Stealing Faces (9 page)

14

“Bad night?”

Elizabeth
 
took a moment to register the question.

She knew the driver was looking obliquely at her, sizing up this strange, scared, barefoot woman who had appeared on the shoulder of
Sandario
Road
in the predawn darkness, carrying a purse and a canvas satchel and hoping for a ride.

“You could say that,” she answered finally.

Something more was obviously required, some narrative to satisfy the man’s curiosity. She could claim she’d had a fight with her boyfriend and run from his parked car. Or that her own car had broken down on a back road.

There were many things to say, but she had no strength for any of them. She remained silent.

Daybreak bloomed over the mountains. A glaze of pink light spread across the pale, tired land.

“So where am I taking you?” the driver asked.

She looked at him. He was an Indian, perhaps sixty. Age had filled out his face and grayed his ponytail. His hands on the steering wheel of the old Dodge Rambler were thick and meaty and lightly liver-spotted.

He reminded her of Anson, her father-in-law. There was no physical resemblance, only a similarity of character. Both of them were men well worn by the years, men whose squinting eyes had seen too much darkness ever to fully trust the light.

“I’m staying at a motel.” She couldn’t remember the name. “It’s off Interstate Ten, near
Silverlake
Road
. But if it’s out of your way—”

“Not really”

“I appreciate this.”

“Don’t worry about it. What’s your name?”

“Paula Neilson,” she said, using one of her old identities. Lying about such things had become habitual with her.

“Wallace Zepeda. What brings you to
 
Tucson
, Paula?”

“Just ...
 
personal business.”

“Personal business. Well, that’s clear enough. Me, I’m in the security field.”

She flashed on the fear that he might be a cop, a detective or an undercover officer or something.

“Airport security,” he added, and she saw a smile crease his cheek. “You wouldn’t get past my checkpoint.”

“Wouldn’t I?”

“Not when the mere mention of the word
 
security
 
turns you as pale
 
as ...
 
well, as a paleface, pardon the expression. You on the run from the law, maybe?”

“Of course not.”

“Good. I’d hate to be aiding and abetting. Mind if I turn on the music?”

“Music would be fine.”

“Better than talking, huh?”

That smile again.

She didn’t answer.

There was an audio cassette half-inserted in the Rambler’s tape deck. Zepeda pushed it in and thumbed the on-off knob, and
 
Creedence
 
Clearwater Revival pumped through the cheap speakers at moderate volume.

The song was “Who’ll Stop the Rain.”

Elizabeth
 
thought it was a good question.

She looked at the desert. Cray was out there. Cray, who hunted women in the wilderness the way other men hunted mule deer and
 
javelinas
. Cray, with his erudite, impeccably pedigreed opinions on the nature of the human mind.

No ghost in the machine, he had said. No spirit, no soul, only chemicals.

And if that was so, then what was murder except a rearrangement of those chemicals into a new form? And where was the crime in that? There was no right or wrong, no good, no evil. There was only better living through chemistry. There was death as sport.

Blood sport. She tried to imagine what it would have been like. Cray had said he would give her a head start. She would have fled through the alkali flats, cutting her legs on cactus needles, stumbling, falling, rising. She would have fought against panic, but in the end panic would have overtaken her, and then she would have made some thoughtless mistake, and a bullet would have brought her down.

How long, from start to finish? An hour, maybe. Or less time even than that.

Elizabeth
 
felt a shudder pass through her as it became real to her—the fate she would have suffered, and how narrow had been her escape.

And Cray would not give up. She was sure of that. He must have followed her. Perhaps he had reached the Lexus by now.

She had taken the ignition key, but he probably carried a spare. Even if he didn’t, he was smart enough to hot-wire the vehicle.

If she had been thinking more clearly, she would have let the air out of the other tires or stolen the distributor cap to disable the vehicle. As it was, he could change the tire and get away.

And then what? Would he prowl the city night after night in search of her car?

She knew he would.

Well, she could leave town, of course. Head to
 
Texas
, possibly. A new name, new life. She’d been Elizabeth Palmer for too long anyway. It was smart to change
 
I.D.’s
 
at least once every few years.

But Cray would go on killing. He might never be caught.

Call the police, then. Tip them off.

She doubted they would believe her. Sure, she could tell them what had happened, but it would be the claim of an anonymous caller. The damage to Cray’s Lexus might help substantiate her story, but she was fairly certain Cray would come up with an explanation.

She had his ignition key. She could mail it to the police. But what would it prove, except that she had stolen the key somehow?

In her mind she heard Cray smoothly answering every question.
 
Why, yes, Officers, as a matter of fact, my sport-utility was stolen the other night. Someone must have found the spare key I keep in a magnetic case under the chassis....

