‘She was linked up with people who deal drugs. She saw them kill somebody, a girl. I told her she had to do something about it. I was curious about what it was like,’ Kelly said in a flat monotone, still bathing in his guilt while his mind replayed the image.
‘Names?’
‘None that I remember,’ Kelly answered.
‘Come on,’ Douglas said, leaning forward. ‘She must have told you something!’
‘I didn’t ask much. I figured that was your job – Frank’s job, I mean. We were supposed to meet with Frank that night. All I know is it’s a bunch of people who deal drugs and who use women for something.’
‘That’s all you know?’
Kelly looked him straight in the eyes. ‘Yes. Not very helpful, is it?’
Douglas waited a few seconds before going on. What might have been an important break in an important case was not going to happen, and so it was his turn to lie again, beginning with some truth to make it easier. ‘There’s a pair of robbers working the west side of town. Two black males, medium size, and that’s all we have for a description. Their ?? is a sawed-off shotgun. They specialize in taking down people coming in for a drug buy, and they particularly like the gentry customers. Probably most of their robberies don’t even get reported. We have them linked to two killings. This might be number three.’
‘That’s all?’ Rosen asked.
‘Robbery and murder are major crimes, doctor.’
‘But that’s just an accident!’
‘That’s one way of looking at it,’ Douglas agreed, turning back to his witness. ‘Mr Kelly, you must have seen something. What the hell were you doing around there? Was Miss Madden trying to buy something -‘
‘No!’
‘Look, it’s over. She’s dead. You can tell me. I have to know.’
‘Like I said, she was linked up with this bunch, and I – dumb as it sounds, I don’t know shit about drugs.’ I’ll be finding out, though.
Alone in his bed, alone with his mind, Kelly’s eyes calmly surveyed the ceiling, scanning the white surface like a movie screen.
First, the police are wrong, Kelly told himself. He didn’t know how he knew, but he did, and that was enough. It wasn’t robbers, it was them, the people Pam were afraid of.
What had happened fit what Pam had told him. It was something they had done before. He had allowed himself to be spotted – twice. His guilt was still quite real, but that was history now and he couldn’t change it. Whatever he had done wrong, it was done. Whoever had done this to Pam, they were still out there, and if they’d done this twice already, they would do it again. But that was not really what occupied his mind behind the blank staring mask.
Okay, he thought. Okay. They’ve never met anyone like me before.
I need to get back into shape, Chief Bosun’s Mate John Terrence Kelly told himself.
The injuries were severe, but he’d survive them. He knew every step of the process. Recovery would be painful, but he’d do what they told him, he’d push the envelope a little bit, enough to make them proud of their patient. Then the really hard part would start. The running, the swimming, the weights. Then the weapons training. Then the mental preparation – but that was already underway, he realized …
?h, ??. Not in their wildest nightmares have they ever met anyone like me.
The name they had given him in Vietnam boiled up from the past.
Snake.
Kelly pushed the call button pinned to his pillow. Nurse O’Toole appeared within two minutes.
‘I’m hungry,’ he told her.
‘I hope I never have to do that again,’ Douglas told his lieutenant, not for the first time.
‘How did it go?’
‘Well, that professor might make a formal complaint. I think I canned him down enough, but you never know with people like that.’
‘Does Kelly know anything?’
‘Nothing we can use,’ Douglas replied. ‘He’s still too messed up from being shot and all to be coherent, but he didn’t see any faces, didn’t – hell, if he had seen anything, he would probably have done something. I even showed him the picture, trying to shake him a little. I thought the poor bastard would have a heart attack. The doctor went crazy. I’m not real proud of that, Em. Nobody should have to see something like that.’
‘Including us, Tom, including us.’ Lieutenant Emmet Ryan looked up from a large collection of photos, half taken at the scene, half at the coroner’s office. What he saw there sickened him despite all his years of police work, especially because this wasn’t a crime of madness or passion. No, this event had been done for a purpose by coldly rational men. ‘I talked to Frank. This Kelly guy is a good scout, helped him clear the Gooding case. He’s not linked up with anything. The doctors all say that he’s clean, not a user.’
‘Anything on the girl?’ Douglas didn’t need to say that this could have been the break they’d needed. If only Kelly had called them instead of Allen, who didn’t know about their investigation. But he hadn’t, and their best potential source of information was dead. ‘The prints came back. Pamela Madden. She was picked up in Chicago, Atlanta, and New Orleans for prostitution. Never came to trial, never did any time. The judges just kept letting her go. Victimless crime, right?’
The sergeant suppressed a curse at the many idiots on the bench. ‘Sure, Em, no victims at all. So we’re not any closer to these people than we were six months ago, are we? We need more manpower,’ Douglas said, stating the obvious.
‘To chase down the murder of a street hooker?’ the Lieutenant asked. ‘The mayor didn’t like the picture, but they’ve already told him what she was, and after a week, things go back to normal. You think we’ll break something loose in a week, Tom?’
‘You could let him know -‘
‘No.’ Ryan shook his head. ‘He’d talk. Ever know a politician who didn’t? They’ve got somebody inside this building, Tom. You want more manpower? Tell me, where do we get it, the kind we can trust?’
‘I know, Em.’ Douglas conceded the point. ‘But we’re not getting anywhere.’
‘Maybe Narcotics will shake something loose.’
‘Sure.’ Douglas snorted.
‘Can Kelly help us?’
‘No. Damned fool was just looking the wrong way.’
‘Then do the usual follow-up, just to make sure everything looks okay and leave it at that. Forensics isn’t in yet. Maybe they’ll turn something.’
‘Yes, sir,’ Douglas replied. As so often happened in police work, you played for breaks, for mistakes the other side made. These people didn’t make many, but sooner or later they all did, both officers told themselves. It was just that they never seemed to come soon enough.
Lieutenant Ryan looked back down at the photos. ‘They sure had their fun with her. Just like the other one.’
‘Good to see you’re eating.’
Kelly looked up from a mostly empty plate. ‘The cop was right, Sam. It’s over. I have to get better, have to focus on something, right?’
‘What are you going to do?’
‘I don’t know. Hell, I could always go back in the Navy or something.’
‘You have to deal with your grief, John,’ Sam said, sitting down next to the bed.
‘I know how. I’ve had to do that before, remember?’ He looked up. ‘Oh – what did you tell the police about me?’
‘How we met, that sort of thing. Why?’
‘What I did over there. It’s secret, Sam.’ Kelly managed to look embarrassed. ‘The unit I belonged to, it doesn’t officially exist. The things we did, well, they never really happened, if you know what I. mean.’
‘They didn’t ask. Besides, you never really told me,’ the surgeon said, puzzled – even more so by the relief on his patient’s face.
‘I got recommended to them by a pal in the Navy, mainly to help train their divers. What they know is what I’m allowed to tell. It’s not what I really did, exactly, but it sounds good.’
‘Okay.’
‘I haven’t thanked you for taking such good care of me.’
Rosen stood and walked to the door, but he stopped dead three feel short of it and turned.
‘You think you can fool me?’
‘I guess not, Sam,’ Kelly answered guardedly.
‘John, I have spent my whole damned life using these hands to fix people. You have to stay aloof, you can’t get too involved, because if you do you can lose it, lose the edge, lose the concentration. I’ve never hurt anyone in my life. You understand me?’
‘Yes, sir, I do.’
‘What are you going to do?’
‘You don’t want to know, Sam.’
‘I want to help. I really do,’ Rosen said, genuine wonder in his voice. ‘I liked her, too, John.’