City Dark(69)

“But . . . forty years?”

“I don’t think it matters,” she said with a shrug. “I know your memories are distant, but . . . I think it works the same.”

“Maybe I should have talked to her, even if I didn’t know who she was, if she was looking at me like that.” He stared at his hands.

“That’s not what most people do,” she said. “Particularly in this town. Look, you have to process this. I don’t think you can second-guess what you should have done. But I think what I got from the homeless woman, Wilomena, makes sense: Lois came back here for a few reasons, maybe, but at least one of them was hitting you up for legal help.”

“I can’t imagine why, though. You said you found no charges against her, right? No judgments?”

“Correct, nothing. That Lutheran church really cleaned her up. She was in the clear in terms of her own legal problems. So what else, then?”

“I don’t know, I just . . .” He trailed off and seemed to sag.

“It’s okay.” She was in a particularly driven mood, but she had to remember to go a little easier on Joe sometimes. This was important to her, but it was life and death to him. She softened her tone. “Anyway, I’m sorry you didn’t get to talk to her. I really am.”

“I wish she had said something. Anything. I don’t even know how I would have reacted, but . . .”

“She wasn’t ready to approach you,” Aideen said. “She found you, and she was watching you. Look, it was she who made the choices that put so much distance between you two in the first place. I don’t mean to sound harsh, but if Lois thought it would be difficult to approach you again, out of the blue, then she was right. Maybe she was trying to work up to it.”

“The DA’s gonna say I saw her first and decided for both of us.”

“The DA doesn’t know about this sighting on the boardwalk.”

“I mean in general. They’ll say I saw her out there. Targeted her. Hell, they can ask the jury to speculate, to an extent. They’ll imply that I found out she was back in New York. They’ll say that maybe she did try to talk to me. And then I snapped.”

“Even if that was true, how does it explain what happened to Holly Rossi?”

“Mimi will want them to believe my cork popped. Decades of pent-up anger, hatred, whatever. Once I crossed the line, it was easier for me to start settling other scores.”

“That’s a lot of conjecture.”

“It goes down easier with DNA evidence,” he said. “It’s how I’d sell the case, anyway.”

“You’re not selling it,” she said. She was heating up again, sensitivity be damned. “We’re getting somewhere, so stay with me. Lois isn’t the mystery she was a few weeks ago. We’ve got her whole criminal history. Hogan’s team also tracked Lois, right down to a string of bus tickets a few months ago. She got here mid-May, just when it was getting warm. Also remember that Hogan was working for Hathorne when he picked up her trail. That means Hathorne knew that Lois was here.”

Joe seemed to react to this, his eyes darting quickly back and forth. That was good; she needed him operating on her level of effort, not bogging down with frustration and anguish. “You know,” he said, speaking slowly, “it’s possible he put her in my way.” His face darkened, and he shifted his eyes to her.

“How do you mean?”

“I don’t know much at all about who Lois was before she died, but I know Aaron Hathorne. When he’s on his game, he can charm anyone. He can make them believe almost anything.”

“Okay, so . . .”

“So what if Hathorne did reach out to her? If you found her at that church, maybe he did too. Maybe he reached out, presented himself as someone who cared. He has the skill, believe me. Except that could just mean . . .” He trailed off again.

“I do believe you,” she said. “Except that could just mean what?”

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, then looked up at her. “It could mean he led her to me. Maybe that was his goal, to sort of . . . put her in front of me right when . . .”

“Right when what?”

“The anniversary was coming up.” His gaze was still on her. “I’d been thinking about it. I’d been fucked up about it for weeks. He probably knew that, or he assumed it. It’s the kind of thing Hathorne would do. He’d find her, reach out to her, ingratiate himself to her. A stranger with a long-lost message of hope. He could have lured her back here and dangled her in front of me somehow.”

She scrunched up her nose in confusion. “So what are you saying? Hathorne lured your mother to your environment, just hoping you’d snap and kill her?”

“What I’m saying is, I didn’t know who I was until very recently. I’ve learned more in here than I thought possible.”

“Ugh.” She sighed. She was losing him again. “Joe, you’re dry for a change. That’s what’s bringing this on. There are alcoholics in my family; I know the progression.”

“Maybe. Look, I don’t want to say I told you so, but I told you so. I’m as hopeless as this case is. I don’t even know if I want to beat it.”

She would not let this go unchallenged. “Yes, you do, and maybe you still can.” They were quiet for a long moment. Joe seemed far away, doubt and hopelessness in his eyes.