‘Why’d you wait all this time?’ he asked.
‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘Why’d you wait till now to go after them?’
‘Time was running out.’
‘I don’t follow.’
‘I couldn’t let them get away with what they’d done to me. I had to get them before it was too late.’
‘You mean before they died natural deaths?’ Parker asked, referring to the advanced ages of the vies, grinning when he asked the question.
‘No,’ Purcell said. ‘Before the cancer killed me.’
‘Pancreatic cancer.
‘Was what I had.
‘The chemotherapy was Gemzar and Taxotere. It was the Taxotere that caused me to lose my hair. It’s only supposed to do that in eighty percent of the cases, but look at me. They told me my hair would grow back in six months. When we stopped the chemotherapy. Taxotere’s a synthetic now, but it originally came from the leaves of the yew tree. That sounds medieval, doesn’t it? Like doctors using leeches and such? Well, cancer, they’re really just guessing. But the recipe, the cocktail, whatever you want to call it, the mix of poisons, seemed to be helping, the tumors in the pancreas seemed to be shrinking. Then…”
He hesitated.
The video camera was fall on his face.
‘Then in May, the middle of May it was, we got the results of the next CAT scan, and… it had spread everywhere. The cancer. Everywhere. The stomach, the liver, the lymph nodes, the lungs… just everywhere. The doctor told me I had potentially two months to live. That was the word he used. “Potentially.”
‘I decided to live it up in those next two months. Took out a home equity loan on my house, they gave me two hundred thousand dollars, let them take the house, who cares, I’ll be dead. I recently leased a car, I’ll be dead before the first payment is due, who cares? I’m making up for what I never achieved in my lifetime. Never accomplished. What I might have accomplished if only… if only people hadn’t fiddled with me. So I decided to make them pay for what they’d done. The people who’d messed up my life. All of them. Do you understand? I killed them because they fiddled with my life!’
‘You fiddled with theirs, too,’ Nellie said. ‘Big time.’
‘Good. They deserved it.’
‘Sure, good,’ Nellie said, and nodded. ‘You won’t think it’s so good when they inject that valium in your vein.’
‘That’ll never happen,’ Purcell said. ‘I’ll be dead before then. By my count, I’ve got no more than a week. So who cares?’
‘Your fiancée might care,’ Nellie said.
Which was the only time any emotion crossed his face.
* * * *
It was 6:43 A.M. when the video guy wrapped up his equipment and told Nellie and the detectives he was on his way. By then, Charles Purcell was already on his way to the Men’s House of Detention downtown, for arraignment when the criminal courts opened. The video guy, who’d been interested in nothing more than the whodunit aspect of the case - this was, after all, merely a video, right? - could now pack up and go home.
For that matter, so could everyone else.
11.
WHEN SHE OPENED the door at seven thirty that Tuesday morning, Paula Wellington was still in pajamas, her white hair loose around her face, no makeup. She looked fifty-one. She looked beautiful. She yawned, blinked out into the hallway at him.
‘Little early, isn’t it?’ she said.
I’ve been up all night,’ Hawes said.
‘Come in,’ she said.
She closed the door behind him, locked it.
‘I’m exhausted,’ he said. ‘I thought I might just sleep on the couch or something.’
‘That’s what you thought, I see.’
‘You think that might be all right? My just sleeping here?’
‘I’m still asleep,’ she said. ‘But come,’ she said, and took his hand. ‘Then we’ll see,’ she said.
If she was talking about the fragility of relationships, he knew all about those; he’d been there.
If she was telling him that life itself was at best tenuous, he knew that, too; he was a cop.
‘Then we’ll see,’ he agreed.
* * * *
‘What am I, some kind of criminal here?’ April asked.
Just answer the question, Teddy signed.
‘Dad? Do I need a lawyer here?’
Good ploy, Carella thought. Turn the innocent smile and wide eyes on Dear Old Dad, always worked before, should work now. Mr. and Mrs. America at the breakfast table with their darling, thirteen-year-old, average-American twins - except that one of them may have been smoking pot on her thirteenth birthday.
‘Answer your mother’s question,’ he said.
‘I forget the question,’ April said, and grinned at Mark for approval. Mark kept spooning Cheerios into his mouth.
Were you smoking pot at Lorraine’s party? Teddy signed.
‘D-a-a-a-d, do I really have to answer that?’
Carella had been here before. Too many times before. During too many interrogations of too many criminals on too many nights in the same grubby squadroom. But this was his own breakfast table, on a bright sunny morning toward the end of June, and it was his own daughter doing the tap dancing. He knew the answer already. He had been here before.
‘Everybody smokes a little pot,’ April said.
Wrong answer.
‘April,’ Carella said, ‘answer your mother’s question.’
April sighed a heavy, soulful, rolling-of-the-eyes, tweener sigh.
‘Yes,’ she said, ‘I took a few tokes
Tokes, he thought.
‘… on a joint, all right?’
Joint, he thought.
‘Is that such a big deal?’ April asked.
Yes, Teddy signed.
‘Well, I’m sorry, but
It’s a big deal.
‘Only if you’re
In this family, it’s a big deal.
‘You’re grounded,’ Carella said.
‘Come on, Dad! Every kid in the world…”
‘Not my kids,’ he said.
I’ll talk to Lorraine’s mother, Teddy signed.
‘You’ll embarrass me to death!’
Good. Be embarrassed.
‘Besides, she won’t know what the hell you’re saying. She doesn’t know how to sign. Leave it alone, okay, Mom? Don’t turn this into a friggin federal case!’
He had never struck one of his children in his life, and he did not slap April now, though he certainly was tempted. Instead, very calmly, he said, ‘This isn’t a squadroom, watch your mouth. You’re grounded till further notice.’
‘The Fourth of July is coming! There’s a big party at…’
‘You’ll miss it.’
‘What am I supposed to tell Lorraine? Jee-sus Christ!’
‘Mom and I will talk to her mother
‘No, you won’t!’
‘… explain what’s going on.’
‘Promise me you won’t!’
‘We will, April.’
‘She’ll kick you out of the house.’
‘Not if she’s smart,’ Carella said.
‘She won’t believe
‘We’ll make it clear.’
April threw down her napkin.
‘Okay, so be a whistle-blower, go ahead!’ she shouted. ‘Ground me forever, see if I care! If you think that’s gonna stop…”
Listen to me! Teddy signed, and rose suddenly, and pointed her finger at her daughter. This is the end of this, have you got that? You will never again go anywhere near that shit!
This was the first time April had ever seen such fire in her mother’s eyes, the first time she had ever heard her use the word ‘shit.’ She hoped for a moment her father might change his mind, come to her rescue at last, thought at least her twin brother might say a word in her defense. But no, the censure at this table was unified and determined. No one here was about to enable her. She felt suddenly ashamed of herself.