The Guilty

by David Baldacci

  He left the room and closed the door behind him. His father, he felt, had married a good person. A strong woman. He would need that. He would need all of that.

  And that was when he remembered.

  The sound from outside.

  And then he heard something moving in the hall.

  He turned in an instant, his weapon out and pointed at the new noise.

  Jessica Reel was staring back at him, her gun in hand.

  She said, “What’s up, besides you?”

  “I heard a noise.”

  “I did too. From outside.”

  “Let’s go check it out.”

  “I also thought I heard somebody crying. Did you?”

  “It was Victoria. She just needed to talk to someone. This all has to be overwhelming.”

  “What’d you tell her?”

  “That we were going to find the truth. So let’s see if we can start with whoever’s outside.”

  Chapter

  52

  THE SOUND WAS not repeated.

  At least not right away.

  But Robie and Reel were patient. They could sit for hours or days or weeks waiting for what needed to come along and be killed.

  And finally their patience was rewarded.

  The crack of a twig.

  The flutter of leaves on a bush.

  A breath released too quickly for concealment.

  They converged in an instant, guns pointed at their prey.

  “Don’t shoot. Sweet Jesus, please don’t shoot me.”

  Pete Clancy put up his hands and dropped to his knees. He sat on his haunches, cowering.

  Robie and Reel glanced at each other before lowering their weapons.

  “What are you doing here, Pete?” asked Robie. “And where the hell have you been?”

  Pete let his hands drop and stared up at them.

  Composing himself, he said, “On the run, man. You know why.”

  “Get up,” said Reel.

  When he stood she patted him down and pulled out a short-bladed knife from his front pants pocket.

  “What, no guns?” she said.

  “I don’t actually like guns all that much,” said Pete in an embarrassed tone. “I just own ’em ’cause you’re supposed to down here.”

  She put the knife in her jacket pocket and stepped back.

  Robie said, “Who were the guys at your house?”

  “Heard you killed ’em later on. In the woods.”

  “Who’d you hear that from?”

  Pete shrugged. “Somebody,” he mumbled. “Does it matter?”

  “It may,” replied Robie. “But we’ll leave that for now. Who were the guys? Rebel Yell thugs?”

  Pete looked confused by this. “Rebel Yell? The casino?”

  Reel and Robie exchanged another glance.

  “Yeah,” said Robie.

  “Nope, it wasn’t them.”

  Robie said, “Okay, if not them, who? And we know about the pictures on your computer. The man and the little kids?”

  Pete looked startled at first but then nodded slowly. “How my old man made his money. Then he took that and made a lot more at the Rebel Yell.”

  “So no oil and gas dollars for his land, then?” said Robie.

  “He told me that was just a cover story.”

  “Okay, one more time. The guys. Who are they?”

  “I don’t know exactly. But you saw the pictures, right?”

  “I told you we did,” said Robie irritably. “Who’s the guy in them?”

  He said furtively, “Don’t know that either. Dad never said.”

  “Where did the kids come from?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Is there a reason that all of the kids are either black or Latino?” asked Reel.

  Pete exclaimed, “I don’t know! Okay? I came to all this late in the game.”

  “Why would he tell you about any of this?” wondered Robie.

  Pete snorted. “Why else? He was drunk off his ass.”

  “But the guys obviously knew you had something. Why else would they have come around?”

  Pete said nothing.

  Robie said, “You showed up at your house with them. How did that happen?”

  “They grabbed me when I was comin’ out of a bar.”

  “And they brought you back to your house to get what you had on the computer,” said Reel. “How did they even know about that?”

  Pete shrugged again.

  Robie slammed him up against a tree.

  “Shrugs don’t cut it, Pete,” snarled Robie. “And roundabout bullshit nonanswers don’t, either. They knew about it because you put the squeeze on them. In order to do that you had to have information. So, last time, who was the guy in the photo?”

  When Pete didn’t say anything Robie put his gun against the man’s forehead.

  “Last chance,” said Robie.

  Pete snorted. “You ain’t shootin’ me. That’d be murder. Lock your ass up forever in a Mississippi prison.”

  Reel said, “Robie, if that’s what you want to do, use this.” She pulled a suppressor from her pocket and tossed it to him. He caught it and spun it onto the barrel of his pistol.

  Reel added, “We can cut him up and drop him in that swamp we passed earlier. No lungs to inflate, the body stays down. Then the gators can have him. What’s left of him. So go ahead and kill him. It’ll be light soon and we need time to dump the body.”

  “You two are killers!” Pete exclaimed.

  “Damn, you are a genius,” said Reel.

  Robie put the suppressed muzzle against Pete’s forehead and his finger slipped to the trigger guard.

  “Nelson Wendell,” a panicked Pete blurted out.

  “And who exactly is Nelson Wendell?” asked Robie.

  “Dude in the photo with the kids.”

  “And?”

  “And he was chairman of Coastal Energy. Coal, gas, oil, you name it. One of the richest men in Mississippi, hell, the whole south. You must’ve heard’a him.”

  “No. But he likes kids?” said Reel.

  “Guess so.”

  “And how did your dad come by those pictures?”

  Now Pete looked very nervous. “I don’t want’a say.”

  “Well, you’re going to have to overcome that,” said Robie, pressing the muzzle tighter against the young man’s head.

  “Okay, okay. He had a shack at the back of his property.”

  “I know. I’ve seen it. It’s still there.”

  “Right. And it was secluded. He…he let this guy bring the kids there.”

  “And he was paid for it?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Why would a rich guy put himself in your dad’s power like that?”

  “He told Dad he was bringing his girlfriends over. That wasn’t so bad, I guess. Men back then screwed around as a matter of course. I mean this was a long time ago.”

