I'm not playing anything, she snarled. There are human lives at stake. There's a butcher running loose, and he's going to stay loose as long as that half-wit LaGuerta is running things.

I fought down a surge of hope. That may be so- Itis so, Deb insisted.

-but Deborah, you can't change that by getting yourself exiled to Coconut Grove traffic duty.

No, she said. But I can change it by finding the killer.

Well there it was. Some people just have no idea how the world works. She was otherwise a very smart person, truly she was. She had simply inherited all of Harry's earthy directness, his straightforward way of dealing with things, without latching on to any of his accompanying wisdom. With Harry, bluntness had been a way to cut through the fecal matter. With Deborah, it was a way of pretending there wasn't any.

I got a ride back to my car with one of the patrol units outside the arena. I drove home, imagining I had kept the head, wrapped it carefully in tissue paper, and placed it in the backseat to take home with me. Terrible and silly, I know. For the first time I understood those sad men, usually Shriners, who fondle women's shoes or carry around dirty underwear. An awful feeling that made me want a shower almost as much as I wanted to stroke the head.

But I didn't have it. Nothing for it but to go home. I drove slowly, a few miles per hour under the speed limit. In Miami that's like wearing aKICK ME sign on your back. No one actually kicked me, of course. They would have had to slow down for that. But I was honked at seven times, flipped off eight, and five cars simply roared around me, either onto the sidewalk or through oncoming traffic.

But today even the energetic high spirits of the other drivers couldn't cheer me. I was dead tired and bemused and I needed to think, away from the echoing din of the arena and the bonehead blather of LaGuerta. Driving slowly gave me time to wonder, to work through the meaning of all that had happened. And I found that one silly phrase kept ringing in my head, bouncing off the rocks and crannies of my exhausted brain. It took on a life of its own. The more I heard it in my thoughts, the more sense it made. And beyond sense, it became a kind of seductive mantra. It became the key to thinking about the killer, the head rolling into the street, the rearview mirror tucked away amid the wonderfully dry body parts.

If it had been me- As in, If it had been me, what would I be saying with the mirror? and If it had been me, what would I have done with the truck?

Of course it had not been me, and that kind of envy is very bad for the soul, but since I was not aware of having one it didn't matter. If ithad been me, the truck would be run into a ditch somewhere not too far from the arena. And then I would get far away from there fast-in a stashed car? A stolen one? It would depend. If it had been me, would I have planned on leaving the body at the arena all along, or had that come up as a response to the chase on the causeway?

Except that made no sense. He could not have counted on anyone chasing him out to North Bay Village-could he? But then why did he have the head ready to throw? And then why take the rest to the arena? It seemed like an odd choice. Yes, there was a great deal of ice there, and the coldness was all to the good. But the vast clattery s.p.a.ce was really not appropriate for my kind of intimate moment-if it had been me. There was a terrible, wide-open desolation that was not at all conducive to real creativity. Fun to visit, but not a real artist's studio. A dumping ground, and not a work s.p.a.ce. It just didn't have the proper feeling to it.

If it had been me, that is.

So the arena was a bold stroke into unexplored territory. It would give the police fits, and it would most definitely lead them in the wrong direction. If they ever figured out that there was a direction to be led in, which seemed increasingly unlikely.

And to top it off with the mirror-if I was right about the reasons for selecting the arena, then the addition of the mirror would of course support that. It would be a comment on what had just happened, connected to leaving the head. It would be a statement that would bring together all the other threads, wrap them up as neatly as the stacked body parts, an elegant underlining to a major work. Now what would the statement be, if it was me?

I see you.

Well. Of course that was it, in spite of being somewhat obvious. I see you. I know you're behind me, and I am watching you. But I am far ahead of you, too, controlling your course and setting your speed and watching you follow me. I see you. I know who you are and where you are, and all you know about me is that I am watching. I see you.

That felt right. Why didn't it make me feel better?

Further, how much of this should I tell poor dear Deborah? This was becoming so intensely personal that it was a struggle to remember that there was a public side to it, a side that was important to my sister and her career. I could not begin to tell her-or anyone-that I thought the killer was trying to tell me something, if I had the wit to hear and reply. But the rest-was there something I needed to tell her, and did I actually want to?

