"No. Please sit down." Frears gestured to a chair by the window, but Kurtz remained standing.
"You were expecting James B. Hansen," continued Kurtz. "With a gun."
Frears said nothing. His brown eyes, so expressive in the publicity photos Kurtz had seen, now suppressed even more pain than Kurtz had seen the previous week at Blues Franklin. The man was dying.
"That's one way to flush him out," said Kurtz. "But you'll never know if he's brought to justice for his crimes. You'll be dead."
Frears sat on the hard chair by the desk. "What do you want, Mr. Kurtz?"
"I'm here to tell you that your plan won't work, Mr. Frears. Hansen's in Buffalo, all right. He's lived here for about eight months, moving here from Miami with his new family. But he can kill you today and he'll never be accused of the crime."
Frears's eyes literally came alive. "You know where he is? What his name is here?"
Kurtz handed the man the dental bill.
"Captain Robert G. Millworth," read the violinist. "A police officer?"
"Homicide. I checked."
Frears's hands were shaking as he set the bill on the desktop. "How do you know this man is James Hansen? What does the billhowever highfrom a Cleveland dentist prove?"
"It proves nothing," said Kurtz. "But this is the dentist who's provided dental records to police around the country after a dozen murder-suicides identical to the one in your daughter's case. Always different names. Always different records. But always involved in murders that Hansen committed." He handed across the folder.
Frears went through the pages, slowly, tears forming. "So many children." Looking up at Kurtz, he said, "And you can tie this Captain Millworth to these other names? You have dental records for him?"
"No. I don't think Conway kept any other records or X-rays on file for this office visit. I think he was going to use the standard X-rays when Millworth's corpsewhatever corpse Millworth providedwould need identification."
Frears blinked. "But we can make the dentist testify?"
"The dentist is dead. As of yesterday."
Frears started to speak, stopped. Perhaps he wondered if Kurtz had killed Conway, but perhaps it was not important to him to know right now.
"I can present this folder to the FBI. The bill ties Millworth to the dentist. The payment is obviously extortion. Conway was blackmailing James Hansen."
"Sure. You can try to make that case. But there's no official record of Millworth's payment, just of an office visit."
"But I don't understand how the dental X-rays matched the teeth of the bodies Mr. Hansen left behind in these various murder-suicides."
"It looks as if Dr. Conway, DDS, had a clientele mostly of corpses."
Frears looked at the forms again. "Conway's office was in Cleveland. Many of these murder-suicides occurred in cities far away from there. Even if Hansen somehow harvested these other men to be future burned bodies for him, how did he get them to go to Cleveland to have dental X-rays taken?"
Kurtz shrugged. "Hansen is one smart son of a bitch. Maybe he offered these poor bastards dental care as part of an employment package. My guess is that he had Conway fly to whatever city he was living in at the time, X-ray the fall guys' teethmaybe when they were already deadand then have the dentist send the X-rays from Cleveland. It doesn't really matter, does it? What matters right now is getting you out of here."
Frears blinked again and a stubborn look appeared on his pain-ravaged face. "Out of Buffalo? I won't go. I have to"
"Not out of Buffalo, just out of this hotel. I have a better way for you to nail our Captain Millworth than becoming just another unsolved homicide in the good captain's case file."
"I don't have anyplace to"
"I've got somewhere for you to stay for a couple of days," said Kurtz. "It's not one-hundred-percent safe, but then, nowhere in Buffalo is really safe for you right now." Or for me either, he could have added. "Get packed," said Kurtz. "You're checking out."
Brubaker and Myers trolled the downtown streets, watching for a glimpse of Kurtz's blue Volvo, checking the sidewalks for a glimpse of him, and driving by the Royal Delaware Arms every orbit.
"Hey," said Myers, "what about his secretary's house? Whatshername? Arlene DeMarco."
"What about it?" said Brubaker. He was on his fifth cigarette.
Myers flipped through his grubby little notebook. "She lives out in Cheektowaga. We've got the address here. Her car's not there today. If she didn't come in, maybe Kurtz went out to her."
Brubaker shrugged, but then turned the car and headed for the Expressway. "What the fuck," he said. "Worth a try."
"Mr. Frears," said Kurtz, "this is my secretary, Mrs. DeMarco. She won't mind if you stay here for a day or two."
Arlene glanced at Kurtz but extended her hand. "A pleasure, Mr. Frears. I'm Arlene."
"John," said Frears, taking her hand in his, putting his feet together and bowing slightly in a way that made him look as if he was going to kiss her hand. He did not, but Arlene blushed with pleasure as if he had.