large-caliber slug pulverized her lovely face, blew it away ..
Reese got out of bed and took a very hot shower. He wished that he
could unhinge the top of his head and sluice out the hideous images that
lingered from the nightmares.
Agnes, his sister, had taped a note on the refrigerator in the kitchen.
She had taken Esther to the dentist for a scheduled checkup.
Standing by the sink, looking out the window at the big coral tree in
the rear yard, Reese drank hot black coffee and ate a slightly stale
doughnut. If Agnes could see the breakfast he made for himself, she
would be upset. But his dreams had left him queasy, and he had no
appetite for anything heavier. Even the doughnut was hard to swallow.
“Black coffee and greasy doughnuts,” Agnes would say if she knew.
“One’ll give you ulcers, other’ll clog your arteries with cholesterol.
Two slow methods of suicide.
You want to commit suicide, I can tell you a hundred quicker and less
painful ways to go about it.”
He thanked God for Agnes, in spite of her tendency, as his big sister,
to nag him about everything from his eating habits to his taste in
neckties. Without her, he might not have held himself together after
Janet’s death.
Agnes was unfortunately big-boned, stocky, plainlooking, with a deformed
left hand, destined for spinsterhood, but she had a kind heart and a
mothering instinct second to none. After Janet died, Agnes arrived with
a suitcase and her favorite cookbook, announcing that she would take
care of Reese and little Esther “just for the summer,” until they were
able to cope on their own. As a fifth-grade teacher in Anaheim, she had
the summer off and could devote long hours to the patient rebuilding of
the shattered Hagerstrom household. She had been with them five years
now, and without her, they’d be lost.
Reese even liked her good-natured nagging. When she encouraged him to
eat well-balanced meals, he felt cared for and loved.
As he poured another cup of black coffee, he decided to bring Agnes a
dozen roses and a box of chocolates when he came home today. He was
not, by nature, given to frequent expressions of his feelings, so he
tried to compensate now and then by surprising those he cared for with
gifts. The smallest surprises thrilled Agnes, even coming from a
brothen Big-boned, stocky, plain-faced women were not used to getting
gifts when there was no occasion requiring them.
Life was not only unfair but sometimes decidedly cruel. That was not a
new thought to Reese. It was not even inspired by Janet’s untimely and
brutal deathr by the fact that Agnes’s warm, loving, generous nature was
trapped forever inside a body that most men, too focused on appearances,
could never love. As a policeman, frequently confronted by the worst in
humankind, he had learned a long time ago that cruelty was the way of
the world-and that the only defense against it was the love of one’s
family and a few close friends.
His closest friend, Julio Verdad, arrived as Reese was pouring a third
cup of black coffee. Reese got another cup from the cabinet and filled
it for Julio, and they sat at the kitchen table.
Julio looked as if he’d had little sleep, and in fact Reese was probably
the only person capable of detecting the subtle signs of overwork in the
lieutenant. As usual, Julio was well dressed, smartly tailored dark
blue suit, crisp white shirt, perfectly knotted maroon-and-blue tie with
gold chain, maroon pocket handkerchief, and oxblood Bally loafers. He
was as neat and precise and alert as always, but vague sooty smudges
were visible under his eyes, and his soft voice was surely if
immeasurably softer than usual.
“Up all night?” Reese asked.
“I slept.”
“How long? An hour or two? That’s what I thought.
You worry me,” Reese said. “You’ll wear yourself down to bone someday.”
“This is a special case.
“They’re all special cases to you.”
“I feel a special obligation to the victim, Ernestina.”
“This is the thousandth victim you’ve felt a special obligation toward,”
Reese noted.
Julio shrugged and sipped his coffee. “Sharp wasn’t bluffing.”