Authors: John Lutz

Tags: #Thrillers, #Fiction, #Suspense, #Espionage, #General

Pulse (30 page)

BOOK: Pulse

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J
ody stood up so Sarah Benham would notice her on the other side of The Happy Noodle.

Sarah, smoothing back her hair and patting this and that into place after coming in out of the cooling summer breeze, saw her immediately and smiled and waved back. She began weaving among the tables of the crowded restaurant, holding a general direction toward Jody like a ship in a storm.

Jody sat back down with her apple martini and watched her. The two women met for lunch every now and then. Despite—or possibly because of—their age difference, they had become very comfortable in each other’s company; each knew the other wasn’t a competitor in either work or love.

Sarah was still attractive, for a woman past the edge of middle age. She took good care of herself, spent money on it. Jody had decided weeks ago that Sarah might well have employed the services of a cosmetic surgeon. There was a subtle stiffness to her features, and deepening lines running from the corners of her mouth to her chin.

“I ordered you a drink,” Jody said, as Sarah sat down on the chair across from her. “An apple martini. I hope you don’t mind.”

“It’s what I would have ordered,” Sarah said. “That’s why I introduced them to you.” She settled deeper in her chair, leaning briefly to rest her purse on the floor, then did a lot of fidgeting and rearranging, like a bird settling into its nest.

The server came with her drink. Sarah accepted it, then raised her glass. Jody followed suit.

“To good friends,” Sarah said.

Jody smiled and repeated the toast. She took a sip of martini. There were a lot of people she’d choose
not
to lunch with before Sarah.

Sarah smiled and licked her lips. The way she always did after the first sip of any kind of drink. She seemed very much to enjoy the moment. Something Jody would have to work on.

“So how are things in your life?” Sarah asked, placing her glass on the table but leaving a fingertip touching it, as if she’d be aware if it started to wander.

“If you mean love life,” Jody said, “I’m too busy for anything like that.”

“It’s been my experience,” Sarah said, “that love lives pretty much take care of themselves, and in their own time. There isn’t much to be gained by planning.”

“Good. Because I don’t.”

The waiter returned and Jody ordered penne pasta and a salad, Sarah only a salad.

“Not hungry today,” she said. “The heat.”

Jody took a sip of her martini, which prompted Sarah to do the same.

“I never asked you about your family,” Jody said. “Do you have—”

“Children?” Sarah grinned. “Not me, and not ever, at my age. I suppose you’re wondering if I ever married, whether I’m widowed or divorced.”

“I don’t want to pry,” Jody assured her.

“Of course you do.” Sarah touched the back of Jody’s hand. “We all do, but we don’t want to step on someone’s feelings.”

“Would I be doing that?”

“Not in the slightest, dear. Both my parents have been dead for years. My mother had a fatal heart attack while swimming. My father died a month after that. He was in an auto accident. A one-car crash. I’ve always wondered if he’d made it happen, if he was simply ready to go to a place without grief.”

“You were left an orphan,” Jody said sadly.

“For a few years. I was sixteen when I found myself without parents. Or siblings. I lived in an institution—it was never called an orphanage—for about two years, then I found a job that would allow me time to also go to college. I was good at math, and was drawn into the insurance business. Started out with mortgage insurance, then life and property for several years. Then I got a job offer and moved to Manhattan. I’m an adjuster, mainly. Mostly art.”

“Art insurance. That’s fascinating.”

“Not really. Not once you get used to staring at damaged Van Goghs and Kandinskys and calculating their market worth. Which is sometimes much different from the worth placed on them by their owners.”

“Still, you must know a lot about art.”

“I know more about insurance, and how to adjust it. That’s really what I’m doing, just like with insurance on cars or, in some questionable cases, life insurance. It’s all about odds, and settling on a number.”

“Lots of things seem to be about that. Life isn’t much different from gambling.”

“We can do something about the odds, though. See me if you ever come into possession of a damaged valuable painting or sculpture, and I’ll show you what I mean.”

“Someday when I’m rich.”

The food arrived, and both women concentrated for a few minutes on arranging plates and passing this or that across the table to each other.

“You have the capacity to become rich, Jody. I really believe that.”

“I’ve been told so, often enough,” Jody said.

Sarah was obviously very interested in Jody’s future.

And Jody was interested in Sarah’s past. Had Sarah been trying to sell Jack Coil art insurance that time she’d visited the offices of Enders and Coil?

Jody wondered, did Sarah also sell insurance on property development projects?

