Rob stared down at his plate. “Yeah, I remember. It burned off all my nose hair.”
“You got the soap twice, Rob,” Rafe said, poking his brother’s arm.
“You should have, too,” Rob said, and lifted his fist toward his brother. Dix said, “Boys?” in a quiet voice, and they stopped dead in their tracks. “Good. Rob, finish it up now.”
“Okay, he was so mad he looked like he was gonna burst.”
Dix gave him a thumbs-up. “I’ll give that a pass.”
Ruth raised her glass. “Here’s to the next Derek Lowe.”
“Hear! Hear!” Dix drank down the rest of his tea. “You guys ready for some bread pudding?”
Ruth perked up. “Bread pudding? When did you have time to make that, Dix?”
Rafe snickered. “Nah, Dad didn’t make it, it was Ms. Denver, the physics teacher. She’s been after Dad since the beginning of the school year. She’s a really good cook, so Rob and I don’t mind except—”
“That’s enough, Rafe.”
Rafe subsided, slouching back in his chair.
Rob said, “Dad, you are going to catch the killers, aren’t you?”
Dix looked at his eldest son. “What do you think?”
Rob didn’t hesitate. “I told the kids you’d have them in jail by Tuesday.”
“Well, that’s a motivator,” Dix said, with a rueful glance at Ruth. Ruth leaned forward, her elbows on the table. “I agree with you, Rob. I’m thinking Tuesday is about right. But you and Rafe both know it’s not quite that easy.”
“I’m thinking Monday, myself,” Dix said, and folded his arms over his chest. Ruth thought the boys would burst with pride at this macho display. Rob said, “Dude! Dad, we’re not kids. You can talk stuff over with us, really. Everyone at school is talking about Ms. Rafferty being killed in her bed, about how you found that student buried in Winkel’s Cave.” He paused for a moment and cleared his throat, but his voice was unsteady. “And about Mr. McGuffey. Oh man, that was really bad.”
Dix’s own voice wasn’t all that steady, either. “Walt was a fine man. I really liked him.”
Rafe said to Ruth, his voice still quavering, “Mom always liked Mr. McGuffey. Last Thanksgiving he said Dad’s turkey was as good as Mom’s, but he couldn’t do stuffing worth a damn. I told him you couldn’t find Mom’s recipe.”
“I’ll give you one, Dix,” Ruth said, knowing they were skating on very thin ice. The boys seemed both hyper and scared, and trying not to show either. “Corn bread with water chestnuts and cranberries.”
“I like water chestnuts,” Rafe said. “But I like lots of sausage in my dressing, too.”
Ruth beamed when Rob said, “Maybe we can try it your way, too, Ruth.”
DIX’S DOORBELL RANG not long after the boys went to bed.
“You missed a great corn-on-the-cob gross-out,” Dix said by way of a greeting.
“Let me get your coats,” Ruth said, peeling off Sherlock’s leather jacket. She paused, then took a step back. “What’s wrong, guys? What happened?”
“Sorry,” Savich said shortly. “Lots on our minds, no excuse.”
He and Sherlock followed Dix into the living room. Savich held up his hand when Ruth opened her mouth. “No, Ruth, Sean’s all right, we spoke to him earlier. He’s already decided he wants a Yorkshire terrier whose name is going to be Astro.”
Sherlock was still acting a bit stiff, but she tried, giving Ruth and Dix big smiles. “Last summer we talked about putting down Astroturf in the backyard for a very miniature miniature golf course. I guess Sean fell in love with the word.”
But it had nothing to do with Astroturf or anything else, Ruth thought, glancing at the two of them. She looked from one carefully expressionless face to the other, saw the strain in Dillon’s eyes, the red creeping up Sherlock’s cheeks, which meant she wanted to kick someone—Dillon?
Dillon and Sherlock were the anchors of Ruth’s professional life. She was immensely grateful to Dillon for bringing her into the Criminal Apprehension Unit eighteen months earlier. He was an intuitive, natural leader, tough as a rock, honorable to the core. Sherlock was funny and insightful, sharp and focused, and you could count on her no matter what. She had only one speed—full steam ahead. Ruth had never seen them like this before.
