The Dead Man

Chapter Thirty-nine

"What do you make of that?" Carter asked.

"Harper says that's how he keeps track of what's going on at the institute."

"If he was concerned about what happened with Delaney, Blair, and Enoch, it makes sense that he'd take a look at their videos," Lucy said.

"After they died, but not before," Carter said, echoing my own concerns. "He's got to be too busy to single out three research subjects for special attention and he's got to be too smart to hire you to investigate Delaney's and Blair's deaths if he had something to do with them."

"We've got Enoch's video but we need to see the videos Delaney and Blair made to get a handle on this," Lucy said.

"Gentry came through on their videos. He e-mailed them to me," I said.

I brought up the e-mail screen on my desktop. Gentry's e-mail was at the top of the list. I downloaded the Blair video and the three of us crowded around my monitor as the credits rolled with Gary Kaufman doing the narration: Harper Institute of the Mind Dream Project, Subject-Regina Blair, Date: November 28.

The video ran twelve minutes. Regina was composed through the first eight minutes, Kaufman explaining the procedure, Regina acknowledging her understanding of the process and her willingness to participate. When Kaufman asked her to describe her dream, she tilted her head back, closed her eyes, and breathed steadily before she answered, keeping her eyes closed. As she spoke, she hunched her shoulders and held herself with crossed arms.

"I'm in a dark place. It's not pitch black but almost. There are shadows and bits of light. I can't figure out where the light is coming from and everywhere I turn, I can't find anything to touch or hold on to. I start taking little steps with my hands in front of me. I'm trying to find my way out and my heart starts beating so fast I can't breathe. I'm sweating and I'm calling for help but I can't hear my own voice and no one answers. Then I start shaking and I feel cold and hot at the same time and then it's just light enough for me to see that I'm standing on a ledge looking down and there's no bottom, no end, and then I'm falling. I don't even know what made me fall but I can't stop and I scream all the way down."

She opened her eyes, tears streaming down her face as she shook. The camera closed in until her face filled the screen before going black.

It wasn't an unusual dream. I'd had dreams of being lost, of falling. Knowing her dream had come as true as any dream could made it feel real, infecting me with a fleeting sense of vertigo.

No one said anything as I downloaded Delaney's video. Corliss's voice provided the introductory narrative, the onscreen credits noting the date as December 22.

"Corliss told me that the research assistants are supposed to shoot the videos but he shot Walter Enoch's video and this one."

The camera was focused on Delaney. Like Enoch, he was sitting in the same chair where the police found his body, an entertainment center behind him, television in the middle, books lining shelves on either side.

"That's Delaney's place," Lucy said. "The entertainment center was still there when I was in the apartment."

"The videos were supposed to be done at the institute. Corliss said he took Enoch's video at the house because he wanted to know more about him. I wonder what his excuse is for taking Delaney's at his apartment."

"One thing is for sure," Lucy said, "both Enoch and Delaney would be more likely to let Corliss in if he'd been there once before and there was no sign of forcible entry at either place."

"And Kent and Dolan were interviewing Corliss about the Enoch case when Anne Kendall's body was found."

"Okay, okay," Carter said, "I'm paying attention."

I'd brought my copies of the incident reports on Delaney and Blair to the institute. I spread out the photos of Delaney's apartment the police had taken on my desk. Delaney's body had been found in a swivel chair, the chair turned with its back to the television. The photographs showed the body from a variety of angles as well as the rest of the room. Two of the photographs included the entertainment center. I froze the video image of the entertainment center and compared it to the photographs.

"Look at the shelf to the left of the television," I said. "In the video, the shelf is full. In the photographs, it's half empty. Something is missing."

"So what?" Carter said.

"So the killer could have shot Delaney, put the gun in his hand, and fired it again into a couple of books. Delaney ends up with powder burns on his hand. The bullet ends up in one of the books and the killer takes the books and the missing bullet with him."

Carter stepped back from the monitor. "That's what you want me to hang my hat on? No disrespect, Jack, but all that shaking you been doing must have scrambled your brain."

"What about the angle of entry of the bullet? You really think Delaney committed suicide by wrapping his arm around his head to shoot himself? That's crazy!"

"Committing suicide is just one of the crazy things crazy people do," Carter said. "I'm out of here."

"At least stay and watch the rest," I said.

"What for? I got enough nightmares of my own. I don't need nobody else's."

"Five minutes. That's all I'm asking. You said you need the overtime."

Carter let out a long breath. "You don't give up, do you, man?"

"Not yet."

I pushed the play button and the three of us watched, shoulder-to-shoulder. Corliss coaxed and coached Delaney through the preliminaries, Delaney agreeing to the videotaping, acknowledging that the video may be shown to others and that Delaney understood that this was for research purposes only and that no treatment was being given. Delaney showed no emotion throughout the exchange, his face flat, his voice flatter. Then Corliss steered the conversation to Delaney's nightmare.

CORLISS: How are you feeling, Tom?

DELANEY: Like shit.

CORLISS: Are you sleeping?

DELANEY: Some. Not much.

CORLISS: Why not?

DELANEY: I don't know.

CORLISS: What happens when you sleep?

DELANEY: I keep having the same dream.

CORLISS: Tell me about the dream.

DELANEY: I already told you when I signed up for the project.

CORLISS: I know you did. That's why I wanted to make this videotape. Your dream is important to the project.

DELANEY: Okay. I'm sitting right here. In this chair. I take my gun and put it up against my head, like this.

He lifted his shirt and pulled the Beretta from his waistband with his right hand and placed the barrel flush against his right temple.

CORLISS: But you don't pull the trigger in your dream. Why not?

DELANEY: 'Cause I'm a chicken-shit loser, that's why." CORLISS: It's okay, Tom. Put the gun away."

I paused the video, looking at Carter.

"You see what he did with the gun?" Lucy asked. "Right hand to right temple. No wrap around gymnastics."

"Yeah, I see it," Carter said.

"Still think I got a whole lot of nothing?" I asked Carter.

"I think you got enough for a third look. Give me your cell number." I wrote it out for him and he handed me his card. "E-mail address is on there. Shoot that video to me," he said and left.