Текст книги "The Chill of Night"

Автор книги: James Hayman

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Текущая страница: 19 (всего у книги 23 страниц)

Thirty-Four

Portland, Maine

At exactly 8:30 A.M. Sunday, McCabe dropped Maggie’s keys off with Kyra. Half an hour later he strode into 109. In spite of the fact that he’d had about six hours’ sleep in the last forty-eight, he felt good. Better than good. Thanks to the adrenaline rush of uncovering Lainie Goff’s killer, combined with four large cups of coffee, he felt locked and loaded. Primed for confrontation. Ready to rock and roll. Coffee number five was warming his hand. Tanzanian Peaberry Fair Trade Dark Roast from the Coffee by Design on India Street.

A handwritten note from Shockley greeted him at his desk. Come see me ASAP. I’m in my office. P.S. Congratulations!!!

McCabe headed down the hall for the chief’s office on the southeast corner of the floor. He could hear the reporters buzzing from fifty feet away. He spotted Shockley standing at the door, jacket off, tie loosened, arms folded, sleeves rolled up. A textbook image of the hard-charging leader who’d been up all night leading his troops in the apprehension of a vicious killer.

At the moment the GO had the ear of Luke McGuire of the Press Herald. The rest of the sizable room was crammed with just about every other crime reporter in the state plus a few stringers from the Boston and New York papers. McCabe scanned the room and found Shockley’s girlfriend, Josie Tenant. She was in the corner writing some notes, no doubt preparing to broadcast good news to the world as soon as Shockley gave the go sign. Cameras were pointed toward Shockley’s desk, awaiting the chief’s reassuring message to an anxious and waiting city.

‘Mike! Come on in.’ The chief leapt up, grabbed his elbow, and steered him through the throng to his desk. He smiled expansively. ‘Thought I’d make the announcement from right here in my office. Kind of give the viewers an inside look at the department. What d’ya think? Nice touch, huh?’

It wasn’t exactly the way it was supposed to be done. That’s what the pressroom on the ground floor was for. McCabe knew Shockley didn’t care. He probably figured announcing Kelly’s arrest from his office, perhaps sitting casually on the corner of his desk, would let the public know that they could credit him personally with catching the bad guy.

McCabe didn’t care about that either. With Kelly in custody and Quinn safely in Winter Haven, today was a good day, and Shockley’s bullshit couldn’t screw it up. After all the darkness, the sun was finally beginning to shine. They’d caught Lainie Goff’s killer less than sixty hours after finding her body at the end of the Fish Pier. Maggie was okay and getting out of the hospital. Casey was coming home. And, best of all, so was Kyra. They’d have a good dinner. They’d make love. Maybe he’d get a little sleep – and he wouldn’t have any ugly dreams about his ex-wife.

‘Sure, Chief, that’s great. You enjoy yourself. Just do me a favor. Let me see what I can get out of Kelly before you make any major announcements.’

‘Hold on, McCabe,’ Shockley said in a lower, more private voice. ‘We need a conviction on this.’ The smile was gone. ‘Are you telling me you’re not sure you’ve got enough?’

‘Just let me interview him.’

‘What more do you need?’

‘A confession would help. We’re also waiting on DNA results from Augusta. Joe Pines promised the matches for this morning. The last thing you need is to make a big announcement and then have to take it back.’

‘Alright.’ Shockley sighed. ‘For now, I’ll just say we’re talking to “a person of interest.” That’ll hold ’em for a while. Just do me a favor. Don’t wait too long.’

McCabe headed out into the corridor. ‘Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.’ He could hear Shockley’s voice behind him, the man’s trademark smile in the delivery. ‘This morning, as you may have guessed, I’ve got some very good news . . .’

On the monitor in Fortier’s office, McCabe watched Kelly sitting alone in the small interview room. He didn’t look happy. ‘Did you have to cuff him?’

‘Yeah. I think he might have gotten violent if I didn’t,’ said Brian Cleary, ‘and then I would have had to get violent back.’ Cleary grinned. ‘And I know how you hate that.’

‘He say anything?’

‘Not yet,’ said Eddie Fraser. ‘Other than to tell us several times we were assholes. He’s just sitting there seething.’

‘Ask for a lawyer?’

‘Again, not yet.’

