Without remorse - Tom Clancy [67]
Kelly shook his head, looking down at the bed, and he spoke just above a whisper. 'No. I was looking the wrong way. She said something, but I didn't get around. Pam saw them, I turned right, then started turning left. I never made it.'
'What were you doing at the time?'
'Observing. Look, you talked to Lieutenant Allen, right?'
'That's correct.' Douglas nodded.
'Pam witnessed a murder. I was bringing her in to talk to Frank about it.'
'Go on.'
'She was linked up with people who deal drugs. She saw them kill somebody, a girl. I told her she had to do something about it. I was curious about what it was like,' Kelly said in a flat monotone, still bathing in his guilt while his mind replayed the image.
'Names?'
'None that I remember,' Kelly answered.
'Come on,' Douglas said, leaning forward. 'She must have told you something!'
'I didn't ask much. I figured that was your job - Frank's job, I mean. We were supposed to meet with Frank that night. All I know is it's a bunch of people who deal drugs and who use women for something.'
'That's all you know?'
Kelly looked him straight in the eyes. 'Yes. Not very helpful, is it?'
Douglas waited a few seconds before going on. What might have been an important break in an important case was not going to happen, and so it was his turn to lie again, beginning with some truth to make it easier. 'There's a pair of robbers working the west side of town. Two black males, medium size, and that's all we have for a description. Their МО is a sawed-off shotgun. They specialize in taking down people coming in for a drug buy, and they particularly like the gentry customers. Probably most of their robberies don't even get reported. We have them linked to two killings. This might be number three.'
'That's all?' Rosen asked.
'Robbery and murder are major crimes, doctor.'
'But that's just an accident!'
'That's one way of looking at it,' Douglas agreed, turning back to his witness. 'Mr Kelly, you must have seen something. What the hell were you doing around there? Was Miss Madden trying to buy something -'
'No!'
'Look, it's over. She's dead. You can tell me. I have to know.'
'Like I said, she was linked up with this bunch, and I - dumb as it sounds, I don't know shit about drugs.' I'll be finding out, though.
Alone in his bed, alone with his mind, Kelly's eyes calmly surveyed the ceiling, scanning the white surface like a movie screen.
First, the police are wrong, Kelly told himself. He didn't know how he knew, but he did, and that was enough. It wasn't robbers, it was them, the people Pam were afraid of.
What had happened fit what Pam had told him. It was something they had done before. He had allowed himself to be spotted - twice. His guilt was still quite real, but that was history now and he couldn't change it. Whatever he had done wrong, it was done. Whoever had done this to Pam, they were still out there, and if they'd done this twice already, they would do it again. But that was not really what occupied his mind behind the blank staring mask.
Okay, he thought. Okay. They've never met anyone like me before.
I need to get back into shape, Chief Bosun's Mate John Terrence Kelly told himself.
The injuries were severe, but he'd survive them. He knew every step of the process. Recovery would be painful, but he'd do what they told him, he'd push the envelope a little bit, enough to make them proud of their patient. Then the really hard part would start. The running, the swimming, the weights. Then the weapons training. Then the mental preparation - but that was already underway, he realized ...
Оh, по. Not in their wildest nightmares have they ever met anyone like me.
The name they had given him in Vietnam boiled up from the past.
Snake.
Kelly pushed the call button pinned to his pillow. Nurse O'Toole appeared within two minutes.