Bad People (41 page)

Hadn’t Connie been there when he had found the cash that had belonged to his parents? The useless, sudden income that tempted him onto this path?

She had. And she knew about his acquaintance with Jay Porter. He didn’t have all the details—not yet—but he would work it out. He was guilty of nothing but allowing himself to be manipulated by the woman.

It made sense. It cleared every single detail up.

Barry stuffed his father’s suitcase with socks, underwear, shirts, and trousers. The knife was where he had left it and he put it in the suitcase without taking the time to carefully clean it, just giving it a quick few wipes with a t-shirt.

His father would have yelled at him for that. But he would clean the knife later, somewhere, when he had time. He planned to head downtown to Greyhound, catch the first bus out. Portland, Spokane, it didn’t matter. He had lost his car by leaving it on Connie’s street. By now she would have rigged it with a tracking device, anyway. Assuming she had not done that beforehand.

Now he almost felt sorry for the man. The Luke-person. Certainly the man was also a slave of Connie. She had left him upstairs, out of site, until just the moment when Barry was about to confess the killing to her. Then she had radioed him in, by some means. Telepathy, or some other way, the lobby probably had hidden cameras and microphones.

Connie herself could have been wearing a wire. She had kept her arms crossed in front of herself the whole time he’d tried talking to her. Hiding a wire would explain that.

But if she
were
recording, who was she recording for? Her records? Were the police involved. He imagined the police staked out above, in Connie’s condo, listing on headphones, waiting for Connie to give some prearranged verbal signal. And then
they
sent Luke down.

Luke, their commando, who did the dirty business. Luke, who Connie and her subordinates in the police department had hired because they were too cowardly to have their own hands bloodied.

“Coward,” he said aloud. “Coward.” He smiled. It felt good to have control of the word again.

Connie was a coward. Not Barry.

He took his phone out and looked at it. He flipped it open, held it to his ear and listened to the silence. “Connie?” he said. There came no answer. She was pretending not to listen, so he dialed her number.

She answered, “Stephen-David, where are you?”

He smiled grimly to himself. Since he had narrowly escaped her trap, she was evidently going to continue the charade. He wasn’t going to let that happen.

“It’s Barry,” he said. “As you damn well know.”

“What?” she said, in feigned surprise. “
As I damn well
what?”

“
Know
. Kay. En. Oh.
Know
!”

“I’ve got to go. I’m waiting for S/D to call—”

“Your son will be lucky if he never saw you again. You call yourself a mother?”

There was a pause, and Barry knew he had struck a blow. She acted hurt, she actually made sounds as if she had suddenly burst into tears.

“If this is about Luke, that’s—”

“So you admit it! How long, Connie, how damn long.”

“That’s not important. It’s over, and, and, all right, if you are hurt, hurt by that, I am sorry. I’m not trying to go out of my way to hurt you, or Stephen-David, all right. This has been a hard year, this has been a really really hard year for me too. But you have to take responsibility for yourself.
You
hurt yourself, and you just can’t do that. Blame me if you want. I’ll take all the blame that everyone wants to heap on me. I’m a bad person. Okay? I admit it, but I never meant to hurt anyone.”

Barry laughed.

“Maybe I deserve that. Maybe my life is supposed to be one monument to the memory of Robb, maybe I am selfish and I am wrong to feel like
I’m
the victim, but that’s how I feel sometimes. That’s how I feel.”

“You the victim! That’s rich.”

Now she could not sustain her act, and voice revealed rage.

“Barry,
goddamn you
! this is
my
family!
Our
business, but my family. Robb stole from both of us, but he stole much more from me. You must see
that
, don’t you?”

There was the matter of Robb’s secret life. Barry had forgotten that. Had Connie found out about it? If so, then perhaps she could be afforded a modicum of forgiveness over at least the
motivation
of her plans.

Or?

“Or did
you
bankrupt the business Connie, and
then
brainwash me and Luke to cover your tracks!”

Wheels within wheels.

That got her.

She didn’t speak for what seemed like half a minute. “I don’t understand,” she said finally. She sounded clearer, more sober now. Perhaps she began to realize how deep Barry’s understanding of the entire conspiracy now went. He had become a more formidable adversary that she had originally planned for, that much was certain.

“You and Luke? What does that mean?’” said Connie.

“It means I know everything, honey. All those thoughts you put in my mind. I want you to tell me when it started. How far back does it go? Did I
ever
have real feelings for you? Or did you put them
all
there, from the beginning? From when we were kids? Because that’s what I think. That’s what I think you did. Is anything in my head really my own? And the worst of it is…do you know what the worst of it is? You made me evil. You made me into a monster, but even if you hadn’t…it changed nothing. Remember the cash of my parents we found?”

He felt himself start to gag on the feelings, the thoughts he could not escape, but then as he kept going and started to speak the words at last, the words he always knew he would have to speak one day, he felt clean. He felt the roof above opening up to reveal a starry sky.

He didn’t wait for her response. “
I
used it to pay Luke to kill Robb, because I hated him and I love you.”

There was a pause while she took that in.

Then Connie made a sound like no other he had ever heard come out of a human being. A sound a rage, and sadness, and shock and grief, that come from deep in the earth somewhere. He closed the phone.

