"She's been in an accident," he said.
"What?" My blood went cold.
He shut the door and was very distracted.
"Is she all right?" I could not think.
"It happened earlier this evening on Ninety-five just north of Richmond. She'd apparently been at Quantico and went out to eat and then drove back. She ate at the Outback. You know, the Australian steakhouse in northern Virginia? We know she stopped in Hanover at the gun store-at Green Top-and it was after she left there that she had the accident." He paced as he talked.
"Benton, is she all right?" I could not move.
"She's at MCV. It was pretty bad, Kay."
"Oh my God."
"Apparently she ran off the road at the Atlee/Elmont exit and over corrected When the tags came back to you, the state police called your office from the scene and the service got Fielding to track you down. He called me because he didn't want you to get the news over the phone. Well, the point is, since he's a medical examiner he was afraid of what your first reaction would be if he started to tell you that Lucy had just been in an accident" - "Benton!"
"I'm sorry." He put his hands on my shoulders.
"Jesus. I'm not good at this when it's… Well, when it's you. She's got some cuts and a concussion. It's a damn miracle she's alive. The car flipped several times. Your car. It's totaled. They had to cut her out of it and Medflight her in. To be honest, they thought by the look of the wreck that it wasn't survivable. It's just unbelievable she's okay."
I closed my eyes and sat on the edge of the bed.
"Was she drinking?" I asked.
"Yes."
"Tell me the rest of it."
"She's been charged with driving under the influence. They took her blood alcohol at the hospital and it's high. I'm not sure how high."
"And no one else was hurt?"
"No other car was involved."
"Thank God." He sat next to me and rubbed my neck.
"It's a wonder she made it as far as she did without incident. She'd had a lot to drink when she was out to dinner, I guess." He put his arm around me and pulled me close.
"I've already booked a flight for you."
"What was she doing at Green Top?"
"She purchased a gun. A Sig Sauer P230. They found it in the car."
"I have to get back to Richmond now."
"There isn't anything until early in the morning, Kay. It can wait until then."
"I'm cold," I said. He got his suit jacket and put it over my shoulders. I began to shiver. The terror I'd felt when I saw Wesley's face and felt the tension in his tone brought back the night when he had called about Mark.
I had known the instant I'd heard Wesley's voice on the line that his news was very bad, and then he had begun to explain about the bombing in London, about Mark being in the train station walking past at the very moment it happened, and it had nothing to do with him, wasn't directed at him, but he was dead. Grief was like a seizure that shook me like a storm. It left me spent in a way I had never known before, not even when my father had died. I could not react back then, when I was young, when my mother was weeping and everything seemed lost.
"It will be all right," Wesley said, and now he was up pouring me a drink.
"What else do you know about it?"
"Nothing else, Kay. Here, this will help." He handed me a Scotch straight up. Had there been a cigarette in the room, I would have put it between my lips and lit it. I would have ended my abstinence and forgotten my resolve just like that.
"Do you know who her doctor is? Where are the cuts? Did the air bags deploy?" He began kneading my neck again and did not answer my questions because he had already made it clear he knew nothing more. I drank the Scotch quickly because I needed to feel it.
"I will go in the morning, then," I said. His fingers worked their way up into my hair and felt wonderful. My eyes were shut as I began to talk to him about my afternoon. I told him about my visit in the hospital with Lieutenant Mote. I told him about the people on Rainbow Mountain, about the girl who knew no pronouns and Creed, who knew that Emily Steiner had not taken the shortcut around the lake after her youth group meeting at the church.
"It's so sad, because I could see it as he was telling me," I went on, thinking of her diary.
"She was supposed to meet Wren early and of course he did not show. Then he ignored her completely, so she didn't wait until the meeting was over. She ran ahead of everyone else.
"She hurried off because she was hurt and humiliated and didn't want anyone to know. Creed just happened to be out in his truck and saw her, and wanted to make sure she got home okay because he could tell she was upset. He liked her from afar just as she liked Wren from afar. And now she's horribly dead. It seems this is all about people loving people who don't love them back. It's about hurt getting passed on."
"Murder is always about that, really."
"Where's Marino?"
"I don't know."
"What he's doing is all wrong. He knows better than this."
"I think he's gotten involved with Denesa Steiner."
"I know he has."
"I can see how it would happen. He's lonely, had no luck with women, and in fact hasn't even had a clue about women since Doris left. Denesa Steiner's devastated, needy, appeals to his bruised male ego. "
"Apparently, she has a lot of money."
"Yes."
"How did that happen? I thought her late husband taught school."
"I understand his family had a lot of money. They made it in oil or something out west. You're going to have to pass on the details of your encounter with Creed Lindsey. It's not going to look good for him."
I knew that.
"I can imagine how you feel about it, Kay. But I'm not even sure I'm comfortable with what you've told me. It bothers me that he followed her in his truck and had his headlights off. It bothers me that he knew where she lived and had been so aware of her at school. It bothers me a great deal that he visited the spot where her body was found and left the candy."
"Why was the skin in Ferguson's freezer? How does Creed Lindsey fit with that?"
"Either Ferguson put the skin in there or someone else did. It's as simple as that. And I don't think Ferguson did it."
"Why not?"
"He doesn't profile right. And you know that, too."
"And Gault?"
Wesley did not answer.
I looked up at him, for I had learned to feel his silence. I could follow it like the cool walls of a cave.
"You're not telling me something," I said.
"We've just gotten a call from London. We think he's killed again, this time there."
I shut my eyes.
"Dear God, no."
"This time a boy. Fourteen. Killed within the past few days."
"Same MO as Eddie Heath?"
"Eradicated bite marks. Gunshot to the head, body displayed. Close enough."
"That doesn't mean Gault wasn't in Black Mountain," I said as my doubts grew.
"At this moment we can't say it doesn't mean that. Gault could be anywhere. But I don't know about him anymore. There are many similarities between the Eddie Heath and Emily Steiner cases. But there are many differences."
"There are differences because this case is different," I said.
"And I don't think Creed Lindsey put the skin in Ferguson's freezer."
"Listen, we don't know why that was there. We don't know that someone didn't leave it on his doorstep and Ferguson found it the minute he got home from the airport. He put it in the freezer like any good investigator would, and didn't live long enough to tell anyone."
"You're suggesting Creed waited until Ferguson got home and then delivered it?"
"I'm suggesting the police are going to consider Creed left it."
"Why would he do that?"
"Remorse."
"Whereas Gault would do it to jerk us around."
"Absolutely."
I was silent for a moment. Then I said, "If Creed did all this, then how do you explain Denesa Steiner's print on the panties Ferguson was wearing?"