Secret Prey

THIRTY-ONE

LUCAS WENT TO LUNCH WITH DEL, WHO SAID, I CANTshake free of this opium thing. A couple of the old ladies have been calling every day, wanting to know what were gonna do.

Thats your problem, thank God, Lucas said. Go over and talk to Towson or one of his guys, see what they want to do.

They want it to go away, Del said. So does Rose Marie. Nobody wants to deal with it. Idont want to deal with it anymore. Hell, Im going on vacation in two weeks. Im finally getting my shot at Cancu

ґn. But now these oldladies, they want something done.

Why? Tell them to keep their mouths shut, and everybodyll forget it, Lucas said.

Theyre not thinking that way. Theyve all been getting together in these fuckin… covens. They think theyve got to pay their debt to society, Del said morosely.

Jesus. Well, you asked for it, Lucas said brightly. I feel for you, pal. But when that doc told you about it, you coulda walked away.

Ah, man, you gotta find a way to help.

Not me. Lucas laughed, and thought, My God, I thinkI just chortled. Im not Narcotics. Go talk to the guys down there.

They treat me like I got the plague…

Thats cause yougotthe plague, Lucas said. I dont want to hear about it.

Fuck me, Del said, moodily. I wasnt cut out for this.

Lucas laughed again, said, Nobody is. Sixty old ladies? Is that what it is? You poor fuck. Youre dead meat.

Del looked at his watch. That lab report is about due.

Lets get back, Lucas said.

You think you got her?

Its almost too much to hope for, Lucas said. When Helen said she had a hair sample, my teeth almost fell out.

LUCAS HAD A MESSAGE WHEN HE GOT BACK: CALL DAVIS. Davis Ericson worked in the state crime lab. He punched in the number, and Ericson picked up.

Whatd you get?

Lucas. Tell you what, Ive never seen this before. Not in real life.

What? You got arsenic?

The hair is stiff with it, Ericson said. She mustve been eating it for a month before she croaked.

Goddamnit, Davis.

LUCAS PUNCHED IN THE COUNTY ATTORNEYS NUMBER, waited for three minutes, and Kirk, the chief of the criminal division, picked up. Lucas explained about the lock of hair.

If Helen can swear that it came from her mother, then that might do it, Kirk said.

Thats where Helen says it comes from.

Give me her name and address. Well set up an appointment for a deposition.

What about Audrey?

Easiest way to do it is, well talk to the judge, and have bail revoked on the killing of her husband. And then beforetomorrows bail hearing, wed get an arrest affidavit put together on her mother, and arrest her on that. Maybe boost the charge on her husband to first degree.

So how long is that gonna take? The bail revocation?

Mmm… well have to get some stuff in writing. If youll set out the circumstances of obtaining the hair sample, and describe the lab testjust in general termsand walk it over here, Ill have a secretary put together an affidavit and well have the judge sign it this afternoon. If you can get your memo over here in an hour, well have it done by the end of the day.

And then we pick her up.

Yup. We could have her inside for supper.

Excellent, Lucas said.

AUDREY HAD BEEN UP MOST OF THE NIGHT, PACKING. She wanted to have it done in case she was rearrested, so that Wilsons clothing wouldnt still be hanging in the closets when she got back. She was eradicating the sight of him.

And she would probably be rearrested, she thought. If Davenport really had that hair, he would probably be coming for her in the next day or two. How long would a lab take? She had no idea. But she was certain it couldnt be done before nine oclock in the morning.

By seven-thirty, with four hours out for sleep, she was done with the packing. After a last quick check around, she hauled the boxes down to the front entry, and stacked them. After a quick shower and a change of clothes, she went to the library, fired up the computer, brought up Word, and wrote for half an hour, editing and reediting as she worked. Satisfied, she dumped the document to a floppy disk, put it in her purse.

At nine oclock, she was out of the house.

THE GOLD BUG WAS A CUSTOM JEWELRY BOUTIQUE ON the south side of Minneapolis. A half-dozen craftsmen worked out of a small common smelting area, with actualfabrication of jewelry done in separate shops on a wing off the smelting area. Shed been there once before, with a ladies tour group from the country club, to look at gold jewelry and how it was made.

She hadnt bought any gold, but shed found the tour interesting.

A tall, bony redheaded woman was working at the desk, looked up and said a cheery Hello as Audrey tentatively poked her nose through the door.

Hello. Are the shops open?

Sure. Go on down. Do you know…?

Yes. Ive been here before.

Audrey scuttled away down the wing, walked past the open fire door that led to the smelting area, slowed, looked inside. A sign beside the door said, Please come in and watch; but please be quiet.

One man was working at an exhaust hood; three other hoods were vacant. He looked up, focused on her.

Im sorry, she said. Is it… okay?

Sure. Come on in. Im just smelting a little gold, here. She walked in with her purse clutched in front of her, an old lady. Shed have to work on this image, a little, she thought. If she got in the newspapers, perhaps she should look younger…

The goldsmith had gone back to his work, a small crucible that he worked with a torch; she couldnt see exactly what he was doing, but didnt particularly care. She wasnt interested in goldwork. With her eyes fixed on the torch, she drifted to another one of the exhaust hoods. The table beside it was empty. Goddamnit. She passed behind him, now looking around at the equipment, then turned so she could watch him from the other side. He was vaguely aware of her, she thought, but he was used to being watched, and paid no real attention.

