‘How do you know that?’ he asked, his eyes still riveted on the telephone-company van.
‘Oh, for heaven’s sake—’
‘Your husband and one of the men killed with him … they used to work at UCLA.’
‘So?’
‘They received grants. For research.’
‘Yes, of course, but—’
‘Some of those grants, maybe even most of them, came from the government, didn’t they?’
Laura didn’t bother to reply, because Earl obviously knew the answer already.
‘Defense Department grants,’ he said.
She nodded. ‘And others.’
He said, ‘The Defense Department would be interested in behavior modification. Mind control. The best way to deal with an enemy is to control his mind, make him your friend, without him ever realizing that he’s been manipulated. A real breakthrough in that field could put an end to war as we know it. But, hell, as far as that goes, pretty much any damn government agency would be interested in mind control.
‘How do you know all this about Dylan’s work? I didn’t tell you all this.’
Instead of answering her, Earl said, ‘Maybe your husband and Hoffritz were still working for the government.’
‘Hoffritz was a discredited—’
‘But if his research was important, if it was producing results, they wouldn’t care if he was discredited in the academic community. They’d still use him.’
He glanced at her again, and there was a cynicism in his eyes, a weary-of-the-world expression on his face that made him appear utterly different from the way he’d looked earlier.
She could no longer see the farm boy at all, and she wondered if that image of a simple man seeking polish and sophistication from a new life in L.A. had been an act. She was suddenly sure that Earl Benton, even as young as he was, had never been simple.
And she was no longer sure that she should trust him.
The situation had abruptly become so complex, the possibilities so multifarious, that she felt a bit dizzy. ‘A government conspiracy? But then why would they have killed Dylan and Hoffritz if Dylan was working for them?’
Earl didn’t even hesitate. ‘Maybe they didn’t do the killing. In fact, it’s highly unlikely. But maybe your husband’s research was leading toward a major breakthrough with military applications, and maybe because of that, the other side had him wasted.’
‘Other side?’
He was watching the street once more. ‘Foreign agents.’
‘The Soviet Union went kaput. Maybe you heard. It was in all the newspapers.’
‘The Russians are still there, and we’re a long way from being best buddies with them. Then there’s China. Iran and Iraq and Libya. There’s never a shortage of enemies in the world. Power-mad men are always with us.’
‘This is crazy,’ she protested.
‘Why?’
‘Secret agents, spy stuff, international intrigue … Ordinary people don’t get mixed up in that stuff except in the movies.’
‘That’s just it. Your husband wasn’t ordinary people,’ Earl said. ‘Neither was Hoffritz.’
She couldn’t look away from this man who was undergoing such a profound metamorphosis — aging, hardening — before her eyes. She repeated the question that he had not answered before. ‘All this speculation … you couldn’t have thought about any of it unless you knew my husband’s field, his personality, the kind of work he might be doing. How do you know all this about Dylan? I didn’t tell you any of it.
‘Dan Haldane told me.’
‘The detective? When?’
‘When he called me. Just before noon.’
‘But I didn’t even hire your firm until after one o’clock.’
‘Dan said he’d give you our card, make sure you called us. He wanted us to understand all the possible ramifications of the case right from the start.’
‘But he never told me there might be FBI agents and, for God’s sake, Russians involved.’
‘He doesn’t know they’re involved, Doctor McCaffrey. He just realized there was the possibility that these murders had more than local significance. He didn’t go into it much with you, because he didn’t want to worry you unnecessarily.’
‘Christ.’
The mad, seductive murmur of paranoia swelled in her mind again. She felt trapped in an elaborate web of conspiracies.
‘Better go look after Melanie,’ Earl said.
Outside, a Chevy sedan drove slowly along the street. The car stopped beside the phone-company van, then pulled forward and parked in front of it. Two men got out.