The Mormon Candidate - a Novel (40 page)

“What’s yours?”

He smiled, showing tidy, small teeth. His blue eyes remained cold. “We can do it the easy way or the painful way.”

“
Richard Drey
fuss,” Ben said. “
That’s who you remind me of.
Tin Men.
Great movie. Remember it?”

“No.”

“How about
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
?”

“Yes. I especially remember Virgil
.
Do you?”

“The loyal friend?”

“
Too loyal, which is why he ended up a cripple
. I bet he missed being
able to
pee standing up.” Dreyfuss gestured toward the bathroom.
“Do you want this one to have been your last?”

“Do you?
”

“I don’t really care,”
Dreyfuss said
, removing his glasses.
“
But if you do
care about living
longer in a functioning body
,
then you must
tell us everything.”

“
The way you talk,” Ben said, “you sound like a professor, not a killer. Try to sprinkle a few grammatical errors. For authenticity, you know?
”

Dreyfuss
sighed, and
Streep, still holding the
gun
,
stepped forward and
,
with her free hand
,
slapped Ben across the face
. She
was going to
slap him again on the return,
but
Ben turned his head to face the coming hand, opened his mouth
while
tilting his head just right
, and caught
the side of her hand between his teeth, clamp
ing
down.

She
released a shrill
screa
m, but he had already let go.
S
he staggered back, pressing her injured hand to her chest,
and
the gun fell.

Dreyfuss picked it up
and aimed at Ben.

“No!”
Powell
raised his hand. “Not yet!”

Streep
ran
out of
the
room
.

“
There’s a
locator on my motorcycle,” Ben said. “
Men with bigger guns
are on the
ir
way.
You better
run off
while you can.
”

“
It’s clean
,
”
a
man
yelled from the other
room.
“I scanned his bike
for electronic signals. There’s nothing.”

Ben recognized the voice
—
Zachariah’s riding buddy
!
What was he doing here?

Rex
appeared in the door
. He was wearing a light
-
color
ed
riding suit—not quit
e
white, but close—and was
pushing a dolly
loaded
with
a
large
black box
. It ha
d
knobs, a couple of gauges, and colored
wires
. He emptied a
bucket of water
on
Ben.

“
Hey!
” Ben shook
off the water
as much as he could without hurting his wrists and ankles.
His wet hair fell
o
nto his face and he twisted his head to get it away.
“
What the hell
—”

“
There we go
.”
Rex
attached
a wire to Ben’s left earlobe
with a
clamp, another to the right earlobe.

Ben tried to bite his hand. “Stay away from me!”

“
Don’t
move too much,
” Rex said calmly, “
or I’ll shock you just for discipline.”

“
Tell us what you know
,
”
Dreyfuss said.

“I know
,” Ben said, “
that
your prophet,
Joseph Smith
,
was a con artist and a pedophile, and you’re no
s
aint
s
but scum
.”

They stared at him. He expected Rex to flip a switch and send searing current through his
head, but
instead he smiled and said, “Clever. Very clever.”

Ben’
s teeth began to rattle while the icy water dripped to the floor around him. “
Thanks for
baptizing
me
, but don’t you prefer doing it to dead people
who can’t tell you how ridiculous your
True Church
really is
?”

“Enough with the show.”
Dreyfuss moved his chair farther back from Ben.
“
Last warning, wiseass
.”

“What
do you want to know?”

“
Wh
o told you to go after
Zachariah Hinckley
?
”

“No
w you’re being specific
,” Ben said.

“Start at the begin
n
ing.
”

“
First time I
ever
saw Zachariah
was on Sunday. He
passed me during
the Marine Corps Veterans
’
Ride.”

Rex said, “You’re lying.”

“Am not.”

“Why were you there? You’re not a veteran.”

“
My dad
served. A
nd
I’m a
reporter
. I
t
seemed like a
worthy
event to report on.”

“
Who sent you
there
?
”
Rex put his hand on the electrical swi
tch. “W
ho ordered you to
eliminate
Zachariah?”

