Lost Echoes

by Joe R. Lansdale

  “I’ve been copying some of the files, ones that aren’t supposed to leave the office. Showed you some, Harry. Pretended to be digging in cold cases, which wasn’t all pretend. I was. But I didn’t want them to know which ones. I had permission to take certain ones out, but this one, I didn’t want them to know I was interested. Because it has to do with my dad. And with them. I didn’t know it then, but now I do. I got the stuff in the car. I’ll get it.”

  Kayla went out and Tad said, “She’s a keeper, Harry.”

  Harry said, “I’m fucked. I really am fucked. They don’t kill me, they’re gonna throw me in jail. I can’t believe I helped put Joey in the freezer.”

  “Think it would have been better they found him at your place?”

  “No. But they’ll see the apartment, the light fixture, the wire.”

  “You had a party over there, you and me. We got drunk, you swung on the goddamn wire. Drunks will do things like that. I know. Once I tried to jump off the roof here.”

  “Tried?”

  “Never got the chance. I fell. Just jarred myself. I was lucky. Hit a pile of leaves. Well, actually, I landed on the Mexican raking them, then the leaves. But I was lucky. The rake broke and he got his hat crushed, but he was all right too. Bottom line, Harry: This way we got some room to fuck around, figure things out, though I got to throw away some meat and plastic containers of frozen chili. Without the freezer, that shit is gonna turn fast. No matter how stuff shakes out, I lose some frozen goods. And I’m not sure I’m gonna want to put shit back in there when he’s out of it. He kind of fucks it up for good, as far as storage is concerned. I’m starting to see it as a Goodwill item. Guess it’s just psychological, but you know, putting what you eat in there with a dead body that’s got shitty pants…It’s the thought.”

  “You’ve put your neck on the block. I know that.”

  “I’m not asking for any praise. Not saying I don’t like praise, just saying I’m not asking for any. It’s the freezer I’m talking about. It’s not even a year old.”

  “You getting Kayla over here and all…helping me get Joey…Shit, poor guy. He was a shit, but he didn’t deserve to have his ass strung up to a goddamn light fixture.”

  “Not everyone votes that way,” Tad said.

  Kayla came back in the house, the files under her arm.

  “You didn’t come over here in a cruiser, did you?” Harry asked.

  “Harry, I’m not dumb. I’m in my car. It’s parked around back, the way Tad asked. I just haven’t had time to change.”

  Harry shook his head. “I’m just fucked-up is all.”

  “I got to tell you,” Kayla said, “I’m more shook than you are. Something I should have told you the other night, but I was hoping it wouldn’t matter. Wasn’t sure it was what it was, to tell the truth. Dad. He had been in trouble before. For rape.”

  “When?” Harry asked.

  “Just listen,” Kayla said. “Walking out to the car, I get a few more flashes, things that fit the facts I got here, things I know now. Parts are coming together better and better.”

  She spread the files on the table. “Harry, I didn’t tell you everything. Why I was so upset when you told me what you told me yesterday.”

  “It was your father. How else would you react?”

  “It was more than that. He always had a roving eye for the ladies. But once there was a report of rape. Person reporting it wasn’t held in too high esteem. So Dad got off. Maybe he raped her, maybe he didn’t. Mom was always suspicious. I don’t know the truth. Thing was, it was Joey’s mom.”

  “No shit?” Harry said. “That’s why you thought Joey’s dad might be one of the guys?”

  “Yeah. She claimed Dad raped her, but he told Mom it was consensual, and when he wasn’t interested anymore, she cried rape. Joey’s father and my dad, they were gonna do a garage together, you remember that, Harry?”

  “I think so.”

  “Well, that’s what put the kibosh on that deal. I think Joey’s dad figured the old lady might have been lying, as neither of them were known to be upstanding citizens, and there was my dad, on the cops, which put him on a higher playing field. I can tell you this—Barnhouse beat her ass for it.”

  “Joey know about this?” Harry asked.

