lengths to hide what they are from everyone.” “I know that,” Holly says. “Of course I do. Because I’m

mentally ill, and I try to hide it.” “Hey, Hol, come on.” Jerome tries to take her hand. She won’t let him. She takes her cigarettes from her pocket instead. “I am and I know I am. My mother knows, too, and she keeps an eye on me. She snoops on me. Because she wants to protect me. Mrs. Hartsfield will

have been the same. He was her son, after all.” “If the Linklatter woman at Discount Electronix was right,” Hodges says, “Mrs. Hartsfield would have been drunk on her ass a good deal of the time.” Holly replies, “She could have been a high-functioning drunk. Have you got a better idea?”

Hodges gives up. “Okay, take the laptop. What the hell.” “Not yet,” she says. “In five minutes. I want to smoke a cigarette. I’ll go out on the stoop.” She goes out. She sits down. She lights up. Through the screen door, Hodges calls: “When did you become so assertive, Holly?”

She doesn’t turn around to answer. “I guess when I saw pieces of my cousin burning in the street.”