  “They still screw around, as a matter of course,” noted Reel.

  “But your dad found out it wasn’t grown women having consensual sex?”

  “He started watchin’ the place. He saw the kids. He got hold of some pictures. Then he started blackmailin’ the dude.”

  “Enough to set him up in business with the Rebel Yell casino?”

  “Pretty much how it was,” admitted Pete.

  “And his first wife. The one that was in court?” asked Robie. “Did she know?”

  “I don’t know. Dad never said. Swear to God.”

  “But she must have known his money didn’t come from oil and gas rights on their land. Since no one did even any exploratory work there.”

  “I guess that’s right.”

  “And your mother, did she know about this?”

  “We never talked about it. But I don’t think she did. My mom wouldn’t have liked that at all. She’s a good Christian. Goes to church every Sunday.”

  “Well, maybe she did know and that’s why they divorced,” pointed out Robie.

&nb
sp; “Could be,” conceded Pete.

  “Which brings us back to the photos. How did your dad meet someone like Wendell?” asked Robie. “He’s rich and your dad was poor back then.”

  “Well, back then Wendell wasn’t as rich. He and my dad run into each other some way. My old man didn’t want to be a farmer his whole life. He was always anglin’ for a way to get rich. And Wendell had money. Family money.” He looked up at the Willows. “Like the folks who owned this place did.”

  Robie followed his gaze. “The Barksdales?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You know what happened to them?”

  “Not really. I remember my dad talkin’ about them a few times. He said they just upped and left. Nobody knew they were even gone till the house come on the market for sale.” He looked around. “Pretty out of the way. Folks don’t come ’round here ’less they’re visitin’, and apparently folks didn’t visit much with the Barksdales.”

  “Did you know them? Laura and her brother, Emmitt,” said Robie. “You ever see them in town?”

  “No, I think they were gone before I was even born.”

  “Did your father know Henry Barksdale, the father?”

  “If he did he never said so to me.”

  “How’d your dad get the pictures?”

  Pete looked away.

  Robie raised his gun again but Pete put up his hands. “Okay, okay. Dad told me he had a deal with the man who took the pictures.”

  “What sort of deal?”

  “He’d give my dad the pictures if he never told about him being involved in all…that stuff.”

  “So this other guy was into kiddies, too?” said Reel.

  “Yeah. I guess.”

  “And he gave Sherman Clancy pictures of Nelson Wendell with the kids so Clancy wouldn’t rat him out for what he was doing?”

  “That’s right.”

  Robie absorbed all of this and said, “Do you know who the other guy was?”

  “Dad never said.”

  “I’ll ask you one more time. Do you know who the other guy was?”

  “No, I swear. I don’t. I wish I did, but I don’t. I just knew about Wendell.”

  “And you communicated with Wendell’s people because you wanted to keep the cash coming in?” said Robie.

  “Well, you seen the house and everythin’. It’s all goin’ to hell. Dad’s bank accounts are cleaned out. Son of a bitch spent every last dime he had. I can’t even afford gas for my Porsche. What was I supposed to do?”

  “Oh, I don’t know, how about get a job?” said Reel disgustedly.

  He said angrily, “Hey, I grew up kind’a rich. Didn’t prepare me for workin’ for a livin’. Not my fault.”

  Reel looked at Robie. “Can I just shoot him anyway?”

  Robie said, “Where can we find Nelson Wendell?”

  “At a cemetery over in Tupelo.”

  Robie looked stunned. “You’re saying he’s dead?”

  “Yep. He died ’bout a month before my daddy did.”

  “So it wasn’t Wendell you were communicating with? And it wasn’t Wendell who sent the goons after you. So who was it?”

  “Coastal is looking to go on the New York Stock Exchange.”

  “How do you know that?” asked Robie.

  “Looked it up.” Pete added defiantly, “I took a semester of business classes at the community college. I’m no dumbass.”

  “Okay, Mr. Business, how does that tie into all this?”

  “Well, Nelson Wendell ran Coastal right up to his death. So’s I bet the company don’t want all this crap comin’ out about Wendell. It might mess up the deal. Could cost the family billions. And a public shamin’ on top of it.”

  “So it’s the family that’s coming after you?” said Reel.

  “Guess they didn’t like my proposal. Thought they’d get the pictures and send me on into the hereafter without payin’ me one dime, the pathetic jerks.”

  Reel said incredulously, “And this possibility hadn’t occurred to you?”

  “Look, this blackmail crap is new to me, okay? My old man made it look easy.”

  Reel sighed and looked at Robie. “What the hell do we do with him?”

  Robie said, “Why did you come here, Pete?”

  “Heard you were here. I need protection.”

  “And why is that our problem?”

  He started speaking fast. “I’m a material witness. I can talk about stuff that’ll get your dad off. Lots of folks had reason to kill my old man. But if I get killed, all that goes away.”

  Now Robie sighed. “Okay, we’ll take you down to the police station where you can make a full statement and they can protect you.”

  “But I won’t get in no trouble, right?”

  “That’s not up to me, but I suppose if you cooperate they’ll overlook certain things.”

  “Look, man, I ain’t goin’ to jail. I can’t be in no box.”

  “You’re lucky you’re not in a coffin,” said Reel. “Because you are that stupid.”

  “Sticks and stones,” said Pete smugly.

  Reel pressed the muzzle of her gun against his forehead and the smug look vanished.

  She said, “Let me make this as clear as possible. I don’t care if you get killed. I might end up being the one to pull the trigger, actually. But you are in way over your head. So you better drop the smartass routine and start treating this situation like it’s life and death. And in your case my money’s on death.”

  She stepped back, holstered her weapon, turned, and walked off, leaving Pete Clancy looking like he might be sick to his stomach.