She moved up to the next exhaust hood, and saw the bottle.

That was it. She stood next to the table, and when he momentarily turned away, his back more toward her, shereached carefully out, picked it up, and slipped it into her coat pocket. It was small, no bigger than a shotgun shell or an old iodine bottle. With the bottle in her hand, she moved closer to him.

Very interesting, she said finally, as he finished a small pour into what looked like a lump of plaster.

Simple enough, after youve done it awhile, he said.

She had no idea of what was going on, said, Thank you, and still looking carefully around the smelting room, drifted out the door. She stopped at two of the shops, looking at their small display cases. Then, glancing at her watchit was already past ten oclockshe headed for the door.

Have a nice day, the redhead said, as she left.

You betcha.

TWENTY MINUTES LATER, AFTER A QUICK STOP AT A drugstore to buy a pack of razor blades, she fixed the pill in the parking lot of a Burger King. First, she took one of the Prozac capsules shed gotten from Helen, carefully pulled the cap apart, spilled the drug into the palm of her hand and flicked it out the car window. Then she took out the bottle shed stolen from the Gold Bug and looked at it. The simple label said, CAUTION, and below that, in small letters, Sodium Cyanide. And below that, Poison: If ingested, get physicians help immediately. For industrial use only.

When the club ladies had visited the gold workshop, one of the goldsmiths had joked about using the cyanide to purify recycled gold. The same stuff Hitlers boys had used to kill themselves, hed said. She hadnt known exactly what he was talking aboutpurifying the goldbut she remembered what hed said about Hitlers boys.

The cyanide was an off-white powder, innocent enough. She poured a little on the sandwich box, cut it up with the razor blade, then carefully refilled the Prozac cap with the cyanide. Then she slipped the top back on the cap: not bad. If you looked at it closely, it wasnt quite right. But who looked at pills that closely?

She wrapped the pill in a napkin and put it on the car seat; the sandwich box she carried to a trash can and pushed it inside. A pay phone hung on the wall just inside the Burger King door, and she went in and dialed Helens number. Helen should be working, Connie should be at school. No answer. As a double check, she got the number of the auto parts place from directory assistance, called, and asked for Helen. Helen answered a second later, and Audrey clicked off as soon as she recognized her sisters voice.

Helens house was no more than ten minutes away. If she tried to do something subtle, to sneak in, shed probably draw more attention in the neighborhood than if she barged right in. She parked on the street, waited until she could see no one on the sidewalk, then hurried up the walk, through the outer porch, and rang the doorbell. No answer. She leaned on it the next time, ringing for a solid minute. Nothing.

Good.

She took her keys from her purse, found the key for Helens house, opened the door and went inside. The house was deathly quiet. She went straight through to Helens bedroom, to the corner where she kept her computer. Switched it on, took the floppy disk from her pocket, went to theMy Documentsfolder. Helen had written a note to herself two months earlier, but the computer would update the time to show the last entry. Audrey slipped the floppy in the drive, brought up the text shed written that morning, pasted it into the earlier note. Then she cut the text of the note itself, and checked her work.

If I die… the note began.

Im sorry about everything! I killed those people, not Audrey! But Audrey was my only support, and I had to do something if Wilson was going to move up at the bank! If Wilson had lost his job all those years ago, what would have happened to Connie and me? Without the money from Audrey, we would have been on the street! My former husband is good for NOTHING!!! But I didnt kill Mr. Kresge! I think that must have been an accident! And Chief Davenport, if somebody shows this to you, yes, I called you. I could no longer stand the way Wilson was treating Audrey! I was afraid he would kill her! I thought you would do an investigation and his treatment of her would come out and nobody would ever know it was me that called you, and Audrey could keep helping me, because now, if they got divorced, shed get all kinds of money! ConnieI love you. You go stay with your aunt Audrey, because she really loves you. Im sorry for all of this!!

And at the bottom of the note, shed left all the fragments of sentences that shed pushed while editing: I fearedilling heraaacidentkill treeting Wil; slonMisterKresgeWithout money I got from Audrey.

It would, she hoped, look like a practice note; she was especially proud of all the exclamation points. Helen used them everywhere, as though they were periods.

She closed the file, shut down the machine, put the disk in her purse, and headed for the bedroom. Helen carried a pill case with a chiming clock to remind her to take the pills; she took one at noon every day. The Prozac bottle itself she kept in the bedroom, in her bureau drawer. Audrey found the bottle, unscrewed the top, looked inside. A dozen pills. Carefully unwrapping the cyanide pill in the napkin, she let it drop on top of the pills in the bottle, and replaced the bottle, shut the drawer.

Out of the house: shed been inside no more than ten minutes, she thought. As she drove away, she moved in the car seat and felt the cyanide bottle in her pocket. She should ditch it somewhere, she thought. But she liked the idea of it. A bottle of death. She thought about it for a while, then stopped in a park, where a thin shell of woods surrounded a small drainage lake. She stepped just inside the tree line, picked out a good-sized oak, walked over to it and sat down. Probed the ground with her car key: Damn. Frozen.

She looked around, spotted a culvert protruding from the edge of an embankment. She walked over to it, pushed the bottle well under the culvert. The bottle should be safe for years, she thought. Did cold weather affect cyanide? She had no idea.

Now, she thought, standing up.

Where are you, Davenport?