an appearance elsewhere. If we are building the structure of limitation, the
parameters of time and space, we need to know if Dissat appeared at the West
Palm office on Wednesday, and if he did, the time spent there."
"And where he is right now," I said. "When I wonder where he is right now, I
wonder if he's crouched on the floor behind us. That's what he does to me,
Meyer. Sorry. He was so pleased with himself, so damned delighted when he
reached out with his bare toes and turned her head so she looked at me with
those empty, crazy eyes. It was a funny kind of innocent pleasure, as if he
had no idea there was anything really wrong about it. He was like a little kid
who'd built a kite that would fly, and he wanted me to tell him how great it
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was. He tried to talk tough. Movie tough. But it was like something that had
to be said. An obligatory part of the ceremony. After that we were going to
share something, he and I. Some special personal important relationship.
Dammit, I can't say it so that you can understand how it was."
"He fits the pattern of a certain kind of damaged personality I have read
about, Travis. He could be called the activated sociopath sadist. Bright,
healthy, energetic, competent. Excellent in areas requiring ritual.
Mathematics, accounting, engineering. Quite cold inside. Tricky. Unable to
concede the humanity of people around them because, having no basis of
comparison, they think all of us have their same dry and barren soul. They are
loners. They can charm when they choose. Sexually stunted, inhibited, often
impotent. When Mary tried to escape from him and he caught her and they fell
badly and injured her seriously, that activated him. Now he knows what he
wants. He wants inventive episodes like the one with Lisa. The money will be
meaningful only in how many such episodes it will buy. He isn't aware of evil.
Only of being caught. You have to think of him as a bored child who suddenly
discovers that it is wonderful fun to go to the pet store and buy a mouse and
bring it home and do things to it until it is dead. Life is no longer boring.
It is full of rich and wonderful excitement. The mouse shares the experience,
so he feels fond of the mouse for as long as it lasts. You could say that the
child loves the mouse to the extent he can feel love."
"Jesus!"
"I know. Stroking Lisa's forehead, drying Harry's sweaty face, are imitations
of emotion. We can imagine he spoke tender words to Mary because she was
pleasing him, giving him release. He's not a madman in any traditional sense.
He cannot feel guilt or shame. If caught, he would feel fury and indignation
at the game ending too soon. He'll go to great lengths to stay free,
unsuspected. His career is a lot less important to him than it used to be. My
guess is he'll be gone by the deadline, the tenth, a week from today."
We rode in silence for a time. "Meyer? How did you get that Woodie Woodchuck
to snap to attention?"
"By reminding him that he had informed me of the approximate value of the
assets in one of his trust accounts without any authorization from the trust
customer or the senior trust officer. Banks take all confidential
relationships very seriously. He soon said he would be very happy to help me
find out all about the three hundred thousand."
"How did he find out Harry had forfeited his option?"
"I don't know. Probably phoned a contact at SeaGate and asked what value, as
collateral, Harry's hundred-thousand-share block would have. The stuff is too
closely held to have an OTC quote."
"Couldn't he have borrowed against the stock he was going to get?"
"Not if he had already done so."
"Sick condominiums and a sick construction business. How about the seven
hundred thousand he's supposed to get back from SeaGate?"
"If it went into land improvements at the site, then I guess he'd have to wait
until the public issue money comes back to SeaGate."
"So that goes to pay off other debts, and then Harry's business quietly fades
away and dies?"
"Reasonable guess."
"He had to take Harry somewhere and keep him there. Harry and Harry's car.
Transportation problems, Meyer. Logistics and tactics. If he took him to
wherever he lives-"
"A cluster apartment complex at West Palm on the bay shore. Rental apartments.
Not likely."
"I suppose you have his phone number?"
"You asked me to check him out. Remember?"
"And your overall impression?"
"A very dull fellow, competent and humorless."
"You know the name of the cluster apartments?"
"I'd rather not say it. Palm Vista Gardens. D-2."
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"The first phone booth after we get off the pike, please."
He parked at a gas station by a shiny row of vending machines under a roof
made of plastic thatch, incredibly green. I phoned from the hotbox provided by
Gen Tel out on the cement wasteland. I hoped Palm Vista Gardens was big enough
to have a rental and administration office on the premises. It was. The lady's
voice came right from the resonant bridge of her Indiana nose.
"Yes, maybe you can help me. Have you got any furnished one-bedroom
vacancies?"
She was not a well-organized lady. She tended to ramble. She gave information
and then with cries of dismay retracted it and called herself names, mostly
"old fool."
She finally discovered that one of their renters, "a nice young man" who had
been on the special month-to-month basis with one month in advance (an [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]