Even on the monitor, McCabe could feel anger radiating off the man in waves. He stared at the image, trying to square Kelly’s hot temper with the cool, methodical MO of Lainie Goff’s murderer. He was sure Kelly was capable of killing Goff. He was just surprised at the way he went about it. The whole scene at the Fish Pier didn’t feel right. It was too showy. On the other hand, maybe he was reading the guy wrong. The minute anyone starts thinking . . . Wolfe’s words played in his head again. Maybe that was it. Maybe he’d better think again.

Before entering the room, McCabe unbuckled his holster and weapon and handed them to Fraser. He’d decided to remove Kelly’s cuffs, and he knew Kyra would be really pissed if he let a prisoner shoot him with his own gun. Probably never agree to marry him.

‘Hello, John,’ McCabe said in a cheerful voice. ‘Sorry about the restraints.’

Kelly looked up. His blue, nearly violet eyes bore into McCabe for a few seconds. Then he turned away.

‘I can remove the cuffs if you like.’

No response.

‘You’ve just got to promise you’re not going to get crazy on me or anything.’

Kelly looked down. Closed his eyes. Took some deep breaths. McCabe could see his jaw muscles working as if he were clenching his teeth. Finally he looked up. ‘Okay.’

‘Okay what?’

‘Unlock the cuffs. I won’t beat you up.’

McCabe smiled. ‘Good. My girlfriend will be glad to hear that.’

He went behind Kelly’s chair and freed his arms. Then he walked around to the other side of the table and sat.

Kelly stretched his arms, rubbed his wrists, then clasped his hands on the table like a student in Catholic school waiting for the teacher. Neither of them said anything. They just sat there looking at each other for a while.

McCabe spoke first. ‘We searched your cabin.’

‘Yes. I know. I gave you permission. Remember?’ There was still an edge in his voice.

‘We found the quote.’

‘Good for you.’

‘The one from the Book of Amos. It was in the paper you wrote. The one from grad school.’

Kelly shrugged. ‘Okay.’

‘Oh, by the way. We also found the boy.’

He saw a flicker of doubt in Kelly’s eyes. Then it disappeared. ‘What boy?’

‘The one outside your cabin.’

‘I don’t know who or what you’re talking about.’

‘He was only about fourteen or so, wasn’t he?’

‘I still don’t know what you’re talking about.’

‘The boy you sexually abused? Then killed. Then buried in the snow. At your place? On Harts Island. You did a hell of a job, John. What did you stick up his rear end? The same knife you used to kill Goff?’

Kelly stared at him with a puzzled expression. He looked like he was trying to figure something out. McCabe guessed it was probably how he was gonna get himself out of this one.

‘Why did you have to kill him, John? Was it because he told Goff what you were doing? So you had to get rid of both of them? Because they both knew? Is that what it was?’

Kelly remained silent.

‘When was it you brought him out there? To your cabin, I mean?’

Kelly looked up. ‘I haven’t been to Harts Island in months.’

‘Where were you about one o’clock this morning?’

‘I told your buddies. I was home. Asleep.’

‘In your apartment?’

‘Yes.’

‘With your partner?’

‘Yes.’

‘How do you know Leanna Barnes?’

‘I don’t know any Leanna Barnes.’

‘That’s funny. I’ve got a couple of witnesses who say they saw you at her apartment around one this morning.’ Not exactly true, but not exactly untrue if you counted Barnes saying the word ‘Ellie’ and Maggie seeing a man in glasses with heavy black frames.

‘They’re wrong.’

‘They swear it was you.’

‘I told you. They’re wrong. I don’t know any Leanna Barnes. I don’t know where her apartment is.’

‘They say you shot her.’

‘They’re even more wrong. I never shot anybody in my life.’

‘You’ve hit people.’

‘Yeah. With my fists, and usually when they deserved it. I’ve never even fired a gun. I wouldn’t know how to hold one.’

McCabe looked at Kelly and decided to try a different tack. ‘The good thing, John, is it looks like Barnes is going to be okay. Be able to testify in court. So you’ll only be up on two counts of murder, not three,’ he said carefully, watching Kelly’s eyes for a reaction. He didn’t see one. ‘Amazing the gun didn’t do more damage.’

‘I’m glad to hear that.’

‘Yeah. She’ll be right as rain in no time. Be able to tell the jury how it was you who shot her.’

‘You’re lying.’

‘You mean you thought Leanna was dead? Is that what I’m lying about?’

