“Thanks. Do you want some coffee or tea?”
“No, you and Annie need to get some rest, and I’ve got some things to do.”
She furrowed her brow at this statement. “Things to do? Do you know what time it is?”
“My job’s like yours; it’s not nine-to-five.”
She smiled and that lifted his spirits a little. “Okay, but please be careful.”
“Thanks for helping, Alex, I know Annie appreciates it.”
“That’s what we do here, we help each other because each other is all we’ve really got.”
“Where’s Dak? I didn’t see his Harley?”
“I am not my brother’s keeper.”
They gazed at each other. Devine didn’t really want the moment to end, but...
“Good night,” she said.
She closed the door, and he hurried back to the Tahoe and drove off.
He could feel things escalating now and he needed information, a lot of it.
As he drove he hit a number on his phone. Campbell picked up on the second ring.
Devine went over finding Earl Palmer’s body, and then the fact of the missing rape kit and Chief Harper’s having been the last one to check it out.
“And Annie Palmer’s parents found Alex right after the event happened. And three days later they were dead in a house fire.”
“And you believe they saw who did it, but didn’t report it for some reason, then they were murdered by the man who raped Alex to ensure their permanent silence?”
“It’s a plausible theory.”
“But you have to get proof.”
“The puzzling question is, if I’m right, why didn’t they report it?”
“Putnam is a small town.”
“Meaning they might have known the person who did it and didn’t want to expose them for some reason?”
“That’s also a plausible theory,” noted Campbell. “Now, let’s focus on Earl Palmer’s death.”
“If he was murdered, and there’s no proof of that yet, one reason could be he was paid off or forced by someone to pretend he found Jenny’s body.”
“So the murderer silenced him in case he had a change of heart and decided to tell all?”
“Yes.”
“Why involve him in the first place?” asked Campbell.
“I don’t believe Jenny was killed where she was found. I think she was taken there. And it wasn’t just any location. It was near the spot where Alex was found after she was raped.”
“So you think the attack on Alex and the murder of her sister are connected even though they took place fifteen years apart?”
“I’m beginning to. Otherwise, the locations are just too much of a coincidence, particularly if the place where she was found was staged. That means the killer intentionally picked it.”
“Wouldn’t most people up there know that was the spot where Alex was found?”
“No, I don’t think so. It was apparently hushed up. But I may still have a town full of suspects. Now, Jenny told her mother that she had unfinished business up here. And then I found out that she visited Alex and asked her if she remembered anything about that night. To my mind that means the unfinished business has to do with Alex’s rape.”
“Do you think Jenny had found out something?”
“Yes, I do. And maybe you could check with her colleagues at CIA to see if she said or did something there that might help us.”
Campbell said, “You know, it’s possible that she could have used some of her government resources to do some sleuthing on her own.”
“From the sounds of it the lady was tenacious as hell.”
“You’re describing yourself, too.”
“It’s what the Army taught me, as you know. Speaking of, any luck on breaking through the seal on Dak’s military record?”
“Yes. He was found in bed with the wife of his CO.”
Devine said, “Okay, I can see why he got the OTH rather than a DD. The Army didn’t want everyone to know about a cuckolded superior officer.”
“But I don’t see how that helps you.”
“It tells me that Dak will take a big risk if the reward is large enough.”
“But it also shows a degree of recklessness,” noted Campbell.
“Which makes him unpredictable and more dangerous.”
“Exactly.”
“The mole?” asked Devine.
“We’re ninety percent through our audit.”
“Let me know when you finish, with or without an answer.”
“What are you going to do now?” Campbell asked.
“Take a nighttime tour of Putnam, Maine.”
“In the hopes of finding what?” asked Campbell.
“I’ll know it when I see it.”
Chapter 43
Devine drove to the spot where one sister had been raped and the other one found murdered. He got out and walked around, while at the same time in his mind moving through the details he knew about Jenny’s murder. And speculating on what had happened to Alex here.
He thought about Jenny with a rifle aimed at her head. And of Alex when she realized what was about to happen to her. The twin images rocked him to his core, when Devine didn’t believe anything could anymore. He walked to the edge, and looked down at the rocks and then out at the ocean, which was rumbling and tumbling.
He had seen more violence and depravity in his life than most others had. To a degree it desensitized you to the stunning cruelty of which human beings were capable. Yet in other ways Devine found he was more empathetic than most. It might be because he had comforted, as best he could, colleagues and friends and family members who had lost loved ones. That didn’t just include fellow Americans, but soldiers from other countries, and civilians who had lost everything and everyone they cared about to war.
Death was always unsettling, even when it was expected. But violent, unexpected death? It had a horror, a grotesqueness that most humans simply couldn’t wrap their minds around. That’s because there was nothing logical or understandable about it.
He looked in the direction of Jocelyn Point, where two vulnerable women were hunkering down. Perhaps they were managing to get by together when they might have failed alone. At least he hoped so.
As Devine looked back out to the water he saw the lights of a boat that was very near the shore, and north of his position. He looked at his watch and wondered who it might be out there at this hour of the night.
He hopped into his SUV and drove toward where the boat seemed to be heading. He continually glanced out at the water to follow the vessel’s journey. And then the light vanished, which deepened his suspicions. He slowed the SUV, pulled over, and stopped. He slid his optics from his bag, got out, and looked through them over the vehicle’s roof. He swept the horizon for a glimpse of the vessel. But it was like the boat had disappeared into the night.
He got back in and was about to pull back on the road when a car passed him, going fast. He glanced quickly enough to see that it was Dr. Guillaume in a gray BMW sedan. He pulled in behind her and followed at a discreet distance. By now she had to have finished at Palmer’s place or squared things away at the funeral home before she did the post in the morning. She might be heading home, wherever that was. She had told him she lived here, but also kept a place in Augusta.
He lowered the window a crack because he was feeling warm and a little claustrophobic. The briny smell from the Atlantic flooded the interior and brought back memories of West Point and sailing on the brackish Hudson River.
Officially known as the United States Military Academy, West Point had been identified by George Washington as the most strategic location in the American Revolutionary War. Originally named Fort Clinton, it was the oldest continuously maintained military outpost in the country. It was on the west bank of the Hudson, hence the name. A branch of the U.S. Mint was located there. It was pretty safe, Devine thought, being on a military installation loaded with weapons and people who knew how to use them.