Bill Pronzini: Mourners

“No. I asked who he was, how he knew Erin… just blurted it out. Then I asked if he was responsible for the headstone, all the flowers. He shook his head and said ‘I’m sorry,’ twice, that damn phrase. That’s all.”

Runyon was silent again.

Risa Niland said, “Why would he act like that, a complete stranger, if he doesn’t have something to hide?”

“There could be an innocent reason.”

“Such as?”

“One connected to the investigation I’m working on.”

“But you won’t tell me what it is. Or who he is.”

“I can’t. It’s not clear yet, anyway.”

“Confidentiality.” The bitterness was back in her voice. “Professional ethics.”

“That’s right. But I may be able to help you in another way.”

“Help me? Oh, I see. Drumming up business. Well, you can forget it. Don’t you think we’d have hired a detective by now if we could afford it?”

“You won’t need to hire me. My agency already has a client.”

Cynically: “Just how far do your ethics extend, Mr. Runyon?”

“I’m not sure I understand the question.”

“Don’t you? If you expect something from me besides money…”

“Let’s get one thing straight,” he said. “I don’t expect anything, I don’t want anything from you.”

“Then why help me? Why should I trust you?”

“Helping people is part of my job. I’m good at what I do and well paid for it and I can give you a list of references-others who’ve put their trust in me and the people I work for.”

She held eye contact for several seconds, bit her lip again and shifted her gaze. “Look, I guess I’m just not used to kindness from strangers, even at the best of times…”

“I understand.”

“Do you really think you can help?”

“At least to the point of finding out if this man had anything to do with your sister’s death. If he didn’t, and if he did buy the headstone and all the flowers, maybe I can explain the reasons.”

“If you’d do that… well, I don’t know what to say. Except thank you.”

He handed her an agency business card, the one with his home and cell phone numbers; watched her study it the way she had his license before she slipped it into her coat pocket. “You can reach me at either of those numbers, day or night,” he said. “I’ll need a contact number from you in return.”

“All right. But I… my home phone is unlisted and I don’t feel comfortable giving out the number. Or my address.”

He didn’t tell her how easy it would be for him to get them. “A work or friend’s number is fine.”

“Where I work, then. It’s a private line.” She recited the number. Then, after a few seconds, “Aren’t you going to write it down?”

“I have a good memory.” He repeated the numbers to prove it.

The wind gusted sharply, blew her hair into a reddish halo around her head. The effect brought a quick, stabbing memory of Colleen standing at the rail on one of the island ferries in Puget Sound, her hair flying in that same sort of wind-whipped halo.

“Is that all then?” she said.

“For now.”

“Then I’d better go. It’s freezing out here and I’m going to be late for work as it is.”

“I’ll walk with you to your car.”

Neither of them said anything until they reached the road. Solemnly she gave him her gloved hand, and when he released it after two beats she said, “I’d like to ask you a question. You don’t have to answer it if you don’t want to.”

“Go ahead.”

“Was I right in what I said before? That you’ve lost someone close to you?”

“… Yes.”

“A relative?”

“My wife. Ten months ago. Cancer.”

Her eyes closed, her face registered pain. Symbiotic reaction. The eyelids lifted again, and she held his gaze for a moment before she turned, wordlessly, and walked to the Datsun and shut herself inside.

He sat there for more than five minutes after she was gone, alone in the brightening morning, not moving, not thinking. More shaken by her and the resemblance to Colleen than he would have thought possible. It wasn’t until another car passed on the winding road that he came out of it and used his cell phone to call the agency.

Runyon’s report on James Troxell’s most recent activities and ties to the Erin Dumont rape-homicide case set off alarm bells. The timing was one thing: Troxell’s strange pattern of conduct had escalated at about the same time as the murder. It could be coincidence, of course. It could also be that the crime had somehow triggered his mourner obsession, dormant or subdued in him since his childhood trauma. The marble headstone and the ongoing supply of flowers fitted that kind of obsession; it was possible he’d supplied the same service to other victims of violent crime, past as well as present.

It was the other, darker possibility that worried me. Suppose the headstone and flowers were a product of guilt, remorse? Suppose he was the man who had raped and strangled Erin Dumont?

You looked at Troxell’s upbringing, the shape of his adult life, and on the surface he seemed an unlikely candidate for that kind of vicious criminal act. Successful financial consultant, home in St. Francis Wood, beautiful wife-good old-fashioned American success story. No history of trouble of any kind, none of the warning flags of aberrent behavior. Normal adult male. Except that “normal” is essentially a meaningless term; any psychologist will tell you that. The human animal is far too complex for any such simplistic categorizing. And Troxell had been witness to a bloody murder-suicide at a highly impressionable age. That kind of shock can create a psychic breeding ground for demons and monsters.

The thing I couldn’t quite fit into the man’s apparent psychosis, benign or malignant, was the Potrero Hill angle. He might’ve gone to the Wisconsin Street address to visit somebody who lived there; a girlfriend, despite all the disclaimers. Only he’d done nothing the past three days to even hint that he was anything but a faithful husband. Male friend or business associate, a shut-in he bought newspapers and rented videos for?

But suppose he was the one renting the mother-in-law unit. The obvious explanation for a man setting up a private little retreat didn’t seem to apply, so why would he want or need a hideaway? He had plenty of privacy at home; he could do all the newspaper reading and video watching he cared to behind the locked door of his den. A place to keep personal belongings he didn’t want his wife or anybody else to stumble over? And what about those videos he’d bought or rented? Slasher films, sick depictions of violence against women?

Getting ahead of myself, jumping to conclusions.

I tried to bounce all of this off Tamara, but she wasn’t in a mood for brainstorming. Or any kind of conversation that required more than monosyllablic responses or simple declarative sentences. Over the years a parade of different Tamaras had marched through the agency offices, like a multiheaded Hydra. Most of the heads were likable-Warm and Tender Tamara and Bright and Sassy Tamara were the dominant ones-but a few were exasperating. Today Glum Tamara was back after a long absence, along with her twin sister, Self-Pitying Tamara. Quiet, withdrawn; pinched look around her mouth, puffiness under her eyes that testified to a lack of sleep. Carryover from whatever had upset her yesterday, I thought. I still figured it for Horace-related bad news, and I was ready to offer her a shoulder to cry on, a sounding board to vent at, some fatherly advice, or anything else she might need from me. But the overtures would have to come from her. She’d tell me about it when she was ready and not before. Until then the best way to deal with her-as with Kerry or any woman when she was in a funk-was to do and say nothing to provoke her. Lessons I’d learned the slow, hard way.