(2011) The Gift of Death

by Sam Ripley

  Patiently, Cassie stood by her side, seeing nothing but sensing pretty much everything.

  ‘Hey, why don’t you take a swim in the pool or a nap?’ said Kate.

  ‘No way. I’m fascinated to see what you come up with.’

  ‘But it won’t be quick. It’ll be really boring, I warn you.’

  ‘I can do boring. Boring is good after the last couple of weeks.’

  She double-clicked on the white pages site that listed the telephone numbers of the 250 or so Robert Gleasons in America – there were 26 in New York state, 19 in California, 17 in Massachusetts, and 16 in both Florida and Michigan. Cassie listened to the sound of pencil on paper as Kate took down names and numbers.

  ‘What are you writing? Got your list of suspects already?’

  ‘No, it’s just a list of Robert Gleasons in all the different states. California ranks third as having the most, after Massachusetts and, at the top of the list, New York.’

  ‘So what are you going to do? Ring each one up and ask if they happen to be a sick fucker who gets kicks out of sending people dead babies and the tops of fingers?’

  ‘Well – it’s an idea.’

  ‘Now who’s the crazy one?’

  ‘The problem is there’s nothing on public record web sites to show me details of people who have changed their names. For that, I need access to governmental records. And to get that –‘

  ‘You need some inside help.’ Cassie paused. ‘Like Josh?

  ‘No. Like – like … ‘ Kate ran through her list of old contacts in her head. She could call on the help of Cynthia Ross, but she she’d rather – what was that expression of her father’s? – cut her own arm off than ask a favour from that bitch.

  ‘God – I’ve been so stupid,’ said Cassie, the words tripping off her tongue. ‘Gloria – my friend Gloria. She’ll help. I’m sure of it. She works in the social security office downtown. She could run a check for us.’

  ‘Can you trust her?’

  ‘Of course. She helped me through everything. I don’t think I would have survived what Gleason did to me without her.’

  ‘Well, what are you waiting for. Give her a call and get her over here.’

  Cassie’s face began to darken, her sightless eyes looked worried.

  ‘What? What’s wrong?’

  ‘I’m just worried for her, that’s all. I mean, look at what’s happened to us. Obviously this man bears grudges.’

  ‘Yeah, you’re right.’ Kate walked towards her and placed a hand on her friend’s shoulder. She had to convince her that this was their best – their seemingly only - option. ‘But what’s going to happen if this fucker isn’t caught? He’s going to carry on not only screwing up our lives, but those of countless others. If he’s anything like the other Gleason then he poses a real and present threat. And he’s not going stop now. If anything it’s going to get worse – for you, for me – all of us.’

  Cassie bit her lip. ‘You’re right. Can you dial a number for me?’

  ‘Sure,’ said Kate, picking up her cell. ‘Go ahead.’ She dialled the number, which was picked up by voicemail. ‘Hi, this is a message for Gloria Smith. My name is Kate Cramer. I’m a friend of Cassie’s. Please call me as soon as you get this message. I think you know what happened to Cassie. Well, I’m afraid it’s beginning to happen again. And she – we – need your help. I’ll explain everything when you call.’

  30

  ‘It’s actually relatively easy to change one’s name,’ said Gloria, clutching a gold hair clip between her teeth. ‘In fact, you can order things like a name change kit over the internet for less than thirty bucks. It contains all the necessary forms you need, instructions about how to go about it. And the beauty of it is that you don’t need to go anywhere near a goddamned lawyer’s office.’

  Gloria pulled the back of her raven black hair and stretched it over the top of her head, securing it with the clip. She took a breath before she started again.

  ‘You are obliged to publicise the name change in a local newspaper, once a week for at least four consecutive weeks, but the whole process can be completed in two to three months. As long as a court doesn’t think a person is going to change their name for an improper purpose – such as defrauding creditors – then the name change is usually granted.’

  ‘And what about for the purpose of glorifying a dead serial killer?’ said Kate, her voice rising, her face flushing. ‘Would that not be considered “improper?”’

  ‘Obviously, in this case the court granting the request did not recognise the name.’

  ‘Obviously,’ said Kate. ‘Sorry. I’m just angry that no-one seemed to have spotted this. I can’t believe that no-one found it the least bit suspicious that a man wanted to change his name to one of the state’s most vicious –‘

  ‘Gloria, it’s great that you came over,’ said Cassie, interrupting. ‘And we’re both really grateful that you’ve been able to explain the legal situation to us. But now comes the hard part. I’m afraid we’ve got a question to ask you that may put you in a – a slightly awkward position.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ said Gloria.

