A Minute to Midnight

by David Baldacci

  Chapter 55

  SARAH TOOMEY was around ten and looked terrified sitting next to her grim parents. She was all dark pigtails, freckles, big eyes, and gapped teeth, and she wore a pair of faded denim overalls with a white T-shirt underneath, and pink Crocs.

  Pine, Laredo, and Wallis were perched in chairs across from them.

  “Sarah, we just want you to tell us as much as you can remember about seeing Frankie with the man the other day, okay, sweetie?” said Pine.

  She had leaned forward in her chair in the small living room so that she was eye to eye with the child.

  In a small, shaky voice Sarah said, “Okay, I’ll try really hard.”

  “I know you will. Now, did you know Frankie well?”

  “Pretty well. I liked him. We were in some of the same classes. And we had the same homeroom. He was funny. He liked to joke around. And he could speak Spanish. He was teaching me some.”

  “I bet. Sounds like you two really hit it off.”

  “I liked him,” she said simply. “He was nice.”

  “I’m sure. From all we’ve learned he was a really nice boy. Now can you tell us what you saw and heard that day?”

  Sarah looked up at her mother, who nodded and said, “You tell them everything you can remember, Sarah. Go ahead, you can do this, honey.”

  She nodded and put her hands together in her lap. “Frankie was ahead of me on the street that morning. We were walking to the bus stop. It was only another block before we got there. I was going to catch up to Frankie and say something to him in Spanish to surprise him when this man comes out of nowhere and walks up to Frankie.”

  Pine interjected, “Can you describe him, Sarah? Any detail you can remember. Take your time. There’s no rush at all.”

  “He was tall, taller than you or your friends. A big guy.”

  “Could you tell if he was white, black…?”

  “Oh, he was definitely white.”

  “Age?”

  “Older. He had white hair. It was kind of long and thick. It hung out from under his hat.”

  “His hat? What kind of hat was it?” asked Pine, shooting Wallis and Laredo a look.

  “Like a cowboy hat, you know. Like you see on TV.”

  “What about the rest of his clothes?”

  “Jeans and a shirt. A dark shirt, I think.”

  “Shoes?”

  “I don’t remember.”

  “Okay. What did he do when he reached Frankie?”

  “He said something to him and then handed him an envelope.”

  “Could you tell what was in it?”

  “No, but it was like a regular white envelope.”

  “Okay, what else?”

  “Then he handed Frankie some money. Some bills. I don’t know what they were. I mean, how much it was. I couldn’t see.”

  “And what did Frankie do?”

  “He said something to the man, and the guy patted him on the shoulder and said something back. Frankie smiled. I remember that.”

  “What happened after that?”

  “Then the guy walked off. I watched him for a bit. I was worried at first. I mean, I’m not supposed to talk to strangers and I’m pretty sure Frankie’s not, either. But then the man just walked off, so I didn’t know what was going on. I thought maybe Frankie knew him.”

  “What did Frankie do with the envelope and money?”

  “He put the money in his pocket. Then he opened the envelope and pulled out a slip of paper. He seemed to be reading it as he was walking along. I was too far away to see what was on it. Then he put it in his pocket.”

  “Did you ask him later what the man wanted? Why he had given him the money and what was in the envelope?”

  Sarah’s mouth drooped. “I was going to, but then the bus passed us on the way to the stop. We were going to miss it. We all started running. Frankie was faster than me. When I got there, he was way ahead of me and was already in line to get on. He got on with some other kids and ended up sitting with them. I had to go sit in the back. I was going to ask him about it later when we got to school, but…things got busy and I never did.”

  “Did you go home on the bus that day?” asked Wallis.

  Sarah’s mother answered. “Sarah had a doctor’s appointment that day. I went to the school and got her about an hour before classes let out. We came home directly from the doctor’s, so she wouldn’t have seen Frankie again.”

