Dredneau licked his lips. ‘Yes.’
The needle didn’t move.
‘Have you ever killed a man?’
‘Yes.’
The needle jumped into the red zone.
Debritto chuckled softly. ‘I didn’t think so. Next question: Are you a homosexual?’
‘No.’
The needle wavered near the red zone.
‘Now see, this is interesting. You seem to possess some profound sexual ambiguity.’ He pointed the pin at Dredneau’s groin as if to indicate the locus of confusion. ‘Let me rephrase the question: Have you ever had sex with another male?’
‘No.’
The needle shot into the red.
Debritto giggled. ‘Ah-ha! How many?’
‘Two. When I was young.’
The machine verified it.
‘I could ask you about women, but truly I’m not interested in humiliating you, and I’m sure you understand by now the machine’s capacity to discriminate. So, to my point.’ Debritto set the pin down on the table and deftly jerked the electrode from Dredneau’s thigh and held it to his own wrist. ‘The inside of the wrist is actually more sensitive than the thigh, but since your hands must be bound, I’d no choice. Now watch the needle while I make my statement.’
He paused, then with a calm formality said, ‘If you tell me the truth, I will not kill you, nor will I harm you in any way. If you don’t, you will suffer unto death.’
The needle didn’t move.
‘You see? The truth.’ He retaped the electrode to Dredneau’s thigh and picked up the stainless-steel pin from the table, idly testing the point against his own index finger. ‘I repeat: Do you know who stole the diamond?’
‘Yes.’
‘Very good. The truth is always good, isn’t it? Now, who stole it?’
‘His name is Isaiah Kharome.’
The needle quivered at the red edge.
‘That appears to be a partial truth. I asked for the complete truth.’
Dredneau said thickly, ‘The name is an alias I think, a constructed identity.’
‘Go on.’
‘This is a guess.’
‘Okay.’
‘The man’s real name is Daniel Pearse.’
Debritto said, ‘The machine agrees, or at least that it’s a truthful guess. On what basis do you make that guess?’
Sweat trickled down Dredneau’s neck. ‘I broke a code, an extremely difficult code. From radio transmissions. It took me almost eight months. Cryptography is a useful talent for a detective. I pay listeners all over the world to monitor coded radio transmissions. Most of the codes are trifles, unraveled at a glance. This one was provocative – what’s called a shift-cipher. I had to amass a huge sample before I could establish any sort of frequency count, much less discern the operative principles; with that, the code sets followed.’
‘You’re doing well. My compliments on your work, one professional to another. So, what are these code sets?’
‘Partial panagrams – a complete set is in my valise in the bedroom.’
‘Excellent. Who does this Isaiah Kharome-Daniel Pearse work for?’
‘I don’t know. It’s a guess. Based on style and odd textual references. It’s a group of alchemists or magicians, I think.’
‘A secret society?’
‘Perhaps.’
‘No national, racial, political affiliations?’
‘Maybe anarchists.’
‘There have always been rumors about such a group.’
‘If the code’s difficulty is any indication, they’re very careful.’
‘We’ll see. Now Daniel Pearse – why is his name a guess?’
‘Because early transmissions referred to “Danny Boy” and then changed to “Kharome.” Playing around one night, I reversed “Kharome” – still in code sets – and came up with DPearse. Logically, given the earlier Danny Boy reference, the D was likely for Daniel. I ran Daniel Pearse and Isaiah Kharome through my information network, which stretches from Interpol to the local PD – and voilà! A Daniel Pearse, but no Isaiah Kharome. Or no Mr Kharome right away. He began to show up on DMV and credit card screens. Clearly, someone was constructing an identity.’
‘Tell me about this Daniel Pearse.’
‘His dossier is in my valise with the code sets and frequency charts. What little there is is rather provocative. When he was fourteen, his mother, Annalee Pearse, was killed and Daniel was severely injured planting a bomb. He was suddenly represented by expensive lawyers and placed under the guardianship of questionable relations. From there––’
‘Stop!’ Debritto said. ‘I hope you’re right about this, sir. I get to clean up a mess. I killed his mother.’
Dredneau said nervously, ‘My reports say a faulty bomb. Check them, please.’
Debritto ignored him. ‘It was a rush job. I wasn’t supposed to kill her; just stop her. Foil it. Those fools don’t want to punish. I mean, they didn’t even want the police to know. They didn’t say why, of course. But a bomb in a nowhere alley in Livermore? It had to be a diversion for a run on the lab. Going public would hurt nuclear interests. They didn’t even trust their own field agents to handle it. By the time I was called in, getting there in time, much less setting anything up, was going to be tight. I barely made it. I’d just gotten on the warehouse roof above the alley when here she comes, bomb in hand. She caught the movement when I pulled my piece. She turned to run, yelling to somebody. I aimed for her legs, but just as I squeezed it off she slipped on the wet pavement and the bullet hit the bomb. I lost seven percent of my hearing in my right ear.’
‘Sure,’ Dredneau said wearily. ‘CIA. Did Keyes set me up or does it go higher?’
‘Please, Mr Dredneau. I don’t take orders from anyone.’ Dredneau nodded. ‘I like it,’ Debritto continued. ‘You see, when they paid me off, they told me the kid was in a coma and probably wouldn’t make it. I tell you, this is something. Now I have a chance to finish the job. And so: Where is our Daniel Pearse, aka Kharome?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Do you know anywhere he might be headed, any sense of a plan?’
‘No.’
‘Do you know where the diamond is?’
‘No.’
‘Your truths are boring me, sir. Surely if you had code access as the theft was being set up, you must at least have some idea of how he accomplished it.’
‘Some. They further disguise the code with their own idiom, but from what I gathered he was supposed to use a new nerve gas on the guards, blow the vault, and be picked up by helicopter flying under the radar. Those are the only elements of the plan – other than dates and names – I’m sure of.’
‘But he didn’t use the gas or explosive, right? So how did he do it?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘But you knew it was going to happen. My, my, Mr Dredneau, you might have warned us. But it’s much more fun to waltz in and grab some glory with stunning deductions – and no doubt grab a little money, too, while you’re at it.’
Dredneau said nothing.
Debritto smiled. ‘It makes you uncomfortable to realize how much alike we are. You want the ten million just like me. Otherwise, you would have given the CIA his real name, rather than Kharome, which he’s probably changed ten times by now. Meanwhile, you wait for another transmission to decode, then maybe you and your large buddy retrieve the diamond yourself. At least you get to make another brilliant deduction. And if they offer ten, we professionals know they’ll pay twenty. Isn’t that how you were thinking?’
‘Yes. Yes it was.’
‘Anyone else have this information?’
‘No.’
‘Are you withholding anything essential or pertinent?’
‘No,’ Dredneau moaned. ‘Please, it’s everything of value.’
‘I compliment you, sir. You’re a wise man. Not a single lie. You spared yourself some unnecessary pain. Just let me gather up my equipment and your valise, then I’ll be on my way.’