He stood in the silence. He did not attempt to finish packing his bag. He merely stood, enveloped in the dark, the blanketing dark. Downstairs his door opened.

The assassin’s footsteps paced to and fro downstairs for a time before finally touching the stairs.

Out the window, the moon came from behind a cloud just in time to reveal the assassin’s face.

Luke entered the bedroom. The silver body of the gun he held out before him glistened in the moonlight and the starlight.

Barry spread his arms wide. The flash came, and the noise too, though a moment later. Time had slowed to almost nothing at the last. The feeling of something meeting his chest jolted him, and then all the pressure was gone. He was done.

Chapter 45: Luke

The shot had not been as loud as he expected.

The gun was small but did its job.

Luke stood over Barry’s corpse, gun still warm in his hand.

He had never fired one before but, despite the kick, the Mind had steadied his hand and aimed true. The smell of smoke lingered in the air.

Luke flicked on the room lights. A rich flower of blood had opened and spread across Barry’s sunken chest. His eyes were open, fixed on the ceiling. Luke straddled the dead man’s head and looked down into those eyes.

“You were wrong to run when you saw me. You should have played it cool. Your own neck was at stake. You did not understand that. Now you see what happens.”

The body, nor the eyes moved.

Luke knelt and peered closer into the dead face. He had never had the lights on the other two, and he had never used a gun. A gun was much easier, but difficult to obtain normally. Since it was Connie’s husband’s gun it had all come full circle, or would, by the end of this night.

Barry’s eyes were so vacant. A curious thing. “Nobody home,” murmured Luke.

Where does the person go, once the body is dead. Luke sniffed the air, and tried to gauge its weight. The blood smelled, and the bowels, but the Barry’s expired life itself gave off no scent. Luke lightly touched his smallest finger into the chest’s wetness. He brought the dab of blood to his tongue and tasted it.

He had missed all this.

Something sticking from the corner of Barry’s pocket caught his eye, the corners of a fat wad of bills. He pulled them out, counted them: better than a thousand in cash. Then he noticed the hastily-packed old blue suitcase. Barry had been planning to run. If Luke had known that then he probably wouldn’t have killed Barry. Barry wasn’t going to talk to Connie. His running away would make Luke safe.

But Luke would have missed out on the thousand dollars.

Barry had held out on him the other day for all his crying about being broke. The Mind had set that right.

Besides, there might be other money around the house still.

Luke couldn’t spend all night looking for it; he had to get back to Connie. And make up a reason for why he’d walked out like that. But he’d figure that out in plenty of time.

He picked up Barry’s cell phone, which might also come in handy. Then it occurred to him to check it over, to see if Barry had, by any chance called anyone after seeing Luke.

Barry had called Connie.

Not good. Put the pressure on again.

Maybe he should have stayed at Connie’s and taken care of her instead of running after Barry.

No. He hadn’t known then what he knew now, and he wouldn’t have gotten Barry’s cash either.

In any case, no mistake was made. The Mind did not make them.

The Mind had proven itself time and time again, and so it would once more. He just had to follow it; it would lead him down the right path, offering little surprises like this cash bonus along the way.

As if on cue, a phone rang. Not Barry’s, which surprised him at first, he thought it might be the Mind presenting him with the next opportunity.

His own phone. But this was good news too. Ardiss finally calling him back.

“Tell me where you’ve been all night,” Luke said into the phone.

Ardiss was hysterical, and crying. “I hit him. I hit him,” she said.

“Calm down. Stop talking so fast. Start again.”

“S/D. He was figuring everything out. About his Dad, his Mom. We have to leave.”

“Tell me what it is you think he figured out.”

“He figured it out! He was going to call the police, I know he was. And now I’m trapped, and I don’t know where I am and you have to come and help me. And we have to go away. We have to leave! We have to leave together now.”

“Tell me what you
think
you know.”

“I’m at the house. Where S/D and they used to live. I know, I know what happened. He told me what happened here. You have to come get me. And there are mountain lions.”

“Stop talking crazy.”

“
God dammit Luke, I know what you did
! Come get me! Come get me! You’re not leaving me here! I want to come with you! Please! Please! Don’t leave me!”

Luke cleared his head.

“Ardiss, I will never leave you.”

She burst out crying.

“Calm down, darling. Where are you?”

“I
told
you! Their old house.”

“I know, baby. But where in the house?”

“Kitchen,” she sniffled.

“Okay and where is Stephen-David?”

“On the floor. I hit him with a shovel. I told you.”

“Is he breathing?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. Sit tight.”

“There’s a window on the side. The board comes loose! And there’s mountain lions out here.”

“Really.”

“Yes! Fucking yes!”

“All right. I’m coming to get you. Don’t call anyone else. And stay right there. And Ardiss…”

“I’ll get there as fast as I can, but if he wakes up, you have to hit him again.”

“
Why?
”

Because you started this, you stupid bitch
, he wanted to say. “Because you
have
to, okay. He can’t wake up. He cannot wake up. But I’m coming. I love you Ardiss. I’m coming for you.”

“Luke…”

“I’m only about fifteen minutes away. Be strong for me, darling girl. I’m going to get you. You know I would never leave you. I’m coming for you, Ardiss.” He ended the call.

How the hell did Ardiss know about Robb?