  “I don’t know. Maybe. He was used to ass whippings, so it wasn’t anything to him to see his mom with a black eye and a fat lip. You remember how it was. Anyway, when this happened—or didn’t happen—the department closed ranks. They got Dad off. Got the whole thing dropped. Dad might have given the Barnhouses some money. I don’t know. But there’s this thing hanging over his head, and the guys who close ranks are the guys who are now the chief and guess who?”

  “The scar-faced sergeant?” Harry said.

  “Bingo. They said they were with him, playing cards, some such thing, and he gets off. That’s what Mom told me anyway, and I’m thinking maybe she’s just telling me that ’cause she believed he did it. Maybe she just wants to get even for what he did with Joey’s mom, even if it was consensual. I don’t know. She still doesn’t talk about it. Anyway, he and Mom, they couldn’t work it out, so they split. In the meantime there’s been a rape and murder right here in our good citizen town. Not the first rapes and murders to happen here for sure, but this one is kind of strange. They don’t find the bodies for a few years. Truthfully, no one knows there’s been a rape, nothing left in the way of real evidence in that area, but I’m adding that in because of what you saw, Harry, in your visions. The murders, that’s certain from the police end, and you’ve filled in the blanks. Another thing is certain, they identified the couple, white girl, black guy. You saw them, Harry, both killed, up close and personal.”

  Harry nodded.

  Kayla opened up another file and slid it toward Harry and Tad.

  “Turns out there had been other similar cases, just not as well hidden. Two others. Some of this, by the way, before the chief was the chief. He was just a cop then, on his second divorce. A scenario Sergeant Pale follows as well. But get this. Chief lived in a town called Millview before this. That’s a small town, and it’s had about five murders since it was founded, back in the late eighteen hundreds. And I got to thinking about how this all works, and I went to snooping there, making calls, asking about crimes in that area in the past that might fit this MO, and what I got was a very similar crime when the chief was a young man. Fact was, there were two of them. Rape and murder. Killer used a rubber, no sperm. So what are the odds, maybe five murders in their history, and two of them happen while the chief is there, before he’s the chief?”

  “It don’t look good in the chief’s favor,” Tad said.

  “Odd he would hire you…after murdering your dad,” Harry said.

  “Not really. A power thing. Killed my father, and now he’s my boss. It fits, actually. Also, he likes to have me around to remind him about Dad. He gets off on this shit. There’s sex crimes in it, but it’s more than that. It’s about power.”

  “I’m still not quite getting how this fits in with what happened to your dad and Vincent,” Harry said.

  “Dad, he was protected by those two. Maybe…maybe he gets in with what they’re doing. I don’t know. You know, they’re riding around, bored, get to sipping. They get to talking. See a guy and a girl, and they don’t like it ’cause they aren’t getting any action, and Dad, he might have gone along with them, you see, just talking, ’cause he owed them, and pretty soon it isn’t talk anymore. They follow a couple up to Humper’s Hill. It gets out of hand. Dad doesn’t know his partners are serious about this shit. He’s not expecting it to go that far. I don’t know the truth. Maybe he was right in the middle of it. I don’t like to think that, but could be.

  “However it goes down, he sees it happen. Later he doesn’t want to play. Doesn’t want to cover up. ’Cause maybe he thinks they’ll do it again. His conscience is bothering him and he’s not wanting to keep it a secret anymore—”

  “So they kill him in
a way to discredit him,” Tad said. “The kid, Vincent, they have to kill him too. It all goes to shit.”

  “Then it gets forgotten pretty much, and the chief becomes the chief, and the sergeant becomes the sergeant and gets scared when you come along with the head movies. May not be the perfect scenario, but it fits pretty good. There’s some truth in there somewhere. Think I’ve got hold of what I like to call the spine of the crime. But, figured out or not, this I’m certain of: Now they got one more on their list.”

  “The weasel in the freezer,” Tad said.

  “No. He’s scratched off the list. Joey doesn’t count anymore. They got Harry here on the list. And if they get it figured right, you and me, Tad. Thing is, they do it right, they can make us look like the bad guys. And they got the whole department, the goddamn justice system, on their side.”

  “The justice system, the police department,” Tad said, “they’re bigger than us.”

  “Way bigger,” Kayla said.

