Vanished in the Dunes (20 page)

He expects the car to pull away, but is surprised when a patrolman steps from the car and approaches the front door. He hears a bell ring. And then again. After ten seconds there's a knock on the door, which precedes the rattle of the front door handle. Then the bell again. He moves farther away from the window, yet the bell seems to follow him. Then silence. He moves back to the window and looks out. The car is there, but no policeman. He waits and barely breathes. After another few minutes, he hears the static from the man's radio before he sees him. The cop is talking on his handheld.

“The house seems empty and all doors are locked.” Stern then
hears a “Ten-four,” before he watches the man return to his cruiser and drive down the street where it slows as it passes Posner's house then moves on until it disappears around the corner.

He moves downstairs to the garage connecting door and abruptly stops with his hand on the door handle. How could they possibly know to look here? Then it's clear. They somehow can trace his cell phone. He enters the garage and slips behind the wheel of the Chevy. The keys are on the dash where he first saw them. The remote door opener is clipped to the visor. He presses the button and watches the large double door swing open. The car starts immediately and he rolls it down the short driveway into the street where he makes a quick turn down the block. He sees Posner's house looming above him, a kind of Holy Grail he's about to grasp.

The word about the absence of any activity in the house temporarily occupied by Stern reaches Wisdom just before he's about to try Posner again. This time he's more successful and wastes no time as he gets directly to the point.

“We have reason to believe that Dr. Stern has been in your neighborhood, at least earlier today. Have you seen anyone hanging around your house in the past few hours?'

“No. Nothing.”

“What about unusual street noises or phone calls?”

“Nothing there either.”

“Okay. I do want you to know that we have reason to believe Dr. Stern might be dangerous.”

“Thanks, but I'm sure I'll be fine.” As he speaks Posner stands and looks down the corridor towards the hall closet. “Yes. I'm sure I'll be fine.”

“Well, just so you know, we're having a cruiser pass through your neighborhood at regular intervals.”

“That's very thoughtful. Oh, Detective. A question. Do you think this Doctor Stern was involved in the woman's disappearance?”

“It's a possibility, sir. There are many possibilities.”

“I see. Okay. Thanks again. Bye.”

Posner feels almost giddy when he hangs up. He no longer fears discovery. The doctor is now the one between the crosshairs and has probably always been the one. No. He is no longer afraid. Sara will be here soon and they can start planning for a new life. He strides to the credenza and opens a bottle of wine. As he pours a glass he remembers that this was the same vintage that he opened for Heidi. He hoists the glass to toast her memory, and then watches as if petrified while his hand begins to shake and a flow of red trickles over the edge and onto his fingers. It's Heidi's blood. That's all he can see. He splashes the wine out of the glass and across the sink. He washes his hands, but still sees her blood. Whatever elation he felt moments before was just a single, almost fragile speck of time that vanished. All he can think of now is wanting Sara to be here with him.

He sits until the images of blood begin to fade and thinks of Sara. He knows that the car that carries her is the new black Volvo of their New York friends and Amagansett neighbors. Door-to-door service is a nice luxury for anyone who heads to the Hamptons on a weekend. Even now, after the high season has past, there are still many part-time resident owners who have become more devoted to their weekend escapes. And the numbers have grown of those who now spend more time in the area especially after 9/11. He remembers the rush of New Yorkers who took out safety deposit boxes in droves after the attack. He still continues to puzzle at the possible contradiction in logic when he considers why they still live in the city most of the time but keep their birth certificates in East Hampton.

He also remembers the unease he felt whenever he went into the city after 9/11. He kept thinking that another attack could happen
again, maybe on a subway, a bridge, or tunnel. A few months after the attack, he asked Sara if she would consider moving full time to Amagansett.

“They have lawyers out here too,” he'd said, but she put him off.

“But mostly for real estate and DWIs,” she'd answered. “And I do neither.”

