Дэвид Балдаччи - The Guilty

In a low voice Reel said, “Shit, I’d like to shoot her just to shut her up.”

Taggert showed up a half hour later. She was not in uniform and her hair was full of cowlicks, but she had her gun out. When she reached the clearing and saw them, she said, “What in the hell is goin’ on, Robie?”

Before he could answer she saw the dead body. “Holy shit! Who’s he?”

“He’s the dead guy,” replied Reel. “At least one of them.”

Taggert scowled and said, “And who are you?”

Robie answered. “She’s a friend of mine who came to my aid. Without her Sara and I would be dead.”

Sara pointed at Reel and cried out, “That bitch said she was goin’ to kill me.”

Taggert looked from Reel to Sara and then back at Reel.

Reel said, “She lured Robie here so these guys could kill him.”

“Did not!” screamed Sara. “He... he arranged to meet me here for sex . He was payin’ me for it! The sick bastard.”

“Then exactly how do you explain the dead guy?” said Reel.

“He... he was here to rob us,” said Sara lamely. “While we were doin’ it. Scared me to death. I was all naked and all.”

“So if we examine you, we’ll find traces of... Robie here on your body?” asked Taggert.

Sara looked doubtful. “Um, well we hadn’t gotten to that part yet. We were just kissin’.”

“But you just said you were doin’ it and you were all naked when this guy came to rob you in his suit and tie in the middle of the woods,” Taggert pointed out.

“Oh, right, well, I mean—”

Taggert had obviously had enough. “Just sit your butt on the dirt and shut the hell up,” she barked. “Before I arrest you for obstruction of justice and wastin’ police time. But mostly for bein’ a dumb shit.”

Sara sank to the ground, her face in a childish pout.

Taggert turned to Robie. “Okay, talk to me.”

He took five minutes to explain it all. They walked around the area and found six more bodies. All men, all in suits, all with guns.

Robie said, “I killed three of them. Reel here got the other four, including the guy over there who was going to shoot Sara. Whoever was left beat a fast retreat.”

“And you think they’re with the Rebel Yell?”

“I don’t know, but they were the same guys that were at Pete Clancy’s that night.”

Taggert gave him a triumphant look. “So you were in the middle of that.”

“Yeah, I was. I saved Pete’s butt. They were going to kill him.”

“You should have told me,” she said crossly.

“I did tell the FBI.”

“FBI!”

“In the form of Special Agent Wurtzburger from Jackson. They’re in town. Didn’t you know?”

“No, I didn’t know. Why are they here?”

“I imagine they’re here investigating the Rebel Yell for various and sundry infractions of federal law.”

Taggert scratched her head and placed her hand on the butt of her service weapon, which hung in its holster. She looked over at Sara. “And I see you’re head over heels involved in this crap.”

“Please don’t tell my dad. Please!”

“If you think that’s all you have to worry about, missy, you’re even dumber than I think you are,” snapped Taggert.

She gazed at Reel and the rifle she still held. “And where did you come in from?”

“I can’t say.”

“Why not?”

“It’s a secret.”

“You shot all them men, in the dark?”

“I was up a tree. Gave me a nice line of sight. Like picking off tenpins all lined up in a row.”

Taggert looked at Robie. “And you slit one guy’s throat and broke another one’s neck? And they were both armed?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Who the hell are you people!” exclaimed a clearly exasperated Taggert.

“Just concerned citizens standing our ground,” said Reel. “You folks have that law down here, right?”

“I’m going to have to call the sheriff, get some deputies down here to secure this scene then process it, and then y’all are goin’ to have to make statements ’bout all this.” She gazed at Sara. “Includin’ you.”

“But my daddy!”

“I don’t give a damn ’bout your daddy , okay? This here is a crime scene and things are gonna be done in a professional manner. You understand me?”

Sara finally nodded, though she looked like she wanted to grab a gun and shoot herself.

Taggert stared at Robie and Reel. “Now if you two have a problem with that, I’m just gonna have to arrest you and take you in.”

Reel looked at Taggert like she might just shoot her instead. The deputy seemed to realize this, because she turned to Robie and said quickly, “It’s my job, okay?”

Robie nodded. “I know it is. And we’ll cooperate.”

“To the extent we can,” interjected Reel.

Taggert started to say something but then just shook her head and pulled out her phone.

As she walked away to talk in private, Reel said in a voice only Robie could hear, “Blue Man filled me in some, but there’s still a lot I don’t know.”

“You’ll know it all, Jess, before the night is out.” He paused. “It sure is good to see you. I have some things I want to talk to you about.”

“Blue Man mentioned that, too.”

“Did he tell you everything about... that?”

“I think he preferred that you told me, in your own way.”

Robie looked relieved.

“So how has it been, coming home?” asked Reel.

“You remember how it was for you?” he replied.

“That bad, huh?”

“That bad,” said Robie.

He put out a hand and gripped her rock-hard shoulder. “Thanks, Jess. You saved my butt tonight.”

“This doesn’t come close to making us even,” she said. “Not that anything will.”

“I just know that I’m really glad you’re here.”

“Where else would I be, Robie?”

“Are you two like, datin’?”

They looked down to see Sara staring at them in mild disgust.

“What if we are?” said Reel.

“Well, aren’t you two kind’a old to be doin’ that?”

Reel raised her rifle. “Keep it up, Sara, and you won’t get close to our advanced age.”

Sara hugged herself tight and started whimpering, “Omigod, omigod.”

Robie and Reel sat across from Sheriff Keith Monda in the latter’s office on the main thoroughfare of Cantrell, which was barely two car lengths wide. They had been up all night. It was past eleven in the morning now.

Monda was a heavyset man in his fifties, with iron-gray hair gelled straight back. He was in uniform, and an unlit cigarillo rolled around in his mouth, while a deep scowl was set in his features.

His office was small and cramped, with cinderblock walls and an old-fashioned calendar hanging on one wall. There wasn’t a computer on his desk or any other evidence that the man had entered the latter part of the twentieth century much less the twenty-first.

When he settled back in his old roller chair, it squeaked and so did his gun belt.

Taggert stood next to him. She was in uniform now and had a nervous expression on her face.

Monda took the cigarillo out of his mouth and said, “I’ve been briefed on all of it by Taggert here. And I got a call into the FBI but I haven’t heard back yet. Now I’d like to hear things from you two, ’cause I don’t much cotton to people havin’ shootouts ’round here.”

Robie explained everything that had happened thus far.

Monda looked at Reel. “So where do you come in exactly?”

“I come in exactly as Robie’s professional colleague.”

“Which neither one’a you have elaborated on. What is it that you both do?”

“I have a phone number that you can call,” replied Robie.