Дэвид Балдаччи - The Guilty

But he wasn’t going to fire. For all he knew Pete would lose control of his ride and end up slamming into a tree. Hell, he might do that anyway.

Robie holstered his weapon, checked to make sure his other Glock was secure in his waistband, and hustled to his car. He drove off, certain that he had made multiple new enemies tonight. He just didn’t know who they were.

But maybe one of them had killed Sherm Clancy. Which meant his father hadn’t committed the crime and would go free.

He accelerated and zoomed down the road, his wake whipping low-hanging Spanish moss on trees.

Only Robie wasn’t really sure where he was going.

By the time he had decided to return to the Willows it was after five in the morning, and the dark sky was just beginning to lighten a bit.

He sat in his car in front of the house, closed his eyes, and did his best to think things through.

The guys at Pete’s house might very well be these casino junkyard dogs he had heard about. They thought Pete knew what his father had known, whatever that was. Pete apparently had sent them some communications that had pissed them off, resulting in the “meeting” tonight.

But Robie had intervened and saved Pete’s life, risking his own by doing so. As a way of thanks, the “pissant” Pete had run off. He might well be in Louisiana by now. Maybe he’d never stop running.

Only the guys Robie had taken out weren’t going to be leaving. If they didn’t know who Robie was, they would soon find out. And he was sure other junkyard dogs would be sent out to finish the job the other three could not.

Which meant Robie was a target now. He stared up at the house. He had promised to protect Victoria and Tyler, yet now he might be simply driving trouble their way.

Robie slipped the flash drive out of his pocket and palmed it, staring down at the little slip of plastic and metal that he hoped contained answers to many of his questions.

He looked back up at the house. But what to do about that?

Did he stay or did he go?

And even if I left here they could find out the connection and come here and hurt or threaten them to get to me.

He pocketed the flash, got out of the car, and slipped inside the house from the rear, scurrying up the column to the second-floor verandah and from there into his room.

He grabbed a quick hour’s worth of sleep and then showered, letting the cold water fully wake him up. He had blood on his clothes from his fight. None of it was his, only the other guys’.

He washed off the blood as best he could and stuck the dirty clothes in the bottom of his duffel.

It was nearly seven a.m. now.

He called Blue Man and told him what had happened. Understandably, Blue Man was not happy.

“Things seem to be spiraling out of control, Robie. I want you to come back. Now.”

“I can’t do that.”

“I am ordering you to return to DC.”

“I’m on leave. I don’t think you can order me to do anything.”

“This is far more complicated than you think, Robie. If the Director gets any inkling about this...”

“Evan Tucker already hates my guts. I don’t think this could make matters that much worse.”

“You would be very wrong about that.”

“I appreciate the advice. But if you want me back in the field one day with the ability to actually pull the trigger, then I have to see this through.”

He clicked off and threw the phone down. He hadn’t asked about Jessica Reel’s status, because he figured the answer would be the same.

Still out. And now, he didn’t want her around him. After last night things had gone to a whole new level, and Robie had no idea how things would turn out. But if the world fell on his head on this little strip of the Gulf Coast, he wanted it to be his head only. Not hers, too. She didn’t deserve to be buried under his personal troubles.

He ate breakfast with Victoria and Tyler. The little boy snatched glances at Robie while he was eating.

Victoria seemed subdued, her mind far away.

As they were finishing up she said, “Did I hear you come in early this morning?”

“Not me. I slept like a baby.”

She nodded. “Maybe it was the man you saw coming back.”

“Maybe it was,” said Robie. “I’ll have a look around before I leave.”

“Where are you going?”

“To see my father. Are you going to see him today?”

“I see him every day. And I’m going to take Ty with me this time.”

Robie glanced over at the little boy. “I think that would do them both some good.”

She lowered her voice. “You think so? Seeing his father locked in a cage?”

“He doesn’t have to know that’s what it is. It could be just a visit.”

Victoria looked away, clearly frustrated.

“Keep your phone nearby. Anything comes up, call me.”

She glanced up at him as he rose. “Why would something come up?”

“You just never know.”

Priscilla followed him out of the house.

“Where were you last night? ’Cause I saw you climbin’ up to the second floor of this here house at five this mornin’.”

“Just getting some air.”

“What, ain’t no air in this house?”

“Different kind of air.”

“And the stairs don’t work for you?”

“Just my way of exercising.”

“Uh-huh. You gettin’ yourself in some trouble, Will Robie?”

“Not if I can help it.”

He got in his car and drove off.

And that was when he heard the sirens.

As he neared the main road into town a fire truck flashed past him. Then another. Behind that was a police car and behind that an ambulance.

Robie was going to turn right to head to town. Instead he turned left and followed this posse of emergency vehicles.

Twenty minutes later he saw thick, black smoke billowing up from behind a forest of trees. Ten minutes after that the squad of emergency vehicles roared through the gates of the Clancy estate. The smoke was so thick that Robie, as he pulled his car to a stop on the other side of the road, couldn’t see much past the gates.

A few minutes later he heard the rush of water as the firefighters combated the blaze. The police car had blocked the entrance to the house, moving only when another fire truck pulled in to join the effort.

Robie got out of his car and leaned against the front fender.

A minute later another cop car pulled up and Sheila Taggert climbed out. First she looked at Robie and snapped, “You keep your butt right there, Will Robie.”

Then she hustled across the street to the other police unit. The cop there rolled down his window and they spoke for a bit. Then she walked back over to Robie.

“What in the Sam Hill are you doin’ here?” she said, getting right in his face.

“I was driving past and saw what was going on. Whose house is it?”

“Why do I think you already know whose house it is?”

“Because you have an overly suspicious mind, maybe?”

“It’s the Clancy estate. What’s left of it.”

“Anybody hurt?”

“Don’t know yet. And when I find out I won’t be tellin’ you. You can hear it through the gossip lines like everybody else ’round here.”

“Know the cause yet?”

“Same answer to your last damn question.”

“Well, I guess I’ll be heading on.”

She gripped his arm. “Robie, anything you need to be tellin’ me?”

“If I think of something, you’ll be the first to know, Deputy Taggert.”

He drove off, checked his rearview once, and saw her staring after him.

He knew one person he had to talk to. And hoped that she would keep it confidential.

If there was such a thing as confidential in a place like Cantrell, Mississippi.