‘Really?’
‘He was carrying a photograph of his mother. His foster-mother, anyhow. There was a street sign in the background and they were able to trace her from that.’
‘You know what really gets to me?’ said Frank. ‘He’s blown himself up, too, and that means that I’ll never get the chance to kill him myself.’
Nevile took out a leather-bound notebook. ‘His remains haven’t been formally identified yet, but he was a house painter from Culver City called Alexander Sutter, twenty-four years old. His foster parents were Mr and Mrs John Happel, of MacManus Park. Apparently he was put into foster care when he was eleven years old, after persistent sexual and physical abuse from his natural father.’
‘Another abuse victim? It looks like your theory could be right.’
‘After this, yes, I’m pretty sure of it.’
‘All the same, it’s hard to think of abuse victims getting themselves together and planning something like this. The only ones I’ve ever met – they’re usually so withdrawn, you know? So downtrodden.’
‘I agree with you,’ said Nevile. ‘But it looks as if somebody managed to get them together and inspire them to take some action. These bombings have taken some very careful organization. Dar Tariki Tariqat use a different type of explosive each time, and a different method of delivery, so it’s very difficult to trace them back. Somebody’s doing their planning for them, that’s my opinion. Somebody clever, and very well financed.’
‘What do the cops think?’
‘They still believe that there’s some kind of Arab influence at work here – even if they have used child-abuse victims to do their dirty work for them.’
‘What’s your opinion?’
‘Well, I was talking to an FBI psychologist this afternoon and she agrees that child-abuse victims probably wouldn’t have focused their resentment into a terrorist campaign unless somebody had focused it for them. And who wants to see Hollywood destroyed more than Islamic extremists?’
‘You think she’s right?’
‘I don’t know. She certainly has a point. But I think it’s too easy to blame the Arabs. I have a very strong feeling that there’s another dimension to this. I wish I could work out what it is.’
Frank showed him to the door. ‘I’ll give you a call around nine tomorrow, how’s that?’
‘Fine,’ said Nevile. He was about to leave but then he looked over Frank’s shoulder at Astrid and asked, ‘Who is that?’
‘She’s the girl I was telling you about, the girl I met after the bombing at The Cedars.’
‘She’s very pretty, isn’t she?’
‘Yes, she is. And I must say that she’s really helped me to get over Danny.’
Nevile continued to stare at her. ‘She wouldn’t take my hand, did you notice that?’
‘Is that significant?’
‘Not necessarily.’ He sniffed. ‘I think I can smell something, too. But I’m always oversensitive. Look . . . I’ll see you tomorrow, all right?’
On the nine P.M. news, Commissioner Campbell read out a statement that he had received during the afternoon from Dar Tariki Tariqat. He looked very gray, and tired, and his voice trembled as he spoke.
‘After today’s act of retribution against Twentieth Century Fox, Dar Tariki Tariqat hopes that the entertainment industry will now realize that we mean what we say, and that they will immediately withdraw all of those television programs and motion pictures which revel in blasphemy and salacious behavior. If this is not done, a second explosion will take place tomorrow at noon at another location, and further explosions will take place at noon every day until the television and movie industries have been cleansed of the moral corruption that has already taken this planet to the very brink of damnation.
‘In particular, we are proud to have punished the creators of a television show that made an open mockery of all moral and religious values. And let us say this: there are those who may think that they have escaped what destiny has in store for them, but anybody who has accused God of being cruel will be hunted down like the vermin they are, and made to pay for their slanders with their lives.’
Frank listened, frowning, and then sat up. ‘Astrid, did you hear that?’
‘Hear what?’ said Astrid. She was lying with her back to him, naked, and she was almost asleep.
‘Dar Tariki Tariqat made a statement about the bombing. They said that anybody who escaped is going to be hunted down and killed.’
‘So?’
‘Anybody who escaped? Think about it! That means me!’
Astrid blinked at him, trying to focus. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Who else escaped from that explosion apart from me?’
‘Well, nobody.’
Frank was excited now. ‘There was something else. They said that anybody who accused God of being cruel is going to be hunted down like vermin.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘Who did I accuse of being cruel? Not God, maybe, but somebody who behaves like he’s God. And who said almost those exact words: “If you repeat this slander, I’m going to have you hunted down like the vermin you are, and exterminated?”’
‘You’re not serious. You mean Charles Lasser?’
‘Exactly.’
‘I don’t get it. What does Charles Lasser have to do with any of this?’
‘You tell me. Who could organize a terrorist campaign better than him? He has money, he has influence. He has international contacts.’
‘But why would he want to damage the entertainment industry? He’s part of the entertainment industry.’
‘No, when you think about it, he’s not. He’s always been an outsider. I don’t know anybody in Hollywood who likes to work for Star-TV – not unless they have to. Star-TV isn’t a television company. It’s more like a bulldozer for Charles Lasser’s ego. If you knew the contracts he’s dishonored, and the producers he’s ruined, and the number of bright young independents he’s bought up, for the sole purpose of closing them down . . .’
‘But he’s offering ten million dollars, isn’t he, for anybody who can catch these bombers? Why would he do that, if all the time it’s been him?’
‘Maybe it’s a blind. Maybe he’s trying to look like the knight in shining armor, when all the time he’s wrecking the competition,’ Frank said, picking up his pants from the floor.
Astrid said, ‘What are you going to do?’
‘I’m going to call the cops, what else?’
‘But you don’t know for sure that it’s Charles Lasser, do you?’
‘No, I don’t. But it’s still worth them looking into it. Think about it, Astrid, if it is Charles Lasser, he killed Danny, too.’
Frank could see himself reflected in the window, like a ghost. The ghost picked up the phone from the coffee table and waited while its call was connected.
‘Lieutenant Chessman? It’s Frank Bell, remember me? Listen, I’ve just heard the latest statement from Dar Tariki Tariqat. I may be wrong, but I think it contains a kind of a clue.’
‘Oh, yes?’ Lieutenant Chessman had his mouth full. ‘What kind of a clue?’
‘Well, first of all I think it’s a warning, personally directed at me. They said they were proud of killing the people who wrote Pigs, but they were coming after anybody who survived.’
‘I see. I haven’t heard that statement yet.’
‘I also think they might have given away the identity of the person who’s behind all of these bombings.’
‘They did what?’
‘It’s not easy to explain, but I think it could be Charles Lasser.’