It was too much. I needed sleep before I could sort all this out.

I did not quite whimper as I crawled into my bed, but it was a very near thing. I allowed sleep to roll over me quickly, just letting go into the darkness. And I got nearly two and a half full hours of sleep before the telephone rang.

It's me, said the voice on the other end.

Of course it is, I said. Deborah, wasn't it? And of course it was.

I found the refrigerated truck.

Well, congratulations, Deb. That's very good news.

There was a rather long silence on the other end.

Deb? I said finally. That is good news, isn't it?

No, she said.

Oh. I felt the need for sleep thumping my head like carpet beaters on a prayer rug, but I tried to concentrate. Um, Deb-what did you ... what happened?

I made the match, she said. Made absolutely certain. Pictures and part numbers and everything. So I told LaGuerta like a good scout.

And she didn't believe you? I asked incredulously.

She probably did.

I tried to blink, but my eyes wanted to stick shut so I gave it up. I'm sorry, Deb, one of us isn't making much sense. Is it me?

I tried to explain it to her, Deborah said in a very small, very tired voice that gave me a terrible feeling of sinking under the waves without a bailing bucket. I gave her the whole thing. I was even polite.

That's very good, I said. What did she say?

Nothing, Deb said.

Nothing at all?

Nothing at all, Deb repeated. Except she just says thanks, in a kind of way like you'd say it to the valet parking attendant. And she gives me this funny little smile and turns away.

Well, but Deb, I said, you can't really expect her to- And then I found out why she smiled like that, Deb said. Like I'm some kind of unwashed half-wit and she's finally figured out where to lock me up.

Oh, no, I said. You mean you're off the case?

We're all off the case, Dexter, Deb said, her voice as tired as I felt. LaGuerta's made an arrest.

There was far too much silence on the line all of a sudden and I couldn't think at all, but at least I was wide awake. What? I said.

LaGuerta has arrested somebody. Some guy who works at the arena. She has him in custody and she's sure he's the killer.

That's not possible, I said, although I knew it was possible, the brain-dead b.i.t.c.h. LaGuerta, not Deb.

I know that, Dexter. But don't try to tell LaGuerta. She's sure she got the right guy.

How sure? I asked. My head was spinning and I felt a little bit like throwing up. I couldn't really say why.

Deb snorted. She has a press conference in one hour, she said. For her, that's positive.

The pounding in my head got too loud to hear what Deb might have said next. LaGuerta had made an arrest? Who? Who could she possibly have tagged for it? Could she truly ignore all the clues, the smell and feel and taste of these kills, and arrest somebody? Because n.o.body who could do what this killer had done-was doing!-could possibly allow a pimple like LaGuerta to catch him. Never. I would bet my life on it.

No, Deborah, I said. No. Not possible. She's got the wrong guy.

Deborah laughed, a tired, dirty-up-to-here cop's laugh. Yeah, she said. I know it. You know it. But she doesn't know it. And you want to know something funny? Neither does he.

That made no sense at all. What are you saying, Deb? Who doesn't know?

She repeated that awful little laugh. The guy she arrested. I guess he must be almost as confused as LaGuerta, Dex. Because he confessed.

What?

He confessed, Dexter. The b.a.s.t.a.r.d confessed.

CHAPTER 12

HIS NAME WASDARYLLEARLMCHALE AND HE WASwhat we liked to call a two-time loser. Twelve of his last twenty years had been spent as a guest of the State of Florida. Dear Sergeant Doakes had managed to dig his name out of the arena's personnel files. In a computer cross-check for employees with a record of violence or felony convictions, McHale's name had popped up twice.

