William Bayer - Mirror Maze

"Dammit, Janek-will you come over here and sit beside me, please?"

He moved to a place beside her on the couch.

"I pity her," she said. The tears were flowing now. "I really do pity her. For being part of something so tacky, so fucking sordid. I wonder if she wore a monster's mask because she felt like a monster."

She turned to him. "Does that make any sense?"

"Yes, it does."

As he held her, it occurred to him that the pity she was feeling now for her mother was similar to the pity he had felt when he had first seen Leering Man and realized that a powerful artist was engaged in something as sleazy as picking up and drugging men.

"I'm not a big quoter," he said. "But there's a line from the Bible:

"For now we see through a glass, darkly… but then shall I know even as also I am known." I think that's what you did today. Looked through the mirrors to a place where you could see yourself." He embraced her.

"I think it's always better to know, don't you?"

"Yes, always." She hugged him. "And you helped me. if it weren't for you, I don't think I'd have ever found the Minotaur." She turned to him.

"Thank you for that. It probably seems strange, but I'm grateful."

"Soon you'll start feeling free."

"I'm already beginning to," she said.

With each passing day the puzzle became clearer.

Ray phoned from Houston. Janek, listening, imagined him slowly stroking his mustache:

"Me and two El Paso cops-Cody and Martinez, both great guys-have gotten a good fix on Tony Collizzi. Seems Tony's been living very well since he got out of Green Haven. Signs of unexplained wealth all over the place.

Fancy high-rise condo. Snazzy bronze-metallic Cadillac.

Numerous sharp-cut Italian suits, kind that cost you a grand and a half.

"Course none of this fits with his so called job as parking-lot manager.

So, on a hunch that Collizzi's arrogant and sloppy, we start checking out his old credit-card slips. We got enough now to place him in El Paso the night of the copycat: gas purchases, restaurant and bar bills, motel, the whole bit. Also, there were some latents on the rope and some hair and skin samples collected at the scene. Soon as we get positive lab reports, Cody and Martinez will haul him in." "Good work, Ray,"

Janek said. "How do your new cop friends feel about Mendoza?"

"They want him bad." Ray chuckled softly. "Way they figure, if they get enough on Collizzi, he'll turn Mendoza over. Then they'll have a classic murder-for-hire case. Texas juries love '. Most of the time the guy does the hiring gets the needle."

Netti invited him to lunch in Chinatown. They were to meet in a second-floor restaurant on Pell Street. It was a cool, windy, sparkling day, the light so dazzling they both wore sunglasses.

Approaching from opposite directions, they nearly collided at the restaurant door. Netti stood back, removed her glasses, squinted.

"Well, look who's here," she said, pretending they'd met by accident.

Janek squinted back. "How're you?"

"Maybe we should stop meeting like this." "Yeah… I guess we should," he said.

At the table she fixed him with a happy smile, then recommended they share a bass. Soon a cook wearing a headband embellished with Chinese characters appeared in the dining room with a short-handled net. He approached a large aquarium a few feet from their table, scooped out a live fish, then carried it, dripping, back to the kitchen. Fifteen minutes later the waiter brought it out on a platter, cooked whole and covered with a spicy black bean sauce.

Netti tasted it. "Um, good! Have a bite."

She grasped a portion with her chopsticks, offered it to Janek. He leaned forward, took the morsel neatly between his lips, sat back to devour it. The texture was like silk.

"Best fish I've had since Cuba." she had papers for him to sign; she pulled them out of her briefcase.

"What're these?" Janek asked. He was more interested in his half of the bass.

"Your agreement with Sarah. Alimony ends next month."

Janek laid down his chopsticks. "I thought there was going to be a phase-out."

Netti smiled. "They agreed to immediate cessation."

"How'd you manage that?"

"By threatening to put Sarah under oath, then examine her about her life-style. When her attorney heard about Honolulu, he backed down real fast."

Janek stared at her. "You're a great lawyer, Netti. But why make me think I'd have to pay her for another year?"

She shrugged. "Didn't want to excite you too much. Wanted to bring you along slowly. Wanted to surprise you, then see the expression on your face." She paused. "Generally speaking, I like it when a client thinks I'm better than he thought."

Oh, that convoluted mind!

After lunch, in the midst of thanking her for her tip on Clury, he casually mentioned that he'd discovered some things that were not going to rebound to her client's advantage.

She waved her hand. She didn't want to discuss it. She mumbled something about how, if he ever told anyone what she'd done, she could get disbarred. It was then, for the first time, that he understood that she had pointed him toward Clury fully aware of the consequences to Mendoza.

That, he thought, took courage, being perhaps the most grievous sin a criminal lawyer can commit. But he respected her greatly for having committed it. She had sized her client up, and, understanding he was a killer, had violated the special ethics of her profession. By doing that she had not only put herself at risk, she had placed her destiny in his hands.

"I won't mention it again," he promised.

With dexterous manipulation of chopsticks she extracted the fish's cheek, then offered him the piece.

"Take it," she urged. "It's the tastiest bit." Her eyes expressed her gratitude.

When he signaled the waiter for the check, he discovered it was already paid.

He turned to Netti. "Why?"

"This is a celebration lunch. When a case is won, your attorney picks up the tab." She smiled. "You'll get my bill in the morning." "It'll be a pleasure to pay it," he said.

On the street, sunglasses back on, about to part, Janek asked how things were going with Carlson.

"Not good. He won't budge." Netti shook her head. "I'm going to call Gelsey this afternoon. I hate to give her the bad news, but it's time to turn herself in."

Sue called from Florida. After three days of watching Janet Clury, she'd seen no change in the woman's pattern.

"Work. Mail. Gym. Store. Home. Then she watches crap on TV.

Meantime, it's hot down here and I'm getting bored. Just give me the word, Frank-I'm ready to move in on her and squeeze."

"I'm going to send down Aaron to do that," Janek said.

Silence. "Any particular reason?" She couldn't hide her disappointment.

"I think it'll be more threatening coming from a man. But you'll still have plenty of fun."

"How's that?"

"When Aaron leaves you'll be waiting outside, ready to follow Janet when she makes her move."

"And if she doesn't?"

"She will. Or I've got this whole thing wrong." "Okay," Sue said, breathing steadier. "I can get off on that. Maybe you're right, maybe Aaron will scare her more. Still, I hope one day you'll let me show you what I can do."

He wrote up his report on Dakin, added the tape he'd made of their final conversation, addressed a covering letter to the Manhattan D.A. recommending prosecution for obstruction of justice, then sealed the package and locked it in his filing cabinet. He wouldn't send it until he captured Clury. But he wanted it ready to go.

The following morning, cloudy and raw, Aaron picked him up at his apartment. They ran into heavy traffic on the FDR, but still had time to make the flight. In the car, Janek explained what he wanted Aaron to say to Janet Clury and exactly how he wanted him to say it: