"And I wasn't supposed to mention he was an only child," Rebecca said.
Linda's face was troubled. "We all tell fibs sometimes. I'll bet the incident with the sister-in-law--what his brother told you about--didn't happen at all, or it wasn't so bad, and his brother used it as an excuse to cut things off."
Rebecca was clearly not convinced of this.
Dance supposed that Pell had identified both Linda and Rebecca as more of a threat to him than Samantha. Linda was the mother of the Family and would have some authority. Rebecca was clearly brash and outspoken. But Samantha . . . he could control her much better and knew she could be trusted with the truth--well, some truth.
Dance was glad she'd decided to come help them.
She noticed that Samantha was looking at the coffeepot.
"Like some?"
"I'm a little tired. Haven't had much sleep lately."
"Welcome to the club," Rebecca said.
Samantha half rose but Dance waved her down. "Milk, sugar?"
"Oh, don't go to any trouble. Really."
The agent noticed that Linda and Rebecca shared a faint smile at Samantha's habitual timidity.
Mouse . . .
"Thanks. Milk."
Dance continued, "Linda mentioned Pell might have wanted to move to the country somewhere, a 'mountaintop.' Do you have any idea what he was talking about?"
"Well, Daniel told me a bunch of times he wanted to get out to the country. Move the Family there. It was real important to him to get away from everybody. He didn't like neighbors, didn't like the government. He wanted space for more people. He wanted the Family to grow."
"He did?" Rebecca asked.
Linda said nothing about this.
"Did he ever mention Utah?"
"No."
"Where could he h
ave had in mind?"
"He didn't say. But it sounded like he'd been doing some serious thinking about it."
Recalling that he'd possibly used a boat to escape from the Pemberton crime scene, Dance had an idea. She asked, "Did he ever mention an island?"
Samantha laughed. "An island? No way."
"Why not?"
"He's terrified of the water. He's not getting into anything that floats."
Linda blinked. "I didn't know that."
Rebecca didn't either. A wry smile. "Of course not. He'd only share his fears with his Mouse."
"Daniel said the ocean's somebody else's world. People have no business being there. You shouldn't be in a place that you can't be master of. Same thing with flying. He didn't trust pilots or airplanes."