Hit Man - Lawrence Block [40]
Unless, of course, you expected to have your cheek pressed against something other than your pillow.
Cut it out, he told himself.
He got into bed and turned out the light, and Nelson sprang onto the bed beside him, turned around the compulsory three times, and lay down.
Keller slept. When he awoke the next morning, Andria was gone. The only trace of her presence was a note assuring him that she’d come walk the dog at her usual time on Friday. Keller shaved, walked the dog, and rode the train to White Plains.
It was another hot day, and this time Dot was on the porch with a pitcher of lemonade. She said, “Keller, you missed your calling. You’re a great diagnostician. You gave the man a little time and he died of natural causes.”
“These things happen.”
“They do,” she agreed. “I understand he fell in his food. Probably never get the stains out of his tie.”
“It was a nice tie,” Keller said.
“They said it was cardiac arrest,” Dot said, “and I’ll bet they’re right, because it’s a hell of a rare case when a man dies and his heart goes on beating. How’d you do it, Keller?”
“I centered all my energy in my heart chakra,” he said, “and I sent this bolt of heart energy at him, and it was just more than his heart could handle.”
She gave him a look. “If I had to guess,” she said, “I’d have to say potassium cyanide.”
“Good guess.”
“How?”
“Switched salt shakers with him. The one I gave him had cyanide crystals mixed in with the top layer of salt. He used a lot of salt.”
“They say it’s bad for you. Wouldn’t he taste the cyanide?”
“The amount of salt he used, I don’t think he could taste the meat. I’m not sure how much taste cyanide has. Anyway, by the time it occurs to you that you don’t like the way it tastes—”
“You’re facedown in the lasagna. Cyanide’s not traceless, is it? Won’t it show up in an autopsy?”
“Only if you look for it.”
“And if they look in the salt cellar?”
“When Dinsmore had his attack,” he said, “a few people hurried over to see if they could help.”
“Decent of them. You don’t suppose one of them picked up the salt cellar?”
“It wouldn’t surprise me.”
“And got rid of it somewhere between the restaurant and the airport?”
“That wouldn’t surprise me either.”
He went upstairs to make his report. When he came downstairs again Dot said, “Keller, I’m going to start worrying about you. I think you’re going soft.”
“Oh?”
“There was only one reason to pick up the salt cellar.”
“So they wouldn’t find the cyanide,” he said.
She shook her head. “If they ever start looking for cyanide, they’ll find it on the uneaten food. No, you figured they wouldn’t find it, and somebody else would use that salt and get poisoned accidentally.”
“No point in drawing heat for no reason,” he said.
“Uh-huh.”
“No sense in killing people for free, either.”
“Oh, I couldn’t agree with you more, Keller,” she said, “but I still say you’re going soft. Centering in your heart choker and all.”
“Chakra,” he said.
“I stand corrected. What’s it mean, anyway?”
“I have no idea.”
“You will soon enough, now that you’re centered there. Keller, you’re turning human. Getting that dog was just the start of it. Next thing you know you’ll be saving the whales. You’ll be taking in strays, Keller. You watch.”
“That’s ridiculous,” he said. But on the train back to the city he found himself thinking about what she had said. Was there any truth to it?
He didn’t think so, but he wasn’t absolutely sure. He’d have to talk it over with Nelson.
5
Keller's Karma
In White Plains, Keller sat in the kitchen with Dot for twenty minutes. The TV was on, tuned to one of the home shopping channels. “I watch all the time,” Dot said. “I never buy anything. What do I want with cubic zirconium?”
“Why do you watch?”
“That’s what I ask myself, Keller. I haven’t come up with the answer yet, but I think I know one of the things I like most about it. It’s continuous.”
“Continuous?”
“Uninterrupted. They never break the flow and go to a commercial.”
“But the whole thing’s a commercial,” Keller