David Baldacci - Simple Genius

“That’s a question only you can answer.”

For a moment Horatio thought he could see her eyes moisten, and then they became hard and dry. “I know you’re trying to help me. I know Sean is too. I’ve got issues, I know that too. And I’m trying to deal with them. I’m trying to stay productive.”

“That’s all well and good. But while you’re staying productive you’re not addressing those issues. You’re ignoring them, Michelle.”

Her tone became defiant. “You say I changed at age six? Well my life hasn’t turned out too badly. Were you ever an Olympian? Or a cop? Did you ever guard the president? Well, I did. Did you ever save someone else’s life? I have. More than once.”

“I’m not saying you haven’t had an exemplary life. What you’ve achieved has been extraordinary. What I’m talking about is the future. What I’m talking about is self-destructive behavior. What I’m trying to make you understand is that at some point you have to pay the piper.”

She stood. “Are you telling me that everything I’ve done in my life is tied to something that might have happened to me when I was a kid? Are you possibly trying to say that to me !” She screamed the last word at him.

“No, I didn’t say that. You did.”

Just as Viggie had, in an instant Michelle was gone. He heard her truck start up and shoot gravel out as she sped off.

Horatio rubbed his temple, walked outside, hopped on his Harley and followed her. This time he wasn’t letting the lady go.

“AT THE VERY LEAST I think you should have me cover your back, Sean,” Sheriff Hayes said. The men were in Hayes’s personal car heading toward Williamsburg.

“That won’t work, because Whitfield knows what you look like.”

“One of my deputies then. Whitfield is not the kind of guy who’s going to let you screw around with his wife.”

“He doesn’t seem to have a problem with his wife frequenting bars and getting hit on. It wasn’t like it was the first time she’d been in that place.”

“But he knows who you are too. If he sees you around her, he might think you’re trying to spy on him.”

“But he doesn’t know that I know she’s his wife. If he or his muscle shows up, I act surprised and go on my way.”

“You really think a guy like Whitfield is gonna buy that?”

“Probably not, but if you have a better lead we can run down I’m listening. Hell, I have no idea if she’ll even be there tonight. This could be a complete wild-goose chase.”

“But even if Messaline knows something, why would she tell you ?”

“I’m not exactly a novice at getting information out of people.”

“But you said she blew you off the first time.”

“That was the first time.”

“So you really believe Whitfield had something to do with Monk’s and Len’s deaths?”

“Monk died on CIA soil. Whitfield made a special point of calling us off the case. Even got the DDO on my butt. And from that same plot of land somebody took a shot at me. And planes flying without lights land there in the middle of the night.”

“Planes?” Hayes said.

“They come right over Babbage Town. And they’re big jets, easily capable of intercontinental flight. No one knows who’s on those flights. And there was hush money funneled through Congress to build what was termed a new dorm for agent trainees at the Camp, even though they have lots of housing there already.”

“What do you mean ‘termed’?”

“A building can be lots of things. Including an interrogation center. Even a torture chamber.”

Hayes almost drove off the road. “Are you out of your damn mind? That’s totally and completely illegal in this country.”

“Maybe Monk saw prisoners no one knows about getting their organs tickled by electrical current. What better motive to kill the man?”

“I can’t believe that. And what about Len Rivest?”

“Monk told him, or else he suspected, or found out somehow. Whitfield discovered that and no more Len Rivest.”

“But if he knew something why wouldn’t Len have gone to the police? He was ex-FBI for God’s sake.”

“Maybe he didn’t want to go up against the CIA and Ian Whitfield. Maybe there are folks even higher up in the government who know about what’s going on at Camp Peary. And maybe he did tell someone and that person was the wrong person to tell.”

“Now you’re talking some kind of major conspiracy.”

“So what? They happen every day. If the stakes are big enough the conspiracies tend to grow large enough to accommodate them. And by the way, in D.C. they’re not referred to as conspiracies, they’re called policies .”

Hayes said nervously, “This is getting way over my head, Sean, I don’t mind telling you. I’m just a small-town cop looking to retire in a few years.”

“Merk, you can just drop me off and don’t look back. Our partnership can be dissolved with no hard feelings, but I am not letting this go.”

Hayes seemed to consider this for a minute. “What the hell,” he finally said. “If I’m going down it might as well be over something important. But I still think somebody should be following you tonight.”

If either of them had turned around, he would have noticed that someone already was following them tonight.

HORATIO PULLED HIS MOTORCYCLE to a stop next to Michelle’s truck. The woman had turned off the main road and parked under some trees down near the river. She wasn’t in the truck and Horatio followed a dirt path down to the water where he found her sitting on a fallen tree that extended partially over the water. She didn’t acknowledge his presence as he sat down on the other part of the tree that was still firmly on land.

“Nice evening,” he said as he tossed a pebble into the fast-moving York, which was carrying debris from an earlier thunderstorm down to the Chesapeake Bay.

She was silent for some minutes, just staring at the water until Horatio started to fear she might jump in.

Her first words definitely got his attention. “I cleaned my truck out once. I did it for Sean.”

“Why?”

“Because I liked him and he’d been going through a bad time.”

“Was it hard, cleaning out the truck?”

“Far harder than it should have been. Everything in there seemed to weigh a thousand pounds. But it’s just a truck, right?” She swiveled around on her backside until she was facing him. “It’s just a truck,” she said again.

“Truck, bedroom, lifestyle. I can imagine it was very hard.”

“I couldn’t keep it clean. I tried. Well, I didn’t really try. I just couldn’t do it. Within a day I put everything back.”

“Sean says your racing scull is pristine. You could eat off the hull, he claims.”

She smiled. “He would say that. Although he’s not exactly without his quirks. Have you ever seen anyone so neat and orderly? I mean, come on.”

She snapped off a small branch from the fallen tree and tossed it in the water. As she watched it sail away she said, “I don’t know why I changed, Horatio. I really don’t. I don’t even remember changing to tell the truth, but with so many people claiming I did, I guess I have to accept it.”

“Okay. That’s a good admission. A very positive step, Michelle. Yet when I mentioned the rose hedge you reacted to that. Why?”

She’d visibly shuddered again when he’d said it. Another few minutes of silence went by. Michelle stared at the tree trunk she was sitting on; Horatio’s gaze was directly on her. He didn’t say anything, fearful he might ruin the possibility of the first real breakthrough since he’d started seeing her. His patience was amply rewarded.