Leighton, Wisconsin, 1986

S
herri Klinger said, “I’ve been thinking.”

They were sitting in Rory’s mom’s Chevy with all the windows rolled down, letting the summer breeze wend its way through the car’s interior. The Chevy was parked well off the road and shielded from view by large pine trees. The woods they faced were beginning to fill with twilight’s shadows. Rory picked up the scent of tobacco smoke. His mom had been smoking again, even though she swore she quit months ago.

“We didn’t come here to think,” he said.

“Yeah.” Sherri smiled. “We took care of that other thing, though.”

“You’re not gonna tell me you forgot your pill, are you?”

“Of course not.”

“So what’s your famous brain been working on?”

“Now that you’re finished with my famous body.”

“Not finished. It’s just time out.”

“God, Rory!”

He settled back where he was sitting behind the steering wheel, aware that he was already getting an erection just talking about sex with Sherri. And it had been ... what, twenty minutes since the last time?

“I’ve been thinking about Duffy,” she said, leaning her head against the point of his shoulder.

Rory’s erection was immediately lost. “Not much to think about now,” he said. He hoped. Sherri was a brilliant girl, but she seemed fixated on the dog. What was she going to suggest, a Duffy memorial?

Sherri snuggled closer. The breeze working through the car was cooling. “I mean, like the way his collar was discovered about a hundred feet from where somebody buried him. It was unbuckled, so he couldn’t have slipped it before he died. Somebody must have taken it there. Or thrown it. How could that have happened? And why?”

“Maybe he laid there a while before somebody found him, then they took the collar off before scooping dirt and leaves over him.”

“But why?”

“I don’t know. Or it could be a fox or something dug Duffy up and moved the collar.”

“A fox couldn’t unbuckle the collar, and there were no tooth or claw marks on it. Somebody must have removed it either before or after Duffy was put in the ground the first time.”

“Why would anyone do that?”

“I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure that one out. It was like they didn’t want Duffy to be identified if he was found.”

“But he was identified.”

“A little longer underground and we wouldn’t have known him. I think whoever killed him got scared, hid the body, and threw the collar far as he could into the woods thinking nobody would ever find it even if they
did
find Duffy.”

Rory found himself squirming. He coughed to disguise his reaction to Sherri’s words. She had it figured exactly right.

“Either way,” he said, “the result is the same.”

“But I remember the way Duffy’s head was flattened on one side.”

“God, Sherri—he was hit by a car.”

“But maybe only injured, and whoever hit him finished him off.”

“Why?”

“They didn’t want to go to all the trouble of dealing with a hurt dog. It might bite them. And they wouldn’t want it bleeding all over their car if they tried to pick it up and take it to a vet. It would be simpler just to get rid of the dog and drive away.”

“You’re saying they had a kind heart, or they would have just driven on and left Duffy injured and dying on the road. Instead, they put the poor animal out of its misery.”

“I’m saying whoever ran over Duffy and hurt him might have then gone ahead and murdered him.”

Rory faked a strangled kind of laugh. “You really think anyone would go to that kinda trouble over a dog?” He knew immediately the words were a mistake. He understood how Sherri’s mind worked. She’d ask herself why indeed someone would take that kind of trouble. The possible answers would include that they might know Sherri and fear she’d blame them for killing her dog. The next step in her logical process might lead her straight to Rory. “Whatever happened,” he said, “Duffy’s dead and you have to put the whole thing behind you.”

“I can’t. It isn’t Duffy’s death I keep thinking about; it’s like death in general. About how in this amount or that amount of years one or both of us, and most of the people we know, will be gone forever.” She looked up at him. “Do you ever really think about forever, Rory?”

“All the time.”

“Don’t laugh at me.”

“I’m not, Sherri, believe me!”

She moved away from him, rooted through her purse, and fished out a small brown vial with a pop-off white plastic cap. Rory saw a prescription form stuck to the bottle.

“These help me. You know they can help you.”

“Yeah. We’ve gone through this before, with the pills. I almost wrecked the car. This time it’s no thanks.”

Sherri held the vial up and read the label: “ ‘Lorazepam. ’ The only way I can get to sleep now is by taking one of these, or by sneaking some of my dad’s scotch. But the whiskey doesn’t work as well. When I drink it I can fall asleep, but I can’t stay that way.”

“I know how that works,” Rory said.

Sherri smiled. “My mom’d never dream I took these and have been using them.”

“Didn’t she ask you about them?”

