Secret Prey

THIRTY

AT TEN MINUTES AFTER MIDNIGHT, AUDREY WAS STILL packing. The cops had gone, taking a small box of miscellaneous junk with them. It wouldnt amount to anything, she thought. Tape? Everybody had tapethough she wished shed taken a minute to clean those doors after killing ODell. But shed never even thought of it.

On the bright side, shehadthrown away the glass cutter. It was lying somewhere on the shoulder of I-94, gone forever. On the down side, she hadnt thrown it away after she bombed the Bairds. Shed thrown it away after she hit Karkinnen, but only because she hadnt thought shed need it again. She hadntthoughtabout evidence.

She hadnt thought about it since the cremation of her mother. With all the other killings, if shed been caught, she wouldve been caught, and that would have been that. There hadnt seemed any point in worrying about evidence, except in the most gross waysdont leave any fingerprints, dont buy any guns.

Shed have to start thinking.

Shed gotten to Wilsons sweaters. Hed spent a fortune on sweaters, though they made him look the size of an oil tanker. He thought they made him look like a football lineman; in fact, they made him look even fatter than he was. Three hundred dollars for a sweater. I remember when you told me that, I couldnt believe it. Three hundred dollars. And its not just the three hundred dollars; if wed saved it, if wed put it in Vanguard, it would have tripled by now.

Lights in the driveway. She froze. Cops again? She drifted for a few seconds: She hated the police: that Davenport, he was the devil in this deal. A year from now, if she could find a gun, shed take care of him, all right. Give it a year or a little more, and then one night, maybe in January, when peoples doors were shut and windows were closed, shed wait by his house. If she could find a gun like the one shed used on Kresge: now that was a wonderful gun. Wonderful…

And snapped back. A car in the driveway. She hurried to the window, looked down, and saw Helen walking across the driveway toward the front door. Helen? She hadnt called.

A thought stuck her. Helen had been talking to Davenport again. She turned and hurried toward the stairway, as the doorbell rang downstairs.

HELEN LOOKED STRANGE: ORDINARILY NEAT, HER hair was in disarray, her face pinched, her mouth tight. She didnt take off her coat, but simply stood in the entryway.

I dont really know how to ask you this, Audrey. Ill just tell you what Chief Davenport told me. He thinks you killed Mom and Dad. Poisoned them. I told him I didnt think you did, and then I thought about it all evening and finally thought I better come over.

Mom and Dad? Mom and Dad? Do you think I killed Mom and Dad? Audrey was horrified, even as the small kernel in the back of her brain hardened around her secret knowledge.

I… dont think so, Helen said, but her eyes drifted away. When they came back, she said, Chief Davenport thinks thats why they were cremated. To cover up.

Thats ludicrous, Audrey snapped. Davenport is alltied up with Wilsons father; theyre trying to keep me from the money. Wilsons money will go to his father, you know, if they decide Ive committed a crime. Thats all it is: its about money.

Helen looked at her for another moment, a little too coolly, Audrey thought, then said, Okay. I just had to ask. Chief Davenport asked me not to talk to you, so please dont mention itbut I had to come over and ask you.

Audrey turned away, and started wandering back toward the kitchen, as though disoriented, as though saddened by this sisterly betrayal. You must talk to him all the time, she said.

Only three times, Helen said. He doesnt seem like a bad man.

Audrey spun: Oh, snap out of it, Helen, she snarled. You never figured out how things work. You sit down there and sort your little auto parts and the world just goes by. You should ask yourself someday, What happens when I get old? What happens when Im trying to live on Social Security, when nobody wants me anymore? Helen, you just dont have any idea.

Helen turned to the door. Dont worry about me; just worry about yourself, Audrey… By the way, after Mom dieddid you know this? I think you didI took a lock of her hair to put with her picture on the piano. Chief Davenport took it with him. Hes going to have it analyzed by the laboratory.

Well: Im sorry to see you lose your precious lock, but at least itll show she wasnt poisoned, Audrey snapped.

I hope so, Helen said. Audrey, when all this is done, weve got to sit down and talk. So much stuff happened when I was a kid, I never got it straight.

Ill set you straight, Audrey said. Come back when its done.

Helen left, the heavy door wheezing shut behind her: Wilson had insisted on the special door, three inches thick, saying, Its the first thing people will know about us. Two thousand dollars for a door

…

Fuck, she said aloud, wrenching her mind away from Wilson. A lock of hair! Could it really be analyzed, or was it a game that Davenport was playing with her? Was there any way to find out?

Maybe the Internet, though it seemed far-fetched. She went to the library, waited impatiently to get on-line, brought up the Alta Vista search engine, and typed in: ARSENIC HAIR.

Almost immediately, she got back a list of articles, and her heart sank. The first one was, improbably, on Napoleon. She opened it, and it referred to arsenic content in Napoleons hair. Shit. She went to the next one, something to do with analysis, and it also mentioned arsenic in hair. Hair.

She punched the off button on the computer, and the computers fan moaned as it closed down. The computer didnt like that, she thought. Didnt like to be up and running, and then cut off.

Fuck the computer.

Arsenic and hair. She had to do something, and do it quickly.