The Guilty

by David Baldacci

  “If you say so,” replied Reel, looking troubled by his response.

  Robie slid on his seat belt. “I do.”

  Chapter

  45

  SO WHERE IS she?” Robie asked.

  They were standing in front of the Chisums’ residence about two miles out of downtown Cantrell. Lester Chisum, Sara’s father, was facing them looking pale and nervous.

  “I don’t know. We haven’t seen her since we went to bed last night. She must have snuck out after that.”

  “She snuck out all right,” said Robie. “But then she came back. And obviously left again.”

  “How do you know that?” demanded Chisum.

  “So you didn’t see her when she got home late last night?” asked Robie, ignoring the man’s question.

  “No, but I spoke with Emma this mornin’. She said Sara looked really wiped out. Scared, even.”

  “Did she say anything to Emma?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Where is she?”

  “Inside.”

  “We need to talk to her,” said Robie.

  “Why? And why are you even here?” demanded Chisum. “What do you have to do with any of this?”

  “Sara has gotten herself into something bad, Mr. Chisum. There was an incident last night. Folks ended up dead. I was there. I saved your daughter’s life.”

  Robie felt no need to mention that Sara had set him up and then gotten double-crossed. Her father looked stunned enough by what he’d said.

  “I…I can’t believe this.”

  “You can call Deputy Taggert if you want. Or Sheriff Monda. They’ll tell you. And you should call them anyway and tell them that Sara is missing. Because this is not good, not after last night. I know for a fact that the police drove Sara home last night after she got medical attention for an injury. She was not supposed to leave here.”

  “Omigod,” said Chisum. He grabbed the porch rail. “She didn’t wake us up. She didn’t say anythin’.”

  “She was told not to. Now can we talk to Emma?” asked Robie.

  Chisum slowly nodded and led them inside.

  A couple minutes later Robie and Reel followed Emma out the back door and into the small yard that was remarkable for nothing other than a massive Spanish moss-draped oak that held court in the center of the dying grass.

  They sat at an old, rotting wooden picnic table.

  Emma faced them calmly, her hands clasped primly in front of her.

  Robie looked at her closely. “What can you tell us about Sara?”

  “What do you want to know?”

  “Everything you can tell us. Did you see or hear her leave?”

  “No. But she came in late last night lookin’ all scared and beat up. She had a bandage on her head.”

  “Did she say anything to you?”

  “Only to shut the hell up when I asked what she’d been up to.”

  “Why were you up when she got home?” asked Reel.

  Emma swiveled her gaze to Reel. “You know, information is not free.”

  “Your sister could be in serious trouble,” Robie pointed out.

  “Okay. But it’s still not free.”

  “So the money I gave you before?” said Robie.

  “Was in payment for what I told you before.”

  “Don’t you care about your remaining sister?” asked Robie.

  “Sure. As much as she’s cared about me. Which is jackshit. Same for Janet. They couldn’t’ve given a crap if I died. Why should I care? They hated me! Treated me like I was nothin’.”

  Robie pulled out five twenties. “Then tell us what you know.”

  Emma reached out and tried to snatch the money, but Robie held on to it. “This time,” he said, “I’ll decide if the information is worth the cash.” He eyed Reel. “And she’s my witness that nothing untoward is going on.”

  Reel raised an eyebrow at this statement but didn’t comment.

  Emma sneered, “Well, maybe she wants a threesome. Do you classify that as untoward?”

  “No,” said Reel calmly. “And you’re wasting our time.”

  “Okay, do you want to know what I know or not?” snapped Emma.

  “We do,” said Robie.

  Emma looked triumphant until Reel spoke.

  “Come on, we don’t really need her, Robie.”

  “What?” said Robie, looking surprised.

  “Let’s look at this logically. They killed Janet. They’ve taken Sara because they think she knew something that Janet knew. When they find out Sara doesn’t know anything they’ll come back for the kid sister. We keep watch over her, and when they come and take her we’ll be able to follow. And when they slit her throat or put a bullet in her head, we can nail them, right then and there. And it saves you paying this piece of crap a hundred bucks.”

  “You really think so?” said Robie.

  “These are guys. All guys think girls talk to each other. They’ll come back for the kid for sure.”

  “You’re just tryin’ to scare me,” said Emma smugly.

  Reel shrugged. “We don’t need to. They killed one sister. They’ve probably got Sara now. They’ll kill her too, like they tried to do last night.”

  “What?” said Emma, looking startled.

  “Robie, I’m telling you, let’s just ride this out. We can use her as bait to get to them. Just like they used Sara last night to get to you. They tried to kill you. I say we return the favor. You only killed three last night. I shot another four. But there were quite a few of them left.”

  “You…killed…people,” Emma said slowly.

  Robie shot a glance at Emma and then said sharply to Reel, “Just shut up about them. You know what the cops said.”

  “Look, I’m just trying to do you a favor and save you some bucks at the same time. She’s not worth risking your life for, that’s for sure. She’s just bait. She’ll die, but then we kill them.”

  “I don’t know,” said Robie doubtfully.

  Emma said in a shocked tone, “You’re talkin’ about killing people and then lettin’ me die like…like…”

  “—like you don’t matter,” finished Reel. “Yeah, that’s right. Because you don’t.”

  She rose. “I’ll take the first watch, Robie. I doubt they’ll try anything during the day, but you never know.”

  Robie slipped the bills back into his pocket. “Okay, I guess you’re right.”

  He started to rise, too.

