Meeting Evil: A Novel by Thomas Berger

Author:Thomas Berger [Berger, Thomas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781101596678
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Published: 2012-05-09T07:00:00+00:00

“If you don’t shut up,” Brocket said calmly, “I’m going to shoot you.”

John tried to impose control on himself. “Just listen. My wife and children are in terrible danger. Please check on them! I’ve never tried to kill anybody in my life. I’ve spent most of the day saving other people from being killed by this maniac, or anyway doing everything I could to keep it from happening. You just ask—” In his anxiety, he had forgotten her name. “You found her, didn’t you? At the farm? With the young boy? Save my family!”

“Don’t worry about it,” Brocket said. “Now we got you, there won’t be any more trouble in this part of the state.”

“I didn’t kill anybody! Or try to. Why would I? I’m not a criminal.”

“Come on,” Brocket said, as the trooper behind the wheel started the car. “We got you now, and you’re not getting away. Might as well come clean. It’ll make you feel good, believe me. You cut the throat of that girl who pumped gas this morning. She didn’t make it. But the woman at the taxi company is still living. You botched that one, slashing from behind that way. She was able to give a good description. She’s in Intensive. She’ll live to nail you, buddy. Then there’s that business with the tractor-trailer driver. We got witnesses who put you at the scene.”

The car was traveling at high speed, and now the trooper in front hit the siren, the sound of which was like a screw penetrating John’s cranium.

“None of that is true! All of it was Richie’s doing. I didn’t even—”

“I’m not talking about this Richie. He was just along for the ride, wasn’t he?”

“Sharon!” John shouted. “That’s her name. Haven’t you found her yet? She can vouch for my story. She was there the whole time.”

“Spare me this crap,” said Brocket.

“My family’s in danger. He’s heading for my house.”

“Let’s make a little deal,” Brocket said in a seductive undertone. “You just own up to what you did, and on our side we’ll call the local force to look in at this home of yours.”

“I didn’t do anything to own up to. You’ll learn that if you catch this guy. He’s a maniac. But he told Swanson up at the farm, the officer, that I had nothing to do—”

“The town cop whose head you smashed?” Brocket asked. “Yeah, I’m sure he will want to give you a clean bill of health.”

The radio was quacking, but John could not understand a syllable. He returned to asking again about Sharon and the boy. “Didn’t you find them?”

“How could I?” Brocket said. “We weren’t at the farm. We were looking for you.”

“You know that Swanson was hurt. By Richie, not me! Why don’t you know about Sharon and Tim?”

“John,” said Trooper Brocket, “we been trying to put the pieces of the story together. But we don’t exactly yet understand just how it was you went on this rampage in the first place. Maybe you got some kind of reasons.

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