The Poet

49

Backus said the story was like a sheet hanging on a clothesline in high wind. Barely held on by a few clothespins, it was ready to fly away.

"We need more, Jack."

I nodded. He was the expert. Besides, the real trial had already been held in my heart and the verdict was in.

"What are you going to do?" I asked.

"I'm thinking. You had-you were beginning a relationship with her, weren't you?"

"It was that obvious?"

"Yes."

Then he didn't say anything for a full minute. He paced the room, not really looking at anything, all interior dialogue and thought. Finally, he stopped moving and looked at me.

"Would you wear a wire?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean. I'll bring her back here, put her alone with you and you draw it out. You might be the only one who could."

I looked down at the floor. I remembered our last phone conversation and how she had seen through my act.

"I don't know. I don't think I could pull it off."

"She might be suspicious and check," Backus said, discarding the idea and searching the floor with his eyes for another. "Still, you're the one, Jack. You're not an agent and she knows if need be she can take you."

"Take me where?"

"Take you out." He snapped his fingers. "I've got it. You won't have to wear a wire. We'll put you inside the wire."

"What are you talking about?"

He raised a finger as if to tell me to hold on. He picked up the phone, wedged the receiver into the crook of his neck and carried it with him while he tapped in a number and waited for an answer. The cord was like a leash, containing his pacing to only a few steps in any direction.

"Pack your things," he said to me while waiting for the call to be picked up.

I got up and slowly began to follow his order, putting my few things in the computer bag and the pillowcase while listening as he asked for Agent Carter and then began issuing directions. He told Carter to call Quantico communications and to relay a message to the bureau jet with Rachel on it. Call the plane back, Backus ordered.

"Just tell them something's come up that cannot be discussed on the air and that I need her back here," he said into the phone. "Nothing more than that. Understand?"

Satisfied with Carter's reply, he pressed on.

"Now, before you do that, put me on hold and call the SAC's office. I need the exact address and key combination for the earthquake house. He'll know what I mean. I'll be going there from here. I want you to grab a sound and video tech and two good agents. I'll fill you in there. Call the SAC now."

I looked at Backus with a curious expression.

"I'm on hold."

"Earthquake house?"

"Clearmountain told me about it. It's in the hills over the Valley. Top to bottom it's wired. Sound and video. It was damaged in the quake and the real owners just left it, didn't have insurance. The bureau leased it from the bank and used it for a sting on local building and safety inspectors, contractors and repairmen. A lot of fraud involving the funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. That's where the bureau came in. Indictments are pending. The sting's been closed down but the bureau's lease isn't up. So it's-"

He held his hand up. Carter had come back on the line. Backus listened for a few moments and nodded his head.

"Right on Mulholland and then the first left. Easy enough. What's your ETA?"

He hung up after telling Carter we'd get there ahead of him and adding that he needed the agent's best work on this.

As Backus drove away from the hotel I made a secret salute to the Marlboro Man. We went east on Sunset to Laurel Canyon Boulevard and then up the winding cut through the mountains.

"How's this going to work?" I asked him. "How are you going to get Rachel up to this place we're going?"

"You'll leave a message for Rachel on her voice mail at Quantico. You'll tell her you're at a friend's house-somebody you used to know from the paper who moved out here-and leave the number. Then when I talk to Rachel I'll tell her I called her back from Florida because you've been making calls and strange accusations about her but nobody knows where you are. I'll tell her I think you've popped too many pain pills but that we need to bring you in."

I was feeling increasingly uncomfortable about the prospect of being used as bait and having to face Rachel. I did not know how I'd be able to bring it off.

"Eventually," Backus continued, "Rachel will get the message. But she won't call you. Instead, she'll trace the number to the house and she'll go to you, Jack. Alone. For one of two things."

"What?" I asked, though I already had a pretty good idea.

"To either try to set you straight… or to kill you. She'll think you're the only one who knows. She'll need to convince you that you are wrong about these wild-ass ideas. Or she'll need to put you in the ground. My guess is that it will be the ground."

I nodded. It was my guess, too.

"But we'll be there. Inside with you, close."

It wasn't comforting.