  Sarah looked at them with a trembling look and tears filling her eyes. “If…if I had asked Frankie about what that man wanted, he might not be…”

  Pine put a hand on her quivering shoulder. “None of this was your fault, Sarah. You didn’t do anything wrong. This was all someone else’s doing. And you’ve been a big help and told us a lot of things we didn’t know that will help us find that person. We really appreciate your help, Sarah. Okay?”

  “Okay,” said Sarah before she buried her face in her mother’s shoulder and started to cry.

  On the way back to the car, Laredo said, “Okay, guy gives the kid a note and some money. What do you want to bet that the note said, get off at a different stop and someone will be waiting to take you to…I don’t know, home, or the car dealership to maybe take a ride in one of the Mercedeses?”

  Pine said, “Or they could have told him he would be met by his parents.”

  “You think he was met by them?” asked Wallis.

  “Genie Duncan seemed sincerely upset. Her husband didn’t strike me as being involved in this. But the guy could have used their names to gain Frankie’s trust.”

  “And he could have gotten that information any number of ways,” said Wallis.

  “Tall, older guy wearing a cowboy hat,” said Pine darkly.

  “I know,” said Laredo. “Could be a lot of people, but it also sounds an awful lot like your friend, Cy Tanner. Didn’t see that one coming.”

  “Neither did I,” muttered Pine.

  Chapter 56

  HOW DO YOU WANT to handle this?” said Wallis.

  They were in his car outside of Cy Tanner’s house. His truck was in front and Roscoe was asleep on the porch.

  “We need to get his picture and show it to Sarah,” said Pine. “But I don’t want him to know what we’re doing.”

  “Okay,” said Wallis. “But Carol said this Tanner fellow was at the Clink when Rebane’s body was found.”

  “She couldn’t be certain of the timing. He could have dropped the body off and gone right there to establish an alibi. It would take him all of two minutes to walk from where the body was dumped to the Clink. There’s no way Carol could know to the minute when he got there, no more than we could know the exact minute the body was placed where it was found.”

  “Right, good point,” said Wallis.

  “I can pretend to be taking pics of the house with my phone and get him in one,” said Laredo.

  “Sounds like a plan,” said Pine absently.

  “You don’t think he’s good for it?” said Laredo.

  “I have no idea. We need to know a lot more than we do now, that’s for sure. But if he is the guy, we don’t want to spook him.”

  They all climbed out of the car. A moment later they heard the sounds.

  “He’s in his workshop in back,” said Pine. “That’s the sound of a saw.”

  “I wonder what he’s cutting up?” said Wallis nervously.

  Pine walked over to Roscoe and scratched the dog’s ears. “Hey, Roscoe, how’re you doing?”

  “I think old Roscoe might be on his last legs,” said Laredo. “His breathing doesn’t sound too good.”

  Pine wandered over to Tanner’s truck.

  “Don’t even think about performing an illegal search,” warned Laredo.

  “Don’t worry, I’m not going to taint any evidence.” She looked in the back of the truck and froze.

  Laredo, who had noted this, said, “What is it?”

  “Take a look at this.”

  The men hustled over and looked inside
the truck.

  “What are we looking for? There’s nothing there,” said Wallis.

  “Look at the bolt heads in the floor liner.”

  Laredo and Wallis leaned in closer. Laredo got it first.

  “The marks on Hanna Rebane’s back and legs. I looked at the autopsy photos when I got to town. They match the pattern we’re looking at now.”

  “Yes, they do.”

  Laredo glanced over at the old barrel that Tanner used to burn things. Some smoke was still coming out of it. He hustled over and, using a long stick he picked up from the ground, started poking around in it.

  Pine and Wallis joined him.

  “You think…?” said Pine.

  “I didn’t until about five seconds ago.”

  He started pulling things out with the point of the stick and setting them on the ground.

  “Don’t you need a search warrant for this?” said Wallis anxiously.

  “The bolt pattern in the truck coupled with Sarah’s description establishes enough probable cause,” said Pine. “Plus, he had given me permission to look around before, including in the house. I think we can chance it.”

