The Nameless Dead (11 page)

I understood the warning—don’t look down there. ‘I’m going in on my own,’ I said, extending my hand, palm up.

The doctor exchanged glances with Peter Sebastian, who nodded, and gave me a plastic card.

‘I’ll be here, Matt,’ Sebastian said, his expression grave. ‘Anything you need, anything at all.’

I walked away from them and inserted the card into the locking device. I pushed the door and let it close after me. The room was cold. The first two aluminum tables were shrouded by white sheets. The one on the left was almost flat, a tiny object lying near the top. The
outline of an adult was on the right. I stepped up to that table first and drew the sheet back slowly. Karen’s face was peaceful, the furrows labor had created on her forehead now gone. Her skin was gray, as were her lips, and her hair was limp. I stood by her for a time, my fingers on her chill brow. The pain in my heart had increased even more and I was struggling to stay upright. Tears drenched my cheeks and obscured my vision.

After a while, I went to our son. I pulled the sheet away gently and looked at the small body that was still curled as it had been inside Karen. It was swaddled in white, the face a deep, unnatural blue. His hair was dark brown and there was a lot of it. His nose was flat and his lips an even deeper shade of blue. He was beautiful. I picked him up and kissed him on the forehead. Then I took him to his mother, pulling down her shroud and setting him gently on her chest. Her arms had already stiffened, but I managed to get them around him. I stepped back to take in the sight of them together. I kissed them both for the last time, and then I covered them carefully with the sheet.

When I opened the door, the group in the other room looked away, apart from Peter Sebastian. He stepped toward me, but he didn’t make it in time.

I saw the floor approach rapidly. Then everything, even the pain in my heart, was gone.

T
he Soul Collector. Sara Robbins considered the name she had given herself the last time she had been in the U.K. It struck her now as ludicrously over the top, despite the fact that it had been a tribute to her brother, who had called himself the White Devil. She had been influenced by the occult back then. Not that she believed in any of the Satanic stuff, but her sister had. And Matt Wells had killed her, just as he’d been responsible for the White Devil’s death. She would never forget that, no matter how much time passed or how much the circumstances changed—and no matter what her expensive Upper West Side shrink said.

She glanced around the chairs outside the Brooklyn Heights café. It was the kind of place that pandered to its customers by putting gas heaters on the terrace in winter, even on days like today, when the sun was bright and there wasn’t much wind. A pair of well-dressed young women at the table in front of her discussed their boyfriends, listing their inadequacies and squealing with laughter. They both had leather laptop cases and were obviously in good jobs. Sara was tempted to lift
one of the bags. When she had worked on a newspaper in London, she had often picked people’s pockets on the Underground and slipped shop goods into her pocket—nothing major enough to be missed, but she was good at it, she never got caught and it was fun. The chaos that the loss of her laptop would bring to the airhead was delicious to imagine, but Sara decided against it. As ever, she was keeping a low profile.

In the years she’d been on the run, she had changed her name and appearance frequently, paying for the best hair and facial treatments, the best documentation and bureaucratic apparatus necessary to establish false identities. The wallet in her bag contained a New York State driver’s license in the name of Colette Anne Olds, born Utica, 10/3/1971. The photo matched the way she looked: short blond hair, blue eyes (courtesy of contacts) and features that bore little resemblance to how she used to look. Her nose was thicker, her lips fuller and her cheekbones almost as prominent as Joni Mitchell’s. If Matt Wells sat down at the table, she was certain he wouldn’t recognize her, at least not immediately. She had worked on her voice as well, developing a New York accent bought and paid for. And the kicker—if necessary, she could change the way she looked with one visit to a luggage locker in Grand Central Station. The suitcase there contained wigs, a range of colored contact lenses and two changes of very different clothes.

As befitted the neighborhood, Sara/Colette was wearing boho chic—designer jeans, Manolo Blahniks and a vintage sheepskin jacket. The dark red beret she had found on the sidewalk—it was new and couldn’t have been there long. When a ditzy-looking waitress with a bare belly and pierced navel emerged, she or
dered another double espresso and looked up and down Montague Street. There was no sign of the man she was waiting for, but he was only a few minutes late. She picked up the newspaper she had been reading and turned to the story about Hitler’s Hitman. There had been a feeding frenzy when the newspaper hacks convinced themselves that the deaths were connected and that, therefore, a serial killer was on the loose. The last murder, the good-looking professor in Philadelphia, was under the microscope. He had written about Mussolini in less than flattering terms. Did that means no academic specializing in extreme-right politics was safe? Dr. Jack had been a ladies’ man, as confirmed by students and faculty members. Did the previous victims have significant sex lives? Research was ongoing. He had been killed ritualistically. According to what rite? No one was clear about that, but there was no shortage of so-called experts with opinions—certain tribes of American Indians had dispatched their victims that way; the Nazis treated traitors in such a fashion, an idea strengthened by the apparent presence of Nazi slogans and symbols, unconfirmed by the various police departments; the killer wasn’t interested in politics, he was a zombie controlled by a powerful Voodoo priestess, proclaimed one supermarket tabloid.

