فصل 10 - بخش 06

10

She had barely returned to her room when her cell rang. UNKNOWN CALLER, the screen said. ‘Hello? You’ve reached Holly Gibney, to whom am I speaking?’

‘This is Ralph Anderson. Alec Pelley gave me your number, Ms Gibney, and told me what you’re doing. My first question is, do you know what you’re doing?’

‘Yes.’ Holly had many worries, and she was a very doubtful person even after years of therapy, but of this much she was sure.

‘Uh-huh, uh-huh, well, maybe you do and maybe you don’t, I have no way of telling, do I?’

‘No,’ Holly agreed. ‘At least not as of this moment.’

‘Alec said you told him Terry Maitland didn’t kill Frank Peterson. He said you seemed very sure of it. I’m curious as to how you can make a statement like that when you’re in Dayton and the Peterson murder happened here in Flint City.’

‘Because there was a similar crime here, at the same time Maitland was here. Not a boy killed, but two little girls. Same basic MO: rape and mutilation. The man the police arrested claimed to have been staying with his mother in a town thirty miles away, and she corroborated that, but he was also seen in Trotwood, the suburb where the little girls were abducted. There’s surveillance footage of him. Does this sound familiar?’

‘Familiar but not surprising. Most killers toss up some kind of alibi once they’re caught. You might not know that from your work collaring bail-jumpers, Ms Gibney – Alec told me what your firm mostly does – but surely you know it from TV.’

‘This man was an orderly at the Heisman Memory Unit, and although he was supposed to be on vacation, he was there at least once during the same week that Mr Maitland was there visiting his father. On the occasion of Mr Maitland’s last visit – April 26th, this would have been – these two supposed killers actually bumped into each other. And I mean that literally.’

‘Are you shitting me?’ Anderson nearly shouted.

‘I am not. This is what my old partner at Finders Keepers would have called an authentic no-shit situation. Is your interest piqued?’

‘Did Pelley tell you the orderly scraped Maitland when he fell down? Reached out and grabbed for him and nicked his arm?’

Holly was silent. She was thinking about the movie she had packed in her carry-on. She wasn’t in the habit of self-congratulation – just the opposite – but it now seemed like an act of intuitive genius. Only had she ever doubted there was something far out of the ordinary about the Maitland case? She had not. Mostly because of her association with the monstrous Brady Wilson Hartsfield. A thing like that tended to widen your perspective quite a bit.

‘And that wasn’t the only cut.’ He sounded like he was talking to himself. ‘There was another one. But down here. After Frank Peterson was murdered.’

Here was another missing piece.

‘Tell me, Detective. Tell me tell me tell me!’

‘I think … not over the phone. Can you fly down here? We should sit down and talk. You, me, Alec Pelley, Howie Gold, and a State Police detective who’s also been working the case. And maybe Marcy, Her, too.’

‘I think that’s a good idea, but I’ll have to discuss it with my client, Mr Pelley.’

‘Talk to Howie Gold instead. I’ll give you his number.’

‘Protocol—’

‘Howie employs Alec, so protocol isn’t an issue.’

Holly mulled this over. ‘Can you get in touch with the Dayton Police Department, and the Montgomery County district attorney? I can’t find out all I want to know about the murders of the Howard girls and about Heath Holmes – that’s the orderly’s name – but I think you could.’

‘Is this guy’s trial still pending? If it is, they probably won’t want to give out a whole lot of infor—’

‘Mr Holmes is dead.’ She paused. ‘Just like Terry Maitland.’

‘Jesus,’ he muttered. ‘How weird can this get?’

‘Weirder,’ she said. Another thing of which she had no doubt.

‘Weirder,’ he repeated. ‘Maggots in the cantaloupe.’

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘Nothing. Call Mr Gold, okay?’

‘I still think I had better call Mr Pelley first. Just to be sure.’

‘If you really think so. And Ms Gibney … I guess maybe you do know your business.’

That made her smile.