No answer.
‘Answer the question, goddammit, Kelly. You do know this boy, don’t you?’
‘Yes.’
‘And how exactly is it that you know him?’ McCabe was standing now. He spat the words out, leaning in across the table, his face inches from Kelly’s.
Kelly looked up. His face was pale. He spoke softly. ‘He lived at Sanctuary House.’
‘Really? Well, then, I guess you must know his name.’
‘Callie Connor.’
‘Callie?’
‘Short for Calvin.’
‘You last saw Calvin when?’
‘I don’t know. Sometime before Christmas.’
‘Is that when you took him to the island? For . . . what was that phrase again? A recreational outing?’
‘No.’
‘Maybe one that included a little fucking?’
‘No.’
‘And stabbing?’
‘No.’
‘And burying his naked body in the snow? With his ass all cut up and bruised from what you did to him?’
‘No!’ Kelly screamed. ‘No! No! No! No!’
When Kelly stopped, he looked at the pictures again, eyes blinking, tears forming.
‘And maybe Lainie Goff found out about it? Didn’t she? So you had to kill her, too? Isn’t that what happened? Isn’t that what you did?’
Kelly looked up, silent.
‘Goddammit, answer me!’ McCabe shouted, slamming his open palm down on the table so hard the empty file flew up.
Kelly didn’t answer.
McCabe sat back down, and his voice dropped from a shout to just above a whisper. ‘Isn’t that what really happened, John? You killed this boy. You killed him because you were abusing him, and he told Lainie about it, and she called you and threatened you. She wasn’t about to let you get away with it, was she, John? So you had to kill her, too. To keep her from telling people. Isn’t that right, Father Jack? To keep her from telling people like me? Isn’t that what really happened?’
‘I’ve never killed anyone.’
‘You know what I still don’t get? What I still don’t get is why you left Lainie’s body out there on the Fish Pier with that note stuffed in her mouth. Amos. Chapter nine. Verse ten. Right where you knew we’d find it and connect it to you. You remember the words, don’t you, John? All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us. Did you do that because you knew Lainie wasn’t someone who could just disappear like Calvin Connor did? People would miss her. People would look for her. Powerful people with powerful connections. So you stuck her out there and tried to make it look like some religious whacko did her in?’
Kelly folded his arms on the table and dropped his head on them.
‘Might have worked, too, Jack, except you made one mistake. You didn’t destroy that book in your bookcase at Sanctuary House. The one on Old Testament prophets. You didn’t destroy your old college paper either. I don’t know why that was. Was it because you thought the guys in blue suits – isn’t that what you called us, Jack? The guys in blue suits? Was it because you thought we just wouldn’t be smart enough to put two and two together?’
‘I never killed anyone,’ Kelly said, his voice muffled by his arms.
‘Or maybe, Jack’ – McCabe leaned in again, his face just inches from Kelly’s – ‘maybe you left her there with the note in her mouth and the book still on your shelf so we would find you and put a stop to the evil things you were doing. To put an end to your guilt? Is that what it was, Jack? Is that what you wanted? All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword. All the sinners, Jack. Including you. Except we don’t have the death penalty here in Maine. So you’ll either have to live with your guilt – or confess it.’
McCabe lowered his voice so that it was barely more than a whisper. ‘Is that what you want, Jack? To put an end to your guilt? If it is, we can help you with that. All you’ve got to do is confess your sins. Tell us what you did to Calvin Connor. Tell us what you did to Lainie Goff. Come on, do it, Jack. You know what comes next. First there’s confession. Then there’s absolution. Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. Come on, Jack, say it. Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. Then tell me how you killed Callie Connor and then, when she found out, how you killed Lainie Goff.’
‘Fuck you, you stupid bastard,’ Kelly screamed. ‘I never killed anyone!’
After that McCabe sat back in his chair. He didn’t say anything for a minute.
‘Well, if you didn’t kill them, who did?’
‘What?’
‘Somebody must have killed them.’
‘Yes. Somebody else.’
‘Oh, really? Well, then, if that’s the case, maybe you’d be good enough to explain how it happened we found this on your phone?’ He raised his left hand in a silent signal to Cleary in Fortier’s office.
Lainie Goff’s voice filled the small room. ‘I know what you’ve been doing, you asshole, and you’re not going to get away with it. We need to talk.’
‘You found that? On my phone?’
‘Yes.’
‘Which phone?’
‘On Harts Island. In your cabin. What do you think about that?’
Kelly shook his head and shrugged his shoulders more or less at the same time. ‘What I think is, I think I need to call a lawyer.’
‘Well, that’s your privilege, Jack. There’s only one small problem I can see.’
‘What?’
‘You told me your lawyer was Lainie Goff, and I’m sorry, Jack, but I don’t think she’s taking any calls at the moment.’
Thirty-Five
‘Nice job, McCabe. You did good.’ Maggie was standing with the aid of a cane and leaning against the wall behind Cleary and Fraser in Bill Fortier’s office. The monitor was still turned on, showing an empty interview room.
‘Not so good. I didn’t get a confession. And you know what else?’
‘What?’
‘I walked out of there with this crappy feeling that he may not be our guy.’
‘You’ve gotta be kidding,’ said Fraser. ‘We’ve got evidence up the wazoo.’
‘Yeah, we do,’ said McCabe. ‘Most of it circumstantial.’
‘McCabe,’ said Maggie, ‘I saw the sonofabitch with my own eyes. He fired a gun at me.’
‘What you said, and I quote, was “It was dark. He had his hood up. All I saw was his glasses. Black frames.”’
‘That’s right. Glasses. Black frames. Just like he’s wearing now.’
‘Lots of people wear glasses with black frames.’
‘Maybe so, but most of those people don’t have quotes from the Book of Amos sitting in a box in their island hideaways. Or a murdered boy buried in the snow in their backyards. Or incriminating phone messages. McCabe, what the hell more do you want?’
‘I don’t know. For starters, I guess I want to see the DNA results, which we don’t have yet.’
‘We’ll have reads on the semen stains any minute now,’ said Eddie Fraser. ‘Tasco told Joe Pines to make them top priority.’
‘What are you doing here, anyway?’ McCabe asked Maggie. ‘Why aren’t you still in the hospital?’
‘Well, you see, Sergeant McCabe, nobody’s ever shot me before. So let’s just say I bullied my doc into letting me go. Like I told him, this time it’s personal.’
‘This time it’s personal?’ McCabe smiled. ‘You said that?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Great line. Advertising theme for Jaws: The Revenge. Also known as Jaws 4. It was the best single thing about one of the worst movies ever made. I was at NYU when it came out – 1987.’
Maggie sighed. ‘Listen, McCabe, at the moment, I’ve got a sore ass and a short temper, and I’m in no mood for Trivial Pursuit.’
‘Sorry.’
‘Why don’t you think he did it?’
‘I didn’t say I didn’t think he did it. I said I had a feeling. I wasn’t sure.’
Cleary cocked his head. ‘Y’know, boss, that ain’t the song you were singing when you told us to bring him in.’
‘I know.’
‘You know, McCabe, the GO’s in there right now,’ said Maggie, ‘just itching to tell the world about Kelly’s arrest. Personally, having just listened to your little tête-à-tête with Kelly, I think he should.’