Spoken like a merger-and-acquisition specialist, he later thought, but to this day he still feels some relief, however small, when he leaves New York. Not exactly like abandoning paranoia, more like cleansing away a bad taste, but he also knows most others no longer feel the same, if they ever did.

That's another reason why he's so excited to see Sara and go over their plans. Things are getting closer to normal and that's good. Very good. And for him maybe there'll be only one more trip to the city. Two at the most. He settles back into the sofa. He begins to feel a warm goodness wash over him like the mist that rolls across the beach when the ocean is still cool and damp warm air flows in from the southwest. He smiles and stands. Now he's ready for that glass of wine.

Stern parks in the street at the bottom of the short driveway. He checks his coat pockets for the tenth time in the past five minutes to reassure himself the syringes are still there, and then strides up the driveway and mounts the three steps to the door. For some reason he checks his watch. Two fourteen.

“It's time,” he says aloud. “I'm coming, Heidi. I'm coming.”

Then he raps on the door.

Bennett reaches Wisdom on his cell phone.

“I thought you'd like to know. I just had this odd call from your Austrian friend Brigid.”

“What about?”

“She said you were supposed to meet and wanted to confirm it was at Posner's house.”

“Did you?”

“About ten minutes ago.”

“Dammit! She's trying to do it all herself after I told her we were scrubbing the operation because it's too dangerous. So now she goes off on her own. I'll get my ass right over there. Stern's also been lurking around the neighborhood. Can't risk getting her caught up in the middle of anything. Bye.”

Wisdom runs down the corridor and through the front door while he calls dispatch and asks them to have a cruiser get to Posner's house and meet him. And no one is to be allowed in or out till he gets there. No one.

Posner hears the knock. At first he thinks it's Wisdom or that Sara's misplaced her key.

He moves down the steps and opens the door to a smiling Stern. It's already too late to go back up the stairs to open the closet and reach for the gun. Stern walks past him without speaking, climbs the stairs and turns.

“Where did you bury her?”

No introductions. Certainly no handshakes or small talk. The words come out in a sharp staccato. Posner follows him up the stairs and moves to the edge of the hallway near the closet before he turns. One eye on Stern, one on the hallway as if to reassure himself that the closet hasn't disappeared in the last few minutes. His fingers begin to shake and he slides one hand into his pants pocket to mask the tremor.

“I don't know who you're talking about.”

“You know damn well. Heidi. Heidi Kashani. The woman you picked up on the bus. The woman you fucked and then killed. That's who, you shit.”

“You're confusing me with someone else. Calm down. If you're talking about that unfortunate woman who disappeared on the bus several months ago, the police have been here and we've talked, even more than once, but there was no contact after she left the bus.”

Posner had already developed this strategy of absolute denial as an initial tactic, but he can see it isn't working after Stern speaks again.

“You're lying.” Stern's voice rises. He's almost screaming. He pulls a large syringe from his inner coat pocket and approaches to within three feet of Posner with the needle stretched forward like an extension of his arm. One small thrust and he can surely make contact.

“What's in here can kill you. But it works fast and the pain is relatively limited if that makes you feel better.” Stern says this knowing that some of the likely reactions are excruciatingly painful, yet it is the doctor in him that now speaks, not the avenger.

“What are you doing? Are you crazy?”

Posner can't help looking down the corridor at the closet and Stern follows his gaze.

“What are you looking for over there? Some kind of help?”

Stern grabs Posner's bicep in a clenched hand. The grip is strong, and Posner winces as he spins around and is pushed down the hall with Stern's other hand holding the syringe.

Posner momentarily thinks Stern might be fooling with the threat, but he can't be sure, and there is no way he can possibly overcome someone as young and athletic as Stern. He allows himself to be steered down the hall. Then he's jerked to a stop.

“What's in here?” Stern waves the needle at the hall closet door.

“Nothing.”

“Bullshit. Open it up. Now!”

Posner pulls the door open and then is pushed to the side by Stern's left hand.

“Let's see if it's nothing.”