‘I don’t know any Leanna. I’ve never been to her apartment, and what you’re lying about is the whole thing.’

‘Yeah? You’re saying maybe the witnesses got it wrong?’

‘I’m saying you’re lying.’

Kelly’s hands were clenched tightly together, the knuckles white. He was barely holding it together. He was talking, though. At least for the moment.

‘You know your place on the island?’

Kelly didn’t answer. Just looked at him.

‘Was the boy we found the first one you killed out there? Or were there others? You ever bring any other boys out there? You know, for a little fun and games? You must have known a lot of little lost boys, didn’t you, John? Just like Peter Pan. Runaways who wouldn’t be missed. No matter what you did to them. Is that why you started Sanctuary House? So you’d have your own little magnet to draw them right in. As many as you wanted. Whenever you wanted. A real treasure trove, wasn’t it? And if they disappeared or turned up dead, hey, who was going to miss them? They were runaways. Nobody at home waiting up or worrying about kids like them, was there, John? Except of course for you. Come in, come in, said the spider to the fly.’

Kelly hung his head and clenched his teeth. Then he looked up. He spoke quietly and slowly. ‘I have devoted my entire life to protecting kids. To helping them. Not to abusing them. Or killing them. That is the covenant I made with God. That is the covenant I have honored. And God knows, even if you don’t, that is the simple truth.’

‘Really? When was the last time you were out there on Harts Island?’

‘I already told you.’

‘Oh yeah? I don’t remember. Tell me again.’

‘I don’t use the place in winter. I haven’t been there since, I don’t know . . . I think Teddy and I went out the weekend before Thanksgiving.’

‘You sure you haven’t been out there more recently? Say in December? After it started getting cold and the ground froze too hard to dig.’

McCabe slipped two of the crime scene photos of the boy, lying in the snow dead and frozen, across the table. ‘Like maybe for a little recreational outing?’

‘Oh, sweet Jesus.’ Kelly stared at the pictures, one in each hand, looking first at one, then the other.

‘You do know this boy, don’t you, John?’ McCabe dropped the teasing tone. His voice was hard now. Threatening. ‘Well, don’t you?’

No answer.

‘Answer the question, goddammit, Kelly. You do know this boy, don’t you?’

‘Yes.’

‘And how exactly is it that you know him?’ McCabe was standing now. He spat the words out, leaning in across the table, his face inches from Kelly’s.

Kelly looked up. His face was pale. He spoke softly. ‘He lived at Sanctuary House.’

‘Really? Well, then, I guess you must know his name.’

‘Callie Connor.’

‘Callie?’

‘Short for Calvin.’

‘You last saw Calvin when?’

‘I don’t know. Sometime before Christmas.’

‘Is that when you took him to the island? For . . . what was that phrase again? A recreational outing?’

‘No.’

‘Maybe one that included a little fucking?’

‘No.’

‘And stabbing?’

‘No.’

‘And burying his naked body in the snow? With his ass all cut up and bruised from what you did to him?’

‘No!’ Kelly screamed. ‘No! No! No! No!’

When Kelly stopped, he looked at the pictures again, eyes blinking, tears forming.

‘And maybe Lainie Goff found out about it? Didn’t she? So you had to kill her, too? Isn’t that what happened? Isn’t that what you did?’

Kelly looked up, silent.

‘Goddammit, answer me!’ McCabe shouted, slamming his open palm down on the table so hard the empty file flew up.

Kelly didn’t answer.

McCabe sat back down, and his voice dropped from a shout to just above a whisper. ‘Isn’t that what really happened, John? You killed this boy. You killed him because you were abusing him, and he told Lainie about it, and she called you and threatened you. She wasn’t about to let you get away with it, was she, John? So you had to kill her, too. To keep her from telling people. Isn’t that right, Father Jack? To keep her from telling people like me? Isn’t that what really happened?’

‘I’ve never killed anyone.’

‘You know what I still don’t get? What I still don’t get is why you left Lainie’s body out there on the Fish Pier with that note stuffed in her mouth. Amos. Chapter nine. Verse ten. Right where you knew we’d find it and connect it to you. You remember the words, don’t you, John? All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us. Did you do that because you knew Lainie wasn’t someone who could just disappear like Calvin Connor did? People would miss her. People would look for her. Powerful people with powerful connections. So you stuck her out there and tried to make it look like some religious whacko did her in?’

