It took me more than five minutes to scrub the blood from my hands. The sink in the gas station washroom streaked with red when I was done.
The telephone kiosk outside overlooked the highway, a handful of cars travelling along the blacktop in the glow of the late afternoon sun. The operator connected me to the Recorder and I reached Dinsmore at his desk.
‘I’m starting to feel like I’m at your beck and call—’
‘The Kolkhorst girl. Did you look into it?’ I said.
‘As a matter of fact I did. And look, don’t run away with this, but Cole Barrett was in charge of the investigation into her death. But that doesn’t prove—’
‘I already know that. I need the other thing – the trouble she had with Hot Springs PD—’
‘What do you mean you already know? Why the hell have you got me running in circles?’
‘Things are moving fast. This is the whole case, right here, Clyde. Did you look into it?’
‘Yes, goddammit, I talked to some people, but it’s thinner than the eyelashes on a fly. The nurse was accused of moonlighting in one of the hotels for extra money, if you take my meaning. The hospital management got wind of it. Guess they didn’t like how it would make them look – hence they involved the cops. But the PD looked into it, talked to the girl, and they decided the allegation was baseless. Some kinda hatchet job on the part of a boy she’d given the flick to. He wanted to get her the boot from her job as revenge. That was the end of it.’
It came together in my mind like storm clouds closing on the last patch of clear sky. ‘It was Harlan Layfield investigated, wasn’t it?’
‘How— Yes, it was. He was a beat cop at the time. Why in the hell do you keep asking me things you already know?’
Pine Street Hospital; the ‘cop’ who snatched Alice Anderson; Jimmy Robinson’s tip-off, and the nurse who provided it. Harlan Layfield killed Geneve Kolkhorst. She knew him from her time in Hot Springs, and that’s how she could identify him to Jimmy Robinson nine months later in Texarkana, when she spotted him hanging around the day Alice disappeared.
Which meant Harlan Layfield almost certainly killed Jeannie Runnels and Bess Prescott.
Which meant Harlan Layfield killed Jimmy Robinson.
Which meant—
Harlan Layfield killed Alice.
Dinsmore was still speaking, but he could have been across an ocean, he sounded so distant.
I’d sat in Layfield’s car, inches away from him. I’d shaken his goddamn hand.
I doubled over and heaved, still clutching the receiver. Nothing came up.
‘Yates? You hear me? How in the world is that the whole story?’
I wiped the drool from my mouth with the back of my hand. ‘I’ll tell you when I know the rest.’
I cut the call and re-dialled for Hot Springs PD. I asked for Detective Layfield and was told he wasn’t on shift today. I asked for his home address, and the cop on the other end got hinky, answered my question with a question. I hung up.
I dialled again, this time to Sam Masters. When he came on the line, I talked over him before he even said his name.
‘Detective Harlan Layfield just tried to kill me.’
‘Yates? What the—’
‘Cole Barrett is dead. Layfield shot him.’
‘Jesus Christ.’
‘I’ve got the gun he used to do it. You’ll find Layfield’s fingerprints all over it.’ I fought to keep my tone level, the anger seething just under my skin.
‘Why? I don’t— What in god’s name is going on?’
‘I was two seconds from taking a bullet. Barrett saved my life and Layfield killed him for it.’
‘Why would Layfield want you dead?’
I barely knew where to start. I decided to hold back what I knew until I could make sense of it. ‘No clue. Is he on Coughlin’s payroll?’
‘His name’s never come up, but anything’s possible with Teddy. Even so, these are some wild claims. You need to take a minute. I had a man look into your story, about the call from Coughlin’s office on the night of the fire. It checks out.’
Dinsmore’s tip, corroborated. ‘Is that your way of saying you believe me?’
‘Where did this all happen?’
‘Lake Hamilton.’ I reeled off the route we’d driven from town. ‘Barrett’s body is still there.’
‘All right. Now if you’ve got the evidence like you say you have, let’s get it to the proper authorities and we can start putting this thing together.’
‘Is there a single damn cop in this town that isn’t crooked? Someone who could bring Layfield in?’
‘What? Of course, maybe, but—’
‘Good. Then you set him on his tail and hope he finds him before I do.’