The racket pulled Charlie away from the TV and into the kitchen area. However, Melanie noticed that Andrew Kane didn't flinch.
Charlie stood over Jared's hunched shoulders, not just curious but worried. Melanie recognized that pinched forehead and narrowed eyes. He didn't like anyone messing with the few items he felt were valuable enough to keep in his backpack.
"What the hell are all these red circles?" Jared pointed out several on the map.
"I got a bunch of different state maps." Now Charlie sounded excited, the little kid anxious to impress his mentor. Charlie reached for his backpack and began pulling out a stack of folded road maps. "I circle towns with cool names. You know, someday I'd like to visit them, just to say that I did."
Charlie crouched down closer to the map spread out on the table. "See here-" he put his index finger on one "- Princeton. Bet you didn't know there was a Princeton, Nebraska. I figured it'd be cool to tell people I went to Princeton."
Charlie laughed and Jared actually smiled.
Jared started looking over the map, too. He pointed to a red circle and said, "I see what you mean, kid. Here's Stella, Nebraska. You could tell people you spent the night in Stella." He shoved Charlie with his elbow. "Get it? In Stella?"
Melanie watched them. She couldn't believe the two of them, laughing and making jokes.
"I'm thinking they'll be looking for us on the interstate," Jared said.
"Actually, they think we stole a red pickup from some farmer," Charlie interrupted with a wide grin. "I heard it on the news."
"Really? That buys us some time. We'll stick to Highway 6 all the way to Colorado. Looks like you'll get to go through some of your red-circled towns, Charlie."
"Cool. I've got the Colorado map, too. I've never been to Colorado."
Melanie picked up her backpack, hugging it to her chest, ignoring the crusted mud flaking off and smearing the towel. She stood up, ready to go change, but waited, watching the two men in her life plot her future. Neither of them had even asked if she wanted to go to fucking Colorado. They had gotten her into this mess and yet neither of them seemed to realize how much of a mess it was.
"They said you killed four people, Jared." She didn't mean for her voice to sound so hysterical, but it worked. It got both their attention. "Is that true? Four victims. That's what they said on the news. All shot at close range. Dead."
"Four?" Jared repeated and he looked to Charlie, who nodded his confirmation. "You mean one of those fuckers is still alive?"
CHAPTER 35
8:32 a.m.
Grace took the last bite of her sausage biscuit just as Frank Irwin pulled back the drop sheet from the corpse.
The woman looked smaller now laid out on the stainless-steel table. With all the blood washed away Grace could see that the gunshot wound had sliced open her jaw. The gash started just under the chin and stretched almost to her ear.
"The bullet shattered all her teeth on that side," Frank said, opening the woman's mouth with his gloved fingers. "Entrance was here below the chin. Exit was here, taking out the left tonsil and the side of the neck."
"Pretty strange way to shoot someone, right, Frank?"
"Pakula already told me your theory, Grace."
"And?"
"It was seven years ago. I wasn't here back then, although I heard about it. I pulled the photos and X rays."
He walked over to the light box, flipped a switch and propped up two X-ray films side by side.
He didn't need to tell her. Grace knew the other X ray was of Rebecca Moore's shattered jaw. Rebecca's body had been found in a ditch, north of Dodge Park seven years ago. She had been raped, stabbed three times, shot in the mouth and her body stuffed in a huge, black garbage bag before being thrown into a ditch. Another high-school student, Danny Ramerez, thought he saw her get into a pickup outside of Central High School with Jared Barnett. Seven years later Danny Ramerez suddenly said he was mistaken.
"The injuries are similar," Frank said. "I wasn't able to determine the caliber. And it sounds like we don't know for sure what kind of weapon he used here, or do we?"
"We recovered a casing in the wall behind her," Pakula answered. "It's a.38, but that's all I know right now. It looks like there were two guns used. Ballistics report probably won't be back until tomorrow."
"What do we know about her?" Grace was anxious to find out why Jared Barnett may have singled out this young woman, this bank teller.
"Her name is Tina Cervante," Pakula began, not needing a file or notes. "She was twenty-three years old, single, lived with two girlfriends in West Omaha. She's from Texas. All her family's down there. She came up to go to college, dropped out and landed the bank job. I'm gonna talk to one of the roommates later today. But here's something interesting. About a year ago she got busted for DUI, her third offense. Pretty serious stuff. Guess who her fucking attorney was?"
Grace was more interested in the woman's hands. "Hold on a minute." She pulled the sheet back and checked out her toes. "She probably lived with two roommates because she wasn't making enough money to be out on her own. Maybe she even had some college loans to pay, especially if her parents were pissed off that she didn't stick with it. And yet she could afford to have her fingernails and toes professionally manicured? Maybe even on a routine basis."