“I’ll…I’ll have to check.”
Robie thought of something. “Did anyone call today to ask about Jane Smith? Maybe what room she was in?”
Dugan looked at him puzzled. “Why?”
“They had to know which room she was in to shoot her from outside,” replied Robie impatiently. “Can you please check?”
Dugan ran out of the room and then was back in less than two minutes.
“No one called. And there were no unusual visitors.”
“You’re sure.”
“Yes.”
Robie looked at Reel. “Then how the hell did the shooter know she was in this room? The room numbers aren’t posted on the outside of the building, only on the inside.”
They heard cars screeching to a halt outside and the sirens ceased.
Dugan said, “Shit, they’re here. I’ve gotta go.”
He raced out of the room.
Robie looked around, saw the door of the bathroom, opened it, and spotted a box of Q-Tips in a box on a shelf. He pulled out a Q-Tip, stepped back out, and raced over to Jane Smith.
He swabbed the inside of her mouth with the Q-Tip and then looked at the dead woman’s face.
Reel said, “Robie, we’ve got to go. They’re coming.”
Robie said quietly to the dead woman. “I’m sorry.”
The next moment they were racing down the hall in the opposite direction from the entrance.
They exited the building at a side door and flitted back to the front. When the area was clear, they slipped to their car and drove off.
Once they hit the surface road, Reel punched the gas and the car flew down the asphalt.
Robie held up the Q-Tip.
“We need to get that to Wurtzburger,” said Reel.
Robie nodded but said nothing.
Reel shot him a glance and saw his frozen features.
“Robie, I’m really sorry.”
“We don’t know that it was Laura,” he said immediately.
“I know, and I hope it wasn’t.”
“But whoever it is, she’s dead. And someone murdered her.”
“And we’ll find out who it was.”
“Yes, we will,” said Robie.
Chapter
75
Robie had called Wurtzburger, and they met up with the FBI agent back in Cantrell and gave him the swab sample.
“We got a sample from Emmitt Barksdale’s body,” Wurtzburger said. “I’ve asked for the highest priority on this. We have a lab in Jackson that can get this done ASAP.”
After leaving him, Robie and Reel drove back to the Willows.
It was late now and they didn’t expect anyone to be up when they got there.
But they didn’t expect the house to be completely dark.
“Hello?” said Robie as they walked in the partially open front door.
They both pulled their weapons.
“Hello?” Robie said again.
They went through the first floor until they got to the wing where Priscilla lived. The door of her bedroom was slightly cracked.
“Priscilla?” said Robie. “It’s Will Robie.”
There was no reply.
Robie eased the door open and looked around.
Reel was right next to him.
She saw it first.
Or rather, her.
“There,” said Reel.
Priscilla was lying on the floor next to her bed.
Robie raced over to her and knelt down.
“Damn it!” he said.
She was on her side. The knife was still sticking out of her back.
Reel looked over her shoulder.
“She’s dead,” said Robie. “Looks like the blade went right through her heart.”
He touched her skin. “She’s still warm. It wasn’t long ago.”
He looked back toward the door.
“There are still three people who are supposed to be here.”
They ran out of the room and up the stairs, and reached Dan and Victoria’s bedroom first.
It was empty. But there were signs of a struggle. A table was knocked over and a lamp had been broken.
Ty’s room was empty and had not been slept in.
“What was that?” asked Reel.
It had come from somewhere on the second floor.
They ran out of the room and looked in either direction.
“That room,” said Reel as the sound came again. “What is it?”
“I don’t know,” said Robie. “I’ve never been in there.”
The sound came again. It was a groan.
Robie pushed the door open and looked around.
It was set up as a study, with a desk, bookshelves, and comfortable chairs.
“Dad!” cried out Robie.
His father was lying on the floor next to his desk. His head had a bloody gash in the back and Dan Robie was struggling to get up.
Robie and Reel rushed over to him.
“Dad, just stay where you are. What happened?”
“Some…somebody hit me. From behind.”
“Are you hurt anywhere else?”
“N-no. Just m-my head.”
“Did you see who hit you?”
His father shook his head and then slumped back down.
Reel was already calling 911. She ordered an ambulance and then phoned the police.
“They’re on their way,” she said.
Robie was holding his father’s head.
“Get me a wet towel.”
Reel ran out to do this.
Robie said, “Just take it easy, Dad. You’re going to be okay.”
“Vic-Victoria. T-Ty?”
“It’s okay, just keep still. The ambulance is on its way.”
While Robie was waiting for Reel he glanced around the office looking for any clues that might lead them to whoever had done this.
One shelf was devoted to sports memorabilia. As he saw this, he gaped.
When Reel came back in with the wet towel, Robie had her apply it to his father’s head wound, then he bolted out of the room and down the stairs.
He hurtled onto the front porch, hung a left, and rushed around to the rear of the house. He reached the garage and went inside.
The Volvo was gone.
The Range Rover was there.
Robie raced over to it and stared for a moment at the New Orleans sticker on the back of the SUV. He used his knife to peel it off.
Underneath was what he thought he’d find.
A bullet hole.
The bullet hole caused by my gun when I fired it at the vehicle driving away from Sara Chisum’s murder.
The bullet hole in the Range Rover in Sherman Clancy’s garage had been created later. So it would be found and concluded that that vehicle was involved and not this one.
The ambulance arrived at the same time the police did. Taggert had phoned and let Robie know that she and Sheriff Monda were on their way. A BOLO had been put out on the Volvo and Victoria and Tyler Robie.
Robie led Reel back to the garage and showed her the bullet hole.
“How’d you find that?” she asked.
“The shelf full of Dallas Cowboy memorabilia in my dad’s study. Why would a Cowboys fan have a Saints sticker?”
“But who put it there?”
“Whoever shot Sara Chisum. The same person who took Victoria and Ty.”
“But why the hell kill Priscilla?”
“I don’t know.”
They raced back around to the front of the house.
“Where do you think they’ve taken Victoria and Ty?” asked Reel.
“I don’t know.”
“Why even kidnap them?’
“I don’t know, okay?” barked Robie.
“Okay,” said Reel calmly. “Okay. It could be Henry Barksdale.”
“Why would he come here and do this?”
“It’s his old homestead. If he’s crazy enough to kill all these people, then he might have come here and attacked your father, killed Priscilla, and then taken Victoria and Ty. Maybe he saw them as interlopers.”
“If it was Barksdale he could be anywhere,” noted Robie.
“Not anywhere. Like you said, Priscilla’s body was still warm. This did not happen that long ago. He couldn’t have gone far.”