Spinning Man Page #5

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of the philosophic mind

is to rise above the personal

and contemplate

the universal, right?

Uh...

What?

Forget it.

It's personal, and we agreed.

Well, if it's apropos

of the material, please.

It's about last semester.

Well, make your point.

Oh, thank you.

You're spoiling me.

How do you like it here?

You've been here,

what, four, five years?

Yeah. We... we like it fine.

Uh, it's been five years.

Where'd you move from?

Evanston, outside Chicago.

Mm-hmm.

Hey, there! Look who's here.

It's my junior deputy.

Do you need more help

from daddy?

H... honey, we just...

We need some grown-up time.

Can you go play?

Yeah.

Hmm, cute kid.

Adam, right?

No, that's super dude.

Big difference.

Puts on a cape,

he's a whole other person.

I need a cape like that.

Gets tiring

being myself all the time.

Well, if I get a chance,

I'll sew you one.

Well,

now you're humoring me.

No. I'm politely waiting for

you to get to the point.

My wife tells me

I'm terrible at small talk.

I think she's right.

I remember the second before,

i thought, "this is wrong.

You're making a mistake.

You're crossing a line."

And so why do it?

I don't know. It's not like

I was satisfying

some curiosity, you know?

I know what it's like to...

Then I read your book,

and it hit me.

People make the most destructive

choices consciously,

and then they try

and rationalize it

with things like,

"i didn't mean it,"

or, "i wasn't thinking,"

or whatever, but it's a lie.

I saw you at the lake

the other day.

Girl's missing.

It's every parent's

worst nightmare.

Yeah.

I've come by

to ask for your help.

Well, how can I help you,

detective, all things considered?

Because I assume you think

your husband is innocent.

Joyce bonner is out there,

and if she's still alive,

she's on borrowed time.

If your husband

had nothing to do with that,

I need to know so I can move on.

I've tried to rule him out,

but he won't let me.

I'm sure he's told you

everything he knows.

Mm, I think you're a lot more

convinced of that than I am.

I think that there's

this unknown part of us,

like the ID, that...

Prefers destruction,

even craves it.

What we call guilt

is just a fear of this

unknown part of our minds.

Evan?

Well, what do you think?

Am I crazy?

Um, sorry. I realized

i just missed my bus.

Um, does your offer still stand?

We found strands of brown hair

in the back seat

of your husband's car.

We matched them with a sample

of Joyce's hairbrush.

It came back positive.

You're the first person

I've told that to.

Not even my partner knows.

And if you can tell me what

that girl was doing in the car,

it doesn't have

to leave this room.

I know why you left evanston,

the official version, anyway.

College was a little reluctant

to give the details, but...

Must have been tough.

How many years you been married?

Oh, 15 years.

Yeah.

All of them smooth?

Oh, hardly.

We both had our reasons

for leaving evanston,

both of them very different.

Don't think for a second

you know what they were.

Think it's time for you to go.

Well, thank you for your help.

You have a lovely home.

Yeah, I work hard

to keep it that way.

Thank you very much.

Goodbye now.

Oh, she's home.

Oh, I'm sorry. If I'd known,

i would have called her.

I didn't mind.

Thank you for the ride.

Philosophers

are a dying breed, professor.

There's safety in numbers.

Hello?

Ellen?

Daddy's home!

The policeman

came back today, daddy.

They came back again, huh?

Hmm.

Hon?

I've been calling you.

Where were you?

Why don't you walk Zelda in?

I'll carry Adam.

I've got it. It's only a finger.

Evan birch.

- Hair?

- Strands of brown hair in the back seat.

It's a match.

Well, they must have planted it.

Evan, I need you to think.

Is there any way this girl

could have been in your car?

No, not that I know of.

What if you didn't know it?

Did you ever

leave your car open,

- maybe at the lake that day?

- No.

- Pick up any hitchhikers?

- No.

How 'bout at school?

Do you ever give students ride?

I don't socialize

with the students.

That's not what I asked.

Um, I did give a ride to some

high school students one day.

They were doing prep classes

here on campus.

Three girls and a boy.

It was raining.

Was Joyce bonner one of them?

Maybe. I suppose it's possible.

Do you have attendance records?

Uh, yeah.

I... look, I'm late for class.

I'll... I'll have a look

and see if she's on there.

It'll be good if she's

on there, right?

Well, on the one hand,

it would explain the hairs.

On the other hand, it would

connect you to a missing girl.

- Look, I'll call you later.

- Yeah, okay.

Where I grew up,

if someone wants to prove

a chair exists,

they hit you over the head

with it.

Yeah.

We're done with your car.

Sign this, it's all yours.

So you can take

my car without asking,

but you need my permission

to give it back?

I don't make the paperwork.

I just fill it out.

I don't suppose you towed it

back to my spot?

No.

You have to pick it up

from the impound,

half an hour up 35.

- I'll give you a lift if you like.

- That's okay.

I'll get it myself, thanks.

Anything else?

You don't think much

about what I do, but...

When you consider it,

we're in the same racket.

What racket is that?

Proof, searching for the truth.

Truth hides behind arguments,

analysis, reasoning.

Well, reason leads us to the truth.

It doesn't conceal it.

I've always argued that

the truth is instinctive.

You take this little problem

here on your board.

The answer seems

pretty plain to me.

Does it?

Well, be my guest.

Prove this chair exists.

What chair?

Where did you go to school?

Oh, bachelor's at seton hall.

Jd at Fordham.

A lawyer?

Did you practice?

I did my time

in the da's office.

Wasn't my kind of thing.

They wouldn't let you

carry a gun.

That's my youngest, Katie.

She goes to school with Joyce.

They don't know

each other, though.

Different circles.

Well, you know,

we almost put her

through that summer program

of yours at Addison,

you know,

the one Joyce went through.

Who knows?

They may have become friends.

Well, it's a large program.

Not everybody

knows everybody else.

Including the teachers

and the... the students?

Are you questioning me

outside counsel, detective?

Oh, no, I wouldn't dream of it.

No, I just want to know

that, you know,

if Katie had gone there, would she have

gotten to know all her professors?

Uh, not necessarily.

The students are limited

to three classes,

and there are 15 instructors.

That's not to say

contact's unimaginable.

Really? In what way?

Well, one could imagine

Katie, for example,

being caught in a rainstorm,

uh, with a few friends,

two other girls and a boy,

and perhaps a, uh,

professor offers them

a ride from the library

to the student union,

and, uh, perhaps while Katie's

in the back of the car, she...

She fixes up her makeup and... and maybe

brushes back some of her wet hair...

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