After that, he stood in the center of the room and slowly searched it for traces of the fight. The only thing that might draw anyone’s suspicion was the pale, soot-ringed square where the ornate mirror had hung.
Ben pulled the two picture hangers out of the wall; they left small nail holes behind. He used a handful of paper towels to wipe away most of the dirty ring, successfully feathering the dirt to blend the lighter and darker portions of the wall. It was still obvious that something had hung there, though one might now think that it had been removed several months ago.
After locating the pistol that had flown out of Linski’s hand, Ben returned to the kitchen. “I have some questions to ask you.”
“Fuck you,” Linski said.
Ben put the muzzle of the pistol against the bridge of his captive’s nose.
Linski stared. Then: “You wouldn’t.”
“Remember my war record.”
Linski paled but still glared at him.
“The silencer’s homemade. Is this something the average physics teacher does for a hobby?”
“It’s part of what we learn in the Alliance. Survival skills.”
“Real Boy Scouts, huh?”
“It may be funny to you, but someday you’ll be glad we taught ourselves good defense. Guns, explosives, lock picking – everything we’ll need for the day when the cities burn and we have to fight for our race.”
“What does the Aryan Alliance have to do with this, anyway?”
Linski’s manner changed. He grew less arrogant and nervously licked his lips.
“I’ve got to understand what’s going on. I have to know if they’re going to come after me,” Ben said, “this whole crazy group. And if they are – why? What did I step into the middle of when I pulled you out of that car on lovers’ lane?”
When Linski didn’t reply, Ben put the muzzle of the pistol against his right eye, so he could look directly into the barrel.
Linski sagged in the chair. A sudden despair seized him. “It goes back a way.”
“What does?”
“The Aryan Alliance.”
“Tell me.”
“We were in our twenties then.”
“We?”
“Lora, Harry. Me.”
“Karnes? His parents?”
“That’s how we met. Through the Alliance.”
The connection so surprised Ben that he wondered if he were hallucinating the conversation. The pain in his shoulder had spread to his neck and up the back of his skull.
“They fell on hard times. Harry out of work. Lora was ill. But they had … the boy.”
“Mike.”
“He was a beautiful child.”
Ben knew, didn’t want to hear, had no choice but to listen.
“An exquisitely beautiful child,” said Linski, clearly seeing the boy in his mind’s eye. “Three, almost four years old.”
Ben no longer pressed the pistol to Linski’s eye. Now that he had started, the killer would need no encouragement to continue. His entire demeanor had changed – and he almost seemed relieved to be forced to this confession. He was unburdening himself for his own sake more than Ben’s.
“I had some money, a trust fund. Lora and Harry needed money … and I needed what they had.”
“They sold him to you.”
“They set a high price for a night now and then,” Linski said.
“His own parents,” Ben said, remembering Lora and Harry Karnes and the enigmatic needlepoint quotations on their living-room walls.
“A high price in more ways than one.”
“How long did that go on?” Ben asked.
“Less than a year. Then … remorse, you know.”
“You realized it was wrong?”
“Them.” Linski’s voice, gray with despair, was briefly enlivened by sarcasm: “They had the money they needed, they were out of their financial trouble … so they were in a better position to find their misplaced scruples. They denied me the boy and told me to stay away forever. He was such a little angel. Forever, they said. It was so difficult. They threatened to tell others in the Alliance that I’d molested Mikey without their knowledge. There are some members who would take me out in the woods and shoot me in the back of the head if they knew what I am. I couldn’t risk exposure.”
“And all these years …”