“I understand.”
“No, I don’t think you do. I really don’t.”
Decker braced for the strike.
When the blow fell, it wasn’t the knife, but something hard and heavy.
It struck the side of his head and all Decker saw after that was darkness.
CHAPTER
51
NOW IT’S YOU who’s lucky.”
Decker blinked his eyes open.
Mars was staring down at him.
“I don’t feel lucky,” he groaned.
“Join the club.”
Decker looked around. “Where am I?”
“Hospital. You got a concussion. Side of your head looks like you got in a fight with Ray Lewis.”
“That’s what I feel like, actually.” He tried to sit up, but Mars put out a restraining hand. “Whoa, big fellow. You ain’t going anywhere.”
Decker lay back. “Where are the others?”
“Bogart and Milligan are trying to figure out what happened. Jamison sat next to your bed for hours. She just left to use the bathroom. Expect her back any second. Pretty loyal to you, that lady.”
Decker gazed up at him. “I guess I don’t always realize those things.”
Mars pulled up a chair and sat down. “I did some research on your condition.” He tapped his head. “Up here.”
“Why?”
“Because I wanted to understand you better. It’s like studying film and then making a game plan.”
“And what did you find out?”
“That it’s complicated. You’re complicated. No two cases are really alike. You could change tomorrow if your brain keeps rewiring itself. Pretty dicey.”
“I guess that’s why I live for today,” quipped Decker.
Mars grinned. “You and me both.” Then his grin faded. “Was it him?”
“Who?”
“You know who, Decker. My old man. Did he do this to you?”
The door opened and Jamison appeared there. When she saw that Decker was awake she rushed over. “Omigod, Amos. How are you feeling?”
“Alive. That’s about it. But I’ll be fine.”
Mars said, “Decker was just about to tell us who walloped him.”
Jamison gasped. “You know? You saw the person?”
“It was your father, Melvin. At least I’m ninety-nine percent sure it was.”
“So you didn’t see him?”
“I heard him. He had a knife against my jugular during our conversation. He knew about everything.”
“Did he use my name?” asked Mars.
“Yes. Well, sort of.”
“What exactly did he call me?”
“Mellow.”
Mars looked away and rubbed his chin with his hand. “Right.”
“What’s the reference?”
“His joke. Since I was the exact opposite of mellow. He was the only one who ever called me that. The only one.”
“So it was him,” said Jamison.
“Pretty sure, yeah,” said Mars.
“He was also a smoker,” said Decker.
“So was my father.”
“What else did he say, Amos?” asked Jamison.
Decker slowly told them, but leaving out some parts, particularly those in reference to how Roy Mars really felt about his son.
Mars said slowly, “So he’s saying he did this to protect me? And he got me out probably because my mother made him promise?”
“He didn’t actually say that, but when I made the statement he didn’t dispute it. But one thing puzzles me. He said he hadn’t set you up. When it was clear that he had.”
Mars nodded. “But my mom knew what he was going to do. That he was going to frame me and then play dead. Chocha, like you said.”
Decker and Jamison gazed nervously at him.
“She probably thought you’d be safer in prison, Melvin,” suggested Jamison.
“Yeah, so safe I nearly died.”
“She had terminal brain cancer, I doubt she was thinking all that clearly. And it was pretty obvious that she didn’t like the plan. That was why they were arguing.”
“But he still went ahead and screwed me over. And she went along with it.”
A long moment of silence passed.
“We can argue forever about what was in their heads, Melvin,” said Decker at last. “But it won’t change things.”
“Right. I know.”
“But it still sucks,” said Decker.
“Yeah, it does.”
Jamison glanced at him and attempted to quickly change the subject. “But now you don’t think it’s the cartel out there behind this?”
“Roy snorted, because he thought I was going down the wrong path when I mentioned the cartel. When I reversed course on that, he clammed up.”
“And Davenport?” asked Jamison in a tremulous voice.
“Unfortunately, he didn’t sound so hopeful about her.”
“But he said he was covering my back,” said Mars.
Decker looked at him. The pleading look on the man’s face was painful to see.
“He did say that, Melvin. He was going to do his best to protect you.”
“Because of my mother.”
“I don’t think it’s all that. He said you got screwed. Maybe he feels remorse.”
“I don’t think so,” said Mars slowly. “I’m not sure the guy can feel anything.”
“Whatever your father feels or doesn’t feel about you, Melvin, has nothing to do with you,” said Jamison firmly. “It’s his issue, not yours.”
Decker said, “The man could wield a knife. And though he’s in his seventies, he’s still physically formidable. I’m not easy to knock out. But he managed it.”
“He always was strong as a bull,” said Mars absently.
“There is a connection between your father and Montgomery,” said Decker. “He as good as admitted that. If we can find that nexus we may be able to determine who is behind all this.”
Jamison said, “Maybe we should take Roy’s advice and get Melvin far away from here.”
Mars said immediately, “I’m not going anywhere.”
Decker added, “I agree. If I’m reading this right, it won’t matter where Melvin goes. It was also clear that Roy felt that whoever he was hiding from is after what’s in the safe deposit box.”
“But no clue as to what that is?” asked Jamison.
“It’s obviously something important.”
“But if not a cartel, what?” asked Mars. “What could my old man have been involved in all those years ago?”
