David Baldacci: The Last Mile

Melvin Mars.

Decker had thought the guy would be a shoo-in for the NFL too. It was a big story back then about Mars being arrested. But Decker had been working hard for his own shot at the big leagues and the arrest and conviction of Melvin Mars finally had faded into the past.

Two decades in prison. For a crime he maybe didn’t commit.

Another man had confessed. Had details only the real killer would know.

It was so close to the murders of Decker’s family that not even his unique mind could grapple with the possible odds of it.

He drove right through Pennsylvania, and then south into Maryland and farther south into Virginia. He didn’t stop to sleep. His mind was alert and awake and thinking.

He was thinking about Melvin Mars.

A name from the past.

Decker did not believe in fate, or even its little cousin, serendipity.

Yet something had made him turn on the radio right at that very moment. If he had taken a couple minutes longer to eat his meal, or stopped to take a leak, he might never have heard the story.

But he had heard the story.

So what did that mean?

He wasn’t sure. And he also wasn’t sure that the name Melvin Mars would ever leave him again.

Hours later he reached the address he’d been given. It was at the Marine Corps Base Quantico, one of the largest U.S. Marine bases in the world, and also home to a basketful of federal law enforcement platforms.

The facility was behind high fences with a guard gate where serious men in uniform stood holding automatic weapons.

Amos Decker drove up to the gate, rolled down his window, drew a long breath, and prepared to start his brand-new life.

Three rooms.

A bedroom about the size of a prison cell. A bathroom about a quarter the size of that. And a third room for everything else, including the kitchen.

It was far more space than Amos Decker had been accustomed to over the last year and a half.

He set his bags down and looked around his new home. He should grab some sleep, but he wasn’t tired.

He could sleep all day sometimes, but other times, like now, his mind would not allow him to rest. His brain was on fire.

There was a small table across from the kitchen area. On the table was a laptop computer with a note stuck to it. The note was from Agent Bogart. The laptop was his to use. There was secure WiFi here. Bogart would be by later.

Decker checked his watch. It was five in the morning. Bogart had expected him to stop on his drive and probably anticipated his arriving here later this afternoon or evening.

Decker made a cup of coffee, black, with a heap of sugar, and carried it over to the table. He sat down and opened up the laptop. He went online and searched for the name Melvin Mars.

There had been quite a few stories written in the last few days on Mars. Decker read all of them, his perfect memory imprinting each indelibly onto his brain.

But he also wanted to know more about the man’s past. And a few minutes later he found it.

Melvin Mars had been on the cusp of the NFL draft held in April of each year. It was projected he would go top five until he’d been arrested and charged in the murders of his parents, Roy and Lucinda Mars.

Decker looked at the grainy pictures of the pair on the screen. Roy was white, with strong features, and even in the blurry photo his penetrating eyes were readily apparent. Lucinda was black and remarkably beautiful, with bountiful hair that fell to her shoulders. Her face was crinkled into an infectious smile.

Clear opposites, at least on the surface. Interesting.

Decker sipped his coffee and kept scrolling.

The murders had taken place on April second. The bodies were found in an upstairs bedroom. Both had been shotgunned, their faces obliterated, and then their bodies set on fire. The house stood by itself well off the road. They lived in rural Texas. There had been no one around to hear them die.

The bodies were found by firemen responding to a 911 call. The fire was put out and the house became a crime scene.

Folks around there knew the Marses. Well, they knew Melvin because of his talents on the gridiron. He had been a high school football legend in Texas, and had continued that fame in college as a Longhorn.

So where was Melvin when his parents died?

He had graduated from college the previous semester, having gone to summer school each of the last three years in order to graduate early. He had plans for his life, it had been reported then. And with the draft coming up he wanted to be free from academic obligations. He was a man who thought ahead, it was said. He was not some people’s image of a football player who could run over people but didn’t have the means to carry on a conversation. It was said that he didn’t have an agent because he was going to negotiate his own contract with an NFL team. He had done research, talked to current and former players.

So, again, where was Melvin?

The police found him sleeping alone at a motel. He had paid by credit card. That was how they located him.

His story had been relatively simple. He had been visiting a friend. He had left the friend’s place with the intention of driving home. He had had car trouble, however, and stopped for the night at the only motel on that stretch of road. He had known nothing about his parents’ murders until the police knocked on his door.

This was before everyone had cell phones or email addresses, or a Facebook page or Twitter account. You could actually be off the grid with no way for folks to contact you, an unbelievable thought now.

Mars had not initially been a suspect. He had gone into seclusion even as rewards were offered for any information about the crimes. A period of time went by as the police investigated.

Decker focused on one story that detailed how Mars had become a suspect.

The friend he had visited remembered Mars leaving earlier than he had told the police he had. The motel was less than an hour from his house, so why didn’t he simply drive the rest of the way that night? Again, Mars said he’d had car trouble and pulled into the motel. He planned to call his father the next morning to come out and check the car.

The only problem with that was when the police asked him to try to start the car, it roared to life immediately. He had no explanation for that other than to say the engine had sputtered and then died right as he reached the motel. He said he’d actually pushed it into the parking lot. The other troublesome fact was that a car resembling his had been seen later that night in the vicinity of his parents’ house.

The motel clerk told police that Mars had checked in at 1:15 in the morning. The friend said Mars had left her place at ten. It was only an hour-and-forty-minute drive to his home from there. That left time for him to drive home, kill his parents, and then drive back and check into the motel.

The motel clerk testified that Mars seemed disheveled and upset. He also testified that the clothes Mars had on appeared stained with something. The clothes he described Mars as wearing were not the ones he had on when the police showed up. It was conjectured that Mars had dumped the bloody clothes somewhere and then changed into a fresh set at the motel.

The other troublesome fact was that the shotgun belonged to Mars. He used it for hunting, and had indeed hunted game birds and turkeys with it. Thus his prints were on the weapon.

And the gasoline used to ignite the Marses’ bodies had come from their garage. It was fortunate that that house had not burned down. The only damage was in the bedroom where they’d been found.

Lastly, blood matching Lucinda Mars’s had been found in the car. It was pretty damning forensically.