can imagine.”
“So what’s going on?”
“Well, it’s just a couple of minor points. I’m putting together a chronology of events so that I have this story down straight. You know, if I ever get to write the whole thing.”
I hated lying to this man who had only been friendly to me, but I couldn’t afford to tell him the truth because then he certainly wouldn’t help me.
“And, anyway, I seem to have misplaced my notes on the fax. You know, the fax the Poet sent to Quantico on Sunday. I remember Gordon said he got the details from either you or Brass. What I wanted to know is the exact time it came in. If you have it.”
“Uh, hold on, Jack.”
He was gone before I could say I would hold. I closed my eyes and spent the next few minutes wondering whether he was actually looking up the information or first checking to see if he could give it to me.
Finally, he came back on the line.
“Sorry, Jack, I had to look through all the papers here. The fax came to machine number two, in the academy office’s wire room at three thirty-eight Sunday morning.”
I looked at my notes. Subtracting the three-hour time difference, the fax came in at Quantico one minute after the call to the general number had been placed from Thorson’s room.
“Okay, Jack?”
“Oh, yeah, thanks. Uh, I had one other question.”
“Shoot—oh, shit, sorry.”
“That’s okay. Uh, the question I have is, um . . . Agent Thorson sent back an oral swab from the victim in Phoenix. Orsulak.”
“Yes, Orsulak.”
“Uh, he wanted to identify the substance. He believed it was the lubricant from a condom. The question I had was whether it was identified as coming from a specific brand of condom. Can that be done? Was it done?”
Hazelton didn’t answer at first and I almost jumped into the silence. But then he spoke.
“That’s a strange question, Jack.”
“Yeah, I know but, uh, the details of the case, and how you people do things, really fascinates me. It’s important to have them right—it makes a better story.”
“Hold on another second.”
Again he was gone before I could agree to hold. This time he came back very quickly.
“Yes, I have that information. Do you want to tell me why you really want it?”
Now it was my turn to be silent.
“No,” I finally said, trying the honesty route. “I’m just trying to work something out, Brad. If it goes the way I think it’s going, the FBI’s going to be the first to know about it. Believe me.”
Hazelton paused for a moment.
“Okay, Jack, I’ll trust you. Besides, Gladden’s dead. It’s not like I’m giving away trial evidence and there’s not much you can prove with this anyway. The substance was narrowed down to being similar to two different brands. Ramses Lubricated and Trojan Golds. Problem is they are two of the most popular brands in the country. It is not what we’d call unequivocal evidence of anything.”
Maybe it wasn’t evidence you could take into a courtroom, but Ramses Lubricated was the brand that Rachel had handed me from her purse on Saturday night in my hotel room. I thanked Hazelton without further discussion and hung up.
It was all there and it all seemed to fit. No matter how many ways over the next hour that I tried to destroy my own theory, I couldn’t. It was a theory built on a foundation of suspicion and speculation but it worked like a machine, all the parts meshing together. And I had nothing to throw into its gears that could bring it to a grinding halt.
The last part I needed was Bledsoe. I paced the room waiting for his call, the feeling of anxiety churning in my stomach like something that was alive. I went out on the balcony for fresh air but that didn’t help. Staring at me was the Marlboro Man, his thirty-foot-high face holding dominion over the Sunset Strip. I went back inside.
Instead of the cigarette I wanted, I decided on a Coke. I left the room, turning the night lock so the door wouldn’t close all the way and trotted down the hallway to the vending machines. In spite of the painkiller, my nerves were jangling. But I knew that this intensity would translate to fatigue in a little while if I didn’t ante up with a shot of sugar and caffeine. Halfway back to my room, I heard the phone ringing and I ran. I went for the phone before even