“He doesn’t know you found the body.”
“And so he’s handling it according to plan. She ran off again. Big search. Worry. Then in the morning the workmen find it, and it fits with her recent history of suicide attempts and her condition. He’s going through the motions now. He thinks he’s home free. Violent, yes. Foolish, however, is another word. I think he’s legally sane, but I think he’s a classic sociopath. Do you know the pattern? Superficially bright, evidently quite emotional, lots of charm, an impression of complete honesty and integrity.”
“I have done the necessary reading in that area, Mr. McGee,” Gaffner said.
“Then you know their willingness to take risks, their confidence they can get away with anything. They’re sly and they’re cruel. They never admit guilt. They are damned hard to convict.” He nodded agreement.
I told him about the couple who had worked for the Pikes. I told him of the golf club incident. Then I described Tom Pike’s bedroom, the strange sterility and neatness of it, how impersonal it seemed, without any imprint of personality.
Gaffner asked Stanger if he could add anything. “Not much on him,” Al said, examining the sodden end of a dead cigar. “Florida born. Lived here and there around the center of the state, growing up. His folks worked the groves, owned little ones and lost them, took over some on lease, made out some years and crapped out other years. Don’t know if there’s any of them left or where they are now. Tom Pike went off to school up north someplace. Scholarship, I think. Came here a few years ago, just married, had money enough to build that house out there. I guess there must have been credit reports on him for the size loans he’s got into and I guess if they turned up anything out of line, he wouldn’t have got the loans. The people that don’t like him, they really don’t like him a damn bit, but they keep their mouths shut. The ones that do, they think he’s the greatest thing ever walked on two legs.”
After a silence Ben Gaffner said softly, “Ego. The inner conviction that everybody else in the world is soft and silly and gullible. Maybe we are, because we’re weighted down with excess baggage the few Tom Pikes of this world don’t have to bother with. Feelings. The capacity to feel human emotions, love, guilt, pity, anger, remorse, hate, despair. They can’t feel such things but don’t know they can’t, so they think our insides are just like theirs, and they think the world is a con game and think we fake it all, just as they have learned to do.”
I said, “You’ve done your reading, sir.”
“What have we got right now? Let’s say we could open Broon up and make him the key witness for the prosecution. If he confirms what you think he can confirm, McGee, then I’d take a chance on going for an indictment. But Pike is going to be able to get top talent to defend him. The jury is going to have to either believe Broon or believe Pike. Circumstantial case. Pike is likable and persuasive. And I’m saddled with a story to present that sounds too fantastic and I’m saddled with medical experts who’ll be contradicted by his medical experts. One long, long trial, a lot of the public monies spent on it, and I would say four to one against a conviction.”
“About that,” Stanger agreed unhappily.
“So what if there’s no way to open Broon up? Or what if he’s gone for good? Nothing to go on. I’d be a fool to go after an indictment.”
“Gone for good?” Stanger asked. “Little cleanup job by Pike?”
“Only if Pike could be sure Broon wouldn’t leave any-thing behind that might turn up in the wrong hands. Otherwise, on the run. Cash in the chips and leave for good, knowing that sooner or later Pike would want to get rid of the only link to all the rest of it.”
“So where does that leave us, Mr. Gaffner?” Stanger asked.
“I think you and Rico better start moving. What tune is it? Three fifteen. Best get a panel delivery. We’ll have to make sure Pike isn’t in that area anywhere. Get that body out of there at first light. Drive it back over to Lime City. Is that old phosphate pit on the Hurley ranch dry at the bottom?”