Daryll Earl was a drunk and a wife beater. Apparently he occasionally knocked over filling stations, too, just for the entertainment value. He could be relied on to hold down a minimum wage job for a month or two. But then some fine Friday night he'd throw back a few six-packs and start to believe he was the Wrath of G.o.d. So he'd drive around until he found a gas station that just p.i.s.sed him off. He'd charge in waving a weapon, take the money, and drive away. Then he'd use his ma.s.sive $80 or $90 haul to buy a few more six-packs until he felt so good he just had to beat up on somebody. Daryll Earl was not a large man: five six and scrawny. So to play it safe, the somebody he beat on usually turned out to be his wife.

Things being what they were, he'd actually gotten away with it a couple of times. But one night he went a little too far with his wife and put her into traction for a month. She pressed charges, and since Daryll Earl already had a record, he'd done some serious time.

He still drank, but he'd apparently been frightened enough at Raiford to straighten out just a bit. He'd gotten a job as a janitor at the arena and actually held on to it. As far as we could tell, he hadn't beaten up his wife for ages.

And more, Our Boy had even had a few moments of fame when the Panthers made their run at the Stanley Cup. Part of his job had been to run out and clean up when the fans threw objects on the ice. That Stanley Cup year, this had been a major job, since every time the Panthers scored the fans threw three or four thousand plastic rats onto the rink. Daryll Earl had to schlep out and pick them all up, boring work, no doubt. And so encouraged by a few snorts of very cheap vodka one night, he'd picked up one of the plastic rats and done a little Rat Dance. The crowd ate it up and yelled for more. They began to call for it when Daryll Earl skidded out onto the ice. Daryll Earl did the dance for the rest of the season.

Plastic rats were forbidden nowadays. Even if they had been required by federal statute, n.o.body would have been throwing them. The Panthers hadn't scored a goal since the days when Miami had an honest mayor, sometime in the last century. But McHale still showed up at the games hoping for one last on-camera two-step.

At the press conference LaGuerta played that part beautifully. She made it sound like the memory of his small fame had driven Daryll Earl over the edge into murder. And of course with his drunkenness and his record of violence toward women, he was the perfect suspect for this series of stupid and brutal murders. But Miami's hookers could rest easy; the killing was over. Driven by the overwhelming pressure of an intense and merciless investigation, Daryll Earl had confessed. Case closed. Back to work, girls.

The press ate it up. You couldn't really blame them, I suppose. LaGuerta did a masterful job of presenting just enough fact colored with high-gloss wishful thinking that nearly anyone would have been convinced. And of course you don't actually have to take an IQ test to become a reporter. Even so, I always hope for just the smallest glimmer. And I'm always disappointed. Perhaps I saw too many black-and-white movies as a child. I still thought the cynical, world-weary drunk from the large metropolitan daily was supposed to ask an awkward question and force the investigators to carefully reexamine the evidence.

But sadly, life does not always imitate art. And at LaGuerta's press conference, the part of Spencer Tracy was played by a series of male and female models with perfect hair and tropical-weight suits. Their penetrating questions amounted to, How did it feel to find the head? and Can we have some pictures?

One lone reporter, Nick Something from the local NBC TV affiliate, asked LaGuerta if she was sure McHale was the killer. But when she said that the overwhelming preponderance of evidence indicated that this was the case and anyway the confession was conclusive, he let it go. Either he was satisfied or the words were too big.

And so there it was. Case closed, justice done. The mighty machinery of Metro Miami's awesome crime-fighting apparatus had once again triumphed over the dark forces besieging Our Fair City. It was a lovely show. LaGuerta handed out some very sinister-looking mug shots of Daryll Earl stapled to those new glossy shots of herself investigating a $250-an-hour high-fashion photographer on South Beach.

It made a wonderfully ironic package; the appearance of danger and the lethal reality, so very different. Because however coa.r.s.e and brutal Daryll Earl looked, the real threat to society was LaGuerta. She had called off the hounds, closed down the hue and cry, sent people back to bed in a burning building.

Was I the only one who could see that Daryll Earl McHale could not possibly be the killer? That there was a style and wit here that a brickhead like McHale couldn't even understand?

I had never been more alone than I was in my admiration for the real killer's work. The very body parts seemed to sing to me, a rhapsody of bloodless wonder that lightened my heart and filled my veins with an intoxicating sense of awe. But it was certainly not going to interfere with my zeal in capturing the real killer, a cold and wanton executioner of the innocent who absolutely must be brought to justice. Right, Dexter? Right? h.e.l.lo?