  ‘We need to find out who’s doing this,’ said Kate. ‘Who is behind it all.’

  ‘And you want me to help?’

  ‘Yes. We know that we’re asking a lot of you. And that it’s against all the rules. That you’d probably lose your job if your bosses ever –‘

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Sorry?’

  ‘I said yes, I’ll do it. My bosses need never find out. And I can easily cover my tracks, if need be.’ Gloria stared at Cassie, remembering what she had looked like when she had first gone to visit her in hospital soon after the attack. ‘If there’s some creep out there who thinks he can get his kicks out of freaking out one of my girlfriends then I’m going to do everything in my power to stop him. Even if it’s only something as simple as checking a few records. So count me in, sisters.’

  31

  The media had a lot to answer for, he thought, as he sat in his car and watched the blonde woman come out of her downtown apartment. Really it was just an extension of man’s lowest instincts – vulgar curiosity, insatiable prurience, obsessional interest in the business of others – slanted in such a way as to emphasise the sordid and the negative. Where had all the good news gone?

  Surely when he was a child, the world wasn’t that interested in the bedhoppings of minor actors or actresses or the pathetic lives of ordinary people turned into overnight ‘celebrities’ via the medium of television? He was pleased not to have a TV. Why allow the portal of the devil into your home if you had a choice?

  He listened to the woman as she walked past his car. She was laughing into her cell. ‘I just know it would make a great story,’ she said, as she flicked back her blonde hair. That was the problem. Everything was just a story to her. Little did she know, however, that he also possessed a talent for storytelling and, if he so wished, he could take her as a character and shape her destiny accordingly. He could do anything he wanted with her, within reason.

  Of course, he lived by certain rules, certain codes of behaviour. He knew the difference between right and wrong. Morality was at the very core of him. It was his essence, if you like. And although he was tempted to just finish her off, he thought that this would not be quite appropriate somehow. Not at the moment, anyway.

  A plan was beginning to form itself in his mind that might have a particularly satisfying ending. And he had reserved a special place in that scheme for Cynthia Ross.

  32

  ‘Okay, so this is the deal,’ said Gloria, running one of her ring-encrusted fingers over the smooth, coffee-coloured skin of her damp forehead. She was back at the house in Beverly Hills less than twenty four hours after her initial meeting with Kate and Cassie. Outside the temperature was rising and, although the air conditioning of her car had protected her from the heat, taking those few steps from her bright red Chrysler and walking up the gravelled drive to the
house had been enough to make her break out into a sweat. She was always promising herself that she would lose those extra few pounds, but it never seemed to happen.

  ‘You were saying?’ said Kate. ‘The deal?’

  ‘Yeah, sorry. So this is what I managed to find out,’ she said, taking a deep breath. ‘I ran a check on every single person who changed their name to Robert Gleason in the US since 1997, the date that that psycho was arrested.’ She reached over and squeezed Cassie’s hand; the girl’s fingers felt cold today, oddly lifeless. She looked unusually pale, like all the blood had been drained from her face. ‘Darling girl, are you okay?’

  ‘I’m fine. Just a little nervous, I guess.’

  ‘Do you want me to carry on?’

  Cassie nodded. Kate took hold of her notepad, feeling her heart beat inside her chest. She was sure that they were on the point of some kind of breakthrough. So much for Josh and the resources of the LAPD. Fuck him. He had been trying to reach her since she had walked out on him at the Japanese restaurant. He’d left repeated messages, but she had refused to listen to them. What was the point? Every time she thought about the idea of him – or even worse, her – seeing her child she felt a surge of anger run through her. So what if it was only going to be weekends and the occasional vacation? He was the one who said he didn’t want a child. And now that he’d dumped her and settled down with Jules he seemed keen all of a sudden.

  ‘Kate?’ said Gloria.

  ‘Sorry. I wasn’t just thinking about the past, about the case.’

  ‘Just as well I didn’t get my hands on that sick fuck,’ said Gloria. ‘I swear I would have been had up for first degree. But as sure as anything, that creep is burning in hell as we speak.’

  ‘Let’s hope so,’ said Cassie, chewing a fingernail.

  ‘Cassie,’ said Kate. ‘We know that Gleason is dead. It’s a fact.’

  ‘So who’s out there then? If it’s not the Gleason we knew then it’s somebody who wants to be him. To be honest, I don’t know which is the worst, which one I’m scared of more.’

  ‘I know, I know,’ said Kate. ‘But Cassie? I guarantee that this is going to stop soon. We’re going to bring his little games to and end. Isn’t that right, Gloria? Tell us what you’ve got. The sooner we’ve got that information the sooner all this is over.’

