Giles Blunt - Forty Words for Sorrow

The radio sprayed static, and Mary Flower's voice filled the car. "Could be a wait for backup. Jackknifed tractor-trailer on the overpass's got traffic backed up for two miles."

"Acknowledged," Cardinal said into the mike. "What's the computer say about Eric Fraser?"

"Nada. Zero locally on Eric Fraser. Nada."

"Doesn't surprise me," Cardinal said. "Troy says he can't be more than twenty-seven, twenty-eight."

"Also zero for nationwide," Flower said. "Clean as a whistle."

"What about Juvie? That's where we'll find him, if he has a record."

"Hold on. Juvie's coming." They heard Flower scream to someone to bring her the printout sometime before next Christmas. "Bingo on Juvie. You ready?"

"Cruelty to animals," Cardinal said to Delorme. "Bet you anything. Go ahead, Mary."

"Age of thirteen, break and enter. Age of fourteen, break and enter. Age of fifteen, cruelty to animals."

"That's our boy," Delorme said.

A faint electrical charge tingled along Cardinal's fingertips. If he had to resign, this was the way to go: stop a serial killer in mid-career- you couldn't ask for a better exit.

McLeod pulled up at the corner by MacPherson, wipers flapping. Cardinal had warned everyone to stay away from the house till he got there. When McLeod saw them he got out of the car and came sprinting across the intersection, holding his hood up with one hand against the rain. He climbed in the back with Collingwood, cursing. "Fucking February, I ask you. Who ever heard of a fucking monsoon in February? It's the fucking pollution from Sudbury doing it. Whole fucking town's melted."

Flower said, "Fraser also did a stint at St. Bartholomew's Training School. Two years less a day."

"Assault, I bet," Cardinal said into the mike.

From the radio, "Aggravated assault. Had a disagreement with his shop teacher concerning the whereabouts of certain equipment."

"And he did some carving on him, right?"

"Nope. Right there in class. Went after him with a blowtorch."

KEITH London dreamed he was swimming in a bright green pool, deep in a jungle, where monkeys sat in a row upon a low-hanging branch and drank thirstily with cupped hands. Except for the ripples that spread outward from the monkeys' hands, the surface was tranquil as jade. The smell of water was strong.

He opened his eyes. That smell of water. Was it from rain? He could hear the sound of rain pelting against wood.

His head felt as if it had been split open from crown to nape; the pain made him nauseous. He turned his head slightly and nearly vomited. Wherever he was, the place was very dark, very damp, and very cold. He was dressed, now, in clothes he did not remember putting on- a torn sweater and jeans- and they were not enough to keep out the cold. Off to one side, a space heater glowed a fierce scarlet, but its heat did not reach him. Eric Fraser was about ten feet away, setting a camera on a tripod.

I'm on a table. They have me on a table in a basement somewhere. That damp smell. I'm near a lake. The damp has a definite, full-time smell. And yes, that is rain- rain blowing against boarded-up windows. Huge pipes crisscrossed the ceiling overhead, disappearing into darkness. Of course. The pump house.

He tried to move, but his arms were strapped tightly to his sides and to the table. The only thing he could move was his head. Eric was concentrating on leveling the camera, bending down to adjust first one leg of the tripod, then another. Try to reason with him, reach him before he goes into a frenzy like he did on that videotape. "Listen, Eric," Keith said quietly. "My girlfriend will be missing me by now. I told her where I am, who I was staying with. It was in the letter I wrote."

This was ignored. Eric Fraser adjusted yet another leg of the tripod, humming to himself, and then, apparently satisfied, began pulling objects out of a duffel bag- Keith's duffel bag- and laying them out on a wooden counter.

Keith tried not to look. He concentrated on controlling his voice. "Eric, I could get you money. I'm not rich, but I could get you money from somewhere. My family is quite well off. So is my girlfriend's. They would pay you something, I'm sure they would."

It was as if Eric Fraser heard nothing of this. He pulled something from the bag- a pair of needlenose pliers, and then he stood over Keith for a moment with glistening ferret's eyes, clicking the pliers open and shut just above his nose.

"We could arrange the payments so no one finds out who you are. It should be possible. It wouldn't have to be a single payment, necessarily. There's no reason why it couldn't go on for some time. Please, Eric. Will you listen, Eric? You could make thirty or forty thousand dollars. Maybe fifty. Think what that could buy over the years. Why don't you let me call them, Eric?"

Eric Fraser pulled a paper bag from the duffel bag and unwrapped a sandwich. There was a sudden smell of tunafish. He sat in the darkness, blocking the glow from the space heater. A bone in his jaw clicked every time he chewed. After a while he said, "I wish Edie would get here with the lights." He tapped a large battery on the floor with the toe of his boot. "Lighting will be better in this one. Hate it when you can't see what's going on."

"Think about it, Eric. You could be quite well off. You wouldn't have to work. You could buy things. You could travel. You could go where you want, do what you want. What's the use in just killing me? It won't get you anywhere. You'll get caught sooner or later. Why don't you get some money out of this at least? Wouldn't that be better than just killing me?"

Eric finished his sandwich and threw the wrapping on the floor. "I wish Edie would get here with the lights," he said again.

"Eric, I'm begging you, all right? If you want me on my knees, I'll get on my knees. Just tell me what I have to do. Eric? Eric, are you listening? I'm begging for my life. I'll do anything you want. Anything. Just let me live."

This got no response whatever.

"Eric, I'll get more. I promise. I'll steal it. I'll rob a store. I'll do anything, Eric. Just let me go."

Eric slid down off his stool and selected a pair of scissors. He stood over Keith and snicked the blades open and shut. Then, taking hold of Keith's hair just above the ear, he cut away a small lock and held it up in a dim shaft of daylight. "I wish Edie would get here with the lights."

BEYOND the railroad tracks, the old house leaned against the storm. A piece of the eaves trough hung slackly from the porch, weighed down by melting icicles. At one corner of the roof, a piece of tar paper flapped like a shot bird. Horns from traffic on the overpass honked in the distance.

McLeod remembered the place from his days in uniform. "Had to boom their door in practically every Saturday. Old Stanley Markham- Cardinal, you remember Stanley- old Stanley used to go on a toot and come home and tear the place to bits. Strong son of a bitch, too. Broke my arm in two places. That little maneuver cost him three years. Few years back, his liver finally killed him and, boy, do I ever not miss him. Goddam house always stank of cat piss."

Cardinal asked, "Who lives there now?" They were watching the house through flapping wipers as if it might at any moment hoist up its foundations like a tattered skirt and haul off into the freezing rain.

"Who lives there now? Sweet Celeste lives there now, Stanley's loyal widow and one of nature's true troglodytes. Three hundred pounds, voice that can peel paint, and tough as her bastard of a husband, too. If her IQ was any lower you'd have to water the bitch."

"Fraser drives a Ford Windstar," Delorme said quietly. "I don't see it in the driveway."

"Fraser also has a hostage. I'm not going to wait around to find out if he's home or not."