William Bayer - Blind Side

"Both of us?" That sounded impossible.

"to make it look like you killed each other," he said.

"Jesus, Frank!"

"It's a possibility."

"What's my defense?"

"First, she doesn't know I'm not behind the storefronts covering you. Second, she likes you. Third, she's not afraid of you. She's only afraid of me."

"Why only you?"

"Because I'm ex-Special Forces. I'm a mercenary. I'm in this deal for the cash. You're not likely to go on the warpath if she and Grace steal the money. But I am, so I'm dangerous. When we're together for the split-that's when I figure they'll try and take us out."

"And if you're wrong, if she tries to take me out right here?"

"You have your gun-camera, Geof. If she tries anything -use it. Don't even hesitate."

I nodded, then turned away, waiting for that idea to sink in. Such a thick aura of treachery had come to surround the enterprise that at that point no betrayal seemed impossible.

Betrayal: the word was in my mind.the rest of the afternoon, as I walked about Santa Fe.

"You need time to think it through, put it together in your head," Frank said, as he dropped me off at the Plaza.

I wandered the central part of the city, the area of expensive galleries and boutiques. Everywhere there were tourists gawking at Navaho rugs, Santa Clara pottery, necklaces, rings, belts embellished with silver and turquoise. And all the while two phrases echoed in my brain: I've been used; I've been betrayed.

Over and over I asked myself how I'd fallen into such a vortex. Did she love me? Apparently not. Had she ever? I doubted it. Had I loved her? I definitely had. Did I now? I couldn't.

When, weeks before, back in New York, we had lain in my bed watching Double Indemnity, Kim had told me she was sure Phyllis Dietrichson decided to use Walter Neff the minute he walked into her house.

Had she known she was going to use me from the moment she spotted me on Desbrosses Street, and then with a sultry confidence asked, "Are you iin alien creature?"

It seemed she had, that that meeting between us might not even have been an accident. And the irony of it was that though she'd apparently known all about me from the start, I still knew nothing about her. Not even her real name.

The next twenty-four hours were extremely tense.

That night Kim and Frank met for the first time, when the three of us had dinner in the atrium of the Villa Linda shopping mall. It was a perfect spot for such a meeting. There were a dozen fast-food outlets ringing the walls, with tables and chairs set under a skylight in the middle. People walked by, but no one lingered. The place was totally anonymous.

Frank was highly attentive to Kim. She couldn't possibly suspect he knew her secret. Watching them together, listening to them talk and plot, I still couldn't quite believe what he'd uncovered.

But he'd shown me photographs, and generally speaking photographs don't lie, no matter what Dave Ramos thinks. Grace was in Santa Fe. She and Kim had met. They'd conducted themselves like lovers. And the feeling I'd had very early that morning-that Kim had still not told me the entire truth-was well home out by Frank's analysis.

He was right about another thing too: the trail through Grace in Cleveland to Kim's hideout in Key West had been much too easy to follow. I'd congratulated myself on what a shrewd detective I'd been. Now I understood I'd been a fool.

I made love to Kim that night. I had to. I was afraid that if I didn't she'd suspect that I knew. At first it was awful. Her lies were so abundant, calculated and ensnaring, I quivered at each caress. She misunderstood my trembling, mistook it for passion. And when that seemed to arouse her, I played along. Then I actually started to enjoy it. It was so easy to play false, revel in deceit. Perhaps I was beginning to understand her.

was Frank right? was she motivated only by love for race and money? Or was there something more-some actual pleasure she took in perfidy? I tried to put myself in her place, understand how it felt to have done what she had done, to plan the things that she was planning-as if life were a game in which to play was to cheat, to speak was to lie, and the only purpose a lover had was to be used and then betrayed.

Frank came by early in the morning, first to show Kim the way out to the battlefield, then to drive her to Albuquerque to see if Darling came in on the plane.

I stayed in our room at the Seek And Ye Shall Find, trying to make sense out of what was happening. I even considered walking up to the Alamo to have my own little talk with Grace. But what could I say to her, when, it seemed, I had totally misinterpreted our encounter? And then it struck me that even as she had pretended to be my friend, I had betrayed that "friendship" when I broke into her house.

Lies, lies … everywhere mendacity. And now all our individual lies, reaching a critical mass, were about to converge and to explode.

The phone rang a little after 1:00 P.m. It was Frank, calling from the airport.

"He's here!" he said.

Not only had Darling arrived, but he was exerting an especially tight grip on an oxblood leather attache case.

"It's even got brass corners," Frank said.

"That's where the money is."

There was, he said, no sign of accompanying goons. He was sure the man had come to deal. And Darling hadn't spotted Kim. After she'd pointed him out, Frank had kept her in the background. Even if Darling suspected he was being watched, he had no knowledge of who his watcher was. He put Kim on the line.

"God, it's exciting! I've been dreaming about this for weeks. Just a few more hours, Geoffrey.

"Yeah. Then easy street," I said.

they returned to the motel a little after 3:00 P.m. to give me their report.

Darling had rented a car and driven to Saiita Fe. As instructed, he'd taken a casita at the posh Rancho Encantato. As soon as he'd checked in, Kim had called him on the house phone, told him to present himself at the front gate at 5:45. She'd pick him up no later than 6:00. If anyone was with him, or if he wasn't carrying the money, or any attempt was made to follow her car; the deal was off. He had only one shot at buying our photographs. Blow it, she told him, and he'd be out of luck.

Now she wanted to rest until it was time to pick Darling up.

"Got to come down from the high," she said.

"See you on the battlefield." She kissed me at the door.

Once we were back in Frank's car, he turned to me.

"Play kissy-pussy games with Grace-that's what she means by 'rest."

" I asked him what he thought of her.

"Attractive and seductive. Can't blame you for falling for her, Geof.

"But you wouldn't have-is that what you're saying?"

"No, I'm not saying that. I might have fallen for her too. "

"So, I haven't been a total fool."

"The only fools in this game," he said, "will be the guys who end up dead."

Out at the site we went over everything, walking through the exchange three times. I played Darling's part, Kim's, and then my own. I understood my most important task was to give Kim and Darling the impression that Frank was hidden behind the storefront watching my back.

When Frank thought I was sufficiently rehearsed, he presented me with a chocolate bar and a thermos of water. He suggested I take some pictures. He thought using my camera would help me pass the hours until Kim and Darling arrived.

He wished me luck with Kim, and I wished him luck with Grace, then he got into his car.

"So, now it's just the two of us," I said. "Yep. Just like a buddy picture, Geof."

I didn't use my camera to pass the time. At that point photography seemed irrelevant. There were two cameras around my neck, one of which wasn't a camera but a gun. But, on that particular afternoon, it was the phony camera that seemed most real.