“Yeah, well, I don’t know anything about that.”
Robie said, “I was at Pete’s house when he showed up with those men. They were there to get the pictures and kill Pete. They said they were going to give him an acid bath.”
“Maybe they did and maybe they didn’t. I can’t tell you. Maybe they were just trying to scare him so he’d give up the pictures and go away for good.”
“And you of course won’t admit to siccing them on Pete?”
“No, I won’t. That’s why I have a room full of lawyers. And I know you two don’t have recording devices on you. They would have set off the sensor built into the door frame you walked through.”
Robie glanced at the door. “Your doing?”
“No, my old man’s. Like I said, smart. And paranoid.”
Robie studied him. “You and your sisters? Did he ever…?”
“Never,” snapped Wendell. “I mean not with me. And I don’t believe with my sisters, either.” He paused. “But it’s not like I ever came out and asked them after I saw those photos. But…but wouldn’t they be screwed up or something if that had happened to them? If their own father had done that to them?”
He looked up at them in a pleading fashion.
“And they’re not screwed up?” asked Reel.
“Not so they admit,” replied Wendell.
“Well, maybe it’s a hard thing to admit,” said Robie.
“I didn’t kill Sherman Clancy. And I didn’t have anybody else do it. I just didn’t want my mother to ever see…to ever see those pictures. And if these men threatened Pete or went over the line, that wasn’t my doing. I didn’t want it to go down like that. I just wanted the pictures.”
“And if the FBI were to go through your accounts, would they find money paid to certain contractors that would seem mysterious? Like the men who were killed?”
“I’m a careful man. Interpret that how you want.”
“The pictures we saw,” said Robie. “Someone had to take them. Did Pete ever tell you who was the cameraman?”
Wendell looked genuinely puzzled by this question.
“Hell, I was fixated on seeing my dad like that, I never even thought about the person taking them. You mean another adult was involved in this?”
“That’s exactly what I mean.”
“But who? Who is the sick son of a bitch? Was it this Sherm Clancy?”
“I wish I knew,” said Robie.
“And the photos?”
“I won’t use them unless I have to. But be prepared, Mr. Wendell, that this all might very well come out.”
Chapter
55
ROBIE AND REEL were sitting in their car outside of the Wendells’ Gulf Coast home. He had left his phone number with Wendell in case the man wanted to talk to them again.
Robie was now on his phone doing a search. He pulled up a screen and read down it. “News feed. ‘Billionaire oil man and noted philanthropist Nelson Wendell died on the operating table after emergency surgery to repair an aneurysm in his aorta.’ Like Bobby said, he died before Sherm Clancy did.”
“So you believe the son’s story?” said Reel.
“Yeah, I do. While he wouldn’t incriminate himself, what he did tell us about his father seemed sincere.”
“Yeah, I thought so, too.”
“Which means we have to find out who took the photos.”
“Why? Do you think that’s connected to the recent murders?”
“You don’t think they are?”
“Well, those photos were taken a long time ago. The murders of Clancy and the two Chisum sisters are very recent. There may not be a connection, especially if we believe Bobby Wendell that he didn’t kill Clancy.”
Robie shook his head. “I think all three murders are linked, Clancy and the Chisums.”
“And your father is being framed? Why?”
“I think he is being framed, but I don’t know why.”
“I’m not convinced of any of this, Robie.”
“Okay, but do you have another lead I’m not aware of?” said Robie curtly.
“No. I’m just trying to see the big picture on this.”
“The big picture, I think, includes somebody being involved in this who we don’t have a clue to as yet. An unknown factor that is driving all this.”
“Okay, Clancy dead. I get that. He was blackmailing Wendell. But if Wendell’s son didn’t kill him, then who?”
“How about the guy who was taking the pictures?”
“Now that makes sense. Pete Clancy said his dad made a deal with this person, but he could have gone back on that deal. And that could have cost Clancy his life. But what about the two Chisum sisters? How did they know about any of this?”
“I’ve been thinking about that. And my best guess is pillow talk.”
“What?”
“Pillow talk. They both had sex with Clancy. He was probably drunk at the time. According to Pete his dad was mostly drunk all of the time. He has sex with the girls and he talks, says stuff he ordinarily wouldn’t. You’ve seen something of the Chisum girls. They are opportunistic to a fault. They knew that information might get them money. Money they needed to get the hell out of Cantrell. They took the risk and it cost them their lives.”
Reel nodded thoughtfully. “That seems to hold together. Janet Chisum goes to meet the person for a payoff and ends up shot and thrown in the river.”
“Wait a minute,” said Robie. “Emma Chisum told us that Janet had something on an important person or persons. That was where she was going to make a lot of money.”
“So the Wendells then? Maybe Bobby just fed us a load of crap.”
“Maybe. I guess if Janet Chisum had those pictures too.”
Reel nodded. “And when she gets popped Sara takes up her sister’s opportunity and dies, too. Although it was pretty stupid of her to meet the person out in the middle of nowhere after what happened to her sister, don’t you think?”
“And Sara wasn’t stupid. Which means something is off there. I just don’t know what.”
“We could be missing a few pieces of this puzzle,” pointed out Reel.
“Granted. But how do we find out what they are?”
“By playing detective. But that’s all we’d be doing—playing—since that’s not what we do, Robie.”
“I’m not leaving this damn place until I figure this out.”
“What if you can’t figure out all of it?”
“What do you mean?”
“You might piece together who killed whom. But that’s not your endgame, is it?”
“Then what exactly is my endgame?”
She touched his trigger finger. “Getting this to work again. Isn’t that what you want?” When he didn’t say anything she said, “Isn’t it?”
“What if I can’t answer that question?”
“Then I’d say that’s an answer in itself.”
