David Baldacci - The Last Mile

“It’s hard to see my parents in that light.”

“The scar on your father’s face?”

“Yeah, I know. Been thinking about that. He got so mad. Never seen my old man like that before.”

“Maybe he was like that a lot when he was younger.”

“You think somebody cut him? Bad dudes that later found ’em and killed ’em?”

“Not necessarily.”

“What, then?”

“It could have come from a bad plastic surgery.”

Mars nearly fell off his stool. “Whoa, what?”

“If your dad was on the run from people, he might very well have wanted to change his appearance. Plastic surgery is a way to do that. But he might have not had the money or maybe the opportunity to go to a legitimate surgeon. So he opts for someone in the back-alley trade. Hence the scar.”

“But what about my mom? She didn’t have any scars.”

“He might have met her after he was on the run. She might not have been involved in the bad world he was in.”

“Yeah, okay. I can’t see my mom being a criminal. She was really a sweet lady. Never raised her voice to me. Always calm.”

“The question is, how do we trace them?”

Mars rubbed some more sweat off his face. “Do we have to?”

Decker looked at him with a puzzled expression. “Have to what?”

“Push this any further. I mean, my parents are dead. I’m outta prison.”

“So you don’t want to find out the truth?”

“I don’t want to find out if...”

“If your dad was actually a bad guy?”

“Would you want to find that out about your old man?” said Mars defensively.

“They put you away for twenty years, Melvin. They killed your parents. You don’t want them to be held accountable for that? You don’t want to see your parents’ killers brought to justice?”

“I know, I know,” said Mars miserably. “Look, I don’t want nobody getting away with any of that. It’s just that—”

“What?” said Decker sternly. “That you have something else going on in your life that takes priority over this ?”

“Why do you care so much?” barked Mars. “It’s not your damn family.”

“But it was my damn family,” rejoined Decker. “Somebody killed them. I could have walked away from it and gone on with my life. But I can tell you this, Melvin. You can try to walk away, but the life you’ll have if you do? It’s not worth living.”

Decker grabbed his towel, stepped off the treadmill, and started to leave the gym. He stopped at the door and turned back to Mars.

“For what it’s worth, you should have won the Heisman that year. The guy who got it lasted only a few years in the pros and never really did much. You would’ve been Offensive Rookie of the Year too. Hands down. Just because you never got the chance doesn’t mean you weren’t a superstar. Because you were.”

He closed the door behind him.

Mars remained sitting on the stool staring at the floor.

Decker said into his phone, “Agent Bogart?”

“Decker. How’s it going down there? I assume you’re still in Alabama.”

“Yes. It’s going, slowly. We might have got a lead on the guy who killed Regina Montgomery. He might have been seen. The cops down here are following up.”

“I’m glad for you.”

“I appreciate you paying for some more nights at the hotel. And the rental car too.”

“You’re welcome. It was not my intent to leave you high and dry.”

“Are you back at Quantico?”

“Yes.”

“What do they have you doing?”

“Right now, not much.”

“Why is that?”

“I can’t really get into that.”

“Does it have to do with most of your team opting to continue the investigation?”

“Would it matter to you if it did?”

“I don’t want this to hurt your career.”

“I think that ship has sailed.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Way it goes sometimes. Maybe my big idea to have this team of folks from different walks of life was stupid anyway.”

“I don’t think it was stupid,” said Decker bluntly.

“Face it, Decker, you don’t need anyone working with you. You can figure pretty much anything out by yourself.”

“I needed help in Burlington. To find my family’s killers.”

“You would have gotten there without us.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. Is everything else going okay?”

“What, you mean my marriage? I got served with divorce papers this morning, as a matter of fact. Funny, after all this, I thought we might make it work.”

“So it was a surprise?”

“Yes, it was a surprise. And my soon-to-be ex apparently has a new boyfriend who’s a struggling artist, so she’s coming after me for substantial alimony.”

“You need a good lawyer.”

“I have a good lawyer. Problem is, so does she. Look, what can I do for you? I know you better than to think you called to chitchat.”

“I know this might sound crazy, but can you run something down for me?”

He heard Bogart sigh, but he also heard the clicking of a pen. “Like what?”

“Like whether Roy and Lucinda Mars were in the Witness Protection Program?”

“What?” Bogart exclaimed.

“They have no past that anyone can find. I think they might have been relocated.”

“But why Witness Protection?”

“It would be a great motive for someone other than their son to kill them.”

“And Charles Montgomery?”

“His wife was bribed to make him confess. The stuff I saw in her little duplex totaled over fifty grand. A down payment only. But they killed her so they wouldn’t have to pay anything else. And also we were putting pressure on her. She might’ve cracked and let something slip. She had to die.”

Bogart was silent for a few moments. “You know that the U.S. Marshals have never lost a protectee before.”

“And maybe they didn’t want anyone to know they’d lost the Marses.”

“That’s a big accusation.”

“And it’s a pretty big case, so that’s symmetry for you.”

“And if they were in Witness Protection, why didn’t the U.S. Marshals come forward during Mars’s trial?”

“Well, if no one knew they were in Witness Protection no one would know to ask them. And I doubt they would volunteer anything if they didn’t have to.”

“But they would know about the trial. They would know that an innocent man might have gone to prison.”

“The evidence was pretty substantial against Melvin. They might have believed that he actually killed them, and thus it had nothing to do with why they were put into the program in the first place.”

“Okay, let’s say I look into that for you. And I’m not saying I can. That would be potentially opening a big can of worms with the Marshals.”

“I understand.”

“But if I did, and they were killed by someone from their past, how do you explain Montgomery being paid off to lie and spring Mars from prison?”

“I can’t explain it. Not yet, anyway.”

“Did Mars suggest this?”

“No. It was my idea. He knows nothing about his parents’ past.”

“You can’t know that for sure. His parents might have told him.”

“They might have,” conceded Decker. “But if they were in the program it might give us a handle on who killed them.”

“It might indeed,” said Bogart. “I’ll let you know one way or the other.”

“Agent Bogart, I am sorry for what happened. It wasn’t my intent.”

He heard the other man sigh. “I know. For you it’s all about the case.”

“Actually, it’s all about finding the truth.”

“Well, good luck with that.”

Bogart clicked off and Decker set down his phone.