Kelly folded his arms on the table and dropped his head on them.

‘Might have worked, too, Jack, except you made one mistake. You didn’t destroy that book in your bookcase at Sanctuary House. The one on Old Testament prophets. You didn’t destroy your old college paper either. I don’t know why that was. Was it because you thought the guys in blue suits – isn’t that what you called us, Jack? The guys in blue suits? Was it because you thought we just wouldn’t be smart enough to put two and two together?’

‘I never killed anyone,’ Kelly said, his voice muffled by his arms.

‘Or maybe, Jack’ – McCabe leaned in again, his face just inches from Kelly’s – ‘maybe you left her there with the note in her mouth and the book still on your shelf so we would find you and put a stop to the evil things you were doing. To put an end to your guilt? Is that what it was, Jack? Is that what you wanted? All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword. All the sinners, Jack. Including you. Except we don’t have the death penalty here in Maine. So you’ll either have to live with your guilt – or confess it.’

McCabe lowered his voice so that it was barely more than a whisper. ‘Is that what you want, Jack? To put an end to your guilt? If it is, we can help you with that. All you’ve got to do is confess your sins. Tell us what you did to Calvin Connor. Tell us what you did to Lainie Goff. Come on, do it, Jack. You know what comes next. First there’s confession. Then there’s absolution. Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. Come on, Jack, say it. Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. Then tell me how you killed Callie Connor and then, when she found out, how you killed Lainie Goff.’

‘Fuck you, you stupid bastard,’ Kelly screamed. ‘I never killed anyone!’

After that McCabe sat back in his chair. He didn’t say anything for a minute.

‘Well, if you didn’t kill them, who did?’

‘What?’

‘Somebody must have killed them.’

‘Yes. Somebody else.’

‘Oh, really? Well, then, if that’s the case, maybe you’d be good enough to explain how it happened we found this on your phone?’ He raised his left hand in a silent signal to Cleary in Fortier’s office.

Lainie Goff’s voice filled the small room. ‘I know what you’ve been doing, you asshole, and you’re not going to get away with it. We need to talk.’

‘You found that? On my phone?’

‘Yes.’

‘Which phone?’

‘On Harts Island. In your cabin. What do you think about that?’

Kelly shook his head and shrugged his shoulders more or less at the same time. ‘What I think is, I think I need to call a lawyer.’

‘Well, that’s your privilege, Jack. There’s only one small problem I can see.’

‘What?’

‘You told me your lawyer was Lainie Goff, and I’m sorry, Jack, but I don’t think she’s taking any calls at the moment.’

Thirty-Five

‘Nice job, McCabe. You did good.’ Maggie was standing with the aid of a cane and leaning against the wall behind Cleary and Fraser in Bill Fortier’s office. The monitor was still turned on, showing an empty interview room.

‘Not so good. I didn’t get a confession. And you know what else?’

‘What?’

‘I walked out of there with this crappy feeling that he may not be our guy.’

‘You’ve gotta be kidding,’ said Fraser. ‘We’ve got evidence up the wazoo.’

‘Yeah, we do,’ said McCabe. ‘Most of it circumstantial.’

‘McCabe,’ said Maggie, ‘I saw the sonofabitch with my own eyes. He fired a gun at me.’

‘What you said, and I quote, was “It was dark. He had his hood up. All I saw was his glasses. Black frames.”’

‘That’s right. Glasses. Black frames. Just like he’s wearing now.’

‘Lots of people wear glasses with black frames.’

‘Maybe so, but most of those people don’t have quotes from the Book of Amos sitting in a box in their island hideaways. Or a murdered boy buried in the snow in their backyards. Or incriminating phone messages. McCabe, what the hell more do you want?’

‘I don’t know. For starters, I guess I want to see the DNA results, which we don’t have yet.’

‘We’ll have reads on the semen stains any minute now,’ said Eddie Fraser. ‘Tasco told Joe Pines to make them top priority.’

‘What are you doing here, anyway?’ McCabe asked Maggie. ‘Why aren’t you still in the hospital?’

‘Well, you see, Sergeant McCabe, nobody’s ever shot me before. So let’s just say I bullied my doc into letting me go. Like I told him, this time it’s personal.’

