Дэвид Балдаччи - Mercy

Atkins wiped her eyes with her sleeve and said, “ I met Desiree at the old Esso station, and drove her to Atlanta while Len guarded Joe’s body. The next morning he was going to call 911 from a pay phone and tell them about Joe without identifying who he was.”

“Why wait until the next morning?” interjected Pine.

“Desiree wanted time to get away. But then early the next morning, before I got back from taking Desiree, Len heard someone coming and hid. A man was walking his dog. He found Joe’s body and ran off, obviously to call the police. I got there about ten minutes later and Len told me what had happened. We drove back together to the trailer. When the police showed up later we acted all surprised.”

Pine studied her. “Did you look at the body closely?”

“It was our son, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Blum interjected, “We know this is hard, Wanda. But we’re trying to find Mercy. Anything you can tell us about what you observed that night will help.”

Atkins wiped her eyes and said firmly, “There was a knife sticking in my son’s back, and he was dead , that’s what I saw.”

“Anything else?” asked Pine.

“I don’t know. I was so upset.” She paused. “He... he had a lump and some blood on his head. I remember that.”

“Did you see signs of a struggle?” asked Pine.

“No. But I’m not sure what I would be looking for.”

“What did Desiree say actually happened? As detailed as you can recall.”

“That Mercy got away somehow. And Joe tried to stop her. And she attacked him. And stabbed him. And then ran off.”

“Where’d she get the knife?”

“Desiree didn’t say.”

“There was a gunshot,” said Pine. “On the surveillance tape we heard a shot.”

“I don’t know anything about that. Desiree never mentioned a gunshot.”

“Did Desiree have a shotgun when you saw her at the Esso station?”

“No.”

“Did she tell you where she was going? Are you sure you haven’t been in contact with her over the years? Not once?”

“No. I don’t want to ever see that awful woman again,” Atkins snapped.

“And then you moved away?”

“Yes. We sold Joe’s house. With Desiree gone, we were next of kin. We used that money to buy this place. Joe also had money in some bank accounts from his business. All of that came to us, too,” she added, shooting them nervous glances.

“I see.”

Pine rose, took out a couple of her business cards, and handed them to Atkins. “You think of anything else, or if you hear from Desiree, please call me.”

“I doubt we’ll hear from her after all this time.”

“Oh, you just never know, do you?”

As they drove away from the house, Pine said, “She was lying.”

“How so?” asked Blum.

“Desiree would never walk away and leave them all that money from the house sale and the bank accounts. If she was going to start over, she needed financial resources. I’m betting Wanda knows where she is and they keep in contact just in case someone like us shows up asking questions. And I think the shotgun Joe had was the same one that Len used to guard his son that night.”

“If you’re right, what are we going to do about it?”

Pine glanced in the rearview mirror. “If they are in contact with her, our visit must have really shaken up old Wanda. In fact...” Pine suddenly pulled off the road, put the Porsche in park, and said, “I’ll be back in a minute.”

She climbed out and hustled back down the street. Before she reached the Atkinses’ home she cut through a stand of woods and came up on the rear of the property. She jumped over the chain-link fence and headed up to the back of the house. There was an open screened window that looked directly into the kitchen. As she peered through it, Pine had to suddenly duck down.

Wanda walked into the kitchen looking pale and distraught. There was a phone hanging on the wall directly across from Pine. It had enlarged number keys to help those with vision challenges. Wanda walked over to it. Pine pulled out her phone, turned the video recorder function on, placed it against the screen, and zoomed in on the phone’s numbers.

Wanda held up a small notebook, squinted at the open page, then put her glasses on and slowly punched in a phone number as she kept referring back to the page. She finished and waited. Pine kept her video recorder on and also listened through the screen. Thankfully, Atkins’s back was to her.

“It’s me, Wanda,” said Atkins into the phone. “Why am I calling? Well, I’ll tell you why. The FBI was here. Yes, the FBI was here asking questions about Becky. That’s right. Becky . They know all about what you and Joe did. And they’re looking for her and you ! They know you’re alive and how you got away that night.”

At this point Wanda lowered her voice considerably and didn’t do much talking, just nodded her head. Pine put her phone away, retraced her steps, and a minute later climbed back into the Porsche.

She told Blum what had happened and handed her the phone.

“Get the number off there, call up the Bureau, and ask them to find out who that phone is registered to and to get a physical address for it.”

Blum did so and a few minutes later clicked off. “They’re working on it. They said the area code shows that it’s a western North Carolina number.”

“Okay, that’s a start. If they can get us Desiree’s current name — I’m sure she’s using an alias — and an address, we can make some progress for sure.”

“What do you think she can tell us?”

“What really happened that night, for starters.”

“But Desiree has every reason to lie. And the statute of limitations for what she did to Mercy has probably expired, as unfair as that is.”

“But there is no statute of limitations on murder.”

“Murder? You mean Joe?”

“Maybe not just Joe. There was a gunshot on the video we listened to the night that Mercy escaped from her prison. Joe didn’t have a gunshot wound.”

“So you think...?”

“I have to think of every possibility, including that Mercy might have been killed that night, too, and that’s why Desiree fled. Everything we’ve learned about the woman points to her being a sociopath.”

“I... I guess that is possible.”

“But it’s only a possibility. And that doesn’t make it true.”

As Pine put the SUV in gear and they drove off, her phone buzzed. It was Jack Lineberry calling.

“Jack?”

“Atlee, something has happened.” He sounded frantic.

“What?”

“Oh my God,” he exclaimed.

“Look, just take a few deep breaths and calm down.”

He ignored her advice and she forgot about it as soon as he spoke. “The police were just here.”

“What police?”

“The Georgia State Police and a detective from Virginia.”

“Virginia? What did they want?”

“The body in your father’s grave was positively identified as Ito Vincenzo.”

“Okay, no surprises there.”

“Yes, but now they know that I lied about identifying the body as Tim Pine, Atlee. I think they’re going to arrest me for obstructing justice in a homicide investigation.”

“Homicide investigation? What the hell are you talking about?”

“When I told them that Tim had called me and told me what happened, they asked did I have any proof that he actually killed Vincenzo in self-defense. They asked how I could be sure that Tim didn’t murder him.”

“And what did you tell them?”

“What could I tell them? I didn’t have any proof. I just knew what Tim told me. And the fact that he disappeared and Vincenzo was buried in his place? I can tell you that the police are highly suspicious of that. They said something about him now being a fugitive.”