I know, I know, it’s the first place a thief will look. I suppose I just never thought it would happen to me. In any event, the vehicle was taken for a short joy ride. I was lucky enough to find it a mile from here, on a dirt road. One of the tires had gone
 
flat....

A report? There seemed to be no point in filing a report. My insurance deductible is quite high, so I’m paying out of pocket for the new tire and some other repairs....

He could persuade them.
 
Unless ...

She remembered the satchel in her lap.

Carefully she opened the satchel and took out her photo album and the manila envelope containing her I.D. documents. Then she probed deeper inside, using the flat of her hand to rummage through the items, touching nothing with her fingertips for fear of leaving prints.

It felt good to look. Cray had violated her privacy by examining her luggage. Now she would return the favor.

She saw a small pocket flashlight with a red filter. A jewel box with a transparent plastic lid, holding what looked like locksmith tools. An unlabeled vial of clear liquid, probably chloroform. A package of what must be smelling salts. Duct tape. A suction cup. A glass cutter.

The satchel was Cray’s tool kit.

And it would incriminate him.

Burglar’s tools for breaking and entering. Chloroform for carrying out a silent abduction. Duct tape to bind the victim.

She dug deeper and found a spare clip for that pistol of his, the
 
Gock
, Crock, whatever it was called.

Had he shot Sharon Andrews with the pistol? If so, the cartridges in this clip were probably of the same caliber and design as the two slugs found in her body.

There was one more item, at the very bottom of the sack. A leather sheath. And in it, a knife.

She cupped the sheath in the palm of her hand and lifted it. Spots of discoloration freckled the careworn leather, spots that were brown and black and rust-colored. Some were dirt, and some were blood.

Sharon Andrews’ blood? Almost surely.

Cray had used this knife to—well, she knew what he’d used it for.

Seaweed in the tide. Green and limp.

A woman’s face.

She almost dropped the knife in a spasm of repugnance.

“You okay?” Wallace Zepeda asked over the music.

“Fine. I’m fine.”

She was. Really.

Because she had Cray now. She had him.

All she needed to do was get the whole package to the police—Cray’s tools and, with them, his damn car key. The key would link the satchel to him almost as effectively as a fingerprint.

The cops must receive dozen of anonymous tips, but this was one tip they couldn’t ignore.

And let Cray tell any smooth lie he liked. It wouldn’t matter. He was finished, the murdering bastard.

Her hands were shaking as she knotted the satchel’s drawstring clasp.

When she looked up, she was surprised to see that the Rambler was heading west on
Silverlake
Road
, and her motel was dead ahead.

“It’s there,” she said, pointing.

Zepeda pulled into the parking lot and turned off the cassette. He cast a sour gaze on the ramshackle building and the nearby freeway.

“Great place. You find out about it in the Triple-A guide?”

Elizabeth
 
smiled. “Not exactly. Look, I really want to thank you—”

“Forget it. I don’t want your gratitude. I just want your attention for a moment.”

“I’m kind of in a hurry.”

“You’ve got time for some old Indian wisdom, don’t you?”

“Sure. I’m sorry. Of course I do.”

“Then here goes. You’re in some deep shit, lady. You can’t handle it alone. You need to get some help, or the next person who finds you in the desert will be looking at a corpse.”

She was shocked for a moment, and then she had to smile. “That’s old Indian wisdom?”

“It’s wise enough. And I am one old fucking Indian.”

“I’m going to get help, Mr. Zepeda.”

“You wouldn’t be selling me a string of beads, would you, Paula?”

“I wouldn’t dare.”

“Okay, then. Get some rest. And find yourself some damn shoes.”

He let her out and watched her as she hurried to her room and went quickly inside. He noticed that she hadn’t needed a key; the door had been left unlocked.

Unlocked—in this neighborhood.

It was just another thing Wallace Zepeda didn’t want to think about as he drove away,
 
Creedence
 
loud over the speakers, the sun a haze of glare in the red east.

15

Cray was heading south on Interstate 10, two miles past downtown
 
Tucson
, when his glance strayed to the floor of the passenger seat and he realized that it was empty.

Kaylie’s purse had been there. She had taken it, of course. That didn’t matter.

But the satchel did.

He had forgotten it entirely. Exhaustion and anger had fogged his mind.

She had carried off his little black bag, perhaps without even knowing what it was. But she would know before long. She would look inside, paw through the satchel’s contents. She would find the knife.

Cray had cleaned the knife after each kill, but he knew that microscopic traces of blood could still be found on it, perhaps in the narrow crevice where the blade met the hilt.

Sharon Andrews’ blood. And the blood of others.

The knife posed the worst threat to him, but the other items were incriminating as well. Once in the possession of the police, the bag’s contents would fairly scream his guilt.

