'Very good, Hicks,' the judge said. 'Don't know what I'd do without you.'
'Look, you want I should maybe spend the night in the guest room what with all this hoopla over…?'
'Don't be silly.' Shoat said, waving him off. 'I'm going to get in bed and watch Court TV for an hour or so. I'll be sound asleep by ten.'
'Right, sir. Seven o'clock in the morning?'
'As usual.'
He followed Hicks to the door, pulling on the night chain and twisting the dead bolt after letting his bodyguard out. He made himself a Scotch and water, turned off the lights, and went into the bedroom.
Shoat was fastidious in his nightly ritual. He set out his clothes for the next day, placed his Scotch and water on the night table, brushed his teeth and scrubbed his face, and changed into scarlet silk pyjamas. He folded his silk bathrobe carefully over a chair within arm's reach of the bed, lined up his slippers side by side exactly where he expected his feet to hit the floor when he arose, piled three goose-down pillows, and fluffed them up just right before finally turning down the covers and slipping sideways between the flannel sheets so as not to wrinkle them. He propped himself up and pulled the feather comforter up under his chin and turned on the television, flicking the remote control to the Court TV channel. Settling down, he sipped his drink and watched with the sound turned Vovj. Within minutes he was trying to keep awake. He finished the drink and clicked off the TV.
He was dozing when suddenly the room seemed to be flooded with cold air. He lay in bed, staring sleepily into the dark. It got colder.
Then he thought he heard something. The sound seemed to be coming from the living room, although he was sleepy and confused in the dark.
'Hicks, is that you?' he called out, thinking perhaps his bodyguard had come back for something and was at the front door. He waited and listened.
There it was again. Was someone talking outside the condo?
Disoriented in the dark, he groped for the lamp and instead grabbed his bathrobe. He stumbled out of bed in the dark, his feet padding the floor of the darkened room in search of his slippers. The room was frigid and he gave up on the slippers and floundered his way towards the living room.
A frosty draught sighed past him as he reached the bedroom door. He looked across the room. The door to the terrace had blown open. The white cotton curtains, flapping and twisting in the wind, looked like apparitions in the ghostly moonlight.
Damn! he thought. Hicks forgot to lock the door to the terrace.
He started towards the door. Then he heard a voice.
'Order. Order in the court.' And a gavel smacking against wood.
The voice seemed to come from the dervish curtains, swirling in the wind. He stepped closer, squinting his eyes to get a clearer look. And then he saw something, a vague shape hidden within the gossamer panels. Shoat was suddenly hypnotized with fear. The shape slowly materialized into a dark form that seemed to emerge from within the whirling folds. It moved towards him. Shoat's mouth turned to sand. His feet would not move.
'W-w-who's that?' he stammered. The figure, silhouetted by the moonlight against the shimmering drapes, raised its hand. There was a click and the same voice, the same husky whisper he had heard a moment before said:
'The prince who keeps the world in awe;
The judge whose dictates fix the law;
The rich, the poor, the great, the small,
Are levelled - death confounds them all.'
There was a slight pause, then: 'Greetings from Daisyland, Judge.'
'Oh, my God!' the judge shrieked. He turned and rushed towards a table near the door, pulled open a drawer, thrust his hand in, and felt the cold steel of his .32-calibre pistol. But before he could pull it from its hiding place, he felt a hand grab his hair and his head was snapped back.
Shoat felt only a slight burning sensation when the knife sliced through his throat. But when he opened his mouth to scream, all he heard was a rush of air from beneath his chin. And then the taste of salt flooded his mouth. When the pain struck, it was too late for Shoat to feel it.
Thirty-Four
It was easy to trace the phone number. Morris had attached a digital readout to the monitor and had the number listed in his log. Stenner made one phone call and got the rest of the information.
'City Hospital,' he said. 'The last three digits, 4-7-8, is the office extension. He was calling the billing department.'
'Why in hell was he calling the billing department at City Hospital?' Vail wondered aloud.
'And why'd he get a bad connection?' asked St Claire.
Meyer, the computer expert, had been sitting in the corner listening to the discussion. He turned to his computer and entered the modem program, then brought up the menu. He dialled the phone number, 555-7478, and listened to it ring as he watched his computer screen. The screen went black for a moment, then the word CONNECT flashed on and another menu appeared across the top of the screen.
'There's your answer,' he said. 'He was calling a modem line. Vulpes was talking to a computer.'
'With what?' Parver asked.
'Yeah. Where'd he get a computer?' St Claire asked.
'I don't know, but that's what the call was all about, that's the hum on the line,' said Meyer. 'If he stayed on for ninety seconds and he's a computer expert, he knew exactly what he was doing.'
'Maybe we ought to roust him and ask him,' said Flaherty.
'On what grounds?' Vail said. 'He's a free man. If he does have a computer, it's understandable. It's his business. But if he's using it to trigger the copycat, then we got him.'
He dialled Morris.
'Yes, sir?'
'This is Martin, Bobby. What's Vulpes up to right now?'
'He's watchin' a video. Sleepless in Seattle.'
'You're sure he's there?'
'We can hear him laughing. Few minutes ago he was singing "As Time Goes By" with Jimmy Durante.'
'Is the back door covered?'
'Sure.'
'You stay on top of this guy, Bobby. He makes any phone calls or does anything out of the ordinary, call the office immediately.'
'Absolutely.'
Vail hung up. 'He's in his room watching a video, they can hear him on the room tap.'
He paced his office for a few moments. 'All right, here's what we're going to do,' he said. 'Harve and Ben, come with me. We'll check out the billing department at the hospital. Shana and Dermott, stay here in the office and monitor the phones. And call Naomi right now just to make sure she's protected. Anything happens? Any calls from Morris or anybody else, call me on the portable. Abel, I want you to take Jane home and stay with her, and I mean in the house with her until I get back. I don't trust anyone else but you to protect her. And I want the house guard to patrol the entire perimeter. Any questions? Good. Let's get on with it.'
The emergency ward at City Hospital looked like a battle zone. Three ambulances were parked at the entrance, one with its red light still blinking. Once inside, Vail, Meyer, and St Claire were greeted with a rush of noise and motion. An aide raced by pushing a young woman on a gurney. Her face was covered by an oxygen mask and IVs were protruding from both arms. Her eyes were half open and her head wobbled back and forth with the movement of the stretcher. A young doctor was racing along beside it, shouting orders to a nurse who held open the door to the OR preparation station.
'I got a compound fracture of the lower leg, possible head injuries, I need a CAT scan before we go to OR.'