‘This time it’s personal?’ McCabe smiled. ‘You said that?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Great line. Advertising theme for Jaws: The Revenge. Also known as Jaws 4. It was the best single thing about one of the worst movies ever made. I was at NYU when it came out – 1987.’

Maggie sighed. ‘Listen, McCabe, at the moment, I’ve got a sore ass and a short temper, and I’m in no mood for Trivial Pursuit.’

‘Sorry.’

‘Why don’t you think he did it?’

‘I didn’t say I didn’t think he did it. I said I had a feeling. I wasn’t sure.’

Cleary cocked his head. ‘Y’know, boss, that ain’t the song you were singing when you told us to bring him in.’

‘I know.’

‘You know, McCabe, the GO’s in there right now,’ said Maggie, ‘just itching to tell the world about Kelly’s arrest. Personally, having just listened to your little tête-à-tête with Kelly, I think he should.’

‘I don’t think so.’

‘Okay, what’s your problem? Why, suddenly, aren’t you sure?’ Maggie winced as she spoke. ‘Sorry. This sucker hurts.’ She flipped open a prescription bottle of pills and dry-swallowed one. ‘Percocet. I’m popping them like M&Ms.’

‘Should you even be walking around?’

‘Yeah, the doc said it was good for me.’ She shifted position to relieve pressure on her right leg. ‘Anyway, you were going to expound on your theory of Kelly’s possible innocence.’

McCabe moved behind Bill Fortier’s desk and sat. ‘A couple of things bother me about Kelly being the bad guy. Obviously, the MO’s one of them. The whole scene at the Fish Pier was pure show biz. It was too cute by half. It still doesn’t seem to be the kind of thing Kelly would do.’

‘You explained it pretty well in the interview room. Convinced me. Besides, people sometimes act out of character.’

‘Yes, they do,’ McCabe admitted, ‘and maybe that’s what’s going on here.’

‘You said there were two reasons. What’s the other?’

‘The phone message. There was something we left off when we let Kelly listen to it in there just now. Something I didn’t think about till that very minute.’

‘What?’

‘According to the Verizon computer voice, the call was received on Tuesday, December twentieth, at 6:44 P.M. The whole message says, “I know what you’ve been doing, you asshole, and you’re not going to get away with it. We need to talk. And don’t try ignoring me. I’ll try your other line.”’

‘Yeah, so?’

‘“I’ll try your other line”? That means she called the island number first. Why? Kelly says he hardly ever uses the place in winter.’

‘Maybe Lainie didn’t know that. Or maybe he told her he would be there that particular day,’ said Maggie.

‘Maybe, but why would he be? It was a Tuesday, and on Tuesday nights Kelly’s usually working at Sanctuary House. I think Lainie would have known that and called him there first. Or called his cell phone. The island phone should have been the last place she called, not the first.’

‘It should be easy to check if he was at Sanctuary House that Tuesday,’ said Fraser. ‘Also easy to check his cell messages.’

‘I agree. Let’s do it. However, I’ve also got a small problem with the rest of the message. The first time we listened to her say, “I know what you’ve been doing, you asshole, and you’re not going to get away with it,” we were at Kelly’s cottage. Ten minutes later we find the boy’s frozen and sexually assaulted body on the edge of the property. It was only natural to assume that abusing Callie Connor was what Lainie meant by “I know what you’ve been doing.”’

‘It was – and it is. We were right. It fits,’ said Maggie.

‘Why? Because Kelly’s gay?’

‘No. Not just that. You told me Kelly was abused himself when he was a kid. We both know most adult abusers were abused themselves as children. Besides, whether it was the first number she called or the last, the simple fact is that Lainie’s message was on Kelly’s phone.’

‘Yeah, but you know what suddenly struck me while we were playing it for him?’

‘No, but I have a feeling you’re going to tell me.’

‘It struck me that maybe it wasn’t Lainie who left it there.’

‘What do you mean? We know it was Lainie. It’s her voice.’

‘Yes, it’s her voice – but what if she originally left the message on somebody else’s voice mail or message machine and not on Kelly’s? Now let’s suppose that person – whoever he was – decided to kill Goff to keep her from revealing what she knew. Let’s further suppose that that person – whoever he was – decided to frame Kelly for Goff’s murder. Wouldn’t it be a good idea for that person to re-record Lainie’s original message onto Kelly’s island voice mail? Easy enough to do. Especially since she never called him by name. Just called him “you asshole.” Re-recording it onto the island phone instead of his cell or Sanctuary House phone is a brilliant move because Kelly never uses the place this time of year and almost certainly won’t check or erase the message before we hear it.’