"I don't know…"

"Not to worry, Jack," Backus said, reaching over and giving me a playful punch on the shoulder. "You'll be all right and this time we're going to do it right. What you do have to worry about is getting her to talk. Get her on the tape, Jack. Get her admitting to just one part of the Poet's story and we've got her for the rest. Get her on tape."

"I'll try."

"You'll be fine."

At Mulholland Drive, Backus turned right as Carter had instructed and we followed the road as it snaked along the mountain crest, offering a view through the darkening haze of the Valley below. We serpentined for nearly a mile until we saw Wrightwood Drive and turned left and descended into a neighborhood of small houses built on steel pylons, their weight hanging out over the mountain's edge, precarious testaments to engineering and the desires of developers to leave their mark on every crest in the city.

"Do you believe people live in these things?" Backus asked.

"Hate to be in one during an earthquake."

Backus drove slowly, checking the address numbers painted on the curb. I let him do that while I watched between the houses for glimpses of the Valley below. It was approaching dusk and many of the lights were coming on down there. Backus finally stopped the car in front of a house on a bend in the road.

"This is it."

It was a small, wood-frame structure. From the front the pylons that supported it could not be seen and it seemed to be floating above the deep drop-off to the Valley. We both looked at it for a long moment without making a move to get out.

"What if she knows about the house?"

"Rachel? She won't, Jack. I only know because of Clearmountain. It came up during a bit of gossip. Some of the guys from the FO use the place on occasion, if you know what I mean. When they're with someone they can't bring home."

I looked over at him and he winked at me.

"Let's check it out," he said. "Don't forget your stuff."

There was a lockbox on the front door. Backus knew the combination and opened it, retrieved the key from the tiny compartment and opened the door.

He entered the house and flicked on the light in an entrance alcove. I followed him in and closed the door. The house was only modestly furnished but I ignored this because my attention was immediately drawn to the rear wall of the living room. The wall was made entirely of thick glass panels offering a spectacular view of the entire Valley sprawling below the house. I crossed the room and gazed out. At the far rim of the Valley I saw the rise of another mountain chain. I stepped close enough to the glass so that I could see my own breath against it and looked down into the dark arroyo directly below. A sense of unease at being at such a precipice licked at me and I stepped back as Backus turned on a lamp behind me.

It was then that I saw the cracks. Three of the five glass panels had fractures spidering through them. I turned to the left and saw the disjointed image of myself and Backus in a mirrored wall that had also been fractured by the earthquake.

"What else happened? Is it safe to be in here?"

"It's safe, Jack. But safety is a relative thing. The next big one could come along and change everything… As far as other damage, there is a floor below us. Was a floor, I should say. Clearmountain said that is where the damage was. Buckled walls, broken water pipes."

I put my computer bag and pillowcase down on the floor and turned back to the rear window. My eyes were drawn to the view and I bravely stepped to the glass again. I heard a sharp creaking sound from the direction of the alcove where we had come in. I looked at Backus with alarm.

"Don't worry, they had the pylons checked by an engineer before they even started the sting. The house isn't going anywhere. It just looks like it is and sounds like it is and that's what they wanted for the sting."

I nodded again but not with a lot of confidence. I looked back at him through the glass.

"The only thing going somewhere is you, Jack."

I glanced at him in the mirror, not sure what he meant. And there, quadrupled in the broken reflection, I saw the gun in his hand.

"What is this?" I asked.

"This is the end of the line."

In a rush it came to me. I'd taken a wrong turn and blamed the wrong one. In that moment I also came to the realization that it was the flaw in my own interior that had led me the wrong way. My inability to believe and accept. I had taken Rachel's emotions and looked for the flaw in them instead of the truth.

"You," I said. "You are the Poet."

He didn't answer. Instead he gave a small smile and a nod. I knew then that Rachel's plane hadn't been recalled and that Agent Carter was not coming with a tech and two good agents. I could see the true plan perfectly, right down to the finger Backus must have kept on the phone while he faked the call in my hotel room. I was alone now with the Poet.

"Bob, why? Why you?"

I was so shocked I was still calling him by his first name like a friend would.

"It's a story as old as any of them," he replied. "Too old and forgotten to tell you. You don't need to know it now, anyway. Sit down on the chair, Jack."

He signaled with the gun toward the stuffed chair opposite the couch. Then he aimed the gun back at me. I didn't move.

