Letting go of her, he picked up one of the oily rags and stuffed it into her mouth as she tried to wrench herself away from him.

He tied another rag around the first one to hold it in place. Despite how desperately she attempted to pull free and see his face, she wasn’t able to do either.

Once she was securely gagged, he said to her, “Some of the newer cars—they just don’t work as well for this. But with the older ones, you can be pretty sure that the carbon monoxide will build up in a space this small pretty fast. I know how much you like photography. I promise to take a picture of you when it’s all over. For posterity.”

With that, he closed the trunk, and as she tried futilely to cry out, he started the engine. Less than five seconds later, she heard the car door close and then the house door as he left her alone in the garage to die.

STAGE IV

Depression

Silent ladies. Hot car deaths.
Turtles struggling toward shore. The Matchmaker’s lair.

35

Monday, November 5

My head was still throbbing a bit, but it wasn’t anything a few Advil couldn’t handle.

Greer called me while I was collecting my notes for work. It was the first time we’d spoken since Saturday, and there was a lot to catch up on.

I told him what I’d found at James Leeson’s gravestone last night.

“The silent ladies,” he muttered.

“Yeah.”

“And you don’t have any idea who you chased?”

“No. I’m seeing if we can pull up videos from the subway station.”

“Okay.”

“Mannie said that he chose to talk with me because I would do what needed to be done when the time was right.”

“What was he referring to?”

“I don’t know. He also told me to follow the Selzucaine back to the source and that Jon killed himself for his father. I’m still not sure how that fits in with what we know or exactly what it all means.”

“Huh.”

“And, oh—Ralph Hawkins is in the city. He’ll be coming in to the federal building this morning.”

“Know him by reputation only. Never actually met him. From what I understand, though, he gets the job done.”

“He does.”

“And nothing more on Mannie’s whereabouts?”

“No. Not yet.”

“But he’s the one who left that mannequin head for you to find?”

“There’s no way to be certain at this point if it was him. It’s possible it was the person I chased instead. We’re running prints.”

A short pause. “Good. Maybe that’ll give us something useful.” He asked me if I’d seen the senator’s press conference.

“I did. I tried to talk him out of it, but he was hell-bent on going through with it.”

“Something’s up.”

“Yes.”