“Just if I knew where they were. I said no, and reminded her how she misplaced things. She had a lousy night’s sleep and then had the doctor call in a new prescription.”

“They’re easy to fool, aren’t they,” Rory said. “Doctors and mothers.”

“Too.”

She opened the vial and shook a small white pill into her hand and held it out to Rory. “Take one. You’ll like the way this works. It like makes you stop worrying instead of making you sleepy. Then if you want, you can go to sleep on your own.”

“I don’t want to go to sleep.”

“I just told you they don’t make you tired, just relaxed.”

“I’m relaxed enough.”

“You don’t seem like it.” She popped the pill into her mouth and swallowed it, as if she was used to taking pills without water.

“I know how I can get more relaxed,” Rory said.

“Forget that.”

He sighed. He knew she was thinking about what had really happened to the dog. She’d never let it alone. That was the way her mind worked. He knew that because his mind worked the same way.

They’d professed their love to each other. Why couldn’t she look ahead instead of backward? Was this how life worked? Dragging around the past like chains that made you raw and tired and eventually brought you down.

Rory was a realist. He understood that when Sherri figured out what had really happened to her dog, that Rory had lied to her, and that he’d even used the dog’s death to help him to seduce her, what they had together would be gone.

It was enough to make a person squirm. Lying to friends was one thing, but lying to someone you loved was different. Those were the lies that became chains.

Do you really think about forever?
Sherri had asked him.

All the time.

New York, the present

“I
’m used to him now, because I know he’s not real.”

“Used to him in what way?” Grace Moore asked her patient.

“It’s almost like he came with the apartment,” Linda said. “When I enter I catch a glimpse of him crossing in the hall from the bathroom to the bedroom. If I’m in the kitchen and can’t see him, I know he’s still back there. I suspect he hides under the bed.”

“Have you ever looked?”

Linda stared at her. “Are you kidding?”

“You told me you know he’s not real.”

“But he could become real, and then where would I be?”

“If he wasn’t real when he went under the bed,” Grace said, “he wouldn’t be real when he stared back at you if you bent down and looked to see if he was there.”

Linda looked incredulous. “He could reach out and get me. Have me by the throat in half a second so I couldn’t make a sound, then he’d do whatever he wanted to me. If you were me, would you take that kind of chance?”

Grace thought about it. “No,” she admitted. She crossed her legs and sat back in her chair. “Does he ever talk to you?”

“No. Not him. Just the voices in the stone.”

“If he could talk, what do you suppose he’d say?”

“You mean if he
would
talk.”

“I suppose I do mean that,” Grace said.

“He’d say, ‘I’m here to torture and kill you.’ ”

“Why would you think he’d say that?”

“You know why. I’m a paranoid schizophrenic. And besides that, I’m his type.”

“Oh?”

“I keep up with the news, all the stuff about the serial killer, Daniel. I look like the women he’s killed. Same size and build. You know, with big boobs. Same brown eyes and brown hair.” She decided not to tell Dr. Moore yet about meeting with someone who might believe her, might help her.

Grace smiled. “Linda, if I didn’t dye my hair blond, I’d look like that. Well, maybe not so much in the boobs department, but I have brown hair and brown eyes. Like millions of women in New York. Why do you think that killer would settle on you?”

“He’s in
my
apartment.”

Grace tilted her head and nodded. The logic of the irrational was difficult to refute. “Have you tried talking to him?”

“Yes. He doesn’t answer, only smiles or shrugs and goes someplace where I can’t see him.”

“You mean disappears?”

“Of course not. He simply walks into another room.”

Grace regarded Linda for a long moment. “Do you think he’ll be there when you leave here and go home?”

“He almost always is, after a session.”

Grace smiled. “You have him trained.”

“Or he has me trained. Same difference. He’s my—”

“Your what?”

“My fate.”

Grace shook her head. “Oh, Linda, that isn’t so. You have control of your own life.”

“Then what am I doing here?”

“Getting the help you need. Our sessions, your medications. Have you been taking your meds as prescribed?”

“Of course. He stands somewhere behind me and watches in the mirror as I take each pill.”

“Hmm. I have an idea, Linda. You say he’s almost always in your apartment when you come home from these sessions. How about if I go home with you and meet this man?”

“You mean after one of our sessions?”

Linda was going to be elusive now and protect her hallucination. Not uncommon. “I mean after this session.”

“I doubt if he’ll talk to you.”

