‘Yes,’ Dredneau begged, ‘it’s all there.’
‘I will have to gag you – I’m sure you see the wisdom in a silent departure.’
Debritto gagged him with a rubber handball, holding it in place with swatches of silver duct tape. Dredneau began to breathe rapidly through his nose. Debritto gently pulled the electrode loose and coiled it into the case. In the bedroom Debritto went through the contents of the valise carefully.
Satisfied, he returned to the living room, stopping behind Dredneau. ‘My goodness,’ he said, ‘I can actually hear your heart pounding. Relax.’ He put his left hand lightly on top of Dredneau’s head, leaning down to whisper, ‘I want you to know how I did it. Remember just before I held the electrode to my wrist, how I laid the pin down on the table? Did you notice it was touching the sensor? The pin is highly magnetized. It disrupted the electrical impulse on its way to the meter, and thus my lie went undetected. And you call yourself a detective.’ Dredneau shook his head wildly. Debritto dug his thumb and little finger into Dredneau’s neck. Dredneau exhaled sharply, straining. With a flick of his free arm, Debritto shook a long wood-butted needle from his sleeve. He pushed Dredneau’s head forward and drove the needle upward into the base of Dredneau’s skull. Dredneau stiffened as if hit by a cattle prod, bucked once against his bonds, then slumped.
Debritto patted his head reassuringly. ‘It’ll take a little while. The slower the brain, the slower the hemorrhage.’
He picked up his case and Dredneau’s valise and went to the door, pausing as he opened it to call back into the room, ‘Goodnight. I hope I’ve been helpful.’
Debritto turned right and headed for the stairs. An old man was pushing a narrow carpet sweeper across the top stair, a transistor plug in his ear. He jumped back against the balustrade when he saw Debritto waiting to pass, jabbering, ‘Sorry sir. Didn’t see you.’
Debritto smiled and nodded toward the radio. ‘Who’s winning the ballgame?’
The old man looked confused. ‘No one.’ He removed the transistor plug from his ear. ‘No games this time of night. Just listening to some music to ease the work. That’s my whole job, the stairs. Sweep ’em top to bottom, then polish the rails bottom to top. There’s an elevator, by the way, you know.’ He pointed.
Debritto smiled. ‘I need the exercise. Keeps the heart clean.’ He pointed at the old man. ‘Opera,’ he said. ‘I bet you were listening to opera. I’ve got an uncanny sense about people’s music. Now tell me: I got you, didn’t I?’
The old man turned the earphone toward Debritto. ‘No sir, no opera for me. Far as I’m concerned, only two kinds of music – country and western.’
Debritto caught the strains of Waylon and Willie – ‘Mama, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys…’ He grinned at the old man. ‘You’re just lucky.’ He shook his head and went on down the stairs.
Smiling Jack replaced the ear plug and returned to his sweeping. He gave it three minutes and then moved quickly to Dredneau’s door. When he heard the high nasal wheeze inside he took out his passkey.
Debritto called Keyes from a phone booth across town.
Keyes answered on the first ring.
‘Have you come yet, Melvin,’ Debritto asked.
‘What?’
‘He was jacking you off, Melvin. He “deduced” this Kharome character from some shit-brained psychic named Madam Woo. He had a serious mental defect according to my machine. I corrected the defect. Raised his friend’s IQ up to zero first.’
‘Nothing?’
‘I bagged his papers. If anything looks promising, I’ll call.’
‘You will? I believe I paid for them.’
‘Fine. I don’t care. I just thought since I’d conducted the interview I’d be better able to evaluate them. I’ll drop them off as we arranged.’
‘Tonight. He might have been loony, but he’d been getting some results.’
‘He used snitches, just like everybody else.’
‘Did he figure out I sent you?’
‘Of course. But I would have done him anyway. Fucking queer.’
‘All smooth? No sightseers?’
‘An old fart sweeping the stairs. Had a radio plugged in his ear. We chatted a moment. He’ll never know that music saved his life.’
‘I thought you didn’t save anything?’
‘I had fun with Dredneau. I was in a good mood.’
Volta had asked Smiling Jack to come to El Paso for a personal report and consultation, and had arranged a charter to deliver him. It wasn’t like Volta to duplicate effort. Jack couldn’t tell him more in person than he had on the phone. Smiling Jack thought perhaps Volta was doubting his own judgment. To Jack, who’d worked with him for twenty years, this only confirmed Volta’s judgment, for it took wisdom to understand that your heart’s entanglements might be affecting decisions. And courage to admit it.
Over cognac, Smiling Jack recounted what he’d heard through Dredneau’s door during the detective’s torture, and his encounter with the killer on the stairs. Volta listened intently until Jack concluded with the information that Dredneau was still alive when they loaded him in the ambulance.
‘He died on the way to the hospital,’ Volta said.
Jack nodded. ‘Yeah,’ he said distantly, ‘no surprise.’
Volta poured them each another shot. He lifted his glass. ‘We’ve worked together what seems like forever, Jack, and you still astonish me with your good sense and clear judgment.’
‘Shit,’ Jack said, ‘coming from you that’s almost more praise than I can stand.’ He lifted his glass. ‘But I will drink to good sense wherever it shows up.’
‘As I told you, though you might have mistaken my seriousness, I intend to retire when this Diamond caper is resolved.’ Volta smiled wryly. ‘Assuming it can be resolved.’
‘You used to relish complications. You’re the one who claimed you found them inspiring.’
‘That’s when I was young and foolish.’
‘That was three years ago. In Montreal.’
‘When I was still young and foolish.’ Jack started to speak but Volta lifted a hand. ‘Let me finish before I dodder even further from my point. With your permission, I’m going to recommend you to replace me on the Star.’
‘Nope. I accept the honor and decline the nomination.’
Volta sighed. ‘Daniel won’t bring me the Diamond, Charmaine refuses to serve as a go-between, you won’t accept what you’ve earned – no wonder I’m doubting my judgment.’
‘Charmaine wouldn’t do it?’
‘She flatly refused. She said it was pointless. I quote, “Volta, it is not something between you and Daniel, but between Daniel and himself.” And she’s right.’
‘Now there’s my candidate to replace you on the Star when we retire.’
‘Her clarity is beyond question, but she needs to refine her compassion.’
‘You’re just miffed because she told you what you already knew.’
‘Exactly. As I said, she lacks compassion.’
Smiling Jack shook his head and smiled.
‘Speaking of which,’ Volta continued, ‘I’d like to ask you a question. Were you tempted to kill that CIA agent when you met on the stairs?’
‘No, but if he’d decided to look at the transistor, I might have had to try. I’m old and he was obviously good. If he kills me, we lose the information I just risked my ass to get – like confirmation that the code’s cracked, that they have Daniel’s real identity, that this guy killed Annalee. Another thing, too. This killer told Dredneau that he – the CIA, actually – was tipped about Annalee planting the bomb, and I figured he’s our best way of finding out who did it. I liked that girl a lot. I brought her into the Alliance. I know the attempt had nothing to do with us, that it wasn’t our action and was against our policy, but she was betrayed, and I’d like to know who snitched.’