"The calls," I said. "You made the calls from Thorson's room?"

I said it more to be saying something as a stall for time, though in my gut I knew that time was meaningless to me now. No one knew I was there. No one would be coming. Backus laughed in a forced, scoffing manner at my question.

"The luck of chance," he said. "That night I checked in for all of us-Carter, Thorson, me. Then I apparently mixed the keys up. I made those calls from my own room, but the bill had Thorson's name on it. I didn't know that, of course, until I took the bills from your room Monday night while you were with Rachel."

I thought about what Rachel had said about making your own luck. I guessed it applied to serial killers as well.

"How'd you know I had the bills?"

"I didn't. Not for sure. But you called Michael Warren and told him you had his source by the balls. He then called me because I was his source. Even though he said you accused Gordon of being the source, I had to find out what you knew. That was the reason I let you back into the investigation, Jack. I had to figure out what you knew. It wasn't until I went into your room while you were bedding Rachel that I found out it was the hotel bills."

"Was that you who followed me later, to the bar?"

"That night you were the one with the luck. If you had gone to that doorway to see who was there, this would all have been over right then.

"But then the next day when you didn't come to me and accuse Thorson of breaking into your room, I thought the threat was over. That you were letting it go. Everything proceeded nicely from there-right according to plan-until you called up today and started asking about condoms and phone calls. I knew what you were up to, Jack. I knew I had to move quickly. Now sit down in that chair. I'm not going to ask you again."

I moved to the chair and sat down. I rubbed my hands down my thighs and felt my hands shaking. My back was now to the rear wall of glass. I had nothing to look at but Backus.

"How'd you know about Gladden?" I asked. "Gladden and Beltran."

"I was there. Remember? I was part of the team. While Rachel and Gordon conducted other interviews I had my own little sit-down with William. From what he was willing to say it was not difficult for me to identify Beltran. Then I waited for Gladden to act once he was set free. I knew he'd act out. It was in his nature. I know about that. And so I used him as cover. I knew that if one day my work was discovered, the evidence would lead to him."

"And the PTL Network?"

"We're talking too much, Jack. I have work to do here."

Without taking his eyes off me he stooped to the floor, picked up and then emptied the pillowcase. He reached down and felt around in my belongings, his eyes always on me. Unsatisfied, he did the same with my computer bag, until he came up with the vial of pills I had gotten at the hospital. He glanced down quickly at the label, read it and looked back at me with a smile.

"Tylenol with codeine," he said and smiled. "This is going to work out nicely. Take one, Jack. Take two, in fact."

He tossed the vial to me and I instinctively caught it.

"I can't," I said. "I took one a couple hours ago. I can't take any for another two hours."

"Take two, Jack. Now."

His voice had stayed in a steady monologue but the look in his eyes chilled me. I fumbled with the cap and finally managed to open the vial.

"I need water."

"No water, Jack. Take the pills."

I put two of the pills into my mouth and tried to act as if I had swallowed them as I moved them under my tongue.

"Okay."

"Open wide, Jack."

I did and he leaned forward to look but he never came close enough for me to take a swing at the gun. He stayed out of reach.

"Know what I think? I think they're under your tongue, Jack. But that's okay because they'll dissolve. It'll just take a little extra time. I've got the-"

There was another creaking sound and he looked around but then quickly back at me.

"I've got the time."

"You wrote those PTL files. You're the Eidolon."

"Yes, I am the Eidolon, thank you. And to answer your earlier questions, I learned of the PTL board from Beltran. He was kind enough to be on-line the night I paid my visit to him. So I took his place on the net, so to speak. I used his passwords and later had the systems operator change them to Edgar and Perry. I'm afraid Mr. Gomble never knew that he had a… fox in the henhouse, to use your turn of phrase."

I looked at the mirror to my right and in it I could see the reflection of the Valley lights behind me. All those lights, all those people, I thought, and no one to see or help me. I felt the shudder of fear move through me, stronger.

"You have to relax, Jack," Backus said in a calming monotone. "That's the key. Are you feeling the codeine yet?"

The pills had broken up under my tongue and filled my mouth with an acrid taste.

"What are you going to do to me?"

