Icarus. (47 page)

Jack didn't have an answer to that. But McCoy did.

"You know something, Jack. You know something you don't even know you know. You're the point man, there's some kind of connection between you and whoever's doing this."

"No," Jack said, shaking his head. "I don't know any of these women. I never heard of them until Kid told me about them. I never met them until I started finding them."

"You don't know that."

"I do. I've met-"

"You've met them all except two, possibly three."

"The Murderess and maybe the Destination. And the Mistake."

"You don't know who they are," McCoy said. "You never saw them, you don't know their names, so how the hell do you know there's no connection?"

"I think if we find the Murderess we'll have the killer."

"We got good news and bad news on that one: most of the others have been eliminated. Your instincts have been pretty good so far, Jack. Mine have pretty much sucked but you're in my territory now and I'm telling you that Kid is the key. And you knew Kid. You knew him well enough to know he didn't kill himself, didn't you?"

Jack nodded.

"Then you know something else, too," McCoy said. "Your job is to try to figure out what the fuck it is."

– "-"-"THE FIRST THING Jack did when he got home was to call Grace. There was no answer, just a message on her machine saying she wasn't available. "It's Jack," he said after the recording instructed him to talk. "Call me so I know you're all right."

He took a steam, made it as hot as he could stand. Didn't press the off switch until he couldn't take it any longer. Then he turned the shower on and let icy-cold water run down over him. Toweled himself off and got dressed. He was dreading what he was going to do next. He didn't know why, exactly, except something inside of him knew that it was leading him somewhere he didn't want to go. But he knew he had to go there. If he wanted the horror to end, if he wanted the killing to stop, he understood that McCoy was right – he knew something and now it was time to dig it out of himself.

You're the point man, McCoy had said. There's a connection.

But what the hell was it?

What did he know? What was the secret?

And how far back did it go?

That's what scared him, Jack realized. He didn't know why, but he did know it was what was holding him back, what was blocking his mind.

How far back did it go?

Jack went to his computer, called up the file he'd made on Kid.

He studied the information he'd put in. As he studied, his mind flew to anything relevant he'd picked up from the women on Kid's team or from Bryan. What he had learned since he'd typed in these notes.

Kid had spent three years at St. John's quarterbacking the football team. He'd left after his junior year and he and Caroline had never gotten to the bottom of it. There seemed to be some connection to his teammate who had been injured on the practice field, had been hit hard enough to paralyze him, but what was it? And what else had happened that made him leave?

Question number one: The football accident was tragic, yes, but what was it that affected Kid so greatly? Why would a teammate's injury drive him to leave school and run off to another state? And what, if anything, did it have to do with what was happening now?

All right. What next? Think!

Kid bummed around for a while. Eventually went back to school, to Maryland State, where he got his degree. Why there? And what else could have happened there? It was where he met his first Destination. Who was she? Why did that end? Kid said it was because she chose another man. Who was it? Did any of that matter?

Why did Kid come back to New York? What was he into that would lead to his death?

It kept coming back to the same thing: the women.

The Entertainer: He'd found her, she was just as Kid had described. Beautiful and smart and sad. She'd given Kid five thousand dollars that he'd never returned. Kid had told her it was for his tuition but he'd lied. He'd given the money to Samsonite. Why did he lie? Because he was giving it to another woman? Because the Entertainer would have been jealous? Jack thought that the money was irrelevant. But what had the Entertainer known? Why was she killed? She said she'd heard things, noticed things, but what? Did her killer take anything from the apartment?

The Rookie. Grace. Jack checked his notes and saw that Kid had told him that the Rookie was dangerous. He couldn't believe that Grace was capable of violence, though. Jack realized that he was attracted to her, that he liked her; it was hard to be objective. But why hadn't she called McCoy? Why hadn't she called him? Where was she now?

Where was she when Samsonite had been murdered and Jack had been shot at?

The Destination #1: She seemed unlikely. Out of the picture for a long time. But the Destination #2 – Who was she? Grace? Jack was fairly certain that's what she'd evolved into, but he couldn't be positive. Was there someone else out there? Someone else with a secret? Someone who knew Kid's secret?

The Mistake. Kid hadn't talked much about her. He'd seemed particularly evasive. They hadn't had sex, he'd said. But the relationship was sexual. Was the Mistake in love with Kid? Had she been in love with him all these years? Did she kill him because that love was unrequited?

Finally, the Murderess. Jack didn't have much to go on. She'd been scarred by an accident in her youth. That was pretty much it. McCoy had said she could be anyone. Who? Someone he knew? Some link between him and Kid?

Who?

Jack got up from his chair and began pacing. He was getting nowhere. The more information he had, the more confused he was becoming.

What was he missing?

All right, he thought. Dig into the specifics. Go back to Samsonite. A sick girl, no question about that. But she didn't deserve to die like that. No one deserved to die like that. He knew he'd never get the image and the fear that came with it out of his mind.

Stop it, he told himself. Don't think about that now. Think about what you learned. What you can still learn. What had she said?

Christ, what I don't know about you. Your stupid red-meat crematorium. Your fantasy apartment. The whaddyacallit, the balcony you're terrified of…

Jack felt violated, thinking about the things Kid had shared. Things he had told these women about the man they knew only as the Butcher.

Your big affair in London…

Jesus Christ! How could she have known about that? How could Kid have known about that? It wasn't possible. Had she really said it? Or was it part of his own psychedelic fantasy?

