The Secret Friend

27

'I didn't think I'd hear from you again,' Darby said, wondering how Malcolm Fletcher had got her number.

'I want to talk to you about the man who killed Emma Hale.'

'Do you know something?'

'I might.'

'And why do you want to share this information with me?'

'If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.'

'Another quote by Shaw?'

'Very good. I thought your generation had abandoned reading. What do you know about Themistocles?'

'He was an Athenian political leader.'

'Impressive,' Fletcher said. 'Themistocles led his people to victory over the Persians and was later banished by the same people he saved.'

'You've lost me.'

'In the end, it always comes down to a matter of degrees – how far you are willing to go, how far you're willing to push your way through the dark. I shouldn't have to warn you, of all people, that the truth is, more often than not, a terrible burden. You may want to give that some thought.'

'What are you suggesting?'

'I'm extending an invitation to meet the man who killed Emma Hale and Judith Chen.'

'How do you know the same man killed Hale and Chen?'

'Judith Chen was shot in the back of the head, like Emma Hale – at least that's what the papers are reporting. Are the cases connected, Dr McCormick? Or may I call you Darby? After reading so much about you, I feel as though I know you.'

'What should I call you?'

'Think of me as your secret friend.'

'How about you tell me your first name?'

'What would you like to call me?'

'How does the name Mephisto sound?'

A quiet laugh. 'Are you worried I'm going to hurt you?' Fletcher asked.

'The thought had crossed my mind.'

'I didn't hurt you last night.'

'Hard to do when you have a gun pointed at you.'

'I suggest a private meeting at the Sinclair Mental Health Facility in Danvers. I'll contact you in two hours.'

'And if I say no?'

'Then I wish you the best of luck finding the man who killed Judith Chen and the other women. I have no doubt of your abilities. You're certainly much more dedicated, and considerably brighter, than Detective Bryson. He should have discovered the missing necklace months ago.'

Click. Malcolm Fletcher was gone.

Darby called Tim Bryson. She filled him in on her conversation. Bryson listened without interrupting.

'I don't understand why he wants you to go to Sinclair,' Bryson said after she finished. 'The place has been abandoned for, Christ, it must be at least thirty years now.'

'I've never heard of Sinclair.'

'Before your time, I guess. The hospital was built sometime in the late eighteenth century. It was used as an asylum for the criminally insane. In the seventies, a private company took it over for a bit, and then it went back to being a state-run hospital. It's going to be torn down next spring to make way for condos, I think.'

'Fletcher said, "I wish you luck finding the man who killed Judith Chen and the other women." Maybe he knows something about another victim, someone we haven't found.'

'I think he's jerking your chain.'

'He knows about the missing necklace.'

Bryson didn't answer.

'The only evidence we have at the moment is an unidentified latent fingerprint,' Darby said.

'You haven't examined Chen's clothing yet.'

'Which is going to have to wait until Monday. I don't want to spend Sunday sitting around with my thumb stuck up my ass.'

'I don't suppose I can talk you out of this.'

'I want to know why Fletcher called.'

'I'll meet you at the hospital,' Bryson said. 'And I'm going to bring backup, just in case.'