"I'm going to do for you what I did for all of them. You wanted to know about the Poet? You are going to know all there is to know. Everything. Firsthand knowledge, Jack. You see, you are the choice. Remember what the fax said? The choice has been made, he's in my sights. That was you, Jack. All along."

"Backus, you sick fuck! You-"

My outburst jarred some of the debris loose in my mouth and I swallowed it before I could stop. Backus, seemingly knowing what had happened, burst out laughing but then abruptly cut it off. He glared at me and I could see a dim light in his unblinking eyes. I realized then how mad he was and it dawned on me that because Rachel was not the one, the thing that I had believed was part of her misdirection might in actuality be part of the real Poet's killing pattern. The condoms, the sexual aspects. It could all be part of his killing program.

"What did you do to my brother?"

"That was between him and me. Personal."

"Tell me."

He exhaled.

"Nothing, Jack. Nothing. He was the one who wouldn't go along with the program. He was my one failure. But now I have the closest thing to a second chance. I won't fail this time."

I looked down at the ground. I could feel the effects of the painkillers beginning to move through me. I squeezed my eyes shut and balled my fists but it was too late. The poison was in my blood.

"There's nothing you can do," Backus said. "Just relax, Jack, let it take you. Soon it will all be over."

"You're not going to get away. There's no way Rachel's not going to see this for what it was."

"You know, Jack, I think you are one hundred percent correct. She'll know. She may already. That's why I'm leaving after this. You are the last chore on my list, then I take my leave."

I didn't get it.

"Leaving?"

"I'm sure Rachel already has her suspicions. That's why I've had to keep sending her to Florida. But it's only a temporary deflection. Soon enough she'll know. That's why it's time to shed the skin and move on. I've got to be me, Jack."

His face lit up with the last line. I thought he was about to sing it but he didn't.

"How's it feeling now, Jack? A little light-headed?"

I didn't reply but he knew the answer was yes. I felt like I was beginning to slip into a void of darkness, a boat going over the falls. All the while Backus just watched, talking in his calm monotone, using my name often.

"Let it work itself through you, Jack. Just enjoy these moments. Think about your brother. Think about what you are going to say to him. I think you should tell him what a great investigator you turned out to be. Two in the family, that's something. Think of Sean's face. Smiling. Smiling at you, Jack. Now let your eyes close until you can see him. Go ahead. Nothing's going to happen. You're safe, Jack."

I couldn't help it. My eyelids were drooping. I tried to look away from him. I stared at the lights in the mirror but the fatigue still grabbed me and took me under. I closed my eyes.

"That's good, Jack. Excellent. Do you see Sean now?"

I nodded, then I felt his hand on my left wrist. He moved it onto the arm of the chair. Then he did the same with my right arm.

"Perfect, Jack. You're a wonderful subject. So cooperative. Now I don't want you to feel any pain. No pain, Jack. No matter what happens here, you will not feel any pain, do you understand that?"

"Yes," I said.

"I don't want you to move, Jack. In fact, Jack, you cannot move. Your arms are like dead weights. You cannot move them. Isn't that right?"

"Yes," I said.

My eyes were still closed and my chin was resting on my chest but I was totally aware of my surroundings. It was as if my mind and body had separated. It was as if I was looking down from above at myself in the chair.

"Open your eyes now, Jack."

I did as I was told and saw Backus standing before me. His gun was holstered under his open jacket and in one hand he now held a long steel needle. This was my chance. The gun was in the holster but I could not move from the chair or reach out to him. My mind could no longer send messages to my body. I sat motionless and could only watch as he matter-of-factly pressed the point of the needle into my unbandaged palm. He repeated the procedure with two of my fingers. I made no move to stop it.

"That's good, Jack. I think you are ready for me now. Remember, arms like dead weights. You just can't move them no matter how much you want to. You can't speak, no matter how much you want to. But keep your eyes open, Jack, you don't want to miss this."

He stepped back and looked at me with an appraising look.

"Who's best now, Jack?" he asked. "Who's the better man? Who has won and who has lost?"

My mind filled with revulsion. I couldn't move my arms or speak but still felt the energy wave of absolute fear go screaming through me. I felt tears form in my eyes but they didn't fall. I watched as his hands went to his belt buckle and he said, "I don't even have to use rubbers anymore, Jack."