Decker said, “He’s a dangerous man, Melvin. That may be an indicator. He kills people.”
“What, like he was some sort of hired hit man?”
“I don’t know for certain. I’m just saying that it wouldn’t have surprised me if someone had used him as muscle.”
Mars rose, went over to the window, and looked out. The man was a picture of confused despair.
In a low voice Jamison said to Decker, “This is really hard on him. I can’t even imagine.”
“I can imagine,” said Decker. “But the only way to get him out of this mess is to figure it out. Otherwise he’s going to be looking over his shoulder the rest of his life.”
“You really think we can do that?”
“Yes. If they don’t kill us first.”
CHAPTER
52
I’M HAVING THE local police post round-the-clock security at the entrance to the motel, Amos,” said Bogart. “I should have done that after they took Davenport,” he added apologetically. “I had someone posted outside Melvin’s and Jamison’s doors, but not yours. I just didn’t think anyone would go after you.”
He and Decker were walking together down the hall of the hospital.
“It’s okay,” said Decker. “I’m good to go.”
“So it was Roy Mars?”
Decker nodded. “I think we can safely say that. Although I’d like to know his real name.”
They left the hospital, got in Bogart’s car, and drove off.
Bogart glanced at Decker as they hit the main road.
“How are you feeling?”
“Stupid and slow. So my status hasn’t changed since we got on this case.”
“I mean physically.”
“It hurts, but I’ve felt worse. A lot worse. Look, we need to get all of the arrest records for Charles Montgomery.”
“We have the major ones. The ones that led to his execution.”
“I want the minor ones. The ones where he skipped bail. We have some of those details, but I need it all.”
“You think that’s important?”
“We have to trace the connection between Roy Mars and Montgomery. It wasn’t random. Which means it’s important. If we can find that connection we may discover who’s behind this. We get that, then the whole thing starts to unravel.”
“But maybe it has something to do with the murders that Montgomery was convicted of.”
“No, those were fairly recent. Whatever the connection with Roy Mars, I believe it goes back forty years or more.”
“That may be true,” conceded Bogart. “But that long ago, finding detailed records will be very difficult.”
“Montgomery got back from Vietnam in 1967. He mustered out of the Army shortly thereafter. Then he was involved in a series of petty crimes.”
“But he told us he was having headaches. Messed up from the war. Maybe he was rebelling. He was young and stupid.”
“Did Montgomery strike you as stupid?”
“No, but he was a lot older, more hardened, when we met with him. A young punk back then, he was probably capable of anything.”
“I think the guy we saw hadn’t changed much from when he was young. He fought in Vietnam and was wounded. He was no punk. He was a soldier who’d been through hell and back. And there’s something else too.”
“What?” said Bogart quickly.
“I’m having trouble pulling it out.”
“What, your brain going wacky on you?”
“My brain is wacky, all the time.”
“I meant, is it starting to work like the minds of the rest of us poor shmucks?”
“It was something,” said Decker, ignoring Bogart’s comment. “Something I saw or heard.” He touched the bruise on the side of his head. “Maybe Roy hit me harder than I thought.”
“You’ll think of it. In the meantime I’ll dig up as much detail as I can on Charles Montgomery.”
They drove on.
* * *
Later that evening, Mary Oliver met them all for dinner at a restaurant a few blocks from the motel.
Milligan looked at Decker’s face and said, “Damn. I think you’re lucky he didn’t crack your skull.”
“He probably wanted to,” said Decker. “But if he wanted me dead, he could have just slit my throat.”
Mars put down the knife he was holding to cut his salad.
“Sorry, Melvin,” said Decker, noting this.
“Hey, it is what it is. My old man’s nuts.”
“No. He knows exactly what he’s doing and why. He understands that him getting you out of jail caused these folks to come after you. They want what was in the safe deposit box.”
“So he has those contents?” asked Oliver.
“Probably,” said Decker. “I mean, not on him, but somewhere. Somewhere safe that only he knows.”
Oliver said, “If we could find him, he could take us to it. Then we could go after whoever’s implicated by those contents. They must have been the ones who took Lisa.”
Milligan added, “Well, that’s easier said than done. We went over Decker’s room and didn’t find one usable print or shoe mark. The guy’s a pro. No one saw him come and no one saw him go. And the lock was expertly picked.”
“He is a pro,” said Decker. “And he knows who’s after him, and he knows what they want.”
“But how do we find him?” asked Oliver. “There must be some way.”
“He’s been watching us. He knows about us. Knows we’re the FBI. He knows we’re investigating all of this. I think he must be close by.”
Milligan said, “If he is, we should be able to find him. We have a description. And the town’s not that big.”
“But he also likely knows every bit of this place,” pointed out Jamison. “And there are probably lots of abandoned houses and farms in the area where he could be staying.”
Decker looked at her oddly. “That’s true.”
“That he knows lots of abandoned places to stay?”
“That he might know one abandoned place to stay.”
“You don’t mean my old house?” said Mars.
“Why not?”
“It’s too obvious, for one.”
“So obvious no one’s checked it?” said Decker.
“But you were there,” pointed out Jamison. “And we later went with you and Melvin.”
“But no one’s watching it all the time,” said Decker. “No one’s
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