The Sleeping Doll (22 page)

Morton Nagle tugged at his sagging pants and sat down at the coffee table in her office, opening a battered briefcase.

He was a bit of a slob, his thinning hair disheveled, goatee unevenly trimmed, gray shirt cuffs frayed, body spongy. But he seemed comfortable with his physique, Dance the kinesics analyst assessed. His mannerisms, precise and economical, were stress–free. His eyes, with their elfin twinkle, performed triage, deciding instantly what was important and what wasn’t. When he’d entered her office, he’d ignored the decor, noted what Dance’s face revealed (probably exhaustion), gave young Rey Carraneo a friendly but meaningless glance and fixed immediately on Winston Kellogg.

And after he learned Kellogg’s employer, the writer’s eyes narrowed a bit further, wondering what an FBI agent was doing here.

Kellogg was dressed quite unfederal compared with this morning — in a beige checkered sports coat, dark slacks and blue dress shirt. He wore no tie. Still, his behavior was right out of the bureau, as noncommittal as their agents always are. He told Nagle only that he was here as an observer, “helping out.”

The writer offered one of his chuckles, which seemed to mean: I’ll get you to talk.

“Rebecca and Linda have agreed to help us,” Dance told him.

He lifted an eyebrow. “Really? The other one, Samantha?”

“No, not her.”

Nagle extracted three sheets of paper from his briefcase. He set them on the table. “My mini–opus, if that’s not an oxymoron. A brief history of Daniel Pell.”

Kellogg scooted his chair next to Dance’s. Unlike with O’Neil, she could detect no aftershave.

The writer repeated what he’d said to Dance the day before: his book wasn’t about Pell himself, but about his victims. “I’m looking into everybody affected by the Croytons’ deaths. Even employees. Croyton’s company was eventually bought by a big software developer and hundreds of people were laid off. Maybe that wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t died. And what about his profession?
That
’s a victim too. He was one of the most innovative computer designers in Silicon Valley at the time. He had dozens of copyrights on programs and patents on hardware that were way ahead of their time. A lot of them didn’t even have any application back then, they were so advanced. Now they’re gone. Maybe some were revolutionary programs for medicine or science or communications.”

Dance remembered thinking the same as she’d driven past the Cal State campus that was the recipient of much of Croyton’s estate.

Nagle continued, with a nod toward what he’d written. “It’s interesting — Pell changes his autobiography depending on whom he’s talking to. Say, he needs to form a connection with somebody whose parents died at a young age. Well, to them Pell says he was orphaned at ten. Or if he has to exploit somebody whose father was in the military, then he was the army brat of a soldier killed in combat. To hear him tell it, there are about twenty different Pells. Well, here’s the truth:”

“He was born in Bakersfield, October of nineteen sixty–three. The seventh. But he tells everyone that his birthday is November twenty–second. That was the day Lee Harvey Oswald shot Kennedy.”

“He admired a presidential assassin?” Kellogg asked.

“No, apparently he considered Oswald a loser. He thought he was too pliable and simpleminded. But what he admired was the fact that one man, with one act, could affect so much. Could make so many people cry, change the entire course of a country — well, the world.”

“Now, Joseph Pell, his father, was a salesman, mother a receptionist when she could keep a job. Middle–class family. Mom — Elizabeth — drank a lot, have to assume she was distant, but no abuse, no incarceration. Died of cirrhosis when Daniel was in his midteens. With his wife gone, the father did what he could to raise the boy but Daniel couldn’t take anyone else being in charge. Didn’t do well with authority figures — teachers, bosses and especially his old man.”

Dance mentioned the tape she and Michael O’Neil had watched, the comments about his father charging rent, beating him, abandoning the family, his parents dying.

Nagle said, “All a lie. But his father was undoubtedly a hard character for Pell to deal with. He was religious —
very
religious, very strict. He was an ordained minister — some conservative Presbyterian sect in Bakersfield — but he never got a church of his own. He was an assistant minister but finally was released. A lot of complaints that he was too intolerant, too judgmental about the parishioners. He tried to start his own church but the Presbyterian synod wouldn’t even talk to him, so he ended up selling religious books and icons, things like that. But we can assume that he made his son’s life miserable.”

Religion was not central to Dance’s own life. She, Wes and Maggie celebrated Easter and Christmas, though the chief icons of the faith were a rabbit and a jolly fellow in a red suit, and she doled out to the children her own brand of ethics — solid, incontrovertible rules common to most of the major sects. Still, she’d been in law enforcement long enough to know that religion often played a role in crime. Not only premeditated acts of terrorism but more mundane incidents. She and Michael O’Neil had spent nearly ten hours together in a cramped garage in the nearby town of Marina, negotiating with a fundamentalist minister intent on killing his wife and daughter in the name of Jesus because the teenage girl was pregnant. (They saved the family but Dance came away with an uneasy awareness of what a dangerous thing spiritual rectitude can be.)

Nagle continued, “Pell’s father retired, moved to Phoenix and remarried. His second wife died two years ago and Joseph died last year, heart attack. Pell apparently had never stayed in touch. No uncles on either side and one aunt, in Bakersfield.”

“The one with Alzheimer’s?”

“Yes. Now, he does have a brother.”

Not an only child, as he’d claimed.

“He’s older. Moved to London years ago. He runs the sales operation of a U.S. importer/exporter. Doesn’t give interviews. All I have is a name. Richard Pell.”

Dance said to Kellogg, “I’ll have somebody track him down.”

“Cousins?” the FBI agent asked.

“Aunt never married.”