Stern keeps an eye on Posner while he looks into the closet. He switches the needle to his left hand and begins to sweep across the shelves with the other. He snatches various random items from shelves; a blanket, two pillows, a shelf of medicine and cosmetic bottles are all flung across the parquet.

A helpless Posner watches as the bottles slide into a random scatter. He doesn't take his eyes off Stern, but waits for the inevitable when Stern finds the gun. The wait takes seconds, yet his fear never materializes. Stern's free hand stumbles across the box with the Chiefs Special and unknowing its contents sweeps it to the floor. Serendipitously, it lands near Posner's feet as if it was aimed. Before Stern reacts, Posner bends down, opens the box, hoists the revolver and levels it at Stern.

“Drop the needle now. Now!”

Stern's eyes widen as his face seems to shrink in to itself like a slow leak in a balloon. His arm drops to his side with the needle pointing straight down. He faces the revolver only feet away, which points straight at his midsection.

Posner holds the gun in his right hand with his left hand supporting the gun wrist. Just like he was taught in his one lesson.

“I said drop it.”

The needle slips to the floor.

“Now kick it away.”

Stern complies and the needle slides to the far wall.

“That's better. Now let's talk.”

Posner's emotions have soared from fear to bravado in less than a minute. The revolver makes him invincible. He sees how a weapon can abolish almost anyone's insecurity. In seconds he's thought through what he will do, but in the end he will kill Stern. The man broke into his home, didn't he? He threatened to kill, didn't he?

Posner steps back a few steps. His gun hand is steady.

“Let me tell you what happened, since you're so interested.”

Stern's breathing returns to normal, and if Posner takes the time to look, he will see the man's features fill out as before. Stern's left hand moves a few inches to his side jacket pocket. Posner doesn't notice the movement or the one that follows where Stern pats his pocket and feels the shape of another syringe beneath the flap. His face contorts into something between a smile and a scowl. Posner doesn't notice. He wants to speak. To be in control. It's been so long since he's felt this way. Since before he lost his job.

“You're right. She is dead, but I never had sex with her. If I had maybe everything would be back to normal for all of us, but it's too late. And I didn't kill her. We met on the bus and she talked her way into coming here to see the house. She was pretty pushy about that. As far as sex is concerned, I think she wanted it, but I wasn't interested.”

“Sure you weren't.”

“No. It's true. It's not that I wasn't tempted, but this is a house I share with my wife. I couldn't do anything. It would have been stupid. I wouldn't have been able to live with myself.”

“So she just left and what? Got run over by a car?”

“That's close, but not quite right. You're pretty smart. But then you're a doctor. She told me a lot about you, you know. But if you were so close, then why did she like to see other men?” Posner's sense of invincibility grows with each minute he holds the gun. It's like being God. Able to control life and death. Anything and everything.

Stern looks down. He listens to Posner's words, but doesn't fully process the vocabulary. He hears only what he wants to believe.

“I had to run out to get something and left her here. It took longer than I thought, and when I got back she was lying at the bottom of the stairs. She was dead.

“I first thought she slipped and fell down the stairs. The ones you just walked up. She hit her head and died right there. I know how to check a pulse. There wasn't any. But now I'm not so sure that's what
happened. Maybe you followed her on the bus and watched her get in my car and wind up here. Maybe you waited till I left and then came in and killed her. More and more, I think that's what really happened.”

Stern doesn't speak. He just lifts his head and begins to shake it sideways in obvious disbelief. Now he begins to pay more attention to the words. His raw anger returns and his face flushes a bright red. Posner still doesn't notice.

“I was scared to explain what happened. I wasn't here when she died. I know it was stupid, but look at the circumstances. A dead woman I never met before in my house. What would the police or my wife think? No. I had to get rid of her body. It's buried out there where you followed me, only a few yards farther away from the gnarled sand pine. You almost found it. Now I can tell the cops where
you
buried her. I'll tell them you told me, or that I followed you to the spot. They'll believe it. It all makes sense. You're their prime suspect, you know. Then they'll be able to close the case.”