Kelly - 05 - Hocus by Jan Burke

Author:Jan Burke
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Suspense, Fiction
ISBN: 9780743491648
Published: 2003-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

19

THE LAST PAGE OF THE FAX contained only a few brief sentences:

As for the contents of the package you received, just remember—there is more where that came from.

It may help you to know that Julian Neukirk was six feet tall; the policeman was taller.

When you learn the identity of the policeman, place an ad in the Las Piernas News Express, in the personals, to read: “John Oakhurst, come home.”

Detective Harriman will receive increasing amounts of morphine over the next few days. He will stop receiving the morphine when we are satisfied that you have correctly identified our enemy. We suggest you hurry.

“Let’s go,” I said to Cassidy. “There’s a lot to be done.”

He started the car. “What do you think of the story?”

“ ‘Father’s Day’?”

“Yes.”

“I think they were trying to tell the truth—at least as they remember it. They didn’t try to apologize for Gene Ryan. Other than that…well, I’d say Bret wrote it.”

“Why Bret?” he asked.

“Even though it’s in third person, everything is from his point of view.”

Cassidy nodded. “Any idea who John Oakhurst is?”

“No, although the name seems familiar.”

“To me, too,” he said. “I just can’t remember where I’ve heard it.”

“Maybe it’s just a made-up name.”

“Not with this group.”

“No. No, I suppose not…I understand why they want me to find this cop. But it’s so hard for me to understand how they feel about Frank.”

“I’m not sure they understand that themselves. Remember the last line? About trust? If nothing else, we can learn a lot about them from this story.”

I went ahead and asked the question I was afraid to hear answered. “How long do you suppose it will be before they’re giving him a fatal level of morphine?”

He shrugged. “They could do it in one injection if they set their minds to it. But if they go slowly enough, he’ll build a tolerance.”

My mind snagged on the words “one injection” as surely as if they had been made of barbed wire.

He picked up his cellular phone and dialed Bea’s number. “Mrs. Harriman? Tom Cassidy. Sorry to keep you waiting so long, ma’am. We’re on our way back to the house now.” He listened, then said, “I’m sorry to hear you were troubled. Yes, ma’am. Couldn’t have handled it better myself.”

He hung up and said, “You guessed right about the Californian. They’ve already sent a reporter out. Your mother-in-law slammed the door in the man’s face. Surprised it took the paper this long. I guess your buddy the librarian must have struggled with his conscience for a while.”

“Conscience? Yeah, right. Brandon just spent the afternoon wondering which would make his boss angrier: his admission that he let us into the library or getting beat by an out-of-town paper on a story he had a jump start on.”

“Did he choose right?”

“I’d say so. Is Bea upset about this?”

“Not really. Greg Bradshaw called one of his friends on the Bakersfield PD, and they’ve got someone watching the house now, making sure the family isn’t disturbed.”

Cassidy’s cellular phone rang. He answered with his name, made a few noncommittal sounds, then said, “That’s great, Hank.

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