Tapping the bio he’d written. “Now, Pell’s later teens, he was constantly in and out of juvenile detention — mostly for larceny, shoplifting, car theft. But he has no long history of violence. His early record was surprisingly peaceful. There’s no evidence of street brawling, no violent assaults, no signs he ever lost his temper. One officer suggested that it seemed Pell would only hurt somebody if it was tactically useful, and that he didn’t enjoy — or hate — violence. It was a tool.” The writer looked up. “Which, you ask me, is scarier.”

Dance thought of her earlier assessment, killing emotionlessly whenever it was expedient.

“Now, no history of drugs. Pell apparently’s never been a user. And he doesn’t — or didn’t — drink any alcohol.”

“What about education?”

“Now that’s interesting. He’s brilliant. When he was in high school he tested off the charts. He got A’s in independent study classes, but never showed up when attendance was required. In prison he taught himself law and handled his own appeal in the Croyton case.”

She thought of his comment during the interview, about Hastings Law School.

“And he took it all the way to the California Supreme Court — just last year they ruled against him. Apparently it was a big blow. He thought for sure he’d get off.”

“Well, he may be smart but not smart enough to stay out of jail.” Kellogg tapped a paragraph of the bio that described maybe seventy–five arrests. “
That
’s a rap sheet”

“And it’s the tip of the iceberg; Pell usually got
other
people to commit the crimes. There’re probably hundreds of other offenses he was behind that somebody else got nailed for. Robbery, burglary, shoplifting, pickpocketing. That’s how he survived, getting people around him to do the dirty work.”

“Oliver,” Kellogg said.

“What?”

“Charles Dickens.
Oliver Twist
… You ever read it?”

Dance said, “Saw the movie.”

“Good comparison. Fagin, the guy who ran the gang of pickpockets. That was Pell.”

“‘Please, sir, I want some more,’ ” Kellogg said in a Cockney accent. It was lousy. Dance laughed and he shrugged.

“Pell left Bakersfield and moved to L.A., then San Francisco. Hung out with some people there, was arrested for a few things, nothing serious. No word for a while — until he’s picked up in Northern California in a homicide investigation.”

“Homicide?”

“Yep. The murder of Charles Pickering in Redding. Pickering was a county worker. He was found stabbed to death in the hills outside of town about an hour after he was seen talking to somebody who looked like Pell. Vicious killing. He was slashed dozens of times. Bloodbath. But Pell had an alibi — a girlfriend swore he was with her at the time of the killing. And there was no physical evidence. The local police held him for a week on vagrancy, but finally gave him a pass. The case was never solved.”

“Then he gets the Family together in Seaside. A few more years of theft, shoplifting. Some assaults. An arson or two. Pell was suspected in the beating of a biker who lived nearby, but the man wouldn’t press charges. A month or so after that came the Croyton murders. From then on — well, until yesterday — he was in prison.”

Dance asked, “What does the girl have to say?”

“Girl?”

“The Sleeping Doll. Theresa Croyton.”

“What could she tell you? She was asleep at the time of the murders. That was established.”

“Was it?” Kellogg asked. “By who?”

“The investigators at the time, I assume.” Nagle’s voice was uncertain. He’d apparently never thought about it.

“She’d be, let’s see, seventeen now,” Dance calculated. “I’d like to talk to her. She might know some things that’d be helpful. She’s living with her aunt and uncle, right?”

“Yes, they adopted her.”

“Could I have their number?”

Nagle hesitated. His eyes swept the desktop; they’d lost their sparkle.

“Is there a problem?”

“Well, I promised the aunt I wouldn’t say anything to anybody about the girl. She’s very protective of her niece. Even
I
haven’t met her yet. At first the woman was dead set against my talking to her. I think she might agree eventually but if I gave you her number, I doubt very much she’d talk to you, and I suspect I’d never hear from her again.”

“Just tell us where she lives. We’ll get the name from Directory Assistance. I won’t mention you.”

He shook his head. “They changed their last name, moved out of the area. They were afraid somebody in the Family would come after them.”

“You gave Kathryn the names of the women,” Kellogg pointed out.

“They were in the phone book and in public records. You could’ve gotten them yourself. Theresa and her aunt and uncle are very unpublic.”

“
You
found them,” Dance said.

“Through some confidential sources. Who, I guarantee, want to stay even more confidential now that Pell’s escaped. But I know this’s important … I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll go see the aunt in person. Tell her you want to talk to Theresa about Pell. I’m not going to try to persuade them. If they say no, that’s it.”

Kellogg nodded. “That’s all we’re asking. Thanks.”

Looking over the bio, Dance said, “The more I learn about him, the less I know.”

The writer laughed, the sparkle returning to his face. “Oh, you want to know the why of Daniel Pell?” He dug through his briefcase, found a stack of papers and flipped to a yellow tab. “Here’s a quote from one of his prison psych interviews. For once he was being candid.” Nagle read:

“
Pell: You want to analyze me, don’t you? You want to know what makes me tick? You surely know the answer to
that
one, Doctor. It’s the same for everybody: family, of course. Daddy whipped me, Daddy ignored me, Mommy didn’t breastfeed me, Uncle Joe did who knows what. Nature or nurture, you can lay everything at your family’s feet. But if you think too much about ‘em, next thing you know, every single relative and ancestor you ever had is in the room with you and you’re paralyzed. No, no, the only way to survive is to let ‘em all go and remember that you’re who you are and that’s never going to change.
”
“
Interviewer: Then who
are
you, Daniel?
”
“
Pell (laughing): Oh, me? I’m the one tugging the strings of your soul and making you do things you never thought you were capable of. I’m the one playing my flute and leading you to places you’re afraid to go. And let me tell you, Doctor, you’d be astonished at how many people want their puppeteers and their Pied Pipers. Absolutely astonished.
”