Chapter Forty-Eight

“That’s how it was done,” I said to Sherwood in the copter. “That letter was a message. About Zorn. Evan. How they got back at people. It was how she let him know it was all going to begin.”

On the surface, the letter Hutchins had found seemed to be perfectly benign. “These kooks are always trying to contact him,” he explained. As a celebrity killer, Houvnanian always attracted his share of loonies and admirers. On his view of life. On how he had been misjudged. Or on music.

Hutchins wouldn’t let us as much as touch the letter. Or even take a copy. That would require a judge’s decree. But he laid it on the table for us to have a look.

It was written in a straightforward block print on lined notebook paper:

“I watched you on TV,” it began, possibly referring to a Dateline interview a year ago. “I know you like Guns n’ Roses. Axl Rose was a kind of apostle for me too. I know the song you mentioned—‘Estranged.’ There’s a line from that song that I sing to myself when I think I’m going out of my head: I knew the storm was getting closer . . .

“The storm is here!” the letter finished. “It never has to die!

“The storm has never died,” it ended.

It was signed, “Yours always, Mags.

The postmark on the envelope was from Richmond, California, just across the bay from San Francisco. Only an hour and a half from Jenner.

I was sure “Mags” was Susan Pollack.

“ ‘The storm is here. It never has to die.’ Don’t you see, Sherwood? Zorn. Greenway. He’s using his people to get back at the people who brought him down.”

“And Evan?” Sherwood asked, buckling himself in.

“Evan is somehow directed at my brother.” I didn’t have the answer yet, but there was no more hiding it. “Maybe there were fingerprints on it. Maybe we can match the handwriting. We prove that letter was from Susan Pollack . . .”

“We prove the letter was from Susan and what?” The detective looked at me skeptically. “It’s just song lyrics. There’s nothing there. Besides, there’s not a judge in the country who would grant us a court order based on that note or what we have.

“Not to mention you’re forgetting one thing . . .” He kicked his briefcase under the seat. “If Greenway and Cooley were murdered, it all happened when Susan Pollack was behind bars. That surely wasn’t her.”

He was right there. I flashed to the person who had called me in the motel room. The voice was male.

“So what’s the next step?” I pushed him. The propellers started to whir. In a second we’d be heading back to Pismo. “Just let it go? The guy is orchestrating murder, Sherwood. He’s in jail, in chains, and he’s got the upper hand. You know as well as I do what’s going on here.”

“I can’t play this out forever, doc. I tried . . . The next step.” He sighed as the copter started to rise. “Other than getting the truth out of your brother . . .” He turned his head toward the window. “I don’t know.”

Eyes Wide Open
Cover.xhtml
Title_Page.xhtml
Dedication.xhtml
Epigraph.xhtml
Contents.xhtml
Prologue.xhtml
Part_1.xhtml
Chapter_1.xhtml
Chapter_2.xhtml
Chapter_3.xhtml
Chapter_4.xhtml
Chapter_5.xhtml
Chapter_6.xhtml
Chapter_7.xhtml
Chapter_8.xhtml
Chapter_9.xhtml
Chapter_10.xhtml
Chapter_11.xhtml
Chapter_12.xhtml
Chapter_13.xhtml
Chapter_14.xhtml
Chapter_15.xhtml
Chapter_16.xhtml
Chapter_17.xhtml
Chapter_18.xhtml
Part_2.xhtml
Chapter_19.xhtml
Chapter_20.xhtml
Chapter_21.xhtml
Chapter_22.xhtml
Chapter_23.xhtml
Chapter_24.xhtml
Chapter_25.xhtml
Chapter_26.xhtml
Chapter_27.xhtml
Chapter_28.xhtml
Chapter_29.xhtml
Chapter_30.xhtml
Chapter_31.xhtml
Chapter_32.xhtml
Chapter_33.xhtml
Chapter_34.xhtml
Chapter_35.xhtml
Chapter_36.xhtml
Chapter_37.xhtml
Chapter_38.xhtml
Chapter_39.xhtml
Chapter_40.xhtml
Chapter_41.xhtml
Chapter_42.xhtml
Chapter_43.xhtml
Chapter_44.xhtml
Part_3.xhtml
Chapter_45.xhtml
Chapter_46.xhtml
Chapter_47.xhtml
Chapter_48.xhtml
Chapter_49.xhtml
Chapter_50.xhtml
Chapter_51.xhtml
Chapter_52.xhtml
Chapter_53.xhtml
Chapter_54.xhtml
Chapter_55.xhtml
Chapter_56.xhtml
Chapter_57.xhtml
Chapter_58.xhtml
Chapter_59.xhtml
Chapter_60.xhtml
Chapter_61.xhtml
Chapter_62.xhtml
Chapter_63.xhtml
Chapter_64.xhtml
Chapter_65.xhtml
Chapter_66.xhtml
Chapter_67.xhtml
Chapter_68.xhtml
Chapter_69.xhtml
Chapter_70.xhtml
Chapter_71.xhtml
Chapter_72.xhtml
Chapter_73.xhtml
Chapter_74.xhtml
Chapter_75.xhtml
Chapter_76.xhtml
Chapter_77.xhtml
Chapter_78.xhtml
Part_4.xhtml
Chapter_79.xhtml
Chapter_80.xhtml
Epilogue.xhtml
Authors_Note.xhtml
About_the_Author.xhtml
Also_by_the_Author.xhtml
Credits.xhtml
Copyright.xhtml
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