March 15, Sixteen Days Ago
Twenty-Two Hours After the Bus Incident
He has been uncooperative thus far, so Luther is stretching him on the rack, cables beginning to sing with tension, the man’s forehead popping beads of sweat like a newly waxed convertible.
Luther finally stops the pulleys from turning and steps away from the control panel.
He stands next to the gurney and stares down at the man named Steve, a tall, scrawny guy with the underlying core muscle strength of a life-long manual laborer.
“Look at me. Look at me, Steve.”
Steve’s head is immobilized, so he can only cut his eyes toward Luther, grunting against the unbearable strain.
“Are you ready to talk to me now?” Luther asks.
“Yes,” the man grunts.
“For the last time…the worst thing you’ve ever done…tell me, and I’ll know if you’re lying.”
Steve hesitates.
“Steve, I know you’re strong, but trust me…my machine will literally pull you apart.”
“I…killed a man.”
Luther stifles the beat of surprise. The man’s reluctance to speak at all was the first indication that he was holding on to some secret, but Luther never expected this.
Never expected to get so lucky.
“You killed a man.”
“Yes.”
“Who was it?”
“I don’t know his name. No one knows about this. Not even my wife.”
“Tell me what happened. Tell me everything.”
“Three years ago, I was driving home from a bar—I’d been drinking—and this guy…he pulled out in front of me. Cut me off. I’d never reacted like that before. Never since. But I lost it. I followed him for twenty miles.”
“You were angry.”
“Very much. I don’t understand…looking back…it was such a stupid thing. So pointless. I’d lost my job the week before. I’d been drinking. I was in a bad place. I tailgated him until he finally pulled over and jumped out of his car screaming, calling me a psycho.”
“What did you do then, Steve?”
“I popped my trunk, took a two iron out of my golf bag. I only hit him once. I didn’t expect him to die.”
“We all do things we regret. And no one ever saw you?”
“No. It was just a country road on a quiet summer evening. And it was…it was a kid, too. When the newspapers started covering the murder, it came out that he was only twenty-two. He’d just finished college, had been on the verge of starting a teaching job at a local elementary school. Sitting there, watching those news reporters as his family begged anyone with information to come forward…it was so awful. It still is so awful.”
“Thank you, Steve.”
“Are you going to kill me?”
“No, but it almost sounds like you want me to.”
“We all have evil in us,” Steve says. “Some more than others. I never knew I had this in me, and it scares me, because I wonder how much of it is still inside. Waiting to come out.”
Luther pats him on the shoulder.
“Don’t worry, sir. There’s a special circle of hell for people like you.”
March 31, 1:45 P.M.
It might make things easier for both of us if we got married.
That had to be the single most unromantic proposal in the history of matrimony. I was fat and disgusting, with au jus all over my chin, and the man I loved had just asked a lifelong commitment of me with the same passion and intensity as when he asked what DVD I wanted to watch that evening.
“You’re kidding,” I said.
He flinched a little. “I’m serious. We’re living together anyway, and for insurance, and taxes, and for the baby, I think it’s a—”
“Hold on.” I held up my hand. Phin knew I’d vowed to never get married again. I’d been engaged not long ago, and it had ended badly. My previous marriage had also ended badly. For him to ask me, especially like this…
My fax machine chirped.
Phin took the opportunity to break eye contact and walk over to the printer. I watched him read the cover sheet and frown.
“Andrew Z. Thomas, Jack? I thought you promised to give this up.”
“I promised to go to Geneva. Not drop this case.”
He shook his head and spread his hands out. “It’s not just this case. It’s everything. You were supposed to retire from police work altogether. But ever since you quit the force, you’ve been doing the same damn thing. It’s like you never even left.”
“Excuse me if I’ve got some psycho chasing me.”
“Excuse me for caring about you.”
He walked to the door, but stopped before leaving.
“Is this ever going to end, Jack? Even if Luther gets caught or killed, there’s always going to be one more case that the famous Lieutenant Jack Daniels needs to solve.”
“That’s what I’m paid to do, Phin. I work with Harry now. I’m a private eye. I’m very good at it.”
“It’s going to get you killed one of these days. I don’t want to see that.”
“No one’s forcing you to stay.”
Probably a mean thing to say to someone who just asked for my hand in marriage.
“Wow. How’s it feel to be the President of the United States of Super Bitch?”
Ouch.
“I thought we had boundaries, Phin. You don’t ask me to stop being me. I don’t ask you to stop doing whatever dumbass criminal activities you do…”
“Nice. Real nice.”
“…and you don’t ask me to marry you. Those were the rules.”
“Enjoy your sandwich,” Phin said.
Then he left. Duffy gave me a sad, backward glance, and went with him.
I hated myself for a few seconds and then rolled my chair over to the printer and quickly read the letters the agent had faxed over. They didn’t reveal anything new, but Violet King apparently lived in Peoria, about a three-hour drive from me.
I was eating my sandwich and weighing my options, deciding if a personal visit would be better than a phone call, when I found the biggest diamond ring I’d ever seen hidden under the pork rinds.
Oh…shit.
I immediately got up, realizing what a jerk I’d been, and padded into the living room in time to see Harry McGlade pull into the driveway and Phin drive off in his Bronco, right over my lawn.
I called him on my cell, but he didn’t pick up.
The tears came fast and hard.
I was still sobbing when McGlade pressed the security code and strolled in.
Duffy—who apparently hadn’t been let into the Bronco—was all over him, jumping up and down, wagging his tail.