Free Crimson Joy by Robert B. Parker

believe him."
    "Except?"
    "Except the gun is wrong and the rope is wrong and there's no semen and he's black, so how come he kept finding his victims in places a white guy would find them and how come he took this long to get to his wife?"
    "I could speculate on the wife part," Susan said.
    "Sure," I said. "But the fact remains that there's a lot of holes, and two very experienced homicide investigators don't believe him."
    "A man like Washburn might in fact kill his wife and be so overcome at the guilt of it that he would do this," Susan said.
    "Confess to a whole series of crimes?" I said.
    "More. He might emulate the criminal in the crime, become him, in a manner of speaking. It would be a way of dramatizing how horrible a crime he was contemplating, and it would, maybe, distance him from it enough so that he could carry it out."
    "So his grief and all would be genuine," I said.
    "Absolutely. He's done something more horrible than any of his questioners can imagine. Of course he's overcome. And he must be punished on a scale equal to the horribleness. He must not only be a murderer, he must be a fiend, as it were, a noted serial killer."
    "So you don't believe his confession either," I said.
    "I neither believe nor disbelieve. I could make a scenario for belief too. I'm only trying to give you possibilities in an area I know."
    Susan said. "If you decide finally that he's innocent or guilty, I will believe you," she said. "I know what I know, and I know what you know.
    In this you know more."
    I finished my plum, and got up and walked around the counter to the other side and gave her a kiss on the mouth.
    "Thank you," I said.
    "You're welcome."
    She looked at her watch.
    "Jesus Christ," she said. "I have twenty minutes until my first appointment."
    "Try not to trample me," I said, and got out of the way.

CHAPTER 15

     
    Quirk called me while Susan was speeding around the apartment.
    "Hawk coming over?" he said.
    "Yes, at ten."
    "Stay there with him. Belson and I are coming by," Quirk said.
    "Sure," I said.
    As I was hanging up, Susan stopped momentarily in front of me, gave me a kiss on the mouth, and sped to the front door. She looked like a fast sunrise.
    "Beep beep," I said.
    "I'll call you later," she said, and was gone.
    Hawk arrived at ten, Quirk and Belson right behind him.
    Hawk said, "This a coincidence, or are you guys after me?"
    Quirk shook his head and closed the door behind him and said, "We need help."
    Hawk's face broke into a wide smile. "Y'all finally facing up to that," he said.
    Belson rummaged around the kitchen until he found a saucer that would serve as an ashtray. Quirk went into the kitchen behind him and carefully shook the water from his raincoat onto the tile floor. Then he hung it from a rack Susan had by the back porch door. Belson started back into the living room with his ashtray.
    "Frank," Quirk said, and nodded at the coat.
    Belson said, "Yeah," and came back into the kitchen and hung his raincoat up beside Quirk's. Hawk draped his leather jacket over the back of a kitchen chair. Without the jacket the ivory butt of his gun glared at us from under his arm. He wore extra rounds in a pocket on the back of his belt.
    Belson glanced around the apartment with its careful clutter of objets dart, lace, silk, crystal, and velvet. There was a huge crimson fan spread on one wall of the den.
    "It's you," Belson said to me.
    "Yeah," I said. "I'm looking to buy a paisley gun." Quirk said, "Belson and I are on vacation."
    The cold spring rain was sharp and insistent on the front windows.
    "Perfect weather for it," I said.
    "Commissioner insisted," Quirk said.
    "I noticed in the paper you were expressing reservations," I said.
    "Yeah, I did it again on Jimmy Winston's show last night," Quirk said.
    "Mobilizing public opinion," Hawk murmured.
    "Something," Quirk said. "Anyway, this morning I got put on vacation status, extended. Frank joined me. Some kind of gesture, I guess."
    "I been working hard,