Four Blind Mice

Chapter Seventy-Three

I could feel a cold spot where my heart was supposed to be. This couldn't all be leading to Kyle Craig. I had put him here in Florence for all the murders he had committed and now, somehow, he'd gotten me to come and visit.

“Hello, Alex. I thought you'd forgotten all about me,” Kyle said when he saw me. We met in a small interviewing room near his cellblock. My head was full of paranoid thoughts about the 'coincidence' of seeing him again. He couldn't have set this up. Not even he could do that.

Kyle had changed physically, so much so that he resembled one of his older brothers, or maybe his father, more than himself. When I had been pursuing him, I'd met everyone in Kyle's family. He'd always been gaunt, but in prison he had lost at least twenty pounds. His head was shaven and he had a tattoo on one side of his skull: it was part dragon, part snake. He actually looked like a killer now.

"Sit down, Alex. I missed you even more than I thought

I would. Sit, please. Let's talk the talk. Catch up with the catch up."

“I'll stand, thanks. I'm not here to make small talk, Kyle. What do you know about these murders?”

“They've all been solved by the police or the Army, Alex. The guilty have been charged, and in some cases executed. Just as I will be eventually. Why waste your time on them? I'm a hundred times more interesting. You should be studying me.”

His words were delivered in a low-key manner, but they went through me like a powerful electric current. Was Kyle the missing goddamn connection? He couldn't be behind the murders? They had started long before he'd been arrested. But did that really matter?

“So, you don't know anything that can help me? Then I'm leaving. Have a nice life.”

Kyle raised a hand. “I'd like to help, Alex. I mean that sincerely. Just like the old days. I miss it. The chase. What if I could help?” he asked.

“If you can, then do it, Kyle. Do it right now. We'll see where it goes from there.”

Kyle leaned back in his chair. Finally, he smiled, or maybe he was laughing at me? "Well since you didn't ask, it's better here in prison than I could have hoped. Believe it or not, I'm a minor celebrity. And not just among my peers. Even the kick-ass guards cater to my wishes. I have lots of visitors. I'm writing a book, Alex. And, of course, I'm figuring out some way to get out of here. Trust me, I will some day. It's just a matter of time. It almost happened a month ago. This close. I would have come to visit,

of course. You and Nana and those sweet children."

“Does Luu know anything?”I asked.

“Oh, absolutely. He's very well read. Speaks three languages fluently. I like Luu very much. We're dear friends. I also like Ted Kaczynski; Yu Kikimura, the Japanese terrorist; and Ramon Matta, formerly with the Medellin cartel. Interesting inmates, fascinating lives, though more conservative than I would have expected. Not Ted, but the others.”

I'd had enough. Of Kyle Craig. Luu. Florence.

“I'm going,” I said. I started to walk away.

“You'll be back,” Kyle whispered. “Or maybe I'll come and visit you next time. At any rate, best of luck with your fascinating murder case.”

I turned back. “You'll be in here for the rest of your life. Not too long, I hope.”

Kyle Craig laughed heartily. More than ever, he gave me the creeps.