Then the light dawned. She said slowly, “I don’t believe this, you guys have had a major argument, haven
’t you. Even if I told everyone in the unit, they’d demand I take a lie detector test, which no one would believe because they know I can cheat lie detectors in my sleep.” She looked at the ceiling. “I’m ready to pass over, Lord, since I’ve now seen it all.” She wagged a finger at Sherlock. “What did you do, Sherlock, drive the sacred Porsche?”
“Very funny, Ruth,” Sherlock said. “You know, every time I’ve driven that car I’ve gotten a speeding ticket.”
“Nothing’s wrong,” Savich said, his voice too loud. “Now, if you don’t mind, we’ve got some serious stuff to talk about.”
Sherlock nodded. “Here’s the deal. We have to take off early tomorrow for Quantico because—”
“Before we go there,” Savich interrupted her, “we need to tell you what MAX found out about Moses Grace and Claudia. Her last name is Smollett, emphasis on the last syllable.”
Ruth sat forward, serious as could be now. “That’s an English name, isn’t it?”
Savich nodded. “Of all things, her mom was English. Her name was Pauline Smollett. She came to the United States when she was twenty-two. She was a high-school math teacher in Cleveland, and never married, at least in this country. From the police reports, she had a pretty colorful personal life, but she managed to keep it separate from her job. She raised a child, Claudia, out of wedlock by herself.”
“What happened to her?” Ruth asked.
“She was raped and murdered by a gang.”
Dix leaned forward, hands on his knees. “Police reports? How did you find the connection, Savich?”
“When I called, I told you we had more work to do,” Savich said matter-of-factly, then added, his voice dropping ten degrees, “and that meant following up some information Claudia gave Sherlock.”
Dix said, “Don’t you mean—You actually spoke to Claudia, Sherlock?”
Sherlock’s chin went right up, a fire burned in her eyes. “Yes, for quite a while. She called on Dillon’s cell while he was in the shower.” She looked at her husband, eyes narrowed, as if daring him to comment.
“She did indeed,” Savich said smoothly. “After her mother’s death, Claudia ran away from home. We had enough details for MAX to pull up a half dozen open cases with a similar profile, and that’s how we found Pauline Smollett. It all fit.
“Claudia has a juvenile record of her own, and we matched her ID photo with the picture of Annie Bender her mother Elsa gave us. Claudia looks just like her.”
Sherlock continued. “Claudia Smollett was nine years old when she started shoplifting cigarettes and booze from the local 24/7. She got thrown out of school twice, once when she burned a boy with a cigarette, and again when she broke another kid’s arm. Then there was the usual juvenile rage, throwing a textbook at a teacher, cursing out another, threatening her mother. She was a wild kid who probably wouldn’t have made it even if her mother had lived.
“She ran into Moses Grace moments after he murdered a homeless man. They got drunk on bourbon in a motel, and the rest is history. Claudia said the word ‘bourbon’ with a Southern accent, and it seemed to me she ran into him somewhere in the South.” She paused. “And Claudia isn’t eighteen. She turned sixteen three weeks ago.”
Dix pushed his fingers through his hair. “She’s about Rob’s age.”
Savich, fiddling with one of the sofa pillows, nodded. “She’s a child, a crazy, unrestrained child. It turns out my wife was right about the murdered homeless man. We found a report of a man beaten to death in an alley about eight months ago in Birmingham, Alabama. The police never found the assailant, b
ut another homeless man said he saw an old buzzard in bloodied army fatigues, so my bucks are on Moses.
”
“Claudia told me Moses wears army fatigues and old black army boots, so it fits,” Sherlock said. “We notified the Birmingham police, gave them what we’ve got. Unfortunately, they didn’t have anything to give us in return.”
“Did you trace the call, Dillon? Do you know where they are?” Ruth asked. Savich said, “It’s good news, bad news. Claudia called from a prepaid cell phone Moses purchased for cash at a Radio Shack this morning. He activated it from a pay phone in the parking lot. It’s anonymous that way since there’s no registered owner, but the signal was loud and clear. And since they were calling from a set location, we located them dead-on.”
“Where?” Dix asked.
