Silent Prey

CHAPTER
30

The walls of Lily's office seemed to melt, and Petty was there, the adult face superimposed on the child's face, both of them together.

And then Kennett's face.

Kennett's face in the dark, in Lily's bedroom. Must've been in winter: she'd bought a Christmas tree, shipped into a lot on Sixth Avenue from somewhere in Maine, and she could remember the scent of pine needles in the apartment as they talked.

No sex, just sleeping together. Kennett laughing about it, but unhappy, too. His heart attack not that far past…

"Hanging out with a geek," he said. "I can't believe it. I'm not enough, she's got a geek on the side."

"Not a geek," she said.

"All right. A dork. A nerd. Revenge of the Nerds, visited on Richard X. Kennett personally. A nerd may be dorking my woman. Or wait, maybe it's a dork is nerding my woman. Or wait…"

"Shut up," she said, mock-severely. "Or I will fondle your delicate parts and then leave you hanging-in good health, of course."

"Lily…" A change of tone. Sex on the mind.

"No. I'm sorry I said it. Kennett…"

"All right. Back to the dork…"

"He's not a dork. He's really a nice guy, and if he cracks this thing, he could go somewhere…"

She'd talked, Lily had, about the Robin Hood case. She'd talked in bed. She'd talked about the intelligence guys who'd stumbled over it, she'd talked about Petty being assigned to it, she'd talked about computers.

Not all at once. Not formally. But bits and pieces. Pillow talk. But Kennett got most of it. With what Copland overheard, and what Kennett got in bed, they must've known it all.

Petty's image floated in her mind's eye, his hair slicked down, his red ears sticking out, running down the Brooklyn sidewalk with the paper overhead, so happy to see her…

"I killed you," she said to his image, speaking aloud. Her voice was stark as a winter crow. "I killed you, Walt."