Sara took a sip from the cup that the waitress had laid on the table with a fake smile. There were even a few reporters who had connected the murders to the Occult Killings in Washington at the beginning of the autumn. Much of it was imaginative guesswork. She knew for a fact, a costly fact, that the Justice Department had restricted the flow of information about those deaths. Still, she didn’t know exactly how Matt Wells
was involved in the Rothmann conspiracy, but his subsequent disappearance, and that of his partner Karen Oaten, suggested they were working with the FBI, not least because the Bureau had denied all knowledge of their whereabouts. From what she’d been able to discover, Heinz Rothmann was the son of a Nazi and he was committed to reviving the aberrant German ideology. That made him a major suspect for the recent killings.

‘Hey, doll, is this seat taken?’

Sara watched as the thin, dark-skinned Hispanic slid down opposite her. ‘You’re late,’ she said, frowning.

‘My mother told me never to apologize.’ The man smiled, displaying teeth even whiter than her costly crowns.

‘I’ll bet she did. Still, it could have been worse.’

He looked up from the menu. ‘Meaning?’

She returned the smile, but hers was icy. ‘I could have ripped your eyes out, Havi.’

Xavier Marias ran a shaky hand over his shaven head. ‘Calm down, pretty lady.’ He raised a hand to the waitress. ‘Hey, over here. Margarita, no salt.’

‘It’s ten in the morning,’ Sara observed.

‘What do you expect? You scare me shitless.’

‘Good.’

‘What’s this about, anyway?’ He took his cell from a pocket in his tan leather jacket. ‘I prefer to spend my Saturday mornings in bed with Elena.’ He caught her gaze. ‘I also prefer not to meet my clients in person. Even when they fail to carry out instructions.’

‘Relax, Havi. We’re just two friends chilling out.’

‘Uh-huh.’ He leaned forward. ‘So, are you going to tell me?’

The Soul Collector smiled. ‘Tell you what?’

He sighed. ‘Why you didn’t terminate your last commission.’

‘Oh, that. Come on, Havi, it wasn’t fair. The guy deserved a chance to make things right.’

‘Are you out of your fucking mind? Have you any idea how much shit I’ve had to eat over this?’

‘You’re looking very good on it.’

‘Ha. I ought to drop your ass in the river.’

‘But you’re not going to do that.’

The broker saw the change in her—suddenly his client was a wild animal ready to pounce. ‘Eh, no. No, I’m not. But don’t you ever pull a stunt like that again, okay?’

The Soul Collector held his gaze. ‘Don’t give me bullshit contracts again.’

Havi took a hit from the margarita that had been placed in front of him. ‘Hey, are you okay? You look…I dunno…kind of shitty.’

‘Why, thank you, good sir. Modesty prevents me saying how you look.’

There was an uneasy silence.

‘Now what?’ the Soul Collector said, her eyes on the gray water below.

‘Now I go back to Elena and—’ He broke off, his eyes wide. ‘Jesus, woman, don’t…do that.’

Under the table, she dug her fingernails harder into the denim above his knee. ‘Give me another job. Now.’

The broker wiped sweat from his brow. ‘All right,’ he said, in a loud whisper. ‘Let me go.’

The Soul Collector squeezed hard once more and then sat back. ‘I’m all ears.’

‘All fuckin’ fingers, you mean,’ Havi muttered, taking an envelope from his pocket. ‘I don’t know what you’re so fired up about. I got you what you wanted.’

His client opened the envelope and ran her eyes over the sheet of paper inside. ‘Well, well,’ she said. ‘Not before time.’ She looked up and smiled. ‘Thank you, Havi. As so often, a pleasure to do business with you.’ She got up and left without looking back.

Xavier Marias drained the rest of his margarita and called urgently for another.

I woke up feeling like I’d been run over by a tank. I sat up, my mind in a swirl. Then I remembered what I’d seen on the mortuary tables—the inert remains of my family—and realized I was a lot worse off than an accident victim. For a start, I was still alive.

I looked around the room, taking in the hospital fitments and plain décor. There was nothing I could use to self-harm, unless I twisted the sheets and hanged myself. That wasn’t such a bad idea. I got up, my knees almost giving way, and started to pull off the bedding. I had only got as far as the top sheet when the door opened and a big guy came in.

‘Put it down,’ he ordered.

I thought about that, then launched myself at him. I had a flash of doing combat training with a tall soldier, but whatever drugs I was on had seriously compromised my skills. The gorilla grabbed my wrists in one hand, spun me round and pushed me back to the bed.

‘I can give you another sedative, Mr. Wells.’

I looked round. Colonel Jimson had come in. Behind him, a male nurse was holding a metal tray, on which lay a full syringe.

‘But I don’t think you really want that,’ the medic continued.

