"The pieces are starting to fit, aren't they?"
Janek nodded. Later he marveled at how quickly the case was coming together-as if Mendoza were a puzzle left incomplete nine years before, each hole still receptive to the dust-covered pieces still lying beside it on the floor.
Sue called from Sarasota. She liked the city, liked the people, liked her motel, which was on the beach. She'd even found a lesbian bar.
"Actually, it's a gay bar," she explained. "They tolerate women."
"Glad to hear you're having fun," Janek said. "What about Janet Clury?"
She lives in a nice one-story house, three-hundred-thousand-dollar job on a finger. That's what they call a man-made spit of land." Sue paused.
"Frankly, I find it a little phallic."
"Is she living with someone?"
"Not now, though she's been known to have a boyfriend or two. She's comfortably set up. Besides the house she's got a BMW and a good job as a hospital administrator. She's nice-looking, expensive blond dye-job, not too flashy, cut at a good salon. Every afternoon after work she goes to a local mall, works out at a health club, shops at a health food store, then goes home. So far no visitors. Last two nights she's stayed in watching TV. I've seen the screen flickering from the street."
"Watch her a couple more days," Janek said. "If nothing happens, we'll try and stir things up."
Timmy called. He was drunk. He woke Janek up.
"It's your old partner," he announced. "Who set me up? I gotta know."
"Forget it, Timmy. I'm going back to sleep."
"You don't fuckin' care, do you, Frank?"
"Sure, I care."
"Not about me."
"Go to AA. Get off the sauce. Then maybe we can have decent conversation."
"That's all you gotta say?"
"You know the deal: You tell me why Dakin wanted to your ass, I'll tell you who set up Metaxas."
Janek hung up. The phone rang again. He unplugged it for the night.
It took him hours to get back to sleep. He kept having visions of Timmy staggering toward him down a corridor of mirrors.
He rented a car, drove out to Newark. Gelsey greeted him from the top of the exterior stairs.
"Looks like it's going to rain," she said.
"I heard it on the news. That's why I came out."
When they were inside and he realized he'd interrupted her painting, he urged her to go back to work. She picked up her brushes, turned to her canvas, while he brought her up to date on Dietz. Diana was still in jail, he told her. Thatcher hadn't been able to get her bail.
"What we want to do is soften her up, then let her plead to something less than extortion and attempted murder in return for testimony against Kane. So far she's holding out, but I know she'll break. A woman like that can't take jail."
"I almost feel sorry for her," Gelsey said. "She really did love Kim."
"Whenever you start feeling that way," Janek said, "just remember what she did to Kirstin."
Gelsey dabbed at her canvas. Then she stopped and shook her head.
"Netti can't seem to work things out with Carlson." "I heard," he said.
"Give it time."
She turned to him. "I'm going to have to go to jail, too, aren't I?"
"I don't know. But soon you're going to have to turn yourself in. You have a good lawyer. You helped us solve a major case. Nine judges out of ten'll suspend your sentence. I'm pretty sure you'll get off."
"I might not."
"There's always a ' not,' Gelsey. You can't think about that."
"Jail would kill me."
"It won't. You're a strong person." But he didn't like thinking about her serving hard time.
Later, after it started to rain, she asked if she could sit beside him on the couch. Then, when she rested her head against his shoulder, he gently drew her closer with his arm.
She turned to him: "You have an idea about the Minotaur.
"Did I say that?" The rain was falling steadily, streaking the windows, washing the skylight.
"I just have a feeling."
"I'm not a shrink," he said.
"I know. You're a detective."
"If it was in your head, the way Dr. Zimmerman-"
"He was wrong. It wasn't just in my head." She paused.
I think you know that, too."
The rain began to fall hard, exploding like thousands of little firecrackers against the metal roof. Gelsey started to shake. He held her tighter. Was the sound getting to her, or was it memories of loneliness? He imagined how she must have felt when it rained, alone in her strange house, the water beating on the tin, the maze with its mysteries and terrors beckoning from below.
"Why don't we go down and take a look?" he said finally. "Maybe we'll find something. It's worth a shot."
" I'm scared. "