"Old Dammit was worthless as hell, but he sort of grew on you. Used to give the mailman a fit. I'd stand there in the living room looking out the window, laughing so hard my eyes was streaming. The sight of it. A puny little fellow, looking around, scared to death to get out of his little mail truck. Old Dammit running in circles snapping at the air. I'd give it a minute or two before I'd start hollering, then out 1'd go in the yard. All I had to do was point my finger, and off Dammit would go, tail `tween his legs." He took a deep breath, the cigarette forgotten in the ashtray. "Lot of meanness out there."
"Yes, sir, " Marino agreed, leaning back in his chair. "Meanness everywhere, even in a nice, quiet area like this. Last time I was out this way must've been two years ago, a few weeks before Thanksgiving, when that couple was found in the woods. You remember that?"
"Sure do."
Mr. Joyce nodded deeply. "Never seen so much commotion. I was out getting firewood when all of a sudden these police cars come thundering past, lights flashing. Must have been a dozen of them and a couple ambulances, too."
He paused, eyeing Marino thoughtfully. "Don't recall seeing you out there."
Turning his attention to me, he added, "Guess you were out there, too?"
"I was."
"Thought so."
He seemed pleased. "Thought you looked familiar and I've been raking my brain the whole time we've been talking, trying to figure out where I might have seen you before."
"Did you go down to the woods where the bodies were?"
Marino asked casually.
"With all those police cars going right past my house, wasn't a way in the world I could just sit here. I couldn't imagine what was going on. No neighbors down that way, just woods. And I was thinking, well, if it's a hunter who got shot, then that don't make sense either. Too many cops for that. So I got in my truck and headed down the road. Found an officer standing by his car and asked him what was going on. He told me some hunters had found a couple bodies back there. Then he wanted to know if I lived nearby. Said I did, and next thing there's a detective at my door asking questions."
"Do you remember the detective's name?"
Marino asked.
"Can't say I do."
"What sorts of questions did he ask?"
"Mostly wanted to know if I'd seen anybody in the area, specially around the time this young couple was thought to have disappeared. Any strange cars, things like that."
"Had you?"
"Well, I got to thinking about it after he left, and it's entered my mind now and again ever since," Mr. Joyce said. "Now, the night the police think this couple was taken out here and killed, I didn't hear a thing that I remember. Sometimes I turn in early. Could be I was asleep. But there was something that I remembered a couple months back, after this other couple was found the first of the year."
"Deborah Harvey and Fred Cheney?" I asked. "The girl whose mother's important."
Marino nodded.
Mr. Joyce went on, "Those murders got me to thinking again about the bodies found out here, and it popped into my mind. If you noticed when you drove up, I have a mailbox out front. Well, I had a bad spell maybe a couple weeks before they think that girl and boy was killed out here several years back."
"Jim Freeman and Bonnie Smyth," Marino said.
"Yes, sir. I had the flu, was throwing up, felt like I had a toothache from head to toe. Stayed in bed what must've been two days and didn't even have the strength to go out and fetch the mail. This night I'm talking about, I was finally up and around, made myself some soup and kept it down all right. So I went out to get the mail. Must have been nine, ten o'clock at night. And right as I was walking back toward the house, I heard this car. Black as tar out and the person was creeping along with his headlights off."
"Which direction was the car going?"
Marino asked.
"That way."
Mr. Joyce pointed west. "In other words, he was heading away from the area down there where the woods are, back toward the highway. Could be nothing, but I remember it crossed my mind that it was strange. For one thing, there's nothing down there but farmland and woods. I just figured it was kids drinking or parking or something."
"Did you get a good look at the car?"
I inquired.
"Seems like it was mid-size, dark in color. Black, dark blue, or dark red, maybe."
"New or old?"
Marino asked.
"Don't know if it was brand new, but it wasn't old. Wasn't one of these foreign cars, either."
"How could you tell?"
Marino asked.
"By the sound," Mr. Joyce replied easily. "These foreign cars don't sound the same as American ones. The engine's louder, chugs more, don't know exactly how to describe it, but I can tell. Just like when you were pulling up earlier. I knew you were in an American car, probably a Ford or Chevy. This car that went by with its headlights off, it was real quiet, smooth sounding. The shape of it reminded me of one of these new Thunderbirds, but I can't swear to it. Might have been a Cougar."
"It was sporty, then," Marino said.
"Depends on how you took at it. To me, a Corvette's sporty. A Thunderbird or Cougar's fancy."
"Could you tell how many people were inside this car?"
I asked.
He shook his head. "Now, I got no idea about that. It was mighty dark out, and I didn't stand there staring."
Marino got a notepad out of his pocket and began flipping through it.
"Mr. Joyce," he said, "Jim Freeman and Bonnie Smyth disappeared July twenty-ninth on a Saturday night. You sure when you saw this car it was before then? Sure it wasn't later on?"
"Sure as I'm sitting here. Reason I know's because I got sick, like I told you. Started coming down with whatever it was the second week of July. I remember that because my wife's birthday's July thirteenth. I always go to the cemetery on her birthday and put flowers on her grave. Had just come home from doing that when I started feeling a little funny. The next day I was too sick to get out of bed."
He stared off for a moment. "Must' Ave been the fifteenth or sixteenth I went out to get the mail and saw the car."
Marino got out his sunglasses, ready to leave.
Mr. Joyce, who wasn't born yesterday, asked him, "You thinking there's something about these couples dying that's got to do with my dog being shot?"
"We're looking into a lot of things. And it's best if you don't mention this conversation to anyone."
"Won't breathe a word of it, no, sir."
"I'd appreciate it."
He walked us to the door.
"Drop by again when you can," he said. "Come July the tomatoes will be in. Got a garden out back there, best tomatoes in Virginia. But you don't have to wait till then to visit. Anytime. I'm always here."
He watched us from the porch as we drove off.
Marino gave me his opinion as we followed the dirt road back to the highway.
"I'm suspicious about the car he saw two weeks before Bonnie Smyth and Jim Freeman was killed out here."
"So am I" "As for the dog, I have my doubts. If the dog had be shot weeks, even months, before Jim and Bonnie disappeared, I'd think we were on to something. But hell Dammit got whacked a good five years before these couples started dying."
Kill zones, I thought. Maybe we were on to something anyway.
"Marino, have you considered that we may be dealing with someone for whom the place of death is more important than victim selection?"