The Guilty (Will Robie 4)

“I must have dozed off.”

Robie stood next to the bed.

“How did it go at the jail?”

She propped herself up more and rubbed at her face, then pushed loose strands of hair back into place. “I must look a mess.”

“You look fine. How was Dad?”

“Not too bad. He was mad at me for bringing Ty, but once Ty went over and hugged him all was right with the world.”

“Good.”

“He told me about Pete Clancy and those boys from the casino. My God, Will, you could’a been killed.” She reached out a shaky hand and gripped his arm.

“Which is why I came up to see you.” He sat on the edge of the bed. “You need to start taking some security precautions. For starters, locking the doors so no one can just walk right in.”

?

??You really think these folks will try something?”

“They saw me in town talking to you. They saw Ty.”

Victoria now sat up straight. “Oh, shit!”

“Yeah. It was bad luck, but we can’t do anything to change that now. It is what it is.”

“If they try to harm one hair on—”

Robie clutched her shoulder. “That won’t happen, Victoria.”

“You don’t know that!”

“Do you own a gun?”

“Everybody in Mississippi owns a gun.”

“Then I would start carrying it with you and keeping it handy around here. But don’t leave it around for Ty to stumble across.”

“As if I would, Will. I’m not stupid or careless.”

“I know. I’m just being overly cautious.”

She took several deep breaths. “I think I’ll go check on Ty.”

“I’m sorry for bringing this down on your head.”

“I’m sorry too, Will,” she said, and her tone was not friendly.

“I can move out of here,” he said, interpreting her unspoken thoughts.

“Well, it’s too late for that now. They saw you with us. They’ll put it all together. Hell, they probably already have. Are they also the source of these credible threats?”

“I don’t know, since I haven’t seen these credible threats. Davis hasn’t shared them with Toni Moses yet.”

She rose, slipped on her shoes, and headed out to check on Ty.

Robie went to his room and sat on the edge of the bed, lost in thought. It hadn’t occurred to him before, but as he looked around he realized that this had been Laura Barksdale’s bedroom.

He should have noted it before. Late at night he had shimmied up to the second-floor verandah and into her bedroom enough times.

Her bed had been set here as well, and with the way the room was configured, it was the most logical place. Her desk had been against the wall facing the front of the house. She’d been an A student, unlike Robie. But he figured his grades were good enough, considering he played sports year-round and had far from a perfect home life.

He rose and went to the window overlooking the front of the house. This had been the same window where he had seen her silhouette.

His mind went back to that night over twenty-two years ago. It had been the biggest shock he had ever received: that she had chosen to stay here instead of go with him. If he had ever bothered to psychoanalyze himself, he might have concluded that his problem getting close to people might stem from that.

But he had never bothered, and thus never concluded.

His phone buzzed. The number was one he didn’t recognize.

“Hello?”

“Mr. Robie?”

“Yes, who is this?”

“Sara Chisum.”

He froze, but only for a moment. She was the last person he ever expected to be calling him, especially after what had happened with her younger sister earlier.

“Sara, what is it?”

“Uh, you said if I remembered anythin’ that I should give you a call.”

“And did you remember something?”

“Well, to tell the truth, I never forgot it.”

“What is it?”

“It has to do with Janet. Who she was meetin’ with the night she was killed.”

“Who?”

“I don’t want to tell you over the phone.”

“Why not?”

“Look, Mr. Robie, Emma told me what you did.”

“You mean what I paid her?”

“Right.”

Now Robie understood the call. Little sister got paid, now big sister wanted her cut. Damn, thought Robie, these Chisum girls were nothing if not enterprising.

“All right, where and when?”

“Where we saw each other before. Tonight. Around eleven.”

“Why so late?”

“Because I can’t get away until my parents are asleep. My dad’s been watchin’ me like a hawk.”

“Okay, how much?”

“Triple what you paid Emma.”

“And if what you remembered isn’t worth that?”

“Trust me, it will be.”

Chapter

36

ROBIE GOT THERE at ten, because he didn’t like other people picking the spots for meetings. He had left his car about a quarter mile away and approached on foot.

He was currently motionless behind a tree taking stock of the land in front of him. He didn’t like walking around out here late at night. Snakes were plentiful, and most of them were venomous. But even worse than that were the gators. The Pearl had its share of the deadly creatures. And though gators were mostly afraid of humans and avoided them whenever possible, sometimes the two species butted heads. And the gators won their fair share of those encounters.

The gator population had almost been wiped out in Mississippi by the 1970s. To replenish it the state had handed out baby gators at the state fair and asked folks to go drop them in the rivers. It had worked. Now there were nearly forty thousand of them in the state’s waters. They were territorial creatures, and they did most of their hunting at night.

Robie had almost lost a leg to one while swimming at dusk in the Pearl as a teenager.

The one thing he had never forgotten from the encounter was how big the suckers were. And fast.

He had both pistols with him, and he would use them, if necessary, on snakes, gators, or anything threatening him that moved on two legs.

He continued to look around, listening for both human footsteps and the rattles of snakes.

At two minutes past eleven he heard them.

Footsteps. Light, uncertain, hesitant.

Then Sara Chisum appeared in the same clearing where she had encountered Robie earlier. Near where Clancy had died. Probably where her sister had gone into the Pearl with a hole in her head.

She had on cutoff jean shorts, tennis shoes, and a long-sleeved shirt that hung past her waist.

“Mr. Robie?” she called out.