“I don’t follow.”
“Evil only survives in the dark. This isn’t religious either, by the way. The simplest way to deal with evil is to force it into the light of truth. Expose its secret. Sun on the vampire. Sin thrives in the dungeon, but slap it on the table for all to see, and it withers rather quickly. It was one of Kevin’s greatest complaints about the church, actually. That everyone hides their evil. Their sin. Pastors, deacons, bishops—they perpetuate the very nature they are in business to destroy by covering it up. No confession allowed except in secret.”
“Now you sound like a skeptic.”
“I’m a skeptic of religious systems, not of the faith. Someday I will be happy to discuss the difference with you.”
“How does this make the riddles Kevin’s idea?”
“Perhaps subconsciously Kevin knows that Slater still lurks. What better way to destroy him than to expose him? Kevin could be forcing Slater’s hand, forcing him to reveal himself. Ha! I’m telling you, Kevin is genuine enough to conceive of just such a plan! Slater thinks he has Kevin where he wants him by forcing a confession, when it’s the very confession that will destroy Slater, not Kevin! It’s like the cross all over again.”
Jennifer rubbed her temples. “I can just hear the court case now. This all assumes Slater isn’t framing Kevin.”
“Yes. But either way, we’ve pieced together his framework. At least the logic of it.” Dr. Francis sat and faced her with his fingers touching each other in a tepee. “My goodness. You came here to find out who Kevin really is. I think I’ve just stumbled on it, my dear.”
“Tell me, who is Kevin?”
“Kevin is every man. And woman. He is you; he is me; he is the woman who wears a yellow hat and sits on the third pew every Sunday. Kevin is the natures of humanity personified.”
“Please, you can’t mean that everyone’s a Slater.”
“No, only those who do as Slater does. Only those who hate. Do you hate, Jennifer? Do you gossip?”
Who loves what he sees, but hates what he loves?The simplicity of it hit Sam midstride, as she paced Kevin’s living room, staring at the travel posters. The windows to the world. It wasn’t who;it was the seeing!Who had seen?Slater had seen her and wanted her. But where had he seen her?
The window. Her window! The boy Slater had watched her from the window and seen what he desperately wanted but could not have. And he hated her.
The answer to the riddle was her window!
Sam stood still, stunned, then ran for her car. She fired the engine and roared down the street. 7:23.
Sam punched in Jennifer’s cell number.
“This is—”
“I think I have it! I’m on my way now.”
“What is it?” Jennifer demanded.
Sam hesitated. “This is for me—”
“Just tell me where, for heaven’s sake! I know it’s for you, but time’s running out here!”
“The window.”
“Kevin’s window?”
“My window. That’s where Slater saw me. That’s where he hated me.” She glanced in her rearview mirror. Clear. “I need more time, Jennifer. If Slater even gets a whiff of anyone else snooping around this, he may pull the trigger. You know that.”
No response.
“Please, Jennifer, there’s no other way.”
“We could have a dozen of the best minds on this.”
“Then get them on it. But no one from the investigation and, without question, no locals. We can’t risk a leak. Besides, no one’s going to know these riddles like I do. This is about me now.”
Silence.
“Jennifer—”
“Just hurry, Samantha.”
“I’m doing sixty in a thirty-five as it is.” She hung up.
Hold on, Kevin. Please don’t do anything stupid. Wait for me. I’m coming. I swear I’m coming.
26
Monday
7:25 P.M.
WHETHER THE BOY WAS IMAGINARY OR REAL, he knew Sam and he wants her to come,” Dr. Francis said as Jennifer closed her phone. “He’s luring her in. You see that, don’t you? The riddles are only to continue the game.”
Jennifer sighed. “And if Sam finds them? He’ll kill them all and I’ll have done nothing.”
“What can you do?”
“Something. Anything! If I can’t save him, then I should report this.”
“Then report it. But what can any of your colleagues do?”
He was right, of course, but the idea of sitting here in his living room discussing the natures of man was . . . impossible! Roy had been killed in similar circumstances by the Riddle Killer. True, Slater probably wasn’t the same man who’d killed Roy, but he represented the same kind of man. Unless Kevin was Slater.
Did Slater live in her? Do you hate, Jennifer? Milton?
“Perhaps the most you can do is try to understand, so that if an opportunity does come, you’re better equipped,” the professor said. “I know how frustrating it must be, but now it’s up to Sam. She sounds like someone who can handle herself. If I’m right, Kevin will need her.”
“How so?”
“If Kevin is Slater, he’ll be powerless to overcome Slater on his own.”
Jennifer looked at him and wondered what movies he watched.
“Okay, Professor. We still don’t know if Kevin is Slater or not. Theories are fine, but let’s try the logistics on for size.” She pulled out her notebook and crossed her legs. “Question: From a purely logistical and evidentiary perspective, could one person have done what we know to have happened?”
She opened the book to the list she’d made two hours earlier, after Sam’s call suggesting for the second time that Kevin was Slater. She ticked the first item with her pencil. “Kevin gets a call in his car.”
“Although you said there’s no evidence of that first call, correct? The cell phone was burned. The entire call could have been in Kevin’s mind, two voices talking. Same with any unrecorded conversation he had with Slater.”
She nodded. “Number two. The car blows up three minutes after the call, after Kevin has escaped.”
“The personality that is Slater carries a sophisticated cell phone in his pocket—Kevin’s pocket. This device is a secure telephone and a transmitting device. After the imaginary conversation giving him three minutes, the Slater personality triggers a bomb he’s planted in the trunk. It explodes, as planned. He detonates all of the bombs in similar fashion.”
“The second phone Sam found.”
“Follows,” Dr. Francis said.
“Where does the Slater personality make all these explosives? We found nothing.” Jennifer had her own thoughts but she wanted to hear the professor.
He smiled. “Maybe when I’m done playing scholar, I’ll apply for a job with the FBI.”
“I’m sure we would welcome you. Understanding of religion is a hot recruitment criterion these days.”
“Slater obviously has his hiding place. Likely the place he’s hidden Balinda. Kevin takes frequent trips to this location as Slater, totally unaware. The middle of the night, on the way home from class. He remembers nothing of them because it is the Slater personality, not Kevin, who is actually going.”
“And his knowledge of electronics. Slater learns, but not Kevin.”
“So it would seem.”
She looked at her list. “But the warehouse is different because he calls the room phone and talks to Samantha. It’s the first time we have him on tape.”
“You said the phone rang while he was in the room, but Slater didn’t speak until Kevin was out. He reaches into his pocket and presses send on a number he’s already entered. As soon as he’s in the hall, he begins to speak.”
“Sounds far-fetched, don’t you think? Somehow I don’t see Slater as a James Bond.”