Commit a crime and the world is made of glass.

5

Edith Chester Hayes lived in the back apartment on the second floor of a house off Sullivan Street. The soot of eighty years had settled into every brick, and industrial fumes had gnawed the paint into flakes. A narrow doorway opened into the street, and a dim yellow bulb glowed in the foyer. Battered garbage cans stood in front of the ground floor windows.

Rogers looked out at it from his seat in an FBI special car. “You always expect them to have torn these places down,” he said.

“They do,” Finchley answered. “But other houses grow older faster than these get condemned.” His voice was distracted as though he were thinking of something else, and thinking of it so intently that he barely heard what he was saying. He hunched in his corner of the back seat, his hand slowly rubbing the side of his face. He paid no attention when one of the ANG team that had followed the man here came up to the car and leaned in Rogers’ window.

“He’s upstairs, on the second floor landing, Mr. Rogers,” the man said. “He’s been there for fifteen minutes, ever since we got here. He hasn’t knocked on any door. He’s just up there, leaning against a wall.”

“Didn’t he even ring a doorbell?” Rogers asked. “How’d he get into the building?”

“They never lock the front doors in these places, Mr. Rogers. Anybody can get into the halls any time they want to.”

“Well, how long can he stay up there? Some tenant’s bound to come along and see him. That’ll start a fuss. And what’s the point of his just staying in the hall?”

“I couldn’t say, Mr. Rogers. Nothing he’s done all day makes sense. But he’s got to make a move pretty soon, even if it’s just coming back down and starting this walking around business again.”

Rogers leaned over the front seat and tapped the shoulder of the FBI technician, wearing headphones, who was bent over a small receiving set. “What’s going on?”

The technician slipped one phone. “All I’m getting is breathing. And he’s shuffling his feet once in a while.”

“Will you be able to follow him if he moves?”

“If he stays in a narrow hall, or stands near a wall in a room, yes, sir. These induction microphones’re pretty sensitive, and I’ve got it flat against an outside wall of her apartment.”

“I see. Let me know if he does anyth — ”

“He’s moving.” The technician snapped a switch, and Rogers heard the sound of heavy footsteps on the sagging hall floorboards. Then the man knocked softly on a door, his knuckles barely rapping the wood before he stopped.

“I’m going to up the gain a little,” the technician said. Then the speaker was full of the man’s heavy breathing.

“What’s he upset about?” Rogers wondered.

They heard the man knock hesitantly again. His feet moved nervously.

Someone was coming toward the door. They heard it open, and then heard a gasp of indrawn breath. There was no way of telling whether their man had made the sound or not.

“Yes?” It was a woman, taken by surprise.

“Edith?” The man’s voice was low and abashed.

Finchley straightened out of his slump. “That’s it — that explains it. He spent all day working up his nerve.”

“Nerve for what? Proves nothing,” Rogers growled.

“I’m Edith Hayes,” the woman’s voice said cautiously.

“Edith — I’m Luke. Lucas Martino.”

“Luke!”

“I was in an accident, Edith. I just left the hospital a few weeks ago. I’ve been retired.”

Rogers grunted. “Got his story all straight, hasn’t he?”

“He’s had all day to think of how to put it,” Finchley said. “What do you expect him to do? Tell her the history of twenty years while he stands in her doorway?”

“Maybe.”

“For Pete’s sake, Shawn, if this isn’t Martino how’d he know about her?”

“I can think of lots of ways Azarin could get this kind of detail out of a man.”

“It’s not likely.”

“Nothing’s likely. It’s not likely any one particular germ cell would grow up to be Lucas Martino. I’ve got to remember Azarin’s a thorough man.”

“Edith — ” the man’s voice said, “may — may I come in for a moment?”

The woman hesitated for a second. Then she said, “Yes, of course.”

The man sighed. “Thank you.”

He stepped into the apartment and the door closed.

“Sit down, Luke.”

“Thank you.” They sat in silence for a few moments. “You have a very nice-looking apartment, Edith. It’s been fixed up very comfortably.”

“Sam — my husband — liked to work with his hands,” the woman said awkwardly. “He did it. He spent a long time over it. He’s dead now. He fell from a building he was working on.”

There was another pause. The man said, “I’m sorry I was never able to come down and see you after I left college.”

“I think you and Sam would have liked each other. He was a good deal like you; orderly.”

“I didn’t think I ever showed much of that with you.”

“I could see it.”

The man cleared his throat nervously. “You’re looking very well, Edith. Have you been getting along all right?”

“I’m fine. I work. Susan stays at a friend’s house after school until I pick her up on my way home at night.”

“I didn’t know you had children.”

“Susan’s eleven. She’s a very bright little girl. I’m quite proud of her.”

“Is she asleep now?”

“Oh, yes — it’s well past her bedtime.”

“I’m sorry I came so late. I’ll keep my voice down.”

“I wasn’t hinting, Luke.”

“I — I know. But it is late. I’ll be going in a minute.”

“You don’t have to rush. I never go to bed before midnight.”

“But I’m sure you have things to do — clothes to iron, Susan’s lunch to pack.”

“That only takes a few minutes. Luke — ” Now the woman seemed steadier. “We were always so uncomfortable around each other. Let’s not keep to that old habit.”

“I’m sorry. Edith. You’re right. But — do you know, I couldn’t even call you and ask if I could see you? I tried, and I found myself imagining you’d refuse to see me. I spent all day nerving myself to do this.” The man was still uncomfortable. And as far as anyone listening could tell, he hadn’t yet taken off his coat.

“What’s the matter, Luke?”

“It’s complicated. When I was in their — in the hospital-I spent a long time thinking about us. Not as lovers, you understand, but as people — as friends. We never knew each other at all, did we? At least, I never knew you. I was too wrapped up in what I was doing and wanted to do. I never paid any real attention to you. I thought of you as a problem, not as a person. And I think I’m here tonight to apologize for that.”

“Luke — ” The woman’s voice started and stopped She moved in her creaking chair. “Would you like a cup of coffee?”

“I know I’m embarrassing you, Edith. I would have liked to handle this more gracefully. But I don’t have much time. And it’s almost impossible to be graceful when I have to come here looking like this.”

“That’s not important,” she said quickly. “And it doesn’t matter what you look like, as long as I know it’s you. Would you like some coffee?”

The man’s voice was troubled. “All right, Edith Thank you. We can’t seem to stop being strangers somehow, can we?”

“What makes you say that — No. You’re right. I’m trying very hard, but I can’t even fool myself. I’ll start the water boiling.” Her footsteps, quick and erratic faded into the kitchen.

The man sighed, sitting by himself in the living room.

“Well, now do you think?” Finchley demanded “Does that sound like Secret Operative X-Eight hatching a plan to blow up Geneva?”

“It sounds like a high school boy,” Rogers answered.

“He’s lived behind walls all his life. They all sound like this. They know enough to split the world open like a rotten orange, and they’ve been allowed to mature to the age of sixteen.”