Just as he said that the light in the alcove behind him went out. Then I saw movement in the shadows left behind and heard her voice. Rachel.

"Don't move an inch, Bob. Not even an inch."

She said it calmly and confidently. Backus froze, his eyes on mine, as if he could see her reflection in them. They were dead eyes. His right hand, shielded from Rachel's view, started moving inside his jacket. I wanted to call out a warning but I could not. At once, I strained every muscle of my body to move just an inch and my left leg kicked out from the chair impotently.

But it was enough. The hold Backus had was losing its grip.

"Rachel!" I yelled just as Backus pulled his gun from his holster and spun around on her.

There was an exchange of shots and Backus was launched backward onto the floor. I heard the shattering of one of the glass panels and the cool evening air rushed into the room as Backus scrambled to cover behind the chair I sat in.

Rachel dipped around the corner, grabbed the lamp and jerked it away from the socket. The house plunged into a darkness only interrupted by the stray light from the Valley below. Backus fired twice more at her, the report of his weapon so close to my head it was deafening. I felt him jerk the chair backward to give him better cover. I was like a man coming out of a deep dream, struggling just to move. As I began to pull myself up, his hand clamped over my shoulder and pulled me back down into the chair. It held me in place.

"Rachel," Backus called out. "You shoot and you hit him, you want that? Put the gun down and come out. We'll talk about this."

"Forget it, Rachel," I called. "He'll kill us both. Shoot him! Shoot him!"

Rachel swung around the bullet-pocked wall once more. This time she was low to the ground. The barrel of her gun took a bead on a spot just over my right shoulder but she hesitated. Backus didn't. He fired twice more as Rachel dove back to cover and I saw the corner of the alcove entrance explode in plaster dust and debris.

"Rachel!" I yelled.

I dug the heels of both shoes into the carpet and in one great burst of what strength I could command I shoved the chair back as hard and as quick as I could.

The move surprised Backus. I felt the chair hit him solidly, its impact knocking him away from cover. At that moment Rachel wheeled around the corner of the alcove and the room exploded in the light of another round being fired from her gun.

Behind me I heard a shriek from Backus and then silence. My eyes now adjusted to the dim light, I saw Rachel step out of the alcove and come toward me. She held her gun raised in both hands, her elbows locked. The weapon was pointed past me. I slowly turned as she stepped by. At the precipice, she pointed the gun down toward the darkness into which Backus had fallen. She stood stock still for at least a half a minute before being satisfied that he was gone.

Silence gripped the house. I felt the cool night air against my skin. She finally turned and came to me. Grabbing my arm, she pulled me up until I was standing.

"Come on, Jack," she said. "Come out of it. Are you hurt? Are you hit?"

"Sean."

"What?"

"Nothing. Are you all right?"

"I think so. Are you hit?"

I noticed her looking at the floor behind me and turned around. There was blood on the floor. And shattered glass.

"No, that's not me," I said. "You hit him. Or the glass got him."

I stepped back to the edge with her. There was only blackness below. The only sounds were the breeze through the trees down there and traffic noises filtering up from further down.

"Rachel, I'm sorry," I said. "I thought it… I thought it was you. I'm sorry."

"Don't say it, Jack. We'll talk about it later."

"I thought you were on a plane."

"After I talked to you I knew something wasn't right. Then Brad Hazelton called and told me what you had called him about. I decided to talk to you before I left. I went to the hotel and saw you leaving with Backus. I don't know why but I followed. I guess it was because Bob had sent me to Florida before when he should have sent Gordon. I didn't trust him anymore."

"How much did you hear up here?"

"Enough. I just couldn't make a move until he holstered his weapon. I'm sorry you had to go through all of that, Jack."

She stepped back from the edge but I stayed there, staring into the darkness.

"I didn't ask him about the others. I didn't ask him why."

"What others?"

"Sean, the others. Beltran got what he deserved. But why Sean? Why the others?"

"There's no explanation, Jack. And if there was, we'll never know it now. My car's down the road a bit. I need to go back and call for backup and a helicopter to search the canyon. To make sure. I better call the hospital, too."

"Why?"

"To tell them how many of those pills you've taken and to see what we should do about it."

She started walking toward the entrance alcove.

"Rachel," I called after her. "Thanks."

"Anytime, Jack."