Chapter 78
I had been away for only few days, but it felt like it had been centuries since I had last seen home. The dim light in the rooms, the old squeaky floor, the stillness of the air conferred to the place the atmosphere of a dream. Or so it seemed to me. Things were moving too fast and reality had lost meaning.
We were walking around the house in our underwear, unpacking quickly and getting ready for a shower when Jack stopped, and stood there looking at the room as if he was seeing it for the first time.
“What are you thinking?”, I asked, stopping too
“When will this story ever end? Have you ever thought of going somewhere else and blowing all of this away?”, Jack asked me
“Yes, yes…but they followed us all the way to Italy…”, I begun
“Only because they knew what we were there for”, he objected
“You think that if we moved to some desert island just to lie on the beach all day they will respect our good times?”, I asked, laughing sadly
But Jack was serious.
“Not necessarily in an island, in any small place where we could make a living by making bread. Or something else, anything”, he said
“I don’t know Jack. It feels like I’ve entered a tunnel from which there is no way out. As if this will never end until I die”
I was about to say until we die, but didn’t have the guts to.
“I am with you in the tunnel, and you bet I am going to find a way out. We’ll walk out of the tunnel, trust me”
I looked at Jack’s clear eyes and athletic body, and for a moment a rush of hopeful joy made me smile.
“Do you think this is really possible?”, I asked
“Of course”
Of course. If Jack thought so, maybe it was possible after all?
“But now Avery is waiting downstairs”, I said, reality tight on me again and yet a bit less anguishing
He shrugged.
“We’ve got to stop running around and take some time to think”, he told me, but then added, ok let’s go, and in less than 15 minutes we were in Avery’s car, freshly washed and wearing clean clothing.
“So, who is the person we should identify?”, I asked on our way to the police station
“Mark Gill. You met him before, right?”
“Yes. Did I tell you?”, I asked, wondering for a moment if Avery had investigated on me too
“You told me”, she confirmed
Right, I had, and now I remembered.
“So you think he is the one who sent people to follow us”, I asked
“That’s possible. I have strong reasons to believe he killed McMurrich”
“He killed McMurrich?!”
I was stunned
“Did McMurrich ever tell you about her relationship with Mark Gill?”
“No. McMurrich never told me anything personal”
Avery nodded, and was silent for a moment, formulating some thought hidden behind a frown I could see from the mirror.
“So what was their relationship?”, I asked after a moment
“They were lovers”
“Lovers?”, I asked.
So we had been right to think so when we saw them from the window of “The Greaser”, driving together. And it made sense too, they looked like a good match. Both cold, both unfriendly and authoritative.
“So why do you think he killed her?”, Jack asked
“His fingerprints were all over her place, which makes sense because they were lovers. But there were fresh traces of his tires in front of her house the night she died and her neighbours think they saw him leave McMurrich’s house late that day. We don’t have any evidence that pins Gill down unequivocally, but my fifth sense tell me the man is involved”
I processed the information for a moment.
“How did he kill her?”, I asked at last
“He ran her over with his car”, Avery said
“But the man looked like the coolest control freak to me, otherwise, well, his relationship with McMurrich would be hard to conceive”
Jack was sitting on the front, he turned around for a moment and looked at me with an expression I couldn’t fully decipher, perhaps reproachfully
Get over your hatred, she’s dead, I imagined him think
“Maybe he lost control for once in his life. Maybe it wasn’t planned”, Avery said
I shrugged. I couldn’t get myself to ponder the possibilities of life, I was tired and didn’t really care anymore if McMurrich had died, and why. I didn’t care to identify Mark Gill. I didn’t even care about myself.
“So what will we be doing there?”, I asked, leaning back
“You told me you brought the polymer to this guy for some analyses”, Avery said
“I did”, I confirmed, remembering just then that I had told Avery
“I want to understand if there is any link between the murder and the polymer”, Avery said
She was speaking quietly now, almost to herself, as if she was trying to put some order in her thoughts while speaking to me
“A link between the murder and the polymer”, I repeated, trying to make sense of the concept
“Was Gill trying to get to use the polymer for his own purposes and did he kill McMurrich because she had found out?”, Avery asked herself out loud
“How can I know?”, I replied, as if she were addressing me
I was starting to feel annoyed more than I was scared. I just wanted to go back home
“You cannot know. We are trying to find out. I will be asking Gill some questions and you will be listening to the answers behind a magic glass. I want you to listen to his answers and tell me your impressions”, Avery explained
I looked out the window, closed my eyes, perhaps for few seconds, perhaps for longer. When I opened them I saw that Avery was looking at me from the mirror, waiting for my answer.
“Ok”, I agreed
“It will take about an hour. I’ll have someone drive you home when we finish. I’ll also have patrols around your place overnight. You guys sleep in the same place?”
“We usually do”, Jack replied for me
“If you do things will be easier for us, we’ll have to patrol only one place at a time”
“Sure”, Jack said
Avery slowed down her car, and pulled in the parking lot of the police station. She stopped the car, Jack opened the door but I didn’t move.
“Come on Iris, help me sort this out and I’ll help you go back to your old life”, Avery said, turning around
“Come on”, she repeated, and smiled
“Ok. But you know I’ll never go back to my previous life. Anyways ok, ok…”, I babbled, half talking to myself, half to her
“Good. Let’s go", Avery said opening the door.
And this time I followed her.