Gary Alexander - The Best American Mystery Stories 2010

But he wasn’t. They found the morgue attendant sitting on the floor, in a daze, his skull bloodied. He said Reiser clipped him with a gun butt. He was gone. And he’d taken his daughter’s body.

Lights and sirens, flying through town pedal to the metal, Doyle driving, Zina hanging on to the dashboard crash bar.

Turning onto the Point Lucien road, he switched off the sirens without slowing. Not that it mattered. Reiser would be expecting them.

“Eavesdropping,” Zina said suddenly.

“What?”

“When we were out here before, the girl was fishing. Emil signed for her to turn her back. He said she could eavesdrop at fifty yards. But she was deaf.”

“He meant she could read lips.”

“That’s right. And where would a kid learn to do that?”

Doyle risked a quick sidelong glance, then refocused on the road. “In school,” he nodded. “Dr. Bannan teaches hearing-impaired kids and she was in the anteroom when her husband and Lehman were arguing about outing Reiser.”

“In an office with glass walls,” Zee finished. “The secretary couldn’t hear them, but the doc could have picked up the gist of their argument. And warned Reiser.”

“And Reiser killed her husband to — Sweet Jesus!” Doyle broke off. “What the hell is all that?”

Ahead of them, the sky was glowing red, dancing shadows flickering through the trees as Doyle whipped the patrol car around, skidding broadside into the Lone Pine parking lot.

The boat works was engulfed in flame, a seething, crackling inferno fueled by the stacks of dried wood. Black smoke and sparks roiling upward into the winter night. Backlit by the blaze, Emil Rieser was calmly watching the fire consume years of his work. And his daughter. His whole life.

As Doyle and Zina stepped out of the car, Reiser turned to face them, his work clothes blackened with soot, his shaggy mane wild. Holding a hunting rifle cradled in his arms.

Doyle carefully drew his own weapon, keeping it at his side.

“Mr. Reiser, we’d appreciate it if you’d put that gun down, and step away from it.”

“Not a chance, Stark. Just give me a few minutes. Jeanie wanted her ashes scattered out here, this is my last chance to do for her. Let the fire go a bit longer, then we’ll get to it.”

“To what?” Zina asked.

“You know who I am, and what I’ve done.”

“You killed Jared Bannan?” Doyle asked.

“I did the world a favor with that one. I only wanted another month or so. Less, as it turned out. He was gonna wreck the little time Jeanie had left just to squeeze a few more dollars out of the deal. If anybody ever had it comin’, that sonofabitch did.”

“Was Bannan’s wife a part of it?”

“Part of what?” Reiser asked, glancing absently at the fire, gauging its progress.

“Did she know you were going to kill her husband?” Doyle pressed.

“She phoned me, warned me he was going to blow my cover. Tell her I said thanks.”

“You can tell her yourself.”

“No,” Reiser said. “It’s too late for that. Fire’s about done. Let’s get to the rest of it.”

“Please don’t do anything crazy, Mr. Reiser,” Zina pleaded quietly. “Do you think your daughter would want this?”

“All Jeanie ever asked for was an early Christmas. She didn’t even get that. Maybe it’s an early Christmas where she is now. Hell, maybe it’s Christmas every damn day. We’ll see.”

Zina and Doyle exchanged a lightning glance, reading the vacancy in Reiser’s eyes. Knowing what it meant.

“Hold on, Mr. Reiser,” Zee said, drawing her automatic. “Please, don’t do this.”

“Funny, that’s what Bannan said. Don’t. Please. Something like that. It didn’t work for him, either.” Reiser jacked a shell into the chamber of his rifle. “It’s on you two now, lady. You can send me over. Or come along for the ride.”

And he raised the rifle.

Doyle fired first, spinning Reiser halfway around, then all three of them were desperately exchanging fire as the boatyard blazed madly in the background, flames and smoke coiling upward, smothering the stars of the winter night. A funeral pyre worthy of a princess.

“Do you think he was really trying to kill us?” Zina asked, fingering the rip in the shoulder of her black nylon POLICE jacket, the only damage from the fatal shootout.

“I don’t think he cared. He sure as hell didn’t leave us any choice.” They were in the car, roaring back through town with lights and sirens. Leaving the smoldering boatyard to the firemen and the crime-scene team. And the coroner.

“What’s your hurry?” Though she already knew.

“Like the man said, it’s time to settle up. Any problem with that?”

“Nope. I told the doc if anyone else died, we’d be along.”

“All right then.”

It was past midnight when they skidded into Lauren Bannan’s driveway. Doyle left the strobes flashing. Wanting the neighbors to know. He hammered on the door. No answer.

“I’m out here,” Lauren called.

They circled the house to the rear deck. Lauren was standing by the rail, in black slacks and a turtleneck, looking out over the lake. Slivers of early ice floating ghostly in the dark waters, as far as the eye could see.

“Reiser’s dead,” Doyle said bluntly. “His daughter too.”

Lauren nodded, absorbing it, showing nothing. “Did Jeanie go easily?”

“I... suppose so,” he said, surprised by the question. “She died in her chair, on the dock.”

“That’s good. It can be far worse, with cancer. What’s the rest of it?”

“Emil Reiser killed your husband, Dr. Bannan. He admitted it. Before we had to kill him.”

“I’m sorry it came to that.”

“It didn’t have to! You could have stopped it! Warned us. The way you warned him. You knew what he’d do.”

“No. I didn’t know that. Not then.”

“But you damn sure knew after the fact! And you still didn’t tell us.”

“I couldn’t.”

“Because of some damned regulation?”

“No. Not because of the law. I would have broken it. But my obligation wasn’t to you, Sergeant, or even to my husband.”

“Triage,” Zina said quietly, getting it. “You told me the first day. It was too late to save your husband. Or Reiser. You were protecting the child.”

“Jeanie’s mother is a hopeless alcoholic, drowning in self-pity, with a violent boyfriend. If I’d warned you about her father, it would have destroyed the little time Jeanie had left. She was already dealing with so much, I simply couldn’t do that to her.”

“But you knew Reiser was a murderer!” Doyle raged.

“Actually, I didn’t, but it wouldn’t have mattered. You saw them together. She worshiped him. And he treated her like...”

“A princess,” Zina finished.

“What?” Doyle said, whirling on her. “You can’t be buying this crock?”

Zina didn’t answer. Didn’t have to.

“Are you going to arrest me?” Lauren asked.

Doyle eyed his partner, then Lauren, then back again.

“It’s your call,” Zina said.

“No,” he said slowly. “Not tonight, anyway. But you’re not clear of this, lady. You’ll be answering a lot more questions before it’s done.”

“I’m terribly sorry about what happened, Sergeant. I hope you can believe that.”

“I don’t know what I believe,” Doyle said, releasing a ragged breath. “Let’s go, Zee.”

In the car, he sat behind the wheel without starting it, staring into the snowy darkness.

“I know what’s bugging you,” Zina said quietly.

“What’s that?”

“It’s a helluva coincidence. That warning Reiser, for the sake of his daughter, just happened to make the doc a very rich woman.”