“
Eliminate
Zachariah
?” Ben looked at
them
. “Are you nuts?
W
atch
ing
hi
m die
was
the first time I
ha
d
ever s
een
his face
.
”

Streep
reappeared and
pointed with her
bandaged
hand
.
“Give him a jolt so he knows the price of lying.”

“
Hold on
,
”
Dreyfuss
said
. “
How did you
even
know his name
in the first place
?
”

“After they brought up the body, I peeked at the medic’s report. The victim’s name was Zachariah Hinckley.”

“You lie well.”
Rex held forward a photo. It was taken from a distance at the Camp David
Scenic Overlook
, showing Ben with Palmyra and the psychiatrist.
“Can you explain this
?”

“Zachariah’s wife agreed to meet with me, but all I heard was how mentally ill he’d been
.
It
made me ever more suspicious.
”

“Do y
ou want u
s to believe that a grieving wi
dow invited you to meet
her
at
the very place her husband died?
”

“She wanted to see the place and convince me—and maybe herself too—that he
ha
d committed suicide.
I think t
hat’s why she brought
Dr. Neibauer.”

“Your boss?
”

“I’m self-employed.”

“
You met them
at the
isolated
site of the accident
to gloat about your achievement
and
receive new instructions
from your Mormon masters
, correct
?
”

“My Mormon masters?”
The conversation was making less and less sense. “Wait a minute
, w
ho the hell are you
people
?”

“Let me show you who we are!”
Streep
reached
over
and flipped the switch
on
the batteries.

Cringing
in terror
, Ben opened his mouth to shout
at the coming explosion of pain between his ears.

After three hours of work, going through the danc
e
motions mechanically while thinking of Ben, Keera was done for the night. Ben’s phone was still off. She asked
the bouncer
to
bring her Mustang to the front
and
drove home expecting
—against
reason
—
to see the GS in the garage. When she arrived, the garage was open, but the GS wasn’t there. She parked and entered the house.

It wasn’t messy. In fact, everything that
had been
removed from
the
shelves and cupboards was placed on the floor
s
and counters in an orderly manner. Even the framed
artwork, mostly cheap posters,
was lined up nicely after it had been taken down from
the walls and
separated
to
check
if anything was hidden
under the backing
s.

She turned on all the lights
and called Fran to tell her what happened.

“Hang up and call nine-one-one,” Fran said. “I’m coming over.”

“
I can’t report it
,” Keera said.
“Ben will be
very upset if I let anyone in here
without his permission, even the police
.”

“You’ve just been burglarized!”

“It’s his home too, and this has to do with his investigation.”

“
The dead Mormon
?”

“Yes.”

“How do you know
?
Could be a
regular
brea
k-
in.
Happens all the time.
”

“If you saw the way they left the place, you’d know. This wasn’
t done
by a druggy or a housebreaker.
They didn’t take any valuables or electronics, there’s no damage whatsoever, and the place is more tidy than it
had been
before they broke in
. Come and see for yourself!
”

When Fran and Lilly arrived, Keera was ready with a suitcase. She gave them a tour of the two-story townhouse.

“
Neat
,” Fran said. “Never seen anything like this.”

“What has he gotten himself into?”
Keera glanced at her iPhone
. The screen
saver was a photo of Ben, smiling while pointing back at her
. “I wish he’d call already!”

“
I called in,” Fran said, “and had one of my officers
r
u
n a
data search through all the
emergency services—cities
,
counties
, hospitals
.
There’s nothing with
Ben’s
name
and no accidents involving a BMW motorcycle
.”

“I guess that’s good news,” Keera said.

“It is. Meanwhile, come stay with us, just in case.”

Keera left the lights on, locked up, and followed them in her Mustang. She kept the iPhone visible between the front seats, Ben looking back at her.
“Where are you?” s
he
asked out loud.
“If you get hurt, I swear I’m going to kill you!”