  Wallis didn’t look convinced, but he also didn’t argue the point as soon as the next object Laredo speared emerged from the barrel.

  Pine snagged it and dropped it on the ground, tamping out some embers with the sole of her boot. She bent down and picked it up.

  “That look like a red Nike pullover to you?”

  “What’s left of it,” said Wallis.

  “Hey, what are y’all doing here?”

  They turned to see Tanner standing at the corner of his house, a pair of safety goggles flipped up on his forehead.

  Pine put the remnants of the pullover behind her back. “Hey, Cy, what’s up?”

  He walked toward them. “Carol came by before. She said Jenny got squared away with those folks real good. I’m going over there later.”

  “That sounds great.”

  “You mind if we go inside?” she asked. “I wanted to take some pictures of the place. It might jog my memory.”

  “Sure.” Then he glanced at the debris that Laredo had pulled out of the trash barrel. “What’s going on here?”

  “Like I told you before,” said Pine. “The things in there caught fire again. Laredo here was stamping them out.”

  “Oh, okay, thanks there, pardner.”

  “You’re welcome.” Laredo whipped out his phone. “Hey, let me take a picture of you two together, to make sure I have everything adjusted right.”

  He snapped a picture of Tanner and Pine and then they headed inside, with Tanner leading the way. Pine handed off the pullover to Wallis, who stuck it under his trench coat.

  They wandered around inside, and Laredo took pictures along the way with his phone.

  “You make any headway on the bastard that killed all them people?” asked Tanner as they trooped back down from the upstairs.

  “Working on it. We identified the boy. Went to talk to his foster parents.”

  “I’ll bet they’re all broke up.”

  Pine shot Laredo a glance. “Someone might have seen the guy.”

  “Really? Who?” blurted out Tanner.

  “A witness in Columbus who saw the guy with the little boy we found dead.”

  “Well, hell, that’s great. You could nail the sucker then.”

  “We’re going to try. You heading over to see Jenny now?”

  “Yeah, just gonna clean up some. Look, I made her this. What do you think?”

  He lifted a doll off the giant bean bag chair and handed it to Pine.

  She looked at it. “You made this? From what?”

  “Scraps I found here and there.”

  “It’s really good, Cy.”

  “Hope she likes it.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure she will.” Pine handed it back and he replaced it on the bean bag chair. “We’ll wait for you, how about that? And then head over with you.”

  “Okay, be down in a jiffy. Can’t take no regular shower or anything. Just gonna wash off in the sink.”

  “Why not?”

  “No hot water.”

  He headed up the stairs.

  Pine looked at Laredo and Wallis. “Well?”

  In a low voice Wallis said, “If he is the killer, he’s the coolest cucumber I’ve ever met. I mean, he kills three people and he’s making his granddaughter a doll? For Chrissakes.”

  She looked at Laredo. “And you?”

  “Jury’s still out. We need to show this photo to the girl.”

  “Agreed. But until we get a positive ID, we don’t let him out of our sight.”

  Chapter 57

  THE QUARLESES WERE a very nice family. That was Pine’s initial impression.

  Their house was big and sprawling and old and rickety with lots of yard to run in and lots of kids with whom to run. There were also two floppy-eared dogs, three cats—at least those were the ones Pine could see—a pig named Oinks, and a parakeet in a cage in the front room.

  Ted Quarles and his wife, Emma, had greeted them at the door and invited them in. Pine had seen her rental in the driveway and knew that meant Blum was also here. Tanner had ridden over with them in Wallis’s Crown Vic, at Pine’s suggestion.

  When Tanner got down on his knees and gave Jenny the doll he’d made, Pine was watching Blum. The older woman looked like she might cry. That was when Pine sidled over to her and started whispering in her ear, telling Blum the eyewitness account and what they had found at Tanner’s.

