IO Did you see much of them?
S Not really. They were very busy, what with the new baby and all.
IO Did they have many regular visitors?
S None that I noticed. There were some people from the lab that Lewis was friendly with. I think they came over for a couple of dinner parties. After the baby was born, the grandparents visited a couple of times. Things like that.
IO And how did the Thorpes seem?
S How do you mean?
IO As neighbors, as a couple. How did they seem?
S They were always very pleasant.
IO Did you ever observe any problems? Arguments, raised voices, anything of the sort?
S No, never.
IO Were they ever in any kind of difficulty that you were aware of? Money, for example?
S No, not that I know. We never really spent that much time together, as I said. They were always very pleasant, very happy. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a couple happier.
IO What, precisely, made you go over to the Thorpe residence this morning?
S The baby.
IO I’m sorry?
S The baby. She was crying, wouldn’t stop. The baby had never cried before. I thought maybe something was wrong.
IO Describe, for the tape, what you found, please.
S I–I went in the kitchen door. The baby was there.
IO In the kitchen?
S No, in the hallway. The hallway leading from the dining room.
IO Ms. Bowman, please describe everything you saw and heard. In detail, please.
S Okay. I could see the baby, ahead, past the kitchen. She was screaming, her face was red. There weren’t any lights on, but it was a bright morning, I could see everything clearly. There was some kind of opera playing.
IO Playing where?
S On the stereo. But the baby was crying so loudly. I could barely think. I moved ahead to comfort her. That’s when the living room came into view. That’s when I saw… oh, God…
[TRANSCRIPT PAUSES]
IO Take as long as you need, Ms. Bowman. You’ll find tissue to your right, on the table, there.
Lash put the transcript aside. He didn’t need to read any more: he knew exactly what it was Maureen Bowman saw.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a couple happier. It was just about the same thing, word for word, Lindsay Thorpe’s father had told him, with those hollow, haunted eyes, at the restaurant in New London. The same thing everybody had told him since.
What had gone wrong with this couple? What had happened?
Lash’s experience with pathology had two very distinct periods: first as a forensic psychologist with the FBI, studying violence after the fact; and then later, as a specialist in private practice, working with people to make sure violence never became a necessary option. He had worked very hard to keep the two worlds separate. Yet here in this house he felt them drawing together.
He dropped his gaze to the other envelope: the one imprinted Property of Eden Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. He unwound the sealing thread, opened the flap. Inside were two unlabeled videotapes. Lash slid them out, balanced one in each hand for a moment. Then he rose and walked to the television console. He turned it on, inserted one of the tapes.
A date resolved on the black screen, followed by a long scroll of numbers. And then a face appeared suddenly, larger than life: brown hair, penetrating hazel eyes, handsome. It was Lewis Thorpe, and he was smiling.
The first step in any application to Eden was to sit before a camera and answer two questions. Besides the scant biographical information, these initial tapes of the Thorpes were the only material Mauchly had supplied him with.
Lash turned his attention to the tape. He had watched it and its mate several times before. Here in the Thorpes’ own house he would watch them one last time, in hopes the surroundings would somehow render up the connection that so far had eluded him. It seemed a vain hope, but he was running out of options — and spending a lot more time — than he had ever intended.
“Why are you here?” an off-camera voice was asking.
Lewis Thorpe had a frank, disarming smile. “I’m here because something is missing in my life,” he said simply.
“Describe one thing you did this morning,” the off-camera voice said. “And why you think we should know about it.”
Lewis thought for just a moment. “I finished translating a particularly difficult haiku,” he said. He waited, as if for a response. When none came, he went on. “I’ve been translating the work of Bash — o, the Japanese poet. People always think translating haiku must be easy, but in fact it’s really, really hard. It’s so dense, yet so simple. How do you capture that wealth of meaning?” He shrugged at the camera. “It’s something I started doing in grad school. I’d taken a lot of Japanese courses, and I was really taken with Bash — o’s book, Narrow Road to the Interior. It’s the story of this journey he took through Japan’s northern interior four hundred years ago. But, of course, it’s also about his own… Anyway, it’s a short work, laced with haiku. There was one in particular, a famous one, that I struggled with, kept putting off. This morning, on the taxi coming here, I finally finished it. Sounds funny, doesn’t it, since it’s only, what, nine words long?” He stopped.
It was hard to reconcile the handsome face with that other one, shown in the police photos: the yawning mouth, the wide unseeing eyes, the dark lolling tongue.
Sudden fade to black. Lash withdrew the tape, slotted in the other.
Another scribble of numbers. Then Lindsay Thorpe appeared on the monitor, thin and blonde and deeply tanned. She looked a trifle more nervous than Lewis had. She licked her lips, traced an errant hair away from her eyes with a finger.
“Why are you here?” the off-camera voice asked again.
Lindsay paused for a moment, looked away. “Because I know I can do better,” she replied after a moment.
“Describe one thing you did this morning. And why you think we should know about it.”
Lindsay looked back at the camera. And now she smiled too, displaying perfect, gleaming teeth. “That one’s easier. I took the plunge, bought my round-trip ticket to Lucerne. There’s this special tour group taking a one-week hike through the Alps. It’s kind of expensive, seemed like a bit of an extravagance, especially on top of the fee for…” Her smile turned a little shy. “Anyway, I finally decided I was worth it. I recently ended this relationship that just hadn’t been working out, and I wanted to get away, maybe get a little perspective on things.” She laughed. “So I put the ticket on my Visa this morning. Nonrefundable. I leave the first of next month.”
The tape ended. Lash removed it and shut off the player.
Five months after these interviews, the Thorpes were married. They moved here not long after. The most perfect couple anyone could remember.
Lash dropped the tapes into the envelope and started for the door. As he opened it he paused to turn back, asking once again for an answer. When the house remained silent, he shut and locked the door carefully behind him.
SIX
Cruising at thirty-five thousand feet on his way back to New York, Lash inserted his credit card into the seatback slot, plucked the air-to-ground phone from its handset, and stared at it a moment. What does an expert do when something makes no sense? he thought. Simple. You ask another expert.
His first call was to directory information; the second to a number in Putnam County, New York.
“Weisenbaum Center,” came a clipped, efficient voice.
“Dr. Goodkind, please.”
“Who may I say is calling?”
“Christopher Lash.”
“Just a minute.”