How you tried to have a baby but your wife had an abortion…

No, it was impossible! She couldn't have known that! He'd tried to forget it himself. It was too painful; he'd shut down the memory. He had never even been able to tell Dom. They had wanted a child so desperately. Caroline had been pregnant when he'd gone off to England. When he'd had the affair with Emma. And when he returned, right after he got back, Caroline aborted the baby. She told him she'd done it, that she no longer wanted the child and, although neither of them had ever acknowledged it, they both knew it was because of what had happened in London. How she'd known what had occurred there, he never discovered. He had his suspicions but they didn't matter. What mattered was that he had hurt her and this was the only way she knew to respond. They had created the child out of love and she had destroyed it out of pain.

They'd recovered from it, though, individually and as a couple. He had wounded her, the scar had healed. Ultimately, she had understood and that understanding had made them closer. It was something that had been so private, so personal; the healing process had drawn them together Jack straightened up and stopped his pacing. There was something gnawing at him now, he didn't know exactly what. But something didn't compute.

It had been so private.

So how did Samsonite know about it? And about the affair? How?

His stream of consciousness took him to the front of Grace's apartment building. He remembered standing with her, asking her what Kid had told her that had frightened her.

This might sound crazy, she'd said, hut I had the feeling he wanted me to know certain things in case… in case you found me… I got the feeling there was something going on that had been going on a long time. For years. I think he felt responsible for certain things, people getting hurt. Maybe even getting killed.

What people? Jack had asked. But she didn't know.

Then he flashed on Samsonite again: How you tried to have a baby but your wife had an abortion…

What was wrong with that?

There was something going on for along time. For years.

How many years? What had been going on for years?

He felt responsible for people getting hurt. Maybe even getting killed.

What people?

But your wife had an abortion…

How did she know?

Maybe even getting killed.

Who? What people?

Your affair…

An abortion…

"Oh my God."

Jack said it out loud; the sound of his own voice made him jump. He knew now what had frightened him about searching the past. Somehow he must have known all along. He knew what the connection was. He didn't understand it, didn't want to understand it, but he knew.

Kid had told Samsonite about Caroline's abortion.

But Jack had never told Kid.

Jack had never told anyone. Not a soul. Which meant only one person could have told Kid.

Only one person…

But how was that possible? How? Why? And when?

Jack, forcing himself to move slowly, refusing to bow to the urgency that was kicking at his midsection, sat back down at his computer, immediately logged on to the CylockHolmes program. He knew what he was looking for and he scrolled down until he found it.

FIND: License Plate Numbers Social Security Numbers Business Records Unlisted Phone Numbers Unknown Addresses

And then: LOCATE Long-Lost Friends DISCOVER Dirty Secrets Your In-Laws Don't Want You To Know Criminal Search Background Check* Find Out About Your Daughter's Boyfriend NEIGHBORS! Find Out What They Have To Hide! Education Verification! Did He Really Graduate From College! Find Out!

Education Verification.

Jack double-clicked on it. At the prompt, he typed in Kid's real name, George Demeter. Typed in his home address on Staten Island. Listed St. John's and Maryland State College, then clicked on the "Verify" button and waited. It didn't take long.

Kid's name popped up on-screen. So did his date of birth. So did verification that he attended St. John's University in New York City for three years. The program listed the exact dates he was enrolled as well as his official extracurricular activities. In this case it was singular: SJU football team, freshman through junior.

Jack scrolled down. He knew what he was going to find, there was no doubt about it. And find it he did.

Kid had lied to him. He did not receive his degree from Maryland State. He did not attend, at any time, Maryland State or any other school in Maryland.

As he realized what had happened, the thoughts and images came into Jack's head as if driven there by a tornado. They whirled through him, rocking him back in his chair.

Kid's datebook. The one Jack found in the Mortician's apartment. It listed the Destination over and over again. And one name: Charlotte. Not a name, he realized. Not a name of a person. A place. An abbreviation for a place!

Grace: Bad things had happened to people around him. People he loved.

Samsonite: You tried to have a baby but your wife had an abortion.

Grace: He felt responsible for certain things, people getting hurt. Maybe even getting killed.

No, it was impossible. It was fucking impossible!

McCoy: You're the point man. There has to be some connection.

But it's not impossible, Jack realized. It was all too possible. There is a connection. And it's from one horror to another. From one nightmare to the next.

And now he remembered something. Something Caroline had told him several months before the Charlottesville opening. He had thought it was about the restaurant. Now he thought differently. That's the way I feel down in Virginia, she'd said. I have something down there that's beautiful. That's mine.

Jack forced himself to look at the computer screen. He saw the name of the second college that Kid had attended. Saw the location. Saw the dates he was there.

Virginia State University.

Thirty minutes from Charlottesville.

There the entire year Caroline was opening up the restaurant.

Caroline was the one who had told Kid about her abortion. It's the only way he could have known.

He felt responsible for people getting hurt. Maybe even getting killed.

Kid had lied when he stood in Jack's living room that first time. He had known about Caroline's death and Jack's injuries before he'd come back to New York, before he'd gone to see Dom. He had come back to New York specifically to heal him; Jack knew that now. To save him. Because somehow, some way, Kid had been unable to save the woman he loved. His Destination.

Caroline.

– "-"-"JACK KELLER HAD not been back to Charlottesville since the robbery and murder. He had told himself he would never go there again. But now he decided to return. He had to. Everything led back there. Everything seemed to start there. He had to go. And as soon as he'd made the decision, he knew he would have to leave immediately. Well, not quite immediately. He had one other thing to do first.

First, he wept.

It was much easier than expected.

Easier than Charlottesville, which was surprisingly easy.

Easier than that black woman in the park.