“Does he know about me?” Grace wanted a chance to examine Linda’s medicine cabinet and see which pills and how many were in her prescription vials. Linda was displaying symptoms that her medications should be alleviating.

“Oh, he knows,” Linda said. “He’s followed me here. I watched him once hanging back behind me in the elevator and watching to see which door I entered.”

“You mean my door, to my office?”

“Right. He stood down the hall a way and watched.”

“Then he and I really should talk.”

“You’ll be doing most of the talking,” Linda said. “But if that’s the way you feel about it, okay.”

Grace was slightly surprised by Linda’s acquiescence. And pleased. It might mean she was ready to face up to what, on a basic level, she knew wasn’t actually real. This might lead to what the TV psychoanalysts called a breakthrough. She looked at her watch. Ten minutes to eleven.

“I don’t have another appointment until two o’clock,” she said, standing up from her chair. She smiled reassuringly at Linda. “Let’s go.”

Linda braced herself with both hands on her chair arms, levered herself to her feet, and smiled back.

“Just sit for a minute in the anteroom while I shut things down here in the office, and I’ll be right with you.”

Linda went out and settled into a comfortable chair, and the doctor didn’t take long at all.

Linda led the way out of the office and down the hall to the elevator. Already she was acting as the hostess, and would in subtle ways be in charge of this visit.

Dr. Moore considered that a good thing.

“If you don’t mind,” Dr. Moore said, “I’d like to drop by my apartment first and get out of these high heels; I’ve got a blister and they’re killing me.”

“I hear you on that one,” Linda said.

“There are two messages for you,” Pearl said, when Quinn returned to the office from lunch. “Both from women who think someone’s following them.”

“We’ve had more than a few calls like that,” Quinn said.

“Since the media have made you the big hero and serial killer hunter.”

Quinn made a sound somewhere between a snort and a laugh.

He ambled over and lowered his large self into his desk chair hard enough to make the cushion hiss. Pearl wondered if he’d been “lunching” with Jerry Lido. “Either of these calls sound like the real thing?” he asked, already sure of the answer.

Pearl shrugged. “One didn’t make much sense, or maybe I couldn’t understand the caller because of her accent. The other seemed okay at first, then she asked that no one contact her doctor to let her know she’d called.”

“She say what kind of doctor?”

“She didn’t have to.”

Quinn punched a button on his desk phone and listened to both messages. The first was in a high-pitched voice speaking in what sounded like some kind of middle European accent he couldn’t begin to understand.

The second caller was understandable, a woman speaking with what sounded like deliberate and fragile calm, explaining how the same man had been following her, how sometimes he let himself into her apartment. She then said that she didn’t want her doctor to know yet that she was going outside the rules, calling someone who might believe and help her. Her doctor, the woman said, didn’t think the man was real. Then she explained that it was true that he wasn’t real all the time, but only sometimes.

Neither woman left a name, but the voice of one was familiar.

Quinn sat for a moment mulling over the calls. He’d received dozens like them over the past several weeks. There was something about the second woman, something in her voice that signaled real if sublime fear. Perhaps she had mental problems, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t be a potential victim.

And the woman with the accent? How could he judge if he couldn’t understand her?

He looked at caller ID. The first number was that of a large insurance firm with a Midtown office. He called there and talked to three people who had no idea of the identity of a woman with a heavy European accent who might be trying to contact him.

The second number displayed no name but had a Manhattan prefix. He called it and got no answer and no invitation to leave a message.

After hanging up, Quinn stared at the phone, then dug through the note papers beneath a paperweight on his desk. The second caller’s number was that of Linda Brooks, with a West Side address.

Linda Brooks, the woman who’d approached him in the office because she thought someone might be following her. The one who was under analysis.

She’d also left her doctor’s name and address.

Quinn jotted down the information on a piece of scratch paper and tucked it into his wallet with similar folded slips of paper.

He wasn’t quite sure why, considering how many women like Linda Brooks there were in the city. Seldom were their monsters real.

Real enough to them, however. He felt a pang of pity for Linda Brooks. Started to reach again for the phone.

But she hadn’t wanted him to call her analyst. About that she’d been specific.

Yet she wouldn’t answer her phone. And who was to say she needed more help than the woman with the European accent who’d called? Or any of the other troubled and frightened women, most of whom weren’t in any actual danger?

Quinn wished he could help them all, the fearful and delusional, but he couldn’t except in general ways. Like trying to stop a very real killer.

He turned his mind to his job.

BOOK: Pulse

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