  To her credit, Blum’s features barely changed. She glanced at Pine and then over at Laredo, and then her gaze returned to Tanner, to whom Jenny was now giving a hug.

  “Do you mind if I try something?” Blum asked Pine.

  “Like what?”

  “Do you trust me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay.”

  After some chitchat and Jenny running off to show the other kids her doll, Blum walked over to Tanner, who had accepted a glass of lemonade from Emma Quarles.

  “Jenny seems really happy,” Blum said to him.

  He nodded though he looked a little sad. “Thing is, I’m her grandpop, I should be able to look after my family.”

  “It’s not like you won’t see her, Cy. You can come by here as often as you want. I’m sure the Quarleses won’t mind.”

  “Yeah, I guess. But I want to pay ’em. Or at least fix up some stuff for them as barter. I don’t want no handout.”

  “I’m sure that can be arranged.”

  “Well, okay, then,” he said awkwardly.

  “But it’s a good thing you do have them looking after Jenny.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I would imagine you’ll want to visit your daughter in rehab.”

  “Oh, yeah, I do. I plan on going next week, in fact. I want to let Linda get settled in and all. She’s gonna be there about two months. That’s what the boyfriend said.”

  “You going to drive your truck over?”

  “Well, yeah, I can’t walk to Tuscaloosa. It’s not the most reliable thing, but it’s all I got.”

  “You drove it into town that night at the Clink, right? When I was there, and you and Agnes came in. The night they found the woman’s body.”

  Tanner shook his head. “Matter of fact, I didn’t.”

  “Why not? Don’t tell me you walked. That’s quite a hike.”

  Pine was a few feet behind them listening intently to this exchange.

  “Well, the damn thing wouldn’t start.”

  “Wouldn’t start? You have trouble like that before with it?”

  “No. I mean, the durn thing’s got problems, all right, but not starting wasn’t one of them. Till that night, anyways.”

  “How’d you get to town then?”

  “Walked over to Agnes’s and I drove her car in with her. She don’t drive it much. In fact, I don’t think she drives it at all. Clean as a whistle. It belonged to her husband. It’s a Bui
ck. Right nice machine. Although the tags expired a long time ago, but hey.”

  Blum surreptitiously glanced at Pine. “So that’s why you two came in together? I remember that.”

  “Yep. Though it was the darnedest thing.”

  “What was?”

  “The truck. I went out the next morning figuring I’d have to check it all out and fix stuff, but I turned the key, and she started right up.”

  Blum once more glanced at Pine. “Will miracles never cease.”

  “Got to have a vehicle out here. Only way I can get to my work. Customers want me to come there most times. Or haul what needs fixing back to my workshop.”

  “When did you get back from the restaurant that night?”

  “What? Oh, I took Agnes home and we talked a bit. She made me some coffee. Then I walked back. Probably around eleven or so. That durn Roscoe was dead asleep on the bean bag, so I slept on the floor. Didn’t do my old back any good, I can tell you that.”

  Blum’s face crinkled into a smile. “You do have a soft spot for that dog.”

  Tanner’s eyes became watery. “He was all I had, till Jenny come to town.”

  Blum patted his shoulder. “Well, now you have both of them to look after.”

  She walked back over to Pine.

  “That was some nice work, Carol.”

  “I think someone is working awfully hard to frame Cy Tanner for something he didn’t do.”

  Pine blew air out of her cheeks. “I think you might be right. He would make a prime fall guy. They might have sabotaged his truck that night so they could use it. Then dress up like him and meet up with Frankie Gomez, counting on the fact that someone might see him.”

  “Which means the real killer is out there watching and manipulating things.”

  Pine said, “The guy in the Pagani? You think that was why he was watching Cy’s house?”

  “Learning his routine and such, you mean? It’s certainly plausible.”

  “We still have to show Cy’s photo to our witness.”

  “I know you do. And I know you also know that eyewitness testimony is wrong more often than it’s right.”

  “Still have to do it. And then there’s the other evidence we found.”