Henry nodded. He looked miserable. “Yes,” he said.
“I was hysterical,” Darlene said. She was apologizing.
“Sure you were,” Mackey told her, and said to Henry, “But you did it. You risk everything because you love Darlene, and that’s what I’m doing with Brenda. So I’ll ask you, what do you want Darlene to do?”
Henry was already shaking his head halfway through the question. “I can’t put that on—”
“Yes, you can, Henry,” Mackey said. “She’s gonna leave here at eight-thirty” — glance at kitchen clock — “less than three hours from now. We’re gonna let her walk out the door, get in the car, drive away. Do you want her to go tell the cops she changed her mind, she doesn’t think that was Brenda parked there late at night after all, she doesn’t want to file a complaint she knows is a lie? Or do you want her to say there’s two armed and desperate criminals in her house, and they’re holding her lover, you, holding him hostage there? Because then there’s a big standoff, a shootout, and a lot of things happen, maybe even the house burns down—”
“The law does that sometimes,” Parker said. “They always say it was an accident.”
“That’s right,” Mackey agreed. “Took down a whole neighborhood in Philly a few years ago.” To Henry he said, “So all kinds of things could happen, if Darlene tells the law we’re in here, and you’re in here with us, but the one thing that will definitely happen is that you’ll be dead. My guarantee, Henry. You won’t have to worry about ruin any more.”
Darlene, sounding desperate, said, “I want to do it, I know yon two are capable of anything, but I don’t know if I can do it. I think they’ll look at me, and they’ll know, and then the police will come here and everything will happen just the way you say it will, even though I tried, and we’ll all be destroyed, every one of us.”
Parker said, “The meeting this morning. Is this with the detectives?”
“No, it’s an assistant district attorney,” Darlene said, “in her office. She’s Elise something, I don’t remember what.”
Parker nodded. “We heard about her,” he said. “Let me tell you the exact words we were told about her, by somebody who’s seen her and knows her. He said, ‘She’s a young woman with little experience and no feel for the job.’ Is that the way Elise strikes you, Darlene?”
Darlene, wide-eyed, said, “How do you people know all these things?”
Parker said, “Is that a good description of Elise?”
Darlene thought, then nodded. “Yes. You can tell, she’s really mostly bluffing.”
“You can outbluff Elise,” Parker told her.
Mackey said, “Henry? Do you think she can do it?”
Henry looked at the table, deliberately meeting no one’s eye. “Honestly,” he said, “I pray she can do it.”
Mackey grinned at Darlene. “So it’s gonna work out. It isn’t gonna be a piece of cake, we all know that, but you can deal with Elise.”
“I’ll try,” Darlene said. She looked at Henry. “I really will do my best.”
“I know you will,” he said.
Leaning back, a pleased smile on his face, Mackey said, “So now we got plenty of time for a nice breakfast, and we could even rehearse if you want, up to you. I wouldn’t want you to be overtrained. And when you leave, your car’s in the driveway.”
Henry sat up. “You mean, that man took my car?”
“He’s a local boy,” Mackey explained. “He’s too well known around here, it seemed a good idea to leave while he could. Don’t worry, he’ll treat your car well, he won’t be going over any speed limits, you can be sure of that. And once Brenda’s out of that Fifth Street station, you can call in a stolen car report, no problem. He’ll be into some other transportation by then.” Getting to his feet, he said, “Darlene, I’m no sexist. Lemme help you make breakfast.”
8
At eight-thirty she left, with a rueful look at the ruined front door on the way by. Parker had found hammer and nails in a kitchen drawer, and ripped a piece of jamb from an interior door. With the front door lock in place and the splintered pieces of the old jamb back in position, he’d nailed the new length of wood over the old. From the inside, it looked like hell, but nothing showed on the outside, and the door would lock.
Parker watched her cross to her car, parked now where Henry’s had been last night. Her step was firm. She had herself under control.
This was the unknown, starting now. Any time you put somebody on the send, off with the instructions but on their own, you could never be completely certain the glue would hold. She could doublethink herself in the car, on the way to the meeting. She could be blindsided by an unexpected question from somebody there. She could lose her nerve at any step along the way. Or she could hold together and this thing would finally be over.
Darlene got behind the wheel. Carefully she fixed her seat belt. She backed to the street and drove away, not looking toward her house.
Parker turned away from the window. Henry sat slumped on the sofa; he, too, didn’t know if she’d hold up. Mackey stood in the doorway, looking at Parker. “Time to make the call?”
He meant to Li. It wouldn’t be good to mention that name in front of Henry, just in case things fell apart somewhere down the line. They might still need Li in the near future, and they would need him thinking about them and not thinking about saving his license. Parker said, “Henry, I’ll have to lock you in a closet now.”
Startled, frightened all over again after a long time of calm, Henry said, “No, you don’t! I’ll just sit here, I won’t make any trouble.”
“We have to phone somebody,” Parker explained, being slow and patient because it would be better to keep Henry dialed down. “We can’t have you listen to it, but I’m not gonna just ask you to wait in the kitchen, right next to that back door.”
“It won’t be long, Henry,” Mackey said, and then he said, “I tell you what. You just go back into the bedroom and close the door. If you open the door, we can see you from here, so don’t open the door.”
“I won’t,” Henry promised.
“It’ll just be a few minutes, like my friend told you,” Mackey assured him. “And then we’ll call oley oley in-free, and you come back to the living room. Go now, Henry.”
Henry got to his feet. “I won’t make any trouble,” he said, and went away down the hall.
They watched until the bedroom door closed, and then Mackey said, “I believe him. Henry will not make us trouble.”
“Make the call,” Parker said.
Mackey went over to sit on the sofa, next to the phone. He pulled Li’s card from his shirt pocket and dialed, while Parker stood where he could hear Mackey and watch the hall.
“Mr. Li, please. I’m calling on the Brenda Fawcett matter.” Mackey nodded at Parker, and said, “They’re patching him through again. I don’t think he’s ever in his office.”
“He doesn’t need to be,” Parker said.
“No.” Mackey looked at Li’s card. “He’s got all these partners to watch the office.” Then, into the phone, he said, “Mr. Li. This is Brenda’s friend. No, I know that, you don’t have any news yet, but within the hour I think maybe you will. You might even have good news. Yeah, it would be. The thing is, if the news is as good as I think it’s gonna be, Brenda’s gonna be out from under before we know it. Yeah, that would be very nice. Now, if it works out like that, maybe you could give her some change to make a phone call, let me know what’s happening. Yeah, I think she should use change to make that phone call. The number’s—” and he read off the number from the phone he was using. “I’ll be here, hoping for the best. Thank you, Mr. Li.”