Sherlock said, “At a Denny’s on Eighth Avenue and Pfeiffer Street in Milltown, Maryland. Even though the local cops got there in under five minutes, Moses and Claudia were gone. Evidently Moses had left Claudia alone with the cell phone. When he came back she was still talking to me. I heard his voice, could tell he was angry at her for using it. So that means he knew we could find him. He hit the road fast.
” Sherlock sighed. “If only he’d spent a bit more time in the men’s room, we could have joined them for dinner.”
“Please tell me where the good news is in all of this?” Ruth asked them. Sherlock said, “Good news is we’ve got great descriptions, down to Moses’s old black lace-up army boots, and Claudia wasn’t exactly undercover. She had on low-cut plumber jeans, a skimpy hot-pink top, and a fake fur jacket. They made quite an impression on their waitress, who said Claudia was pretty but she wore too much makeup, and that the old guy looked like he’d spent a hundred years staked out in the sun.
“But the best information is from a waiter who was outside smoking a cigarette when Moses and Claudia left the restaurant. He was yelling at her, shaking the cell phone in her face before he shoved her into a van.
“The waiter had Claudia in his sights until the van disappeared from view. She waved at him from the passenger-side window. He doesn’t remember much about the van—thinks it was a Ford, real dirty. He was focused on Claudia. We might get something more from him. I’d bet my next paycheck on it.”
Savich said, “Our Denny’s waiter is all set up to have Dr. Hicks hypnotize him tomorrow morning at Quantico, and we need to be there. I’m not certain if we’ll be back tomorrow evening, depends on what shakes loose.
“Moses isn’t stupid. He might have figured we could locate them even with a prepaid cell phone, as long as Claudia stayed on the line.”
Sherlock picked it up. “And that would mean we’d speak to people at the restaurant who saw them. So they might lie low for a while. Still, every squad car in the area will have Claudia’s picture by morning.”
Ruth clapped. “Dillon didn’t tell us what you’d managed to do when he called earlier. This is great, Sherlock. Keep it up and you’ll break the whole thing wide open.”
Sherlock said to Ruth, “Claudia wanted to talk to Dillon, Ruth. She wants to have sex with him, actually. Dillon was upset because he thinks I’m too delicate to hear the dirt Claudia dishes out.”
Two pairs of female eyes went to Savich.
“There’s more to it than that, Ruth, and Sherlock knows it.”
“Ah,” Dix said, sat back on the sofa, and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Ah, what?” Savich asked him, never looking away from his wife.
“So maybe all of this boils down to the fact that you want to protect her.”
Sherlock turned on him. “From a crazy child on a cell phone? Dillon has no right—”
Dix spoke over her. “I’d probably feel the same way if Ruth were my wife. It’s simply the nature of the beast—both of you must know that by now. It’s just instinct.”
Sherlock went on point, and Dix felt lucky Savich was sitting between them. “Women have the same instinct, macho man.”
Dix cleared his throat. “Well, I’m glad we cleared that up without bloodshed. Would everyone look at the time. Is it late, or what?”
There was a sprinkling of laughter, most of it from Ruth, Dix thought, then a pound of silence. Ruth jumped in to tell them she and Dix had spent the rest of their afternoon with Gordon Holcombe. “
We searched every space in his office, house, and studio, every record. He was cooperative, I’ll say that for him. We even spoke to three of his former lovers on the phone. They were fine, all of them elsewhere at the time of the murders.”
Dix said, “I’m going to talk to Gordon again tomorrow.” He frowned down at his clasped hands. “I can’t get past the fact that two of the victims were his lovers. Maybe he’s told us all about the students, but Helen wasn’t a student, now was she?”
CHAPTER 27
QUANTICO FRIDAY MORNING
AT TEN O’CLOCK Dr. Emmanuel Hicks walked into Savich’s small office in Quantico’s Jefferson Dormitory and sniffed. “Pepperoni.” He looked at the young black man slouched in a chair beside Savich. “From the Boardroom?”
The young man nodded. “Double pepperoni, Doc.”
“Ah, my favorite, sometimes even for breakfast. My name is Dr. Hicks and I’m harmless.” He shook the young man’s hand. “This will be very easy for you, Dewayne, no discomfort at all as I’m sure Agent Savich has told you. We’re simply going to help you remember all the details you’ve already got stored away on your hard drive.” Dr. Hicks tapped his head, to which Dewayne answered, “Cool.”
