Say You're Sorry Part 8

Victoria reaches out, but Augie pulls away, shuddering.

"Lots of sperm go into making a baby but only one sperm makes it through to fertilize the egg," he says. "The other sperm are trying to get there first, but they die, you know, they all die."

"You're not making sense," says Victoria.

"The egg splits. Two sperm. That makes us twins."

He's talking about his brother.

"... cells replicate, atoms fire, the brain forms..."

Augie turns to me. "I'm just trying to keep people from dying."

"What people?" I ask.

"If I die, how will I save them?"

His eyes are darting from side to side, dancing in his head.

"I raped a woman. You should have listened."

"You didn't rape anyone," says Victoria.

"I raped five girls at school."

"That's not true."

He stops and stares at me. "Are you here to kill me?"

"No."

"You'll kill me eventually."

"No, I won't."

Victoria looks at me, hoping I can help. But as soon as I speak Augie reacts with instant hatred, almost snarling at me. Victoria steps back, frightened. "Are you taking your medication?"

Augie looks at his hands. "You say I have a chemical imbalance. That I suffer from hallucinations. But you're wrong. What I hear is real." His shoulders are hunched and a tiny vein throbs at the side of his neck. "I think I killed her."

"Who?"

"The woman on the road."

"What woman?"

He whispers in a little boy voice. "What was she doing there? She was standing in the middle of the road." He looks from face to face. "I think I ran her over. I must have done. I couldn't stop in time."

My eyes meet Victoria's. She shakes her head.

"What makes you think you hit this person?"

Augie wipes a strand of spit from the corner of his mouth. "I tried to swerve, but I think I heard a sound. That's why the car went in the ditch. When I got out I looked for her. I called out, but she was gone."

"Why didn't you go to the police?"

"My brother told me not to. He said I'd be blamed."

"For the fire?"

"For running that woman over."

He presses his chin into his knees. "I looked for her, but then I saw the snowman and I got frightened."

"The snowman?"

"He came out of the forest covered in snow."

"You saw him after you saw the woman?"

Augie nods.

"This woman, what did she look like?"

"She was beat up, you know, but it was weird. Her shoes."

"What about them?"

"She wasn't wearing any."

7.

Low gray clouds scud across a dirty sky and the dreaming spires are etched against the southern horizon like vague giants marching out of the mist.

The cab driver maneuvers deftly on the icy streets, keeping the needle around 20 mph and rarely touching the brakes unless he has no choice. Victoria Naparstek is no longer with me. The moment I mentioned visiting Drury she grew quiet and began making excuses.

"He has a family," she said, as though that made a difference.

The cab pulls up outside a two-story house with a gabled roof. A lop-sided snowman is standing inside the front gate dressed in a flowery hat and a Tottenham scarf.

Drury is shoveling snow from his driveway. Working up a sweat, he's peeled down to baggy chinos and a sweats.h.i.+rt.

A s...o...b..ll explodes at my feet. A young girl peers from behind a makes.h.i.+ft fort of rubbish bins and a toboggan.

"You missed," I say.

She holds up another s...o...b..ll. "That was a warning shot."

Drury leans on his shovel. "Hold your fire, Gracie."

"I think we should arrest him, Daddy, he looks like a bad'n."

"Let's see what he has to say first."

Gracie is wearing a woolen cap with earflaps that make her look like Snoopy in a Peanuts cartoon. Her pale cheeks are dusted with freckles and gla.s.ses are perched on the end of her nose. Her younger brother is sitting on the front steps, pus.h.i.+ng a toy bulldozer through clumps of ice.

"What are you doing here, Professor?"

"I have a question."

"It could have waited."

"I talked to Augie Shaw again."

"On whose authority?"

"His lawyer and his psychiatrist."

Drury sets the shovel aside, pulling off his gloves. "What's your question?"

"Why would a woman go out in the middle of a blizzard without any shoes?"

"You talking about anyone in particular."

"You have an unidentified female found in a lake."

"What about her?"

"Augie Shaw said he saw a woman on the road that night. He thinks he might have hit her. That's why he drove his car into the ditch."

Drury doesn't seem surprised at this. I try again.

"You found a woman's body in a lake. I saw the crime scene from the train. How far is that from the farmhouse?"

Drury doesn't answer. His wife has appeared at the top of the steps, her body framed in the doorway, standing with one hand on her hip. Pregnant. Pretty. Tired around her eyes.

"Is everything all right, Stephen?" she asks.

"Everything's fine. This is the psychologist I was telling you about."

She smiles. "You should invite him inside where it's warm."

"The Professor won't be staying."

She picks up the young boy and rests him on her hip before turning inside.

I notice the curtains moving at the front window. She's watching.

Drury rubs at his neck. "Get to the point, Professor?"

"The woman in the lake-was she wearing shoes?"

"I don't know."

"Did she have any injuries?"

"I haven't seen the post-mortem. Body was frozen solid. They can't cut her open till she thaws."

The DCI plunges the shovel deep into a pile of snow.

"I think she was at the farmhouse that night," I say. "A dress was soaking in the laundry. Shoes were drying by the fire. Someone took a bath..."

"You're like a broken b.l.o.o.d.y record."

Gracie covers her mouth. "You said a bad word, Daddy. You know what that means."

Drury roots in his pocket for spare change. Gracie holds out her gloved hand and her fingers close over the silver coin.

"Go put it in the swear jar," he says. "Right this minute."

She skids across the packed snow and runs up the front steps.

"Take your shoes off before you go inside."

The door bangs shut. I can hear Gracie's voice-telling her mother that her daddy swore.

"That swear jar earns more than I do."

He turns to me, stretching his fingers against the cold.

"Dress it up however you like, Professor, but it doesn't change a thing. Augie Shaw murdered those people."

"What about the clothes on the bed upstairs and the broken window in the bathroom?"

Drury pinches one nostril and blows out.

"OK, let's say you're right and this woman was at the house. Maybe she ran off. Maybe Shaw hunted her down. I'm happy to charge him with a third murder."

The detective gazes past me at his house where Christmas lights are twinkling behind the net curtains. His wife has gone.

"My father was a detective, Professor. One of the best lessons he ever taught me was to wait until the mud settles so you can see things more clearly." The DCI glances at his watch. "We're done here. Have a nice life."