A Visible Darkness - By Jonathon King Page 0,71
boyfriend. got his throat crushed. But she did recall smelling something, Freeman. You’ve got to remember all the senses in this line of work, bud,” he said.
“She smelled the garbage can in her bedroom after he left is the way she put it. And a man’s hand pushin’ down on that pillow that had to be the size of a big ’ol catchers mitt how it fit over her entire face and head.
“That fit with anybody you and your girlfriend been trackin’?”
I was counting to myself again, swallowing a growing rage.
“You’ve been tailing us, McCane. You see anybody that you were hoping we’d lead you to?” I said.
He continued to smear his fingers on the plastic cover of the album.
“No. I didn’t think so,” I answered myself. “If you had, you wouldn’t be here.”
Richards had been right getting Hammonds to call in an overtime squad to step up the BOLO on Baines while she and Billy tried to get a lock on the doctor’s hard drive.
Ms. Thompson reappeared and McCane stayed quiet. She put a cup down in front of the empty chair and said, “Oh mercy I have forgotten our milk, Mr. McCane. Please, please, sit down Mr. Freeman. I’ll be right back.”
McCane took a long sip of his black coffee while the woman tottered away.
“You ought to know by now, Freeman. These are just simple minds you’re dealing with.”
“And you ought to know how to manipulate them, Milo, considering the practice you’ve had,” I said, holding his eyes and watching the twitch behind them at the mention of his old prison nickname. He sat quiet for a minute, glancing out toward the alley.
“I see your boy Manchester been busy checking my past,” he . said, trying to sound unfazed.
“And your boy Marshack’s, too,” I said. “You have some interesting coffee hours up at the Georgia state pen?”
He surprised me with a short laugh that came from deep in his chest.
“Ol’ doc, he never was one for small talk, always pullin’ that philosophical shit on you, trying to impress how smart he was. But the boy just could not hold a job,” he said. “You know how far a guy gotta tumble to end up being a shrink in a prison?”
“I wouldn’t know, McCane, but the good doctor sure did know how to keep some damned immaculate records. And if they tie you to it, McCane, the cons at Moultrie are going to throw an interesting homecoming.”
My words stole the smugness from his face. I could see his knuckles whitening around the coffee cup. Again he cut his eyes to the hedges along the back lawn where some movement seemed to have caught him.
“Well, gentlemen. Excuse my absence,” Ms. Thompson said, stepping carefully onto the patio. She froze when she saw the look on our faces.
“Get your ass back inside, old woman,” McCane snapped, pushing his chair back and standing.
The words were like a slap and a warning that I had gone too far. Don’t put him in a corner, I thought.
“Well, I never,” Ms. Thompson spouted, starting to get her feistiness back. But I looked in her eyes and she saw a warning there. Shed seen enough in her years to keep from getting between two angered men. She turned, hissing, and retreated back into her house.
I watched McCane pulling himself back down, the flex of the hand, the loosening of the jaw. He started to chuckle.
“Freeman, Freeman, Freeman. You are some kinda big city detective, bud, with all this conspiracy talk. Hell, I thought I was just helpin’ you boys out down here, and now you all cookin’ up this wild-ass conjecture.”
He was shaking his head. The ol’ southern boy perplexed by it all.
“Hell, if that’s the way it is, Freeman, I will be glad to get on back to the home office and leave this all to you smart folks,” he said, getting up with a bemused look on his face.
“I’m glad you can find the humor in it, McCane. You may very well be right,” I said, moving past him toward the side of the house, hoping he would follow me into the open.
“I’m sure you’ve got all your fìnancials in shape. Money in, money out. Your salary from the insurance company will match up with all your expenditures. You know how these things go, McCane—follow the money.”
“But you haven’t done any of that yet, have you, Freeman?” he said, moving up behind me. I could feel his closeness, hear the heavy shoes shuffling in