فصل 05 - بخش 12

5

Later that day, Ralph visited Samuels in his office. The soon-to-be-retired DA had a bottle of Bushmills on his desk. He poured them each a knock, and raised his glass. ‘Now the hurly-burly’s done, now the battle’s lost and won. Mostly lost in my case, but what the fuck. Let’s drink to the hurly-burly.’

They did so.

‘You handled the questions well,’ Ralph said. ‘Especially considering the amount of bullshit you slung around.’

Samuels shrugged. ‘Bullshit is every good lawyer’s stock in trade. Terry’s not completely off the hook in this town and never will be, Marcy understands that, but people are coming around. Her friend Jamie Mattingly, for instance – Marcy called to tell me that she came over and apologized. They had a good cry together. It’s mostly the videotape of Terry in Cap City that turned the trick, but what I said about the prints and DNA will help a lot. Marcy’s going to try to stick it out here. I think she’ll succeed.’

‘About that DNA,’ Ralph said. ‘Ed Bogan in the Serology Department at General ran those samples. With his reputation at stake, he should be squawking his head off.’

Samuels smiled. ‘He should, shouldn’t he? Except the truth is even less palatable – another case of footprints that just stop, you could say. There was no exposure to UV light, but the samples began developing white spots of no known origin, and now they’re completely degraded. Bogan got in touch with State Police Forensics in Ohio, and guess what? Same thing with the Heath Holmes samples. A series of photos shows them basically disintegrating. A defense attorney would have a ball with that, wouldn’t he?’

‘And the witnesses?’

Bill Samuels laughed and poured himself another drink. He offered the bottle to Ralph, who shook his head – he was driving home.

‘They were the easy part. They’ve all decided they were wrong, with two exceptions – Arlene Stanhope and June Morris. They stand by their stories.’

Ralph was not surprised. Stanhope was the old lady who had seen the outsider approach Frank Peterson in the parking lot of Gerald’s Fine Groceries and drive away with him. June Morris was the child who had seen him in Figgis Park, with blood on his shirt. The very old and the very young always saw most clearly.

‘So now what?’

‘Now we finish our drinks and go our separate ways,’ Samuels said. ‘I just have one question.’

‘Shoot.’

‘Was he the only one? Or are there others?’

Ralph’s mind returned to the final confrontation in the cave, and to the greedy expression in the outsider’s eyes as he asked his question: Have you seen another one like me somewhere?

‘I don’t think so,’ he said, ‘but we’ll never be completely sure. There might be anything out there. I know that now.’

‘Jesus Christ, I hope not!’

Ralph made no reply. In his mind he heard Holly saying There’s no end to the universe.