I sat in my apartment, rubbing my sleep-crusted eyes and thinking about the show I had just watched. It had been as near perfect as a press conference could be without free food and nudity. LaGuerta had clearly pulled every string she had ever gotten a hand on in order to make it the biggest, splashiest press conference possible, and it had been. And for perhaps the first time in her Gucci-licking career, LaGuerta really and truly believed she had the right man. She had to believe it. It was kind of sad, really. She thought she had done everything right this time. She wasn't just making political moves; in her mind she was cashing in on a clean and well-lit piece of work. She'd solved the crime, done it her way, caught the bad guy, stopped the killing. Well-earned applause all around for a job well done. And what a lovely surprise she would get when the next body turned up.

Because I knew with no room for doubt that the killer was still out there. He was probably watching the press conference on Channel 7, the channel of choice for people with an eye for carnage. At the moment he would be laughing too hard to hold a blade, but that would pa.s.s. And when it did his sense of humor would no doubt prompt him to comment on the situation.

For some reason the thought did not overwhelm me with fear and loathing and a grim determination to stop this madman before it was too late. Instead I felt a little surge of antic.i.p.ation. I knew it was very wrong, and perhaps that made it feel even better. Oh, I wanted this killer stopped, brought to justice, yes, certainly-but did it have to be soon?

There was also a small trade-off to make. If I was going to do my little part to stop the real killer, then I should at least make something positive happen at the same time. And as I thought it, my telephone rang.

Yes, I saw it, I said into the receiver.

Jesus, said Deborah on the other end. I think I'm going to be sick.

Well, I won't mop your fevered brow, sis. There's work to be done.

Jesus, she repeated. Then, What work?

Tell me, I asked her. Are you in ill odor, sis?

I'm tired, Dexter. And I'm more p.i.s.sed off than I've ever been in my life. What's that in English?

I'm asking if you are in what Dad would have called the doghouse. Is your name mud in the department? Has your professional reputation been muddied, damaged, sullied, colored, rendered questionable?

Between LaGuerta's backstabbing and the Einstein thing? My professional reputation is s.h.i.t, she said with more sourness than I would have thought possible in someone so young.

Good. It's important that you don't have anything to lose.

She snorted. Glad I could help. 'Cause I'm there, Dexter. If I sink any lower in the department, I'll be making coffee for community relations. Where is this going, Dex?

I closed my eyes and leaned all the way back in my chair. You are going to go on record-with the captain and the department itself-as believing that Daryll Earl is the wrong man and that another murder is going to take place. You will present a couple of compelling reasons culled from your investigation, and you will be the laughingstock of Miami Metro for a little while.

I already am, she said. No big deal. But is there some reason for this?

I shook my head. It was sometimes hard for me to believe she could be so nave. Sister dearest, I said, you don't truly believe Daryll Earl is guilty, do you?

She didn't answer. I could hear her breathing and it occurred to me that she must be tired, too, every bit as tired as I was, but without the jolt of energy I got from being certain I was right. Deb?

The guy confessed, Dexter, she said at last, and I heard the utter fatigue in her voice. I don't-I've been wrong before, even when- I mean, but heconfessed . Doesn't that, that ... s.h.i.t. Maybe we should just let it go, Dex.

Oh ye of little faith, I said. She's got the wrong guy, Deborah. And you are now going to rewrite the politics.

Sure I am.

Daryll Earl McHale is not it, I said. There's absolutely no doubt about it.

Even if you're right, so what? she said.

Now it was my turn to blink and wonder. Excuse me?

Well, look, if I'm this killer, why don't I realize I'm off the hook now? With this other guy arrested, the heat's off, you know. Why don't I just stop? Or even take off for someplace else and start over?

Impossible, I said. You don't understand how this guy thinks.

Yeah, I know, she said. How come you do?

I chose to ignore that. He's going to stay right here and he's going to kill again. He has to show us all what he thinks of us.