Shame

read it?”
    “No.”
    “You should. It talked about different fathers and sons that had been executed for their crimes, and made it sound like murder was a game the whole family—no, generations of the same family—could play. It gave a rundown of some bloodlines that had produced killer after killer. There was even a side story on Gerald Gallego. Gerald’s apparently a chip off the old block. His father was executed by the state of Mississippi, and now Gerald is on Death Row in Nevada. One geneticist all but said, ‘The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.’ He was using me as his reference.”
    “Newspapers are in the business of selling papers.”
    “Are you saying you don’t have your own doubts about me?”
    A momentary pause. “I believe in you.”
    “Should I pretend I didn’t hear you hesitate?”
    “It’s just that I have a few questions.”
    “Ask them.”
    “Now’s not the appropriate—”
    “Ask them.”
    “A little over a month ago, your appearance changed drastically. You cut your hair and lost your beard right before the first murder. With your clean-cut look, you became the picture of your father.”
    “I wasn’t trying to look like my father. If anything, I was trying to look like Dr. Jennings. I knew Anna was having an affairwith him, and I thought if I looked more like him she’d notice me more. That, and I was tired of hiding my face.”
    “There’s also the matter of the polygraph. You failed it.”
    “Yes.”
    “When you were asked whether you had murdered anyone, the galvanic response was very significant.”
    “I don’t know what to tell you. I was nervous, I know that. I was sweating terribly.”
    He sounded nervous now, thought Elizabeth. She wondered whether he was again sweating.
    “And how did you know to go to the sorority?”
    Caleb explained, or tried to. His voice started cracking when telling her about the Brandy Wein photos, and that made him angry.
    “If I have to convince you,” he said, “what chance do I have of making the police believe me?”
    “Even they’ll have to concede that you couldn’t have been in two places at one time,” said Elizabeth. “It would have been impossible for you to simultaneously attack me and call me, just as you couldn’t have been lighting the fire and setting off the alarm at the same time you were supposedly inside the sorority.”
    He considered her argument for several moments, long enough for Elizabeth to think he’d hung up, but his sigh told her that he was still there.
    “I’m tired,” he said. “And I’m still sort of fuzzy. What I’d like to do is talk to Anna about all of this.”
    “I’ll arrange that.”
    “Why don’t you just tell me where she is and I’ll call her?”
    “Because I don’t know if the Sheriff’s Department is monitoring her phone. If they are, they’ll be breaking down your front door a few minutes from now, and nothing looks worse than being led off in handcuffs. If you’re going to be taken in, I would much rather you surrendered to them.”
    “Is it possible that you still don’t trust me?”
    “Your family is staying at the Amity Inn in the Golden Triangle. Your wife is registered under the name of Vera Macauley. Are you satisfied, or do I have to prove I believe in you in some other way?”
    “I’m sorry. Not enough sleep, I guess.”
    “That’s two of us,” she said. “Look, after we finish talking I’m going to visit your family. I’ll have Anna call you from some safe phone within the hour. Okay?”
    “Thank you.”
    “In the meantime, try to rest. You’ve been through a lot.”
    “So have you. Is your neck...are you...?”
    “I’m fine.”
    “I feel like I’m the plague.” Caleb stopped to cough. It sounds as if he has the plague, thought Elizabeth. “People around me keep dying.”
    “You’re not alone in this. And you’re not responsible. I don’t think you’re the only target. I’m beginning to believe all of this was done as much for my sake as for yours.”
    “What makes you think that?”
    “The way he’s cast his web and drawn us both in. But seeking revenge has made him vulnerable.”
    “Have you found something?”
    “No. But I’m looking. I think you’re right about finding answers in the past, but I don’t want to overlook the present either. I think there must have been some recent trigger, but I have no idea what.”
    “Whoever he is, his hate has to be enormous.”
    “Yes. And that much hate is