Page 57

“The polygraph, Inspector. What about the polygraph?”

Jalbert waves one hand in front of his face, as if shooing away a troublesome fly. “Sociopaths almost always beat the poly. It’s a proven fact.”

“Or it could be you’re afraid it would show I’m telling the truth.”

“Twenty-one,” Jalbert says.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Are you all right?” It gives Danny great pleasure to ask this question. That’s low, and it’s mean, but he’s just been embarrassed in front of his town. What used to be his town, anyway.

Jalbert says, “You killed her.”

“I did not.”

“Come on. Own up to it. Take the weight, Danny. You’ll feel better. It’s just you and me here. I’m not wearing a wire, and you can deny it later. Do it for me, and do it for yourself. Get it off your chest.”

“There’s nothing to confess. I had a dream. I went to where she was buried. I told the police. That’s all there is.”

Jalbert laughs. “You’re persistent, Danny. I’ll give you that. But I am, too.”

“Here’s an idea. If you think I did it, charge me. Arrest me.”

Jalbert says nothing.

“You can’t, can you? I bet you’ve talked to the county attorney up in Wilder City and he’s told you that you don’t have enough. No forensic evidence, no video evidence, no witnesses. You’ve got an old man who saw me at that Texaco, but it was the same day I reported the body, so he can’t help you. Basically, Inspector, you’re fucked.”

Which is funny, Danny reflects, because he is also fucked. Jalbert has seen to that.

Jalbert grins and points a finger at Danny. The grin reminds him of the quarter moon in his dream. “You did it. I know it, you know it, twenty-eight.”

Danny says, “I’m going in and finishing my shopping. You can follow me if you want. I can’t stop you and the damage is done. It was done when you leaked my name to that rag.”

Jalbert doesn’t deny it, and he doesn’t follow Danny back into the IGA. His job is finished. Everyone looks at Danny as he shops. Some actually swerve their carts out of the way when they see him coming.

29

He goes home to his trailer in Oak Grove. He puts away his groceries. He allowed himself a box of Nabisco Pinwheels—his favorite cookie—and intended to eat a couple while watching TV. Now he doesn’t want to watch TV, and he certainly doesn’t want any cookies. If he tried to eat one, he thinks he’d choke on it. He’s never felt so angry since being bullied by a bigger boy in middle school, and he’s certainly never felt so… so…

“So cornered,” he murmurs.

Will he sleep tonight? Not unless he can calm down. And he wants to calm down, wants to get hold of himself. Jalbert looks like he hasn’t been sleeping and he’d like Danny to join him in that. Get a little ragged, Danny, do something stupid. Like to take a swing at me? Think how good it would make you feel! Try it!

Is there something he can do to take some of the pressure off? There might be.

He gets out his wallet and thumbs through it. Each of the investigators has given him a card with their KBI numbers and extensions on the front and their cell numbers on the back. Just in case he gets tired of his unbelievable dream story and decides to tell them what really happened. He puts Jalbert’s card back in his wallet and calls Davis’s cell. She answers on the first ring, her hello almost drowned out by what’s going on near her, or possibly around her. It’s an off-key rendition of “Happy Birthday” sung by young voices.

“Hello, Inspector Davis. It’s Danny Coughlin.”

There’s a moment of silence from her end, as if she doesn’t know how to respond to this 7 PM call from her prime suspect. He thinks he has blindsided her as he was blindsided by Jalbert, which seems fair… at least in his current red-assed mood. The pause is long enough for Danny to hear happy birthday dear Laurie, happy birthday to you, and then Davis is back. “Give me a second.” Then, to the partygoers (Danny assumes it’s a party), “I have to take this.”

The singing fades as she carries her unexpected call to somewhere quieter. It’s time enough for him to consider verbs. Talked? No. Interviewed? No, that’s totally wrong. Questioned? Right… but also wrong. Then he has it.

“How can I help you, Danny?”

“Half an hour ago your partner ambushed me in the supermarket while I was doing my shopping.”