She didn’t respond.
“We’ll use it at the right moment.”
“When is that?”
“Always after dark.” He reminded her, “Dark is the great equalizer. The friend of the fugitive.”
“You’re impressing me with your sudden textbook recall.”
“It all comes back to you when you need it.”
“True. All right, now that we’ve done that your way, can we talk about Kyle Mercer before we see him?”
“Okay.”
“Can you tell me why Mr. and Mrs. Bowman would ask for Señor Kyle by name?”
“Because Scott Brodie didn’t want Maggie Taylor raped or himself murdered.”
“Okay… so we can drop the Bowmans.”
“I didn’t like them anyway.”
“So we are Warrant Officers Taylor and Brodie, CID.”
“Correct.”
“All right. You and I need to be on the same page. We need to present ourselves as the tip of a great iceberg that is coming toward him. He can kill us, but he can’t kill what we represent.”
“He knows that. And by the way, he doesn’t like what we represent,” Brodie pointed out.
“We represent justice. That’s what we can offer him.”
“It’s hard to reason with a man who has crossed every line there is.”
“We have to convince him that he can cross back. We have to offer him a way to redemption. To salvation.”
“Is that from Sunday school?”
“It is.”
“Well, then you should ask yourself how you crossed those lines before you ask Kyle Mercer.”
“I know what I did. I lost my way. And I know that confession is good for the soul. And Kyle Mercer is no different from any human being in that regard.”
“I don’t know about that, Maggie.”
“Ask yourself why he didn’t kill Al Simpson. Or why he didn’t kill Carmen.”
“He should have. And by now he knows or suspects he should have.”
“Butwhydidn’t he kill them?”
“He didn’t think he needed to. He’s arrogant.”
“I believe there is still a spark of humanity in him.”
Brodie thought about Mercer in the Hen House, buying a night of freedom for Julieta. What was that about?