“Why are you doing this?”
“Doing what?”
“Asking all these questions about me?”
“I thought that was obvious. I’m trying to get to the bottom of what’s going on inside your head. It’s not easy, Robie. It wasn’t easy for me when I had to do it. But you do have to do it. You were right. To go forward, you have to go back. You get this square, your foundation is set. You can move on. But until then, you’re going to be damaged goods.”
“This all started with a screwed-up mission. Me killing a little girl.”
“I think this would have happened regardless. The moment you learned your father was in jail for murder.”
“You can’t know that for sure.”
“Why not? Seems obvious to me.”
“Look, you can stop interfering in my personal life. I don’t need that. Not now. Not from you.”
“Okay, so do you want me to leave?”
Robie said nothing. For a very long time.
Reel waited him out, her gaze held steady on him.
“No, I don’t want yo
u to leave. I need you.”
“Are you sure, Robie? It won’t hurt my feelings if you tell me to go to Hell. I’m a big girl. I can take it.”
“I don’t want you to leave, Jessica,” he said slowly.
“Okay, then I’ll stay. So where to now?”
“We need to find the guy who took the pictures.”
“Okay, how?” asked Reel.
He let out a long breath. “If I knew that I would have already found him.”
Chapter
56
VICTORIA WAS NOT at home when they returned.
Priscilla was taking care of Tyler.
“Don’t know where she went, don’t know when she’ll be back” was all the normally loquacious Priscilla would say on the subject.
Robie’s phone buzzed.
It was Toni Moses. She wanted to see them.
“Is my dad okay?”
“He’s fine. But I’ve met with Aubrey Davis. And we need to do a pow-wow with the fine, upstandin’ prosecutor. Can you be here in thirty minutes?”
“Yes.”
* * *
With Reel driving they made it in twenty-eight minutes, although their car was caked with road dirt by the time they got to town. Reel parked in front of Moses’s office and they climbed out.
“Hey, Mr. Robie.”
Robie looked over to see Little Bill holding a plastic bag from the local supermarket.
They walked over to him.
Robie said, “Thanks for the help on the computer. My partner here says you’re really good.”
Little Bill said, “Hell, gave me somethin’ to do besides add to my scores on Kill or Be Killed.”
“You ever think about a career in cybersecurity?” asked Reel.
Grinnng, he said, “I’m from Cantrell. I ain’t thought about a career in nothin’, really.”
She studied him so closely that his grin disappeared.
She said, “You clearly have the technical skill. But do you have the drive?”
Little Bill looked at Robie and then at Reel. “My daddy is real sick.”
“But we’re not talking about your daddy. We’re talking about you.”
She handed him a card. “Think about it and then, if you want to pursue it, give me a call.”
Little Bill took the card. “Are you folks with the government?” he said.
Reel replied, “Does it matter who we’re with, so long as it’s not the bad guys?”
“I guess not.”
“Think about it,” said Reel.
Robie said, “How’s your dad doing?”
“The same.”
“I’ll be by to see him again.”
“Okay, thanks.”
And they left him there staring down at the card Reel had given him.
Robie said to her, “You have to be careful with making offers like that.”
“We still want the best and the brightest, right?”
Robie shrugged, and a minute later they were in Toni Moses’s small conference room. Aubrey Davis sat across from her.
The man looked like someone had stolen all of his toys, but the Mississippi prosecutor was evidently trying to put on a game face.
“Hey, there, Will. How you doin’? We still got to have us that drink.”
Robie and Reel sat next to Moses, who had papers and files spread out in front of her.
Robie looked at Moses. “So what’s happening?”
“What’s happenin’ is that with all of the stuff I’ve shared with my colleague over there, I believe it’s time he strongly reconsiders his case. And I wanted you two here to help convince him.”
Davis began to protest. “Look here, Ms. Moses, the defendant has been charged and it is my duty to—”
“To what?” broke in Moses. “Screw up your chance to be the next congressman from the fine state’a Mississippi? Because if you try this case and lose it, that’s exactly what you’ll be doin’. You couldn’t win an election for town drunk after that.”
Davis swelled with indignation. “I take umbrage at the accusation that I am puttin’ any political ambitions I may have over—”
“Aubrey,” she said, interrupting him again. “Do you or do you not want to find the real killer in this case?”
“Of course I do. How dare you suggest otherwise?”
“Then let’s get down to it. First things first. What do we do with my client?”
“He is still charged with murder,” said Davis promptly. “And he’s the only credible suspect we have.”
Moses looked at Robie. “What do you say to that?”
Robie kept his gaze on Davis. “Quite a few people have been killed,” he began. “And that nearly included my partner and me. I’m convinced that Sherman Clancy’s murder and the murders of the two Chisum girls were done by the same person.”
“Which lets Dan Robie out because he was in prison when Sara Chisum was killed,” said Moses promptly.
“If they were committed by the same person,” said Davis. “And from where I’m sittin’ that’s a mighty big if.”
Robie told him about the suspected serial killer that Special Agent Wurtzburger had informed them about.
“Why the hell didn’t he come and tell me that!” barked an obviously irritated Davis.
“No idea,” said Robie. “And on top of that, Clancy was blackmailing someone, which gives a prime motive for murder.”
“Who was he blackmailin’?”
“I take it you haven’t talked to Sheriff Monda,” replied Robie.
“Meanin’ what exactly?”
“Meaning that we already told him the person being blackmailed was Nelson Wendell.”
Davis sucked in a breath. “Bullshit! Nelson Wendell! He died just recently.”
“I know he did. We’ve just come from talking to his son, Bobby Wendell.”
“But they are one of the finest families in Mississippi. Hell, in all the south.”
Moses eyed Davis severely. “Don’t tell me that the Wendells are going