All The Bells on Earth Read Online Free PDF Page B

can, though, no more evidence of suicide than anything else.”
    “And you were the one that told them who it was, who you thought it was?”
    There was a pause, then Nelson said, “I didn’t think I had any choice, and it turns out I was right. It seems that a couple hours before dawn, LeRoy broke into Holy Spirit Church, up on Almond. He roughed up the old priest and smashed some windows. Apparently our man had a
very
busy morning, dragging those white shoes all over town. I’ve got it on good authority that the priest described them to the police. I’d swear that LeRoy
wanted
to be caught, or at least didn’t give a damn if he was recognized. There must be fifty people around town who’d know straight off the shoe was his. I couldn’t see any choice but to identify it myself.
    “Anyway, what I said is that I was expecting him at the office, that we were supposed to head across the street to Moody’s for breakfast at six. I saw the flames through the curtains and ran out with a fire extinguisher, but couldn’t do any good. Every part of that was true, including my trying to put out the flames. Of course I didn’t know who it was then, but I didn’t say so.”
    “Who was the investigating officer?”
    “Tyler, from Accident Investigations.”
    “And he’s satisfied?”
    “There’s no reason he shouldn’t be. As I said, it’s the truth, lock, stock, and barrel. Oh, and by the way, somebody kicked apart the nativity scene in the Plaza early this morning, too. We know that was LeRoy, don’t we? That’ll be his footprints in the flowerbeds?”
    Argyle wondered suddenly if the question was simply rhetorical, or whether it was full of implication. “Of
course
it was him, unless there’s something you’re holding back.”
    “I’m
not holding anything back,” Nelson said, and then paused again, letting his silences speak volumes. Argyle waited him out. “One way or another,” he continued, “I hinted around that LeRoy had been talking about destroying the creche, which is true again; half a dozen people heard him. You should have seen him last night, crying and swearing. His tears were pure gin. No wonder he burned like that; his cells were saturated with alcohol.”
    “Do you believe that?”
    “I’m a lawyer. I’m not in the business of believing in things. I simply wanted to make sure you understood the entire affair. As far as the police are concerned, the case is closed, and I can tell you that I’ll breathe a little easier now. But I think we ought to get together tonight anyway, just to make sure we’ve all got the same perspective on things.”
    Argyle hung up the phone finally, moderately satisfied. It was certainly convenient to have a dead man to point the finger at, if a finger needed pointing. They could clean out LeRoy’s house at the first opportunity. Probably there was nothing there to implicate either of them anyway. There was no reason to think they’d have any trouble with the police. Nelson was thorough and convincing—utterly treacherous.
    He listened to the noise on the stereo, thinking about how close he had come last night to destroying himself, and at very nearly the same moment that LeRoy had fallen over the edge! What horrors had been visited upon Murray LeRoy? What urges and fears had driven him into the darkness at last? A surge of disconnected terror swept through him, the knowledge that he was somehow being swept into the same uncharted seas into which LeRoy had sunk, beneath black tides of compulsion and desire….
    He picked up the phone and called Flanagan again, but the line was busy now.

6
     
    T HE WIND KICKED UP , suddenly sweeping cold rain under the overhanging branches and into the open shed. The spider had disappeared, back inside its home. Walt hunched out into the rain and sprinted across the lawn toward the garage, rounding the corner into the carport, suddenly anxious to be in out of the weather and to crank up the space heater. His shirt was