“You won’t be. It’ll be all taken care of before then.”
“Oh.”
“In fact,” Keller said, improvising, “I’ll make the call right now. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s all wrapped up before the sun goes down.”
“Wow.”
Keller punched in a few numbers at random, then watched as the phone slipped from his fingers and tumbled to the pavement. “Hell,” he said. “Just what I needed. Get that for me, will you?” And he reached for his hip pocket even as Harrelson bent obligingly to retrieve the phone.
26
“I guess the English would call it a spanner,” he said.
“And what would we call it, Keller?”
“A wrench.” He held his hand palm up, as if weighing the tool in his hand. “A monkey wrench, actually. Sears has this line, Craftsman tools. Quality at a price. Guaranteed for life, if you can believe that.”
“Whose life?”
“Well,” he said.
He’d drawn the heavy wrench from his hip pocket and swung it in an arc at Harrelson, who never saw it coming and consequently never knew what hit him. The first blow probably killed the man, but Keller made sure with two more, then scanned the area for bystanders before stooping to go through the dead man’s pockets. He dug out Harrelson’s calfskin wallet, took the cash and the credit cards, and tucked the near-empty wallet under the dead man’s extended right arm. He found a cell phone and pocketed it but kept searching until he turned up a second phone, this the one he’d given Harrelson. He loaded his pockets with everything he’d taken from Harrelson, used Harrelson’s pocket handkerchief to wipe anything he might have touched, and was in his car and on his way out of the lot before anyone walked down that aisle and spotted the body.
“There’s a bridge over the Detroit River,” he said, “but on the other side of it you’ve got Windsor, Ontario. It’s strange, because you actually drive south across the bridge, so you’re going south to get from the United States to Canada.”
“And then I’ll bet you drove north to get back.”
“I would have,” he said, “but I decided not to take the bridge in the first place, because who knows what kind of records they keep of people crossing into Canada, or back into the States. The Canadian border used to be like crossing a state line, but that’s different these days.”
“Like everything else. So you settled for a storm drain?”
“I liked the idea of the river. And it turned out there’s a bridge a little ways south of the city that runs to Grosse Ile, which is an island in the Detroit River between the U.S. and Canada.”
“What’s so gross about it?”
“It means big. And it’s got some size to it. I mean, it has its own airport.”
“For people who don’t like to drive over bridges?”
“The bridge is free,” he said. “No toll, nobody checking license plates. And not much traffic. I drove across it, turned around, and halfway back I stopped the car and threw three cell phones and a Craftsman wrench over the rail.”
“Why three cell phones? Oh, two from him and the one you used for calling him.”
He nodded. “It bothered me a little, tossing the wrench. Lifetime guarantee and all.”
“We’ve got a Sears right here in White Plains, Keller. You can always pick up a replacement.”
“What for?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it would come in handy when you’re playing with your stamps. What’s the matter, aren’t you going to correct me?”
“Correct you?”
“Tell me you don’t play with your stamps, you work with them.”
He shrugged.
“Something the matter, Keller? You in a mood?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
“What’s wrong? The job’s done, the loose ends are tied off, and we got paid. Got paid time and a half, since Barry Blyden paid the whole amount, and Harrelson’s in no position to request a refund of his deposit.” She sipped her iced tea and grinned over the brim of the glass. “Like I always say, Keller, now you can buy yourself some stamps.”
“I guess.”
“I’d say you’re definitely in a mood.”
“I think you’re right.”
She thought about it. “You met the guy, you got to know him, and then you had to do him. There was a personal element to it, and that’s what bothers you.”
He thought about it, shook his head. “No,” he said. “I don’t think so. Yes, I met him, and yes, I got to know him, but the more I got to know him the less I liked him. I wouldn’t say it was a pleasure to kill him, but it was satisfying, and not just in the sense of the satisfaction of a job well done.”
“He was a pain in the neck.”
“He was.”
“But?”
“I solicited him, Dot. He ran his mouth on the plane, but he wasn’t really looking to kill his partner. I put the idea into his head. That’s why he kept dragging his feet, and being a pain. He never would have been a client if I hadn’t pitched him.”
“You went proactive.”
“And then, when he became difficult to deal with-”
“Try impossible, Keller.”
“-I went to his partner, and Harrelson stopped being the client and became the target. It seems…”
“Strange?”
“Strange,” he agreed. “And, I don’t know. Inappropriate.”
“I’ll give you strange,” she said. “But I’m not signing on for inappropriate.”
“No?”
“No. He was the target from the beginning. It just took us a while to realize it.”
“I don’t follow you.”
“You sat next to him on the plane,” she said, “and he appointed you his designated psychotherapist and poured his heart out to you, and you saw an opportunity.”
“I was looking for one, after the turnaround I’d just gone through.”
“You were looking for one, and you recognized this one when you saw it. Here are two partners who hate each other and can’t get out from under each other. You came home, and you got the idea of turning proactive, and you approached Harrelson.”
“Right.”
“And that was your mistake.”
“Turning proactive.”
“No,” she said. “Actually that was brilliant, because we needed the money and you were going stale for lack of work. The mistake was you approached the wrong man. You should have gone straight to Blyden.”
“It never occurred to me.”
“Of course it didn’t. But when you think about it, it becomes obvious. Harrelson met you, he sat next to you on the plane, he heard your voice and saw your face. He’s got a name to go with the face, even if it’s not yours. It’s a risk, working for somebody who knows that much about you.”
“I know.”
“Besides,” she went on, “Blyden’s tough to kill. He’s in New York all the time, which means violating the don’t-crap-where-you-eat rule. And he’s got this routine that makes him very hard to get at.”
“I’d have found a way.”
“But it wouldn’t have been easy. Whereas Harrelson-”
“Was in a different city every week.”
“Exactly. And Blyden has never seen your face, or heard your voice, and never will. He’s heard my voice, but he doesn’t know who I am or how to reach me, and he doesn’t seem to care. All he had to know was that the partner he hated was planning to have him killed, and he was happy to spend a few dollars to turn the tables.”
“And he’s not going to talk about it,” Keller said, “because he’s Mr. Inside. He won’t spill the beans to the guy sitting next to him on the plane, because he’s not going to be on the plane in the first place.”
“There you go.”
“And you’re right,” he said. “Going proactive was fine, but my mistake was I didn’t see the whole picture. I should have gone straight to Blyden.”
“No.”
“No?”
“You should have come straight to me,” she said, “and I should have gone straight to Blyden.”
“You’re right.”
“But it came out all right,” she said, “and they tell me that’s all that matters. You feel better about it now?”