Part 31 (1/2)
”The Houston PD has a jacket on Christopher Howard.”
If I could have laid hands on Harry at that moment I would have committed a felony.
”He's been arrested?”
”Four months ago. Possession.”
No wonder his father had hauled him up to the north woods.
”I know what advice is worth on the open market,” Claudel went on. ”But be careful.”
”Be careful of what?”
He looked at me a long moment, no doubt deciding whether to confide.
”The paramedic actually picked out two words.”
The phone rang but I ignored it.
”Brennan's kid.”
I felt someone light a match in my chest. Could they know about Katy? Kit? I looked away, not wanting Claudel to see my fear.
”Meaning?”
Claudel shrugged.
”Was it a threat? A warning?”
”The paramedic says he doesn't listen to patients while he's working on them.”
I studied the wall.
”So what are you suggesting?”
”I don't want to alarm you, but Constable Quickwater and I think-”
”Oh, yeah. Quickwater. He's a lot of laughs.” I cut him off, my sarcasm triggered by anger and fear.
”He's a good investigator.”
”He's an a.s.shole. Every time I talk to him he acts like he's deaf.”
”He is.”
”What?”
”Quickwater is deaf.”
I searched for a response, but couldn't come up with a single word.
”Actually, he's deafened. There's a difference.”
”Deafened how?”
”He took a cast-iron pipe in the back of the head while breaking up an alley fight. Then they shot him with a stun gun until the batteries died.”
”When?”
”About two years ago.”
”That destroyed his hearing?”
”So far.”
”Will it come back?”
”He hopes so.”
”How does he function?”
”Extremely well.”
”I mean, how does he communicate?”
”Quickwater is one of the quickest studies I've ever met. I'm told that he learned to lip-read in no time, and he's crackerjack. For distance communication he uses e-mail, fax, and TTY.”
”TTY?”
”It's an acronym for teletypewriter. Essentially, it's a keyboard and acoustic coupler built into one device. At home he has a special modem in his PC that communicates at the same band Baudot code as a regular TTY. He's got his fax and TTY on the same phone line and uses a switching device that recognizes an incoming fax tone. It sends faxes to the fax machine and all other calls to the TTY. We've got the same setup and software at headquarters, so calling back and forth is no problem.”
”What about when he's out?”
”He has a portable TTY. Battery-operated.”
”How does he talk to someone without a TTY, or to you if you're not at headquarters?”
”There's a relay service that acts as intermediary. The service takes the call, then types what the hearing person says. For someone who's also mute, they read aloud what the deaf person types. Quickwater speaks fine, so he doesn't need to type his words.”
My mind was struggling to take this in. I pictured Quickwater at the Vipers' clubhouse, then in the conference room at Quantico.
”But part of his a.s.signment in Quantico was to report back on what he'd learned. How can he take notes and lip-read at the same time? And how does he know what's being said when the lights are dimmed, or when he can't see the speaker?”
”Quickwater explains this a lot better than I. He uses something called CARTT, Computer a.s.sisted Real Time Translation. A reporter transcribes what's being said into a stenotype machine, then a computerized translation is performed and the words are displayed on a video monitor in real time. It's the same system used for closed-captioning of live television. The FBI has someone down there that can do it, but a hookup can be made from anywhere, with the reporter in one location and Quickwater in another.”
”By phone and PC?”