The Maze

answer that, Marlin. Watch yourself, Agent Sherlock."

    "Why did you leave out Belinda Madigan's name?"

    He gave her that superior smile again, disregarding her question. "Belinda who? I don't know any Belinda. That's a pretty name, old-fashioned. What's she to you, Marty?"

    "Do you think I look much like her, Marlin?''

    "No, but I think you're prettier, I always-"

    Big John Bullock's mouth was working. He didn't know what was going on, but he soon would. He wasn't stupid.

    Lacey sat back in her chair and drew in a very deep breath.

    Big John said finally, "Who's Belinda?"

    "She was one of the women in San Francisco that Marlin had to purify. It was seven years ago. He purified seven women in San Francisco. It was seven, wasn't it, Marlin?"

    He was shaking his head. "No, not seven. I don't do seven. My pa always told me that seven was a bad number, that it was even worse than thirteen. He'd always laugh at the hotels who didn't have a thirteenth floor, told me that the fools on the fourteenth floor were on the thirteenth really, but they were too stupid to realize it. No, I never did seven, did six, like my pa told me."

    "All right. The six women you purified in San Francisco, all of them cursed and bad-mouthed their husbands?"

    He nodded. Big John didn't say anything, which Lacey considered a gift.

    "Did you date any of them, Marlin? You're a good-looking guy, I bet it wouldn't have been hard for you to get a date with almost any woman, right?"

    He nodded again. "Ladies like me," he said, and studied his thumbnail. "They tell me I'm a great lover." She nearly gagged. "You date Belinda?"

    "I told you, Marty, she wasn't one of the women I had to purify. Why are you so interested in her anyway?"

    "I like the name. It's unusual."

    "I don't like the name, but I like yours, Marty. It sounds kind of like a boy's name. It was close, you know? Once I thought God wanted me to purify little boys, to correct them if they'd gotten a bad start, put them on the right path, but then I realized it wasn't boys, it was girls. Women who'd had their chance to straighten out, but hadn't. Women who'd married good men and turned on them. I slept with them, you know, just to make sure they were the ones to take out. All six of them cheated on their husbands, told me what jerks they were, so then I was sure they had to walk the walk through my maze."

    "Marlin," Big John said very quietly, "shut up."

    "Yeah, well, purify, then. That's it, purify. I wish I'd gone to college. I could have learned more pretty words like purify"

    She was riveted. She imagined that all the people listening

    to Marlin were riveted. She wondered what Savich was thinking.

    "You didn't ask me out when I came to the hardware store."

    "I know. That was weird. I slept with Hillary. She was good. She sucked me off really well. Do you know that she said bad things while I fucked her?"

    She would push back. "Why didn't you try to fuck me, Marlin?"

    She watched him actually flinch. None of it was an act. "Don't, Marty. That sounds so crazy coming from you. Don't talk like that, okay?"

    "Okay. But why didn't you want to be intimate with me, Marlin?"

    He shrugged. "You came on so strong, talking about your poor husband like you did, and then there was your foul mouth. You said all those bad words right in front of me." He sighed. "But you know, I was just in a hurry. I couldn't take the time to ask you out, to see if you'd sleep with me."

    "Why the hurry, Marlin?"

    "Because God wanted me to go to Toronto. I couldn't until

    I'd taken care of six women here in Boston. Yeah, I was in a hurry. I'm sorry, Marty. Do you wish I'd made love to you?"

    "I don't think so, Marlin. I do find your claim hard to believe. No one reported seeing any of the women in San Francisco with you. No one saw you with Hillary here in Boston. Why do you think that's so?"

    "I knew I had to be careful. After Denver, I was real cautious, not that I could do everything I wanted to there. Only two women and then it was just too dangerous. I'd been seen with both women. I had to leave. God saved me there, but he told me I had to be smarter and so I was in San Francisco. The women all loved the mystery, the secrets I shared with them, the dark little places I took them to. They all loved how I smelled, you know, like fresh-cut wood, real fresh. They all thought I was dangerous and wonderful. With two of them I didn't even have to hit them on the head. I just asked if they wanted to