'He should've thought of all that, shouldn't he?'

'He's a cocky kid, Spence,' said Will. 'So leave him. Go home. Don't worry about it.'

But Spencer didn't go home; he couldn't leave him. He went back behind the offices and sat down next to Albert's single cell.

Finally Albert said, 'Are you going to take the cuffs off?'

'I don't know,' said Spencer. 'I should probably cuff your legs, shouldn't I?'

Albert didn't answer, and after a while Spencer called him over and unlocked the cuffs. Rubbing his wrists, Albert sat back down on the bed.

Spencer said from his chair, 'Give me one good reason I shouldn't keep you here till Monday morning and then charge you with Kristina Kim's death.'

'I'll give you a good reason,' replied Albert. 'Because I didn't kill her.'

'How do I know that?' said Spencer.

'Because I was sitting with some kid watching a stupid movie, that's why. Because I ...' He paused. 'I loved her, that's why.' Spencer was quiet.

'Because I loved her more than anything in the whole world,' continued Albert. 'I would rather die than hurt her. I'd take a bullet for her. I'm not scared, detective.'

'I see that,' said Spencer.

They were silent. Spencer watched Albert, who sat on the cell bed and stared into his hands. 'Albert, I don't understand. I just don't. Why would you be in love with Kristina and go out with Conni? I mean, what's the point?'

Albert shrugged, not looking up. 'I love Conni,' he said. 'I'm just not in love with her. But she's a good person and she loves me, and there's no reason to hurt her.'

'To hurt her? You don't think your not being in love with her hurts her?'

'I never kept that from her. She knows how I feel. She also knows I'd rather marry her than anybody, because she is a good person.'

'A good person?' Spencer caught his breath. 'Albert, do you understand what you're saying? Conni might have killed Kristina.'

Albert shook his head vehemently. 'No,' he said. 'No, that's not possible.'

'If I were Conni? And you were tormenting me with your lies, and I was suspecting you were sleeping with my best friend? I would have killed her earlier. Her and you too.'

Albert didn't say anything. Spencer waited. He knew he was grasping at straws. If only those three weren't going to leave the money to Red Leaves House, he thought. He'd really have something then.

But not much, Spencer realized. He didn't have an eyewitness. He didn't have a murder weapon. He didn't even have a motive. What he had was no case.

Also ... what he had was a whole lot of emotions whirling in a frenzy around one dead girl. That was enough. That was plenty. Kristina had been killed. There had been two knees on her chest and there was blood under her nails.

Spencer was torturing Albert, and he knew it, but it was as if Albert were under Spencer's nails.

There was a time when Spencer could look at a person and know something important about him; Andie had said that was Spencer's special gift to the world. Not that he wasn't a smart man, she said, because he was, and not that he wasn't a handsome man, because he was. But Spencer Patrick O'Malley had an instinct in him like a lost wolf's. What happened to it? Spencer wondered.

'Look, I don't know anything about you,' Spencer said at last. 'Except that you lied to me and you struck out at me.'

'I didn't strike out at you you were pointing a gun at my face. I'm sorry about the incident up there. You just caught me off guard.'

Spencer stood up. 'I caught you off guard?' He laughed, walking toward the doors. 'Good night, Albert. The night duty officer will bring you a sandwich and something to drink.'

Coming toward the iron bars, Albert said, 'You're going to leave me in here?'

Spencer smiled. 'I thought you weren't afraid.'

And with that he left and went home.

Spencer came back for Albert at seven o'clock Sunday morning. The patrolman who was watching him said to Spencer, 'You know, the guy didn't lie down once. He just sat there the whole night with his head in his hands.'

Spencer felt a twinge of guilt. Unlocking the cell, he opened the door and said, 'Come on, Albert. Time to go.'

Without saying anything, Albert got up and walked out.

'Need a ride home?' Spencer asked Albert.

Turning to Spencer, Albert said very quietly, 'I need her coat, please.'

Again, a twinge of guilt nagged at Spencer as he got Kristina's coat from the trunk of his Impala.

Spencer felt threatened by Albert. There was an unknown quantity to him that unsettled Spencer. Maybe because Albert wasn't afraid, and Spencer was always wary of people who weren't afraid.

They had so little to lose.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

Constance Tobias

Where have you been?' Will Baker whispered vehemently as Spencer walked in on Monday morning. 'I've been looking everywhere for you.'

Spencer nodded silently. 'I've been ... you know ...' He trailed off. 'I took a drive.'

'A drive? Where?'

'Connecticut.' Spencer paused and felt himself paling. 'Will, I've got a lot to tell you. I found Kristina's mother. Katherine Sinclair.'

'Who? God, Tracy! You gotta stop taking these drives in the middle of a murder investigation. First that Albert guy, now this. Plus you look like shit. What's wrong with you?'

Spencer threw his car keys on the desk. 'Have you listened to a word I said, Will?'

'Very carefully. What does Kristina's mother have to do with this mess? Listen, I've got something to tell you, too.'

'What's going on?' said Spencer, taking off his coat. He was unwilling to defend himself.