Maggie nodded thoughtfully. ‘Interesting. He re-records the message where he knows we’re bound to search,’ said Maggie, ‘where he knows we’ll find the quote from Amos and where he knows we’ll find the boy’s body.’

‘Sounds like you’re agreeing with McCabe,’ Fraser said to Maggie, ‘that Kelly’s not the killer.’

‘Well, I’m agreeing with McCabe that he might not be the killer. I’m not totally convinced yet one way or the other.’

McCabe got up and moved to the window. He stood looking out, watching the light Sunday morning traffic flow by on Franklin Arterial.

‘What’s that twisted brain of yours thinking about now?’ asked Maggie.

‘I was just wondering exactly what Lainie was referring to when she said “I know what you’ve been doing.”’

Maggie shrugged. ‘Presumably to the fact that Kelly – or possibly the real killer – was sexually abusing Callie Connor.’

McCabe turned and looked at her. ‘How would Lainie have known about that?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Maggie.

‘Kelly wouldn’t have told her if it was him. Neither would some other so-called real killer. So who did?’

‘Connor lived at Sanctuary House. Lainie worked with the kids there. Maybe he told her himself.’

‘Maybe. But Lainie only worked with the girls.’

‘He still could have told her. Or he may have told one of the girls.’

‘Again, maybe. But here’s another thought. What if the real killer was abusing one or more of the kids, but it wasn’t Callie Connor he was abusing. In fact, what if it wasn’t a boy at all. What if the real killer isn’t gay but heterosexual and the person he was abusing was a girl. Or maybe girls plural.’

‘That makes no sense, McCabe. If Lainie was confronting him about abusing a girl, why would he kill Connor and not the girl?’

‘It does make sense if his goal is to make us think John Kelly, the gay ex-priest who was abused as a child, is the murderer. If he was using Connor’s death as nothing more than another piece of carefully orchestrated misdirection to push the investigation in Kelly’s direction.’

‘Then he would have also had to kill the girl who told Lainie,’ said Cleary.

‘Yes, he would. Or girls. Plural.’

‘If he did,’ said Maggie, ‘their bodies may not be as easy to find as Connor’s was.’

‘You guys are blowing my mind,’ said Fraser. ‘As of now this is all pure conjecture. And, if you’ll pardon my French, maybe pure bullshit. As of now all the evidence for all the killings still points straight to John Kelly.’

Fortier’s phone rang. Cleary picked it up. ‘Lieutenant Fortier’s office. Cleary speaking. Hey, Joe.’ Pause. ‘Really?’ Pause. ‘Interesting.’ Pause. ‘You’re sure the final reads will back up the prelims? Okay. Yeah, I’ll let ’em know.’ Cleary hung up. ‘Well Sergeant, I hate to throw a monkey wrench into your Sherlock Holmes conjectures, but –’

‘But Pines says the semen on Kelly’s sheets came from the kid?’ asked McCabe.

‘Yeah, some of it did. But not all of it. Some of it came from Kelly himself. None of it comes from some unknown mystery killer. Does that convince you Kelly’s the guy?’

‘I don’t know. Maybe it’s Kelly. Maybe not.’

‘If not Kelly,’ asked Maggie, ‘then who?’

‘I don’t know, but there are two people who might be able to tell us.’

‘Yes.’ Maggie nodded. ‘Unfortunately, at the moment, Abby can’t and Barker won’t.’

‘Did you ever get the search warrant for Barker’s place?’

‘Krickstein signed it this morning. Said we could pick it up anytime.’

‘Good. Let’s pay Andy a little visit. Would you like me to get you a wheelchair?’

‘You mean like Ironside?’

‘Sort of. Except you’re way better looking than Raymond Burr.’

‘I don’t know. He was cute in an ugly sort of way. Anyway, I’d rather hobble. It hurts too much to sit down.’

‘After Barker, let’s see if we can get some answers from Abby Quinn.’ McCabe picked up the phone and called Wolfe’s office. There was no answer, but he left a message saying Abby was at Winter Haven and it was time to try hypnotherapy as they’d discussed. The sooner the better.

On the way out they could still hear Shockley bragging to whoever was still listening about great police work.