Greg Iles - Turning Angel

”And you?“

”The last guy to leave stuck me again, in the balls this time. Then he left me there to die. I tell you, man, I don’t know how I made it.“

”Or why.“

Marko nodded vehemently. ”That’s right! Why, you know?“

”There’s no answer to that.“

”I guess not. Anyway, they moved me to a hospital in Sarajevo. They thought they were helping me. In some ways it was better there, other ways worse. But I learned to survive. And I got some payback.“

”How’s that?“

”Me and some guys, we found some Serb girls later on. One or two at a time, you know? When we finished, we’d say, ‘Tell them it’s for Srebece.’“

”Why did you do that?“

Marko looked confused. ”Because that’s what they did to us. To our women.“

”The girls you raped didn’t do anything to you.“

More confusion. ”They were Serbs, man.“

”Why didn’t you target soldiers instead?“

A sly smile. ”We did that, too. We fucked some people up.“

I walked to the window and looked out at the bypass. Cars were passing outside, the people inside them oblivious to most of what had happened in their town last night, unable even to imagine the horrors that Marko Bakic had endured in his hometown.

”What about Kate?“ I asked.

Marko’s face closed. ”That’s something else, man. That was an accident.“

”What do you mean?“

”I always liked Kate. More than that, really. She wasn’t like the other girls. She had something.“

”You had a thing for her?“

”Yeah. From the time I first got here. But I was cool about it. Kate was that type, you know? If you let her know you wanted her, she wouldn’t look at you. So I waited.“

”And you slept with Mia Burke.“

Another sly smile. ”You know about that? Yeah. Mia’s hot, too. But Kate…she had a dark side I liked. But she was dating that stupid football player. Anyway, I watched her for a long time. I was starting to think I’d never get my chance, but then…“

”She came to you for the pills.“

”Yeah.“

”You thought you had her then.“

Marko nodded. ”Cyrus fucked that up.“

”So what did you do?“

”I kept waiting. I know how to wait, man. You learn to wait for water, you can wait for anything. I followed her sometimes. I even tracked her cell phone at the end.“

”Like Cyrus?“

Marko laughs. ”Cyrus never tracked her phone. I just told the cop that to get him off my back.“

So Sonny Cross never got the truth from Marko, not even with his Dirty Harry tactics. ”You were trying to cut Cyrus out of the trade, weren’t you? You and the Asians.“

”Think so?“

”You shot those people at Cyrus’s safe house. You were trying to kill him.“

Marko can’t conceal his pride.

”That’s why Cyrus’s guys went to the Wilsons‘, to get payback.“

The arrogance vanishes, replaced by a terrible bitterness.

”Let’s get back to Kate,“ I say quietly. ”Were you following her on the day she died?“

Marko raises his cuffed hands and scratches at the bandage on his shoulder. ”Yeah. When the guys picked me up at Coach Anders’s house, I ran home and checked my computer. I got a fix on her, and got them to drop me down by the creek. Not too close, though. They left me in front of a friend’s house. I didn’t want them telling Cyrus what I was doing. I went in from Sherwood Estates, not Pinehaven.“

”How did you find her?“ I asked, remembering Ellen’s version of the story.

”I wasn’t sure exactly where she was. I figured she was jogging by the water, but it had been raining, so I wasn’t sure. I went down there to see.“

”What did you find?“

”Kate, man. Her legs were lying in the water, and she was bleeding from the head.“

”Was she wearing clothes?“

”Sure. Tennis dress.“

”And a top?“

”Yeah.“

”What did you do?“

Marko’s eyes were fixed on the foot of his bed. He seemed to be reliving what had happened next in his mind. ”I tried to wake her up. I couldn’t tell if she was breathing or not. I didn’t think so.“

”And then?“

His eyes suddenly sought out mine, imploring me for understanding. ”I got to looking at her. She was wearing that skirt, and it started getting to me. Kate was hot, man. She reminded me a little of my sister. More than a little, really.“

”What did you do?“

”I decided to take a look. I pushed up her shirt. I squeezed her tits a little bit. She didn’t move, but she was still warm, you know?“

I nodded as though I understood his logic.

”It made me hard, touching her, so I pulled down her skirt and went inside her.“

Jesus.

”It took some work, man. She was dry like sandpaper. But after a while, I got in there.“

A wave of heat passes through my face.

Marko shrugged. ”What would you do, man? Like I said, she was warm. It was just like the real thing, only she wasn’t moving. Some chicks are like that anyway, you know? I don’t know what happened to Kate. I think she hit her head on something.“

”What happened next? Was she dead at that point?“

”That’s the thing, man! I did her for a while-both ways, you know? But when I was almost finished, suddenly her eyes opened up. Boom, she was looking at me! It freaked me out, because she started screaming. Loud. I told her to be quiet, but she wouldn’t shut up. She tried to throw me off her, but I was so close, man, I just had to finish. You know that feeling?“

”Sure,“ I said, trying hard not to climb onto the bed and strangle him.

”I put my hands on her neck. Just to shut her up, right? Not to kill her or anything. Just to keep her quiet until I was done.“

”I understand. She wouldn’t shut up. So what happened?“

”Nothing, really.“ Marko squinted as though to see the memory more clearly. ”After I came, her eyes were closed again. I think she just died, man. I don’t think I even killed her. I think whatever happened before I got there killed her.“

Unbelievable. ”And then?“

”I heard someone coming. Moving fast. I thought maybe it was a deer, but when it got close, I could tell it was human. I ran across the creek and got down behind some bamboo.“

”Who was it?“

”The doctor. Elliott. He ran up to Kate and fell down on his knees. He pounded on her chest, then started pumping it like they do on TV. But it was no use. She was gone.“

”And then?“

Marko made a derogatory sound. ”He was crying, screaming at the sky. I saw that all the time in the city.“

”Sarajevo?“

”Yeah. After a sniper hit somebody. People cursing God, wailing, screaming at heaven. But you know what? Not one person ever got up and walked again. God didn’t save any of them.“

”What’s your point?“

”No point, man. That’s the point.“

I realized I’d heard enough. The rest of the story didn’t interest me. I knew without asking that Marko had been the blackmailer on the motorcycle that first night, exploiting what he’d seen that afternoon to get more money and drugs. I didn’t know who’d helped him, but neither did I care enough to give him the satisfaction of asking. Marko would soon be convicted by a jury, and his fate would be up to those twelve people. It was time for me to put it all behind me. I turned away from him and walked to the door.

”Hey,“ he called. ”You leaving?“

”Yes.“

”Wait up.“

I turned back. ”What is it?“

”Did you fuck Mia?“

I stared at him in disbelief.

”Come on, man. Did you?“

”No.“

He laughed softly. ”Too bad. She’s good.“