Will took Spencer by the arm and dragged him away into the hall. Through a partly open door, Spencer saw Frankie Absalom sitting alone in the questioning room.

'What's this?' Spencer asked. 'What's going on?'

'He came back last night. I called and called you.'

'What's up? He has something new to say?'

Will widened his eyes meaningfully. 'He says yes. But he refused to talk to anyone but you.'

Spencer made a move to go inside; Will held him back. 'First the chief wants to see you.'

'Immediately?'

'Sooner.'

When Spencer closed the door behind him, Ken Gallagher slammed half a dozen newspaper down on his gray Formica desk. 'Tracy, where the hell were you yesterday?'

'I was '

'Baker must have called your house a thousand times! Did he tell you? Franklin Absalom said he needed to speak to you urgently, and you were nowhere to be found!' Gallagher shouted the last part. 'He said he wouldn't speak to anyone but you. So where the hell were you?'

'That's what I'm trying to tell you, sir '

'So tell me! Goddammit, I thought you were conducting a murder investigation!'

'I was, and I am,' said Spencer quietly. 'I went to see '

'Do you know that because of you we had to keep Absalom here overnight?'

'Why?'

'Tracy, I'm the one asking questions around here.' But the chief answered him. 'Because we don't know if we have a killer on our hands or what. Now where were you?'

'In Connecticut,' Spencer said quickly, lest he be interrupted again.

'Why?'

'I went to talk to the dead girl's mother.'

'The dead girl's mother?' Gallagher gasped and then fell quiet.

Spencer hurriedly continued, 'Yes, sir. She is very ill, living in a convalescent wing of the Norwalk '

'Tracy!' the chief exclaimed. 'What do you think, I got quiet to listen to you? I'm goddamn speechless I don't have time for this shit. We might have a murderer in custody and you're telling me about somebody's mother, for Christ's sake?'

Spencer willed himself to remain calm and persisted. 'Sir, not just somebody's mother. The dead girl's mother. There are some very troubling th '

'O'Malley! Perhaps I'm not making myself clear.' Gallagher shoved a stack of newspapers toward Spencer. 'What's this?'

'I don't know, chief,' said Spencer. 'What is this?'

'This, and this, and this.' Gallagher was shoving the front pages in front of Spencer, banging his index finger at the cover stories. 'Look. We're in every paper. Have you read this? Have you?'

Spencer looked up from the papers and quietly said, 'No, sir. I've been too busy to read the newspapers. Sir.'

'Don't you sir me, O'Malley!' Gallagher raised his voice. 'When I left Thursday, I thought everything was under control.'

'Everything is under control,' said Spencer, thinking, except for me in about a minute.

'Is it? Then what's this?' Pointing to the lead story in the main local paper, Gallagher read, '"The Hanover Police Department investigation has stalled; sources say there are no new leads and no clues in the crime."'

Gallagher then showed Spencer similar cover stories in the Dartmouth, the Concord Monitor, the Manchester Union Leader, and the Boston Globe.

Spencer looked blankly at the chief. 'So?'

'Tracy,' said Gallagher ominously, 'don't screw with me. I gave you this promotion, I thought you'd prove yourself '

'Chief Gallagher!' Then Spencer lowered his voice. 'I don't have time to prove myself.' He was breathing hard. 'I'm in the middle of a murder investigation. The papers have no idea. They're clueless. We're not going to be letting them in on every piece of evidence we have before we can make a formal charge. You do agree with that policy, chief, don't you?'

'O'Malley, don't patronize me. The papers are making us look bad, and this is our town. I don't want to be ridiculed by our people and by the college and by Concord because we can't do our jobs!'

'Who says we can't do our jobs?' Spencer gritted his teeth. 'It's the papers who can't do their jobs.'

'They're getting this information from somewhere, aren't they?'

'Yes, sir. Maybe a word with our men would be in order about discussing ongoing investigations with the press.'

'Tracy, the DA's office is reading this crap, too!' Gallagher shouted. 'They think we can't do our jobs either. The Dartmouth dean himself called Dave Peterson and wanted to know what was being done about finding the girl's killer.'

'And the district attorney had no answer,' retorted Spencer, 'since he wasn't in the office. The deputy district attorney ditto.'

'Well, they were in the office this morning! I talked to Peterson; he's fuming. He's got a whole battery of people on their way here now.'

Spencer thought it would be a relief to have some disinterested ADA take over the case. Spencer then could go back to driving around town and having coffee at Lou's, maybe having a meal again and going to Murphy's Tavern again. He could hibernate through the winter again, without having to think of Kristina or her broken family.

Spencer answered the chief. 'Well, where were the AD As when we really needed them? On Friday they were golfing, and on Saturday and Sunday they were having a weekend off.' This was a dig at the chief himself, though Spencer didn't mention him by name. 'Unlike Will and me, who have worked nonstop since Thursday.'

'With no results! And I don't consider going off to Connecticut work.'

Spencer felt himself getting hot. 'What results do you want, chief?' he asked.