[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Waking up after a night like that is never very pleasant. Waking up in the
middle of the night and thinking,Oh God Deborah!is even worse. You may think I
was guilty or uneasy about neglecting someone who depended on me, in which
case you would be very wrong. As I have said, I don t really feel emotions. I
can, however, experience fear, and the idea of Deborah s potential rage pulled
the trigger. I hurried into my clothes and managed to slip out to my car
without waking anyone. SergeantDoakes was no longer in his position across the
street. It was nice to know that evenDoakes needed to sleep sometime. Or
perhaps he had thought that someone who just got engaged deserved a little
privacy. Knowing him as I did, however, this didn t seem likely. It was far
more likely that he had been elected pope and had to fly off to theVatican .
I drove home quickly, and checked my answering machine. There was one
automated message urging me to buy a new set of tires before it was too late,
which seemed ominous enough, but no message from Debs. I made coffee and
waited for the thump of the morning paper against my door. There was a sense
of unreality to the morning that was not entirely caused by the aftereffects
of the champagne. Engaged, was I? Wellwell . I wished that I could scold
myself and demand to know what I thought I had been doing. But the truth was
that, unfortunately, I hadn t been doing anything wrong; I was entirely
clothed in virtue and diligence. And I had done nothing that could be called
spectacularly stupid far from it. I had been proceeding with life in a noble
and even exemplary manner, minding my own business and trying to help my
sister recover her boyfriend, exercising, eating plenty of green vegetables,
and not even slicing up other monsters. And somehow all this pure and decent
behavior had snuck around behind me and bitten me on the ass. Never a good
deed goes unpunished, as Harry used to say.
And what could I do about it now? Surely Rita would come to her senses. I
mean, really:ME? Who could possibly want to marryME?! There had to be better
alternatives, like becoming a nun, or joining the Peace Corps. This was Dexter
we were talking about. In a city the size ofMiami , couldn t she find somebody
who was at least human? And what was her rush to get married again anyway? It
hadn t worked out terribly well for her the first time, but she was apparently
willing to plunge right back into it again. Were women really this desperate
to get married?
Of course there were the children to think about. Conventional wisdom would
say they needed a father, and there was something to that, because where would
I have been without Harry? And Astor and Cody had looked so happy. Even if I
made Rita see that a comical mistake had happened, would the kids ever
understand?
I was on my second cup of coffee when the paper came. I glanced through the
main sections, relieved to find that terrible things were still happening
almost everywhere. At least the rest of the world hadn t gone crazy.
By seven o clock I thought it would be safe to call Deborah on her cell
phone. There was no answer; I left a message, and fifteen minutes later she
called back.  Good morning, Sis, I said, and I marveled at the way I managed
to sound cheerful.  Did you get some sleep?
 A little, she grumbled.  I woke up around four yesterday. I traced the
package to a place inHialeah . I drove around the area most of the night
looking for the white van.
Page 72
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
 If he dropped the package way up inHialeah , he probably drove in fromKey
West to do it, I said.
 I know that, goddamn it, she snapped.  But what the hell else am I supposed
to do?
 I don t know, I admitted.  But doesn t the guy fromWashington get here
today?
 We don t know anything about him, she said.  Just because Kyle is good,
doesn t mean this guy will be.
She apparently didn t remember that Kyle had not shown himself to be
particularly good, at least in public. He d done nothing at all, in fact,
except gethimself captured and have his finger nipped off. But it didn t seem
politic for me to comment on how good he was, so I simply said,  Well, we have
to assume the new guy knows something about this that we don t know.
Deborah snorted.  That wouldn t be too hard, she said.  I ll call you when
he gets in. She hung up, and I got ready for work.
CHAPTER 17
AT 12:30 DEB STALKED INTO MY MODEST RETREAT OFFthe forensics lab and threw a
cassette tape on my desk. I looked up at her; she didn t seem happy, but that
really wasn t much of a novelty.  From my answering machine at home, she
said.  Listen to it.
I lifted the hatch on my boom box and put in the tape Deb had flung at me. I
pushed play: the tape beeped loudly, and then an unfamiliar voice said,
 Sergeant, um, Morgan.Right? This is Dan Burdett, from uh KyleChutsky said I
should call you. I m on the ground at the airport, and I ll call you about
getting together when I get to my hotel, which is  There was a rustling sound
and he obviously moved the cell phone away from his mouth, since his voice got
fainter.  What? Oh, hey, that s nice. All right, thanks. His voice got louder
again.  I just met your driver. Thanks for sending somebody. All right, I ll
call from the hotel.
Deborah reached across my desk and switched off the machine.  I didn t send
anybody to the fucking airport, she said.  And Captain Matthews damn sure
didn t either. Did you send somebody to the fucking airport, Dexter?
 My limo was out of gas, I said.
 Well then GODDAMNit! she said, and I had to agree with her analysis.
 Anyway, I said,  at least we found out how good Kyle s replacement is.
Deborah slumped into the folding chair by my desk.  Square fucking one, she [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]