Ten minutes later, Savich pulled his chair closer to Dewayne’s and laid his hand lightly on the young man’
s forearm. “I’d like you to think now about the first time you saw the old man and the young girl in Denny
’s yesterday, Dewayne. You have them in your sights?”
Dewayne nodded.
“Good. Tell me what you see.”
“She’s taking off those big sunglasses and looking around. She’s something—pretty, real pretty, and she knows it. She’s flirting with everybody.”
“What about the old guy?”
“He’s sitting back in the booth, his arms crossed over his chest, and he’s grinning. I don’t think he does anything but grin. He’s real old, you know, his face is all seams and wrinkles. She’s maybe his great-granddaughter, I’m thinking, he’s that old. She’s looking through the menu, taking her time. The old guy, he doesn’t even open the menu, just orders a hamburger.”
“Melinda waited on them?”
“Yeah, that’s right. When she came to the kitchen to place the order, she told us we should check her out. All us guys already had.
“She knows all the guys are talking about her. Man, it’s nearly freezing outside and she’s wearing this tiny top, showing off her belly button.”
“She have a ring in her belly button?”
“Oh yeah, a little silver ring. And boy, her belly’s sweet, a little baby fat, but sweet.”
“Do you ever get close enough to hear them speak to each other?”
Silence, then a slow nod. “Yeah, I’m taking a combo meal, a surf ’n’ turf thing, to this couple sitting two booths down from them. I sort of slow down, you know, because she winks at me, really winks, and gives me a big grin, tosses her head. She’s got four gold earrings up her right ear.”
“Do you hear anything they say before she notices you and winks?”
Dewayne nodded. “Something about a redhead—that was the old guy talking. He looks crazy, you know? Those army fatigues and those stupid army boots, all scuffed up, muddy, like he’s been out on a battlefield, you know? I didn’t know who this redhead was they were talking about, but I wanted to hear her talk some more so I walked slower. She says something like, ‘I’m thinking the next stop should be a bank, Moses. What do you think?’ And the old guy grins some more and shakes his head. ‘I don’t think so, sweetcakes.’ Yeah, that’s what he called her. I nearly laughed to hear that old buzzard call the little chic
k that. Then the folks hollered at me to get them their food, so that’s all I heard. No, wait a second. I think he said something like, ‘He’s probably got himself all staked out like a goat, waiting for me to call.’”
Savich waited a beat, but there wasn’t any more. He said, “That’s excellent, Dewayne. Okay, now you go outside for the cigarette break. You’re smoking when you see that pretty girl walk out of Denny’s, right?”
Dewayne jiggled the change in his pocket. “Yeah, there she is.”
“Tell me exactly what you see.”
“She’s pulled that fluffy jacket back on but it isn’t long enough to cover her butt. Man, she’s got a fine butt, really nice, and she’s swinging it all over the parking lot. She knows I’m watching, even looks in my direction and smiles at me, but she’s really not paying me much attention because she’s talking on her cell phone, real intense now. Then the old guy comes roaring out of the restaurant, maybe because he sees her on the cell phone. He starts yelling at her. I thought he was going to hit her for a moment, and she says something like ‘Don’t hurt me.’ He grabs the phone, still yelling, and pushes her into the van.”
“Look at the van, Dewayne. Do you see it?” At the young man’s nod, Savich continued, “That’s it. I want you to look at the van now, not the girl. Tell me what you see.”
“It’s hard, man.”
Savich waited.
“I’m still looking at her, hoping the old guy doesn’t hit her. I watch her put those big sunglasses back on. Then she turns to look at me and blows me a kiss. Do you believe that chick? Okay, the van. It’s an old Ford Aerostar, filthy white, makes me wonder what kind of slob that old man is to let his wheels get that dirty. It’s one of those cargo vans—you know, windows on one side but not on the other. It’s got a roof rack and sliding side doors.”
“Is there anything on the side of the van except dirt?”
Dewayne frowned at Savich, jiggled his change. Savich said, “It’s okay, take your time. Look closely, Dewayne.”
Dewayne Malloy scratched his ear, began beating his right foot heel to toe on the floor, and continued to jiggle his change. He had incredible coordination, Savich thought.
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