Дэвид Балдаччи - The Guilty

He didn’t find one.

He slipped a flashlight from his jacket and shone it over her.

He saw the patch of blood on the left side of her head, right near the ear.

He knelt closer, careful not to disturb the body, and examined the wound under the light.

Reel raced over and squatted down next to him.

“Dead?”

He nodded. “GSW to the right temple. Would’ve killed her instantly. No exit. Round’s still in her.” He smacked the flashlight against the palm of his hand. “I can’t believe this! This wasn’t the meeting spot.”

“Nothing we could do, Robie. Maybe it was changed somehow. Or the driver and Sara arrived at the same time. Point is, she made her choice and it cost her her life.”

He looked at her. “Did you get a plate on the vehicle?”

“No.”

“I might have hit it with one of my shots.”

“That would leave a telltale sign. You get the make?”

Robie shook his head. “Just saw the red taillights. Too far away and too dark to make out the shape, but I think it might’ve been an SUV.”

“What do we do now?”

Robie used his hand to close Sara Chisum’s eyes. Then he pulled out his phone.

“Now we call in the cops and hope they don’t arrest us.”

“Well, if they do, you and your dad might end up with some quality time together.”

“I’m not sure that will ever be possible.”

Sheriff Monda stared down at Sara Chisum’s body, which was in the exact position where she had fallen. They were waiting for the coroner to come and examine it. And since the town coroner was also the owner of the local funeral home and not an employee of the state, he had been away at a convention in Louisiana when the call came in. They were told his arrival might still be a couple of hours away.

Chisum’s bike was parked next to a tree. She had arrived silently, as silently as she had died.

Monda walked over to where Robie and Reel were standing with Sheila Taggert.

He said, “Okay, let me get this straight, so you came out here hopin’ to get a line on the person Sara was tryin’ to get money from?”

“That’s right,” said Robie.

“And it didn’t occur to you to call us?” said Monda irritably.

“Frankly, no it didn’t,” replied Robie. “We had no idea if Emma Chisum was really telling the truth. I didn’t want to involve the police and waste your time and resources for what might turn out to be nothing.”

Monda looked back over at the body. “Well, it didn’t turn out to be nothin’, did it?”

“I can’t disagree with you there, Sheriff.”

“So you think it was an SUV?” said Taggert.

Robie nodded. “And I’m pretty sure I hit it. So there’s something you can track down.”

“You have any idea what Sara was goin’ to tell this person? I’m assumin’ the person just killed her instead of talkin’ to her?”

“We didn’t hear anyone speak,” said Reel. “We heard a car approach and then the shot was fired. We didn’t hear Sara coming in on her bike. We were waiting around the perimeter of the clearing. That’s where we thought the meeting would take place. Either the killer changed the location to the spot next to the road or it was unlucky timing on Sara’s part, I don’t know.”

Robie said, “You might want to put the rest of the Chisum family in protective custody.”

Monda nodded. “I think, under the circumstances, that’s a good idea. Do you think Emma has any inklin’ what this is about?”

“She swears she doesn’t,” said Reel. “But I don’t believe her.”

“Anythin’ else?” asked Monda.

“Have you been in contact with the FBI?”

Monda nodded. “They let us know they were in the area.”

“Did they tell you why they were in the area?” asked Reel.

“No. Do you know why?”

“If they didn’t tell you, it’s certainly not my place to.”

“Listen, Robie, I want to know what the hell is goin’ on in Cantrell,” barked Monda.

“Then I suggest you call Agent Wurtzburger back and demand that he tell you. I would if I were you.”

He looked over at Sara’s body.

Monda followed his gaze and said, “Guess you couldn’t save her this time.”

“Guess not,” replied Robie.

Robie and Reel drove back mostly in silence to the Willows. They had failed in their mission and someone had died. This fact was not going down well with either of them.

Reel finally stirred. “Sara was our best chance to get some traction on this and we screwed it up. Okay, she wasn’t the nicest person in the world, but that doesn’t entitle someone to just blow her away.”

“We have one more option. Pete Clancy.”

“Only he’s gone and we don’t know where he is.”

“I didn’t say it would be easy.”

“Why didn’t you tell Monda about the serial killer angle?”

“Because he needs to get that information from Wurtzburger, not us. I’m not poaching on the FBI’s turf.”

“You think our serial killer was driving that SUV tonight?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

“If you hit the truck with a pistol round there’ll be evidence of that.”

“Granted. But where do we start looking? In every garage and swamp in Cantrell?”

“If Sara was there to cut a deal with her killer, what was the quid pro quo?” asked Reel.

“They searched her clothing,” said Robie. “And found nothing helpful. Her phone was in there. Maybe they can check to see if she had another recent phone call. Although they couldn’t trace the other one.”

“But it could be something she had in her head. Or she was smart enough not to bring whatever she had with her. She gets paid off and then tells the person where it is.”

“I’m not sure the killer would have been that understanding.”

“What else then?”

“I don’t know,” admitted Robie. “Things are more muddied than when I got here. And that’s saying something, because they were as muddied as the Mississippi Delta when I pulled into Cantrell.”

“Clancy dead. Janet dead. Now Sara dead.”

Robie shook his head. “I know what Wurtzburger said, but what would Sara have to bargain over with a serial killer?”

“Well, either Wurtzburger is totally barking up the wrong tree and another killer is doing this, or his serial killer is involved, which means Sara did have something on him, we just don’t know what.”

“Well, I’m not buying it.”

“I’m not saying I do, either. But we don’t have an abundance of leads to track down. And the ones we do have get killed or turn up missing.”

Robie looked down at his phone, on which he had brought up the photo of the man with the little kids. He had snapped a picture of the original before giving it to Wurtzburger for his facial recognition search.

“What?” said Reel, looking in disgust at the image.

“Just thought of something.”

“Well, don’t leave me in suspense.”

Robie held up the image.

“Who the hell took the picture?”

It was nearly eleven in the morning when they got back to the Willows.

As they drove up, Robie and Reel heard peals of laughter coming from the rear of the house.

They headed that way and when they turned the corner they saw the detached garage where Victoria’s Volvo and Dan Robie’s Range Rover stood side by side. Next to the car was a big bucket with soapy water in it and a sponge next to the bucket.

In front of the vehicles stood Victoria. She held a hose in one hand and was spraying Tyler, who was running in circles with a big smile on his face, while his mother laughed.

Victoria saw Robie and Reel and shut off the hose.