She thought, I'm losing my grip on this. There's too much information conning at me.
Grove had said to Paula, as he checked into this ExEx facility, inside the scenario, folded back somewhere in her memory, Grove had said to Paula that he had used the Maidstone range, presumably implying that he did not normally come to this place.
Why had he said Maidstone? During her researches Teresa had read every available scrap of information about Grove, and she didn't recall a single mention of that Kentish town in his context.
She knew he had said Maidstone because she had prompted him to. She had been wondering how he was going to he his way past Paula. He had reached into his back pocket and found a plastic ID card that had satisfied the girl, and whose identifying number was acceptable to the computer. Teresa must have inspired the offthecuff reference to Maidstone herself, perhaps dredging it up from the memory of Paula telling her about the waiting period for membership.
She looked away from the screen, with its burden of unexpected information. She stared at the keyboard, lightly running her fingers round the edge of the plastic case, trying to clear her mind. She thought, Any more of this and 1 really will be lost.
In the end, the information about Maidstone was irrelevant. lt led up a blind alley, or at least into an alley into which she didn't want to venture.
She clicked back through the screens, to the one where she could search for links between principals. Once again she entered ' her own name and the defining locations, and the two versions of Grove's name, and waited to see what would happen.
There are 4 hyperlink(s) connecting 'Teresa Ann Simons' to 'Gerry/Gerald Dean Grove'. Display? Yes/No.
Four links had come into being, where none had existed a few moments earlier. Again with the feeling that her ability to un erstan was s ipping away rom er, eresa c c e on Yes.
The first new link between her and Grove neither surprised nor worried her: it was to Shandy and Willem in their lustful clinch under the glare of the film lights. Neither did the second: this was Grove's deadly ramble around Bulverton.
lt was the last two links that frightened her.
She now appeared to be connected with his target practice sessions in the Maidstone range.
The list gave the dates and the code identified the location; the tiny video frames repeated what she had watched for herself only a few minutes earlier.
Had the act of briefly previewing those two scenarios somehow activated them, and linked her to them? But she had not actually entered the scenarios; she had merely viewed the video clips! In earlier sessions with the program she had previewed videos, without creating a hyperlink. lt was only a computer program, a glorified card index system.
She clicked on the video icon of the Shandy scenario, saw the young woman go yet again through her awkward movements as she tried to ease her uncomfortable clothes. When it finished, a new message was on the screen:
There are 72 hyperlink(s) connecting 'Teresa Ann Simons' to 'Gerry/Gerald Dean Grove'. Display? Yes/No.
Seventytwo, when only a few moments ago there had been four? Dreading what might be happening, while still not comprehending it, Teresa again clicked on Yes.
The list unfolded slowly before her: she was hyperlinked to Grove's target practice sessions in Maidstone, and he to hers in Bulverton. In addition they were both hyperlinked to Shandy and Willem, Elsa Jane Durdle, Williarn Cook ...
moved the mouse pointer rapidly to Cancel, and clicked. The listing ceased at once and the screen cleared. A feeling gripped her that Grove was insinuating himself into her life. She had a bleak, vivid impression of his consciousness, somewhere in virtual reality, moving through every experience she had ever had, linking himself with her, crossing over from his blighted life to hers.
After a long pause, the screen once again showed the message in which the links were declared. lt now said:
There are 658 hyperlink(s) connecting 'Teresa Ann Simons' to 'Gerry/Gerald Dean Grove'. Display? Yes/No.
Where would this end? With every minute, more links were being added and at what felt like an exponential rate of growth. Once again, she clicked on Yes, and stared at the screen with dread.
The list scrolled sedately up the screen, with some of the items taking longer to appear than others.
Many of them were familiar: Grove's two target practice recordings in Maidstone, and the one of herself in Bulverton. Shandy and Willem were there again (five in total, but freshly linked to another one hundred and sixtyfive unlisted scenarios). Some scenarios were new, but unsurprising: the Mercer family had thirteen scenarios linked to the shooting of Shelly.
Others did surprise her. Who for instance was Kathenine Denise Devore (ten links), and what was her connection either with Teresa or with Grove? Dave Hartland's name unexpectedly appeared
(twentyseven times), and there were sixteen others, in which Amy Lorraine Hartland, nee Colwyn, and Nicholas Anthony Surtees were named as memorative principals. Rosalind Williams appeared on the list (four), then Elsa Jane Durdle (fifteen; why had some been added since she was last here?).
To Teresa it seemed as if a patchwork version of her life was being assembled inside the computer.
She clicked on the first of Elsa Durdle's video icons, and saw the swaying palm trees, the glowing sunlight, the shining parked cars. So much had that simple scenario meant to her, because it had first given her the idea that she was free to explore, that like a child returning to an old toy for comfort she was tempted to select it once again. She wanted to drive through Southern California in Elsa's big comfortable car, listening to Duke Ellington and Artie Shaw on the radio, watching the town move away and reform around her as she travelled the endless highways of memory and mind.
Continue with 658 hyperlink(s) connecting 'Teresa Ann Simons' to 'Gerry/Gerald Dean Grove'? Yes/No.
Teresa clicked on No. She scrolled back through the list, and paused on the name Katherine Denise Devore. Who the hell was this woman, that she was suddenly sigmificant to her?
She thought hard: Katherine, Kath, Kathy, Kathie, Kate, Katie? Had she ever known anyone with these names? Or Denise? Anyone at school, for instance? Teresa had repeatedly changed schools as her father was moved around from base to base. Most people grow up with a few old friends from their schooldays, but Teresa had hundreds of acquaintances and almost none she remembered as friends. Surely, somewhere, there would be a Katherine? Or maybe at one of her early jobs, at university, or at the Bureau? There had been a trainee on the ExEx course with her at the Quantico Academy, called Cathy Grenidge, whose full name was presumably Catherine ... but now she thought about it she had never seen her name written down. She might easily have been Kathenine or Kathy. What had happened to her?
Something shadowed the memory of Cathy Grenidge. Teresa thought hard, consciously using a memory technique she had been taught long ago. Federal agents have to be able to retain a lot of names and faces out of the hundreds they encounter, and there were ways of recalling them. What was the mnemonic for doing that? She cleared her mind, concentrated on the face, and then she had it. Agent Grenidge; she had graduated at the same time as Teresa, then was posted to Delaware, someplace like that? They'd lost contact, swept away to their own careers in the Bureau. No, Cathy married, then left the Bureau after a few years?