“God damn her,” he said with sudden violence. “God damn that meddlesome girl to hell.”

He took the next exit and doubled back toward town, driving fast. There might not be much time.

* * *

Elizabeth
 
spent less than two minutes in the motel room, long enough to put on her shoes and collect her two suitcases.

Before leaving, she entered the bathroom, switching on the vanity lights over the counter. The sink was old and yellowed with deposits of chemical residue, and there was hair, not her own, in the drain.

She cupped her hands under the lukewarm stream from the tap and splashed her face, wanting to feel clean.

When she looked at herself in the mirror, she saw sky-blue eyes and a pale, freckled complexion. She found the strength for a smile. “Still here,” she said aloud.

Cray had wanted to wipe her out. He had failed. Now he would pay the price.

She loaded her luggage into the
 
Chevette
, then remembered her gun. Cray had said he pitched it into the brush outside the motel.

She spent a few minutes combing the weeds before conceding that the gun was lost. It could be anywhere within the dense foliage. She would need hours to perform a thorough search, and even then, finding the gun would be largely a matter of luck.

Well, maybe she wouldn’t need it. Maybe her role in all this was almost done.

The hope buoyed her as she hurried to the front office, fishing the room key from her purse.

The clerk was watching an adult video on a portable TV with a built-in VCR. He glanced at her and asked perfunctorily, “Room okay?”

“Fantastic.”

He heard sarcasm and shrugged. “For nineteen a night,
 
whatchoo
 
expect? The Ritz
 
friggin
’
 
Carlton
?”

On the TV, a nude woman with breasts like water balloons was urgently requesting,
 
“More.”

Elizabeth
 
was at the door when the clerk said, “Hey, wait a sec. You see anybody funny hanging ‘round here last night?”

“Funny?” There was nothing funny about John Cray. “No.”

“Kids, maybe? Troublemakers?”

“I didn’t. Why?”

“Some
 
shithead
 
busted
 
inna
 
our storage closet, is why. Didn’t take nothing, but they fucked up a goddamn expensive padlock. Broke it all in pieces.”

“Broke it?”

“Like it was glass. I don’t know how the hell they pulled that off.”

She thought of the cold stream hissing from the canister’s nozzle. Cold enough to freeze a padlock solid and render it vulnerable to a shattering blow.

“Me neither,” she said. “You call the police?”

“Cops?” The clerk pantomimed spitting. “All them assholes do is hassle me. You know?”

“I know. Well, good luck.”

She was glad the crime would go unreported. She didn’t want the police somehow connecting the break-in with Cray, then tying him to her.

The police. She really was going to contact them. The thought seemed strange, unreal, after so many years of evading every patrol car, every blue uniform.

Although it was only a few minutes past
 
seven o’clock
, already the morning was warm. The
 
Chevette
, unprotected from the sun, baked her as she cranked the engine. The car was equipped with air-conditioning, but that particular feature had never worked. She rolled down the window and tried to breathe.

Pulling out of the lot, she anxiously checked the frontage road, looking for a black Lexus. It was doubtful Cray could get here this fast, but she wasn’t taking anything for granted.

The road was clear. She took the
22nd Street
on-ramp to Interstate 10 and let it carry her north.

* * *

Cray rolled into the motel parking lot at
 
7:10
. The
 
Chevette
 
was gone. Kaylie had left.

He had expected as much. Driving here, he had pieced together her most plausible plan of action.

She would call the police. It was her best move, the one he would have made had their positions been reversed. She would call from a pay phone and identify him as the killer, offering the satchel as proof of his guilt.

Or she might simply leave the satchel outside a police substation with an unsigned note. But he didn’t think so. He expected her to call, because only by talking to another person could she be certain her message got through. And, high on the adrenaline rush of survival, she would do it as soon as possible.

From a public phone. She wouldn’t call from the motel. She still didn’t want to be identified, didn’t want to get directly involved.

Having made the call, she would need to make a quick getaway before the police responded. The fastest escape route was the interstate. Cray was betting she would stay close to I-10, either a few miles north or south of the motel.

Which direction?

South, the city turned mean. Barrio streets, crime, danger. More police cars cruising. More cops on the beat.

She wanted to be in a less populous, less heavily patrolled area.

North, then. She would go north. Past downtown
 
Tucson
, into the near suburbs.

Of course, she might have made the call already. By now it might be too late.

Perhaps he ought to run. Race for the border. He knew enough Spanish to get by. He could live in the mountains if he had to, at least for a month or two, until the urgency of the search abated.

No.

He would not permit himself to lose. It was bad enough that he had let her get away. To allow her this ultimate victory was unthinkable.

Cray found I-10’s entrance ramp and sped into the northbound lanes. The time was
 
7:15
.