  ‘I sure as hell hope this is going to help,’ she said looking down at her notes. ‘Okay - I discovered that there are only three men in the whole of the US who have changed their names to Robert Gleason since the date of the arrest.’

  ‘Only three?’ said Kate. She felt a sense of anticipation rise within her. They were getting close. Soon he would feel what it was like to be hunted, to be prey.

  ‘That’s what the records say.’

  ‘Where are they?’

  ‘There is one – a man born Saul David Coben in 1989 who was adopted as a teenager by a married couple, a Jane and Harvey Gleason, in Pennsylvania.’

  ‘Not our guy,’ said Kate. ‘Who else?’

  ‘A gay guy who used to be called Robert Olson who lives in Portland.’

  ‘What’s his story?’ asked Cassie.

  ‘Don’t know much. But it seems that he “married” his boyfriend, a Charlie Gleason last fall. I’m not sure of two guys getting together like that and in fact –‘

  ‘Okay,’ said Kate, eager for Gloria to move on. ‘And the last one?’

  ‘The last one is interesting because I’ve hardly got anything on him. No credit card details, no car loan, no telephone records, no mortgage, no bank account. Nada.’

  Kate felt the hairs prick on the back of her neck.

  ‘All I know is that his birth name was Gideon Walsh and that he was born in Vegas to a single mother.’

  ‘Did you find any reason why he wanted to change his name?’ asked Kate.

  ‘No. No reason.’

  ‘And where does he live now. Still in Vegas?’

  Gloria looked down at the piece of paper in front of her. ‘No. According to the most recent record I could find – his court application for a name change – he now lives here, in LA. Listed as 5520 West 104th street, right next to LAX, I guess.’

  Kate tapped the address into the search engine on her computer. At the top of the results list was the name of the Aviation Motel with advertised rates in the region of twenty five bucks a night.

  ‘It’s a low rent hotel.’ said Kate. ‘The perfect place for some psycho to hang out who never wants to be found. Ladies, I think we’ve got our guy.’

  33

  Kate thought up the plan in minutes. Gloria was enlisted to reverse her car up to the side entrance to the house, a spot sheltered by an enormous siempre verde tree. Then she was despatched down to the front gate where Naylor sat in his car. Gloria prided herself on the use of her feminine charm – an ex-boyfriend had once called it the lethal combo of her fuck-me eyes and her double-Gs – and she didn’t have any trouble convincing Naylor that she was helping her friends shift some old stuff. She might even have to call upon him to help if she needed to move a couple of heavy boxes of books. ‘No problem, ma’am,’ he replied. ‘Just give me a shout when you’re ready.’

  While Naylor was distracted, Kate checked on her mother, who still hadn’t woken up from her after-lunch nap. She blew a kiss in her direction, picked up a couple of cashmere blankets and headed back downstairs to her father’s study. She took down a couple of the larger paintings and carried them to the side door. Then she grabbed her notes and her purse and led Cassie by the hand towards the back seat of the car, where the two women lay down. When Gloria returned from talking to Naylor she simply spread out the blankets over her friends and then lay the paintings on top of them. Then she sashayed back down the drive to Naylor and asked him to help her lift a couple of crates full of books.

  ‘It’s one of the problems of being a generously proportioned woman,’ said Gloria, pushing her breasts forward towards him, mischief playing in her eyes. ‘Really has fucked my back something bad.’

  Naylor laughed as he walked back with her up the driveway, occasionally stealing a glimpse at Gloria’s ass.

  ‘By the way, where are your friends?’ he asked, lifting up the first of the two boxes of books and carrying them into the trunk.

  ‘They’re taking a nap right now,’ said Gloria. ‘I guess it’s a hard time for them just at the moment.’

  ‘Yeah, sure,’ he said.

  ‘Should I just give them a call?’

  ‘I wouldn’t. They’re tired as shit. They were both up all night. I came over to try and lighten the mood, so to speak. Kate has been hassling me to help her clear out her spare room for months now. I thought that might help take her mind off her troubles. Clearing out all this junk has sure done her in. Sleeping like a baby now. Best give it a couple of hours.’

  ‘Okay,’ said Naylor, putting them second crate into the trunk and slamming the back. ‘You have a good day now.’

  Gloria got into the car and steered it out of the driveway, maintaining her composure until she turned the corner and was out of sight.

  ‘Fuck, that was close,’ she said.

  Nervous laughter erupted from the back seat.

  ‘You sound like a couple of hysterical schoolgirls,’ said Gloria.

  ‘Well, you’re one damned good liar,’ said Kate, peeling the blanket away from her face and taking hold of one of the paintings that had been placed on top of her.