He was right. They had me cold, no matter what I tried to do. I relaxed and the auxiliary let me go. I sat down amongst the demolished bedding and lowered my head. Karen and Magnus weren’t there anymore. I couldn’t see them. That was some kind of relief, but I immediately felt guilty.

‘Would you like something to eat?’ Jimson asked.

Initially, the idea of eating seemed so trivial, so irrelevant given what had happened, that I almost laughed. Then I realized that I was ravenous.

‘Bacon and sausages,’ I said, swallowing a rush of saliva. ‘Scrambled eggs, toast, coffee.’

The doctor nodded to the male nurse, who walked out. ‘The drugs have that effect. Apart from that, how are you feeling?’

‘How do you think?’

He glanced at the soldier, who was still near the bed. ‘All right, Corporal, you can go.’

When we were alone, Jimson came closer. ‘Are you up to receiving visitors? Mr. Sebastian told me to inform him the second you were awake.’

I looked at him. It seemed not all military men were by-the-book assholes.

Then again, remembering my trainer’s name, Quincy Jerome, I realized I already knew that. ‘Thanks. I appreciate it. I want to see him, too.’

‘Okay. Have your breakfast first.’

I did and, to my surprise, I felt better after it. Then I was stricken by remorse again. Karen and our son were dead and all I cared about was filling my stomach. Human beings were nothing more than animals.

Actually, they were much worse. Animals didn’t experiment on each other. Animals killed to eat, not for specious religions and ideologies. Animals weren’t immoral and malevolent.

Peter Sebastian came in and expressed his sympathy. If I hadn’t suspected that he was a highly devious operator, I’d have bought his performance. It wasn’t that he didn’t feel sympathy, I knew that. But I also knew he had other reasons to see me. That didn’t bother me—in fact, it could work to my advantage.

‘Food okay?’ he asked, inclining his head toward the tray.

‘You think that matters right now?’

‘I imagine not. Christ, Matt, it’s an awful thing.’

‘It’s down to Rothmann, isn’t it?’ I said, clenching my fists without thinking about it.

‘It’s too early to say. The pathologist is—’ He broke off, suddenly ill at ease.

‘I know what he’s doing,’ I said, with more bravado than I felt. Fortunately Karen and Magnus didn’t appear before me. ‘Is Rivers working on it, too?’

Sebastian nodded. ‘And Dr. Brown. I gather her process was effective.’

‘So they said. Let’s hope it put paid to the Rothmanns’ shit once and for all.’

‘Yes.’

The way he was looking at me made me suspicious. ‘What’s going on? What are you keeping from me?’

‘Nothing, Matt,’ he said, a shade too quickly.

‘What’s going on? You’re working some scheme, aren’t you?’

‘It’s…it’s a bit unusual,’ he said, with an unusual lack of confidence.

‘You’re going to let me out, aren’t you? All the training I’ve been doing, the extra sessions with Rivers, Dr. Brown’s process. What’s the catch?’

‘I don’t know if it is a catch, judging by what you said earlier.’ He was more composed now, back on home ground. ‘We want you to find Heinz Rothmann.’

I had to laugh, though I wasn’t even mildly amused. ‘That would be the Heinz Rothmann who tried to turn me into a killer? The Rothmann whose sister I killed and who would like to cut me to pieces in return?’

He nodded. ‘Yes, that same Heinz Rothmann whose conditioning program may have robbed you of Karen and your son.’

‘Despite the fact we were assured by you people that it wouldn’t affect them.’ I blinked hard before going on. ‘I used to write crime novels, remember? What’s important is the characters’ motivation. Why has the FBI changed its story on Karen’s pregnancy risks and become suddenly so keen on finding that German piece of shit?’

‘Actually, he has an American passport,’ Sebastian said, like a teacher correcting a pupil.

‘Maybe he does, but that doesn’t mean shit.’

‘In any case, your question is besides the point. The Bureau has been looking for Rothmann ever since he disappeared.’

‘Uh-huh. You wouldn’t recently have come to the conclusion that he’s behind these Hitler’s Hitman murders, would you?’

‘Obviously the presence of his confederate Gordy Lister at the scene in Philadelphia was suggestive.’ He smiled slackly. ‘Good catch, by the way.’

‘Your people would have got it when they went over the footage.’

‘I wish I had your faith.’

‘Any further sign of Lister?’

‘No. We’ve circulated details to the investigating teams at the other locations, but there have been no positive hits.’

I went over to the wardrobe.

‘What are you doing?’ Sebastian asked.

‘Getting dressed. I want to be out of the camp today.’

There was a pause. ‘Matt, I’ve no idea how long this might last. What do you want to do about…’

I stopped fastening my shirt buttons. ‘About Karen and Magnus? Nothing for the time being. Can…can they be kept here?’

‘I imagine so. But what about the funerals?’

‘That’s what I’m saying to you, Peter. Afterward. Until I nail Rothmann, I can’t think about that.’ I pulled on my jacket and turned to face him. ‘You haven’t asked about my terms.’