“I am ordering you to return to DC.”
“I’m on leave. I don’t think you can order me to do anything.”
“This is far more complicated than you think, Robie. If the Director gets any inkling about this…”
“Evan Tucker already hates my guts. I don’t think this could make matters that much worse.”
“You would be very wrong about that.”
“I appreciate the advice. But if you want me back in the field one day with the ability to actually pull the trigger, then I have to see this through.”
He clicked off and threw the phone down. He hadn’t asked about Jessica Reel’s status, because he figured the answer would be the same.
Still out. And now, he didn’t want her around him. After last night things had gone to a whole new level, and Robie had no idea how things would turn out. But if the world fell on his head on this little strip of the Gulf Coast, he wanted it to be his head only. Not hers, too. She didn’t deserve to be buried under his personal troubles.
He ate breakfast with Victoria and Tyler. The little boy snatched glances at Robie while he was eating.
Victoria seemed subdued, her mind far away.
As they were finishing up she said, “Did I hear you come in early this morning?”
“Not me. I slept like a baby.”
She nodded. “Maybe it was the man you saw coming back.”
“Maybe it was,” said Robie. “I’ll have a look around before I leave.”
“Where are you going?”
“To see my father. Are you going to see him today?”
“I see him every day. And I’m going to take Ty with me this time.”
Robie glanced over at the little boy. “I think that would do them both some good.”
She lowered her voice. “You think so? Seeing his father locked in a cage?”
“He doesn’t have to know that’s what it is. It could be just a visit.”
Victoria looked away, clearly frustrated.
“Keep your phone nearby. Anything comes up, call me.”
She glanced up at him as he rose. “Why would something come up?”
“You just never know.”
Priscilla followed him out of the house.
“Where were you last night? ’Cause I saw you climbin’ up to the second floor of this here house at five this mornin’.”
“Just getting some air.”
“What, ain’t no air in this house?”
“Different kind of air.”
“And the stairs don’t work for you?”
“Just my way of exercising.”
“Uh-huh. You gettin’ yourself in some trouble, Will Robie?”
“Not if I can help it.”
He got in his car and drove off.
And that was when he heard the sirens.
As he neared the main road into town a fire truck flashed past him. Then another. Behind that was a police car and behind that an ambulance.
Robie was going to turn right to head to town. Instead he turned left and followed this posse of emergency vehicles.
Twenty minutes later he saw thick, black smoke billowing up from behind a forest of trees. Ten minutes after that the squad of emergency vehicles roared through the gates of the Clancy estate. The smoke was so thick that Robie, as he pulled his car to a stop on the other side of the road, couldn’t see much past the gates.
A few minutes later he heard the rush of water as the firefighters combated the blaze. The police car had blocked the entrance to the house, moving only when another fire truck pulled in to join the effort.
Robie got out of his car and leaned against the front fender.
A minute later another cop car pulled up and Sheila Taggert climbed out. First she looked at Robie and snapped, “You keep your butt right there, Will Robie.”
Then she hustled across the street to the other police unit. The cop there rolled down his window and they spoke for a bit. Then she walked back over to Robie.
“What in the Sam Hill are you doin’ here?” she said, getting right in his face.
“I was driving past and saw what was going on. Whose house is it?”
“Why do I think you already know whose house it is?”
“Because you have an overly suspicious mind, maybe?”
“It’s the Clancy estate. What’s left of it.”
“Anybody hurt?”
“Don’t know yet. And when I find out I won’t be tellin’ you. You can hear it through the gossip lines like everybody else ’round here.”
“Know the cause yet?”
“Same answer to your last damn question.”
“Well, I guess I’ll be heading on.”
She gripped his arm. “Robie, anything you need to be tellin’ me?”
“If I think of something, you’ll be the first to know, Deputy Taggert.”
He drove off, checked his rearview once, and saw her staring after him.
He knew one person he had to talk to. And hoped that she would keep it confidential.
If there was such a thing as confidential in a place like Cantrell, Mississippi.
Chapter
32
Are you a damn fool or what?”
Toni Moses was staring up incredulously at Robie from her desk.
He had just finished telling her what had happened.
The lawyer’s reaction had been reasonably predictable.
“I’m not sure what else I could have done,” he countered.
“How about callin’ 911? How’s that for a damn plan?”
“Didn’t seem like the best idea at the time, for a lot of reasons.”
Her mouth curled to a frown. “You have put me in a precarious position. And I do not like to be put in precarious positions. I put others in them. Others do not do that to me. Particularly someone workin’ for me. I specifically told you to do nothin’ to jeopardize my case!”
“Well, since you’re not paying me I’m not sure technically that I am working for you.”
She rose, barely coming up to his chest. “Are you tryin’ to split legal hairs with me? Seriously? ’Cuz I will whip your ass in a New York minute.”
“Look, the point is, there are other people out there with a great motive to kill Sherman Clancy.”
“But you don’t know who they are?”
“We can find out.”
“And you let Pete get away. He could tell us all about it.”
“We can find him.”
She sat back down. “I need to think about this, Robie. I need to really think this through.”
“But you don’t have to tell Aubrey Davis, do you?”
“I might very well. Crimes were committed. Folks tried to kill Pete and you.”
“And someone set fire to the house.”
“I heard about that a little bit ago. You think it’s the same folks?”
“I didn’t kill any of them. They had to get out at some point. And if they wanted to cover their tracks or destroy anything incriminating, that would be one way to do it.”
She eyed him suspiciously. “So you overcame three armed men all by yourself?”
“I got the drop on them. No telling how far a little luck will carry you.”
“Well, when your luck runs out they might just be carryin’ you to a grave.”
“Not the first time I’ve heard that.” He held up the flash drive. “I downloaded everything that looked material and relevant.”
“And got that by breakin’ and enterin’, a crime in Mississippi and everywhere else in the civilized world. Doubt it’ll be admissible. Tainted fruit, as they say.”
“But even so, maybe we can use it to reach the truth.”
“Are you dead set on gittin’ on my last nerve?”
“Not my intent.”
“Who do you think these men were with?” she asked.
“They seemed to be business partners of Sherman Clancy.”
“So the Rebel Yell casino then?”
Robie shrugged. “Unless he had other businesses. And partners.”