My missing arm itched"Then she walked up...
My missing arm itched"Then she walked up to
Illy's apartment and rang the bellLet's say that
she pretended to be someone else
"Edgar, are you guessing, or-"
"Let's say she pretended to be from a gospel group
called The Hummingbirds, and let's say she called
through the door that something bad had happened
to Carson Jones
919
"Who's-"
"Only she calls him Smiley, and that's the
convincerSo was the floating Edgar
Edgar-down-below saw all the mundane things of a
sunshiny Florida morning on Duma KeyEdgar-overmy-
head saw moreNot everything; just enough to
be too much
"What happened then, Edgar?" Wireman askedHe
spoke replica pasha cartier very softly"What do you think?"
"Let's say that Illy opens the door, and when she
does, she finds a woman pointing a gun at herShe
knows this woman from somewhere, but she's been
through one bad scare already that night, she's
disoriented, and she can't place her - her memory
chokesMaybe it's just as wellMary tells her to
turn around, and when she does I began to cry again
"Edgar, man, don't," Jack saidHe was almost
crying himself"This is just guesswork
"It's not guesswork," Wireman said
"But why do we need to know-"
920
"Jackwe don't know what we need to
know
I heard their voices, but from far away
"Let's say Mary hit omega seamaster fake her with the gun when she
turned around I wiped my cheeks with the heel of
my hand"Let's say she hit her several times,
four or fiveIn the movies, you get clopped once
and you're out like a lightIn real life, I doubt
if it's like that
"No," Wireman murmured, and of course this game of
let's-say turned out to be all too accurateMy
If-So-Girl's skull had been fractured in three
places from repeated overhand blows, and she bled
a great dealThe blood-trail led across the
living room/kitchen (the smell of the burnt sketch
very likely still hanging in the air) and down the
short hallway between the bedroom and the nook
that omega olympic watch served as Illy's studyIn the bathroom at
the end of the hall, Mary filled the tub and in it
she drowned my unconscious daughter like an orphan
kittenWhen the job was done, Mary went into the
living room, sat down on the sofa, and shot
herself in the mouthThe bullet exited the top of
921
her skull, splattering her ideas about art, along
with a good deal of her hair, on the living room
wall behind herIt was then just shy of four AM
The man downstairs was an insomniac who knew the
gunshot for what it was and called the police
"Why drown her?" Wireman asked"I don't
understand that
Because it's Perse's way, I thought
"We're not lady dior going to think about that right now," I
said"All right?"
He reached out and squeezed my remaining hand
And if we get this business done, maybe we'll
never have to, I thought
But I had drawn my daughterI'd
drawn her on the beachDrawn in
sand for the waves to take
You will want to, Elizabeth had said, but you
mustn't
Sometimes we have no choice
iii
922
We swallowed strong coffee in Big Pink's sunny
kitchen until sweat was standing out on our cheeks
I took three aspirin, adding another layer of
caffeine, then sent Jack to get two Artisan pads
And I told him to sharpen every colored pencil he
could find while he was prada fairy upstairs