  “Wait, wait!” exclaimed Emma.

  They both looked at her.

  Reel said, “What!”

  “You can’t just let them come and take me.”

  “Why not?”

  “I’m just a kid.”

  “I could not give a crap,” said Reel casually. “When I was your age no one cared about me. Why should you be any different?”

  Emma’s hard exterior completely collapsed. “Please, I can tell you about Sara.”

  Reel held up her hand. “Just don’t even go there. I’ve listened to enough of your bullshit. You know zip about anything other than how to con somebody. And we’re not buying.”

  She turned to leave but Emma gripped her arm.

  “I do know things. I know what Sara was up to. I heard her.”

  Reel peeled the girl’s fingers off her arm, then sat across from her.

  “Okay, listen up. This is your last chance. You try to juke us now, we are out of here and you are dead. Do we understand each other?”

  Emma’s lips trembled but she nodded her head.

  Reel looked at Robie.

  He said quietly, “What did you hear, Emma?”

  “She was talkin’ to somebody on her phone. In her bedroom.”

  “So how could you hear?” asked Reel sharply.

  “Because I was hidin’ in her closet.”

  “Do you do that often?” asked Robie.

  “I went in there to steal some of her pot, but then I heard her comin’. So I jumped in the closet to hide.”
>
  “Go on,” said Robie. “What did you hear?”

  “She was talkin’ to somebody.”

  “Do you know who?”

  Emma shook her head. “She never said a name. But I did hear what she said. They were talkin’ about meetin’ somewhere. Tonight.”

  “Where and when exactly?” asked Reel.

  “Where they used to go. I mean her and Janet.”

  “Near where Sherman Clancy’s body was discovered?” asked Robie.

  She nodded. “Yes.”

  “What time?”

  “Midnight.”

  “What was the meeting about?” asked Reel.

  “Sara wanted money, in exchange for somethin’ she had. Somethin’ I guess the person wanted.”

  “Do you know what that was?” asked Robie.

  “No.”

  Robie and Reel exchanged glances.

  Robie said to Emma, “How much money?”

  “Enough money to go somewhere else.”

  “Smart girl,” said Robie.

  Chapter

  46

  WELL, AT LEAST our ‘good cop, bad cop’ routine worked,” said Reel as she drove herself and Robie away from the Chisums. “But what a piece of work. I just wanted to slap her face.”

  “She’s screwed up,” said Robie. “But then lots of people are screwed up.”

  “Present company definitely included?” said Reel, eyeing him.

  “Definitely included.”

  “If Sara took a call from this person, the cops may be able to trace the call,” said Reel.

  Robie pulled out his phone, called Taggert, and relayed this information without telling her about what Emma had told them of the meeting planned for that night.

  “She’s checking it,” said Robie.

  “We have a lot of time between now and midnight. Where to now?”

  Robie pulled out a card. “I need to call them first.”

  “Who?”

  “The FBI.”

  * * *

  They met about ten miles east of Cantrell.

  Special Agent Wurtzburger was there with two of his men.

  Robie introduced Reel to the agents.

  Wurtzburger eyed her. “So you work with Robie here?”

  “I have the privilege, yes.”

  Wurtzburger nodded. “Same agency?”

  She shrugged.

  “Good enough,” said Wurtzburger with a tight smile.

  Robie held up the photo of the man and the kids he had printed out from the flash drive and explained to Wurtzburger how he had come by it.

  Wurtzburger studied the image. “We can run this through our facial recognition databases, see what pops. So a pedophile, then?”

  “Looks to be,” said Robie. “It might tie into the Rebel Yell.”

  Wurtzburger put the photo away in his pocket. “I appreciate this, Robie. And in return let me be more frank with you than I have been.”

  Robie studied him appraisingly. “Frankness is good,” he said.

  “When I told you we were down here investigating casinos, that was not exactly true.”

  “What exactly would be true?” said Reel sharply.

  “I’m assigned to ViCAP.”

  “Violent Criminal Apprehension Program,” said Robie.

  “Yes.”

  Reel added, “But that really deals with serial killers.”

  “Among other things, yes.”

  “So are you saying that you’re down here hunting a serial killer?” asked Robie.

  “You could say that, yes.”

  “Can you fill us in? Why here?”

  “Sherman Clancy and Janet Chisum.”

  “But what’s the connection?” asked Reel.

  “There have been eight other killings in four different states in the last nine years.”

  “Okay, but what connects those to the murders in Cantrell?”

  “They were killed roughly in pairs with the same backstory. Older man, younger girl. The older man paid for the sex. Then the older man gets his throat slit in his car. The girl gets a bullet to the head and is tossed in a body of water.”

  “Where were the other killings?” asked Reel.

  “One was in New York. One in Pennsylvania. One in Tennessee. One in Arkansas. And now possibly the fifth set of murders here.”

  Robie said, “So the killer presumably is going east to west. Nine years of operation? Is that usual?”

  “I can’t say it’s unusual. I’ve worked serial killer cases covering decades of activity.”

  “When were the murders in Arkansas?”

  “Four years ago.”

  Reel did a quick calculation in her head. She said, “So the other murders were spaced roughly eighteen months apart?”

  “That’s right,” replied Wurtzburger.

  “So the four-year gap might be significant,” she said.

  “It might be, yes. There could have been an intervening event. The person might have been in prison, that actually happens quite a bit.”

  “If so, he got out and is now killing again?” said Robie.

  “Presumably, yes.”