  “Don’t suppose you have a plan?” Harry asked.

  “Not yet,” Kayla said.

  “I got, like, a piece of one,” Tad said. “You know, I think there’s nothing going on up there sometimes, and then I get like a flash, and realize that, though I can hide it, I’m kind of a goddamn genius.”

  54

  A couple days later, the chief of police came home late at night, pretty worn out from what he liked to call a function, a goddamn cop fund-raiser where you had to smile, make some shitty uncomfortable speech; came home feeling stuffed and uncomfortable from a rubber-chicken dinner, some poisonous side dishes, came in the door loosening his belt, flicked on the light, and there, positioned upright on his couch like a fucking freelance contortionist or failed escape artist, legs coiled tightly under and behind him, hands tied so that the wire was cut near to the wristbones, propped there, glistening in the light, eyes milky, throat a big dark rip like an ugly second mouth in need of dentures, the first mouth sticking its tongue out at him, was this guy soaking water into the cushions, dripping more of it on the floor, stinking like an overthawed chunk of rib roast dipped in sewage.

  It was the kid he and Pale had hung from the Wilkes’s boy’s light fixture. There was a cardboard sign around his neck. Newspaper and magazine letters had been cut and glued to the cardboard. It read: WE KNOW.

  “What the fuck?”

  Joey offered no response.

  55

  They were in bed at Tad’s house. Kayla rolled over and put her arm over Harry’s sweaty chest. “I give that one a nine,” she said.

  “What? No ten? I thought that was pretty goddamn magnificent, if I say so myself. And I do. You weren’t faking, were you?”

  “Now that’s an ugly question. No. But, we call it a ten, what have we got to work toward?”

  “Good point.”

  “Damn, I’d have loved to have seen the chief’s face when he got home and there was Joey.”

  “Poor Joey,” Harry said. “Thing is, Kayla, when I found him, I felt his fear. It wasn’t just fear of that moment in time, when he was murdered. It was all his fear. It all came out. And he was full of it. His whole life was fear. It was horrible. I felt so sorry for him.”

  “Shit, Harry. Joey would have loved the joke. He would have. Think about it. After all he’s been through, what happened to him. What we did with his body, he would have appreciated it.”

  “I reckon you’re right. But it’s starting to get to me now. I’m starting to feel sick about it.”

  “I saw the chief today, and he didn’t say much of anything. Usually he’s pretty jovial, see. But today he was quiet, and everyone was asking, ‘What’s wrong with the chief?’ and I’m saying, ‘I couldn’t begin to guess,’ but, shit, I’m not guessing. I know. He’s got his own murder victim visiting on his couch, thawing out like a TV dinner. Good guys one, bad guys zero.”

  “It was a good idea. Funny, anyway. Now he’s got the body.”

  “Your friend Tad, he’s got a wicked mind.”

  “Yeah,” Harry said. “He does. He’s a guy you don’t want for an enemy. He’s got this, what do you call it…sense of irony.”

  “I’ll say.”

  “Thing is,” Harry said, pulling Kayla closer, “what’s next?”

  “We can try another position.”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “Do we have to think about that right now?”

  “I guess not,” Harry said, and kissed her. “But do you ever think maybe this isn’t going to work out so well? Now that they have the body, they can maybe find some DNA on it, a smudge where I had hold of it. Seems like that shit’s all over the place.”

  “You wore gloves. We all wore gloves. We were careful. DNA is real enough, but it isn’t magic. It’s not like those TV shows. Those things are science fiction.”

  “Consider this, however. My life, my gift, so to speak. It’s pretty science fiction unto itself.”

  “Point taken. But it was great getting something on that bastard, Harry. You got to understand, he killed my daddy. And that little sign, that was the kicker. ‘We know.’”

  “You made a very good sign, no doubt. Very artsy-craftsy. But it still doesn’t look good for me. I can’t even go back to my apartment. I’m afraid it’ll be me next time, hanging from that light fixture. They haven’t stopped looking for me, to nail me semilegal or in some dark alley somewhere. In the end it’s all the same. I don’t get to do Christmas shopping this year.”

  “I’m sorry, Harry. Guess I’m gloating over my little piece of revenge. But it isn’t over, baby. We got to keep thinking. Thing to do, is we got to turn it on them. Play it so smart and tight they won’t know me and Tad are connected to you. They don’t know you have allies. They don’t even know to look here, and I’m careful when I come over. I use my car, I park in the back. I can even fuck quieter I have to.”

  “I wouldn’t want that.”

  “Tad might.”

  “He’s way down the hall. Thing is, Kayla, I’ve just got a feeling, you know, this sort of built-in shit detector telling me I’m fucked. And maybe you and Tad too. Like maybe we’re a whole lot too damn clever for our own good.”

  Kayla rubbed her hand across his chest, and then lower. Her perfume filled Harry’s nostrils, made them flare. God, that sweet and musky smell. Wonderful.

  “Well,” she said, “if it turns bad, what say let’s go out happy as we can make ourselves?”

  56

  Two days later, midnight, Harry and Tad sat at the living room table playing chess. So far Tad had whipped Harry’s ass twice and had eaten most of the taco chips, turning the bag toward himself, making Harry work for any he might want.

  “You really need more practice,” Tad said.

  “Chess, or capturing taco chips?”

  “Both.”

  “My mind is drifting.”

  “You still need more practice. The knight—the horse, as you call it—doesn’t move in a fucking X pattern. I’ve told you that. And point his head in the direction of my men, not back toward you. It’s disconcerting. It’s like he’s riding backward.”

  “Tad, there’s no knight on the horse. It’s just a horse’s head.”

  “Have you no imagination?”

  “Not that much.”

  Tad turned the knight around so that it faced the proper direction.

  Harry said, “Happy?”

  “Fucking ecstatic. Listen here. No moment beyond the moment you’re in is known to you. You plan ahead, of course. You take precautions, but all you can do in between is live as best you can.”

  “Is this like a lesson?”

  “It is, grasshopper.”

  “You’re saying life is preordained?”

  “No. That’s stupid. I hear people say that, then I say, ‘Hey, you look both ways before you cross the street?’ And they say: ‘Sure, of course. I don’t want to get killed.’ And then I say, ‘If it’s all truly preordained? What’s it gonna matter, it’s all in the cards a
lready?’ So much for predestination. We all have a built-in survival card and we play it whenever we need it. You can fuck with the deck, Harry. Sometimes really good, sometimes not so good. In the end, the game folds for everyone, but you can sure draw in some big pots before that moment.”

  Before Harry could respond, his cell phone rang.

  It was Kayla. Her voice was husky-sounding. “Come see me.”

  “Aren’t you at work?”

  “I’m at home.”

  Harry walked outside, into the backyard. It was chilly and moonless.

  “I don’t know I can go out,” Harry said. “Not sure that’s a good idea.”

  “I’ve got something I really need to show you. I can’t bring it there…. Something’s happened. It’ll be easier if you come here. Walk to your place, get your car, drive it over.”

  “My car?”

  “Yes.”

  “That seems risky.”

  “It is, a little, but I can’t come there. I’ve found something you’ve got to see, and I can only show it to you here.”

  “Kayla, I don’t know. Why there?”

  “I know what I’m asking. But if you’re careful, you’ll be okay. Don’t bring Tad. He would be in the way on this one. You have got to see this. I think it’s going to fix things for you. Make it quick.”

  “Can’t you just bring it here?”

  “It’s too heavy. Well, I could. But I’d be more likely to get caught than you, lugging it around.”

  “It? Heavy?”

  “Harry. Trust me.”

  “Yeah…well…it’s a little mysterious.”

  “Damned if I don’t know it. I wouldn’t ask it if it wasn’t important, Harry. Trust me.”

  “All right.”

  “Harry?”

  “Yes?”

  “I know what I’m asking. Be careful. Be very careful.”

  Tad looked up as Harry came back in. “Kayla, of course,” Tad said. The phone was in Tad’s name, and only three people had the cell phone number. Kayla, Harry’s mother, and himself. So it wasn’t much of a guess.

  “Yeah. She was just telling me things could be working out.”