“Hey, you gonna grow up to be a good law-abiding person, son?”
“Yes, sir, mister,” called out the little boy. “I wanna be just like you.”
He tossed the kid a stick of gum. “No, you don’t, son.” You don’t want to be like me. I’m terminal; only got a few days to live.
But he looked on the bright side as he sped up. He was free and he was back in business. And he only had one more to go. One more!
It felt so damn good.
CHAPTER
&nbs
p; 90
“SO WHO KILLED BOBBY
Battle and Kyle Montgomery?” asked Michelle.
They were sitting on King’s dock catching some sun after returning from a morning ride on their Sea-Doos.
“Nothing’s clicked yet. Maybe I used up all my little gray cells catching Eddie.”
“Well, Dorothea had the best motive to kill Kyle.”
“And she had the opportunity to kill Bobby as well. And maybe the motivation. If he didn’t live up to his part of the bargain and give her a bigger piece of the estate.”
Michelle looked troubled. “I know you concocted all that stuff about Remmy and Harry, but you don’t really think—”
“Harry has an alibi, an ironclad one. At the time of Battle’s death he was giving a speech to the Virginia State Bar in Charlottesville.”
Michelle looked relieved. “And Remmy?”
Now King looked troubled. “I don’t know, Michelle, I just don’t know. She certainly had good reason to want to kill him.”
“Or maybe someone who wanted to be the next lord of the manor did it.”
He looked at her strangely and was about to respond when his cell phone rang.
He answered, listened, and his face turned ashen. He clicked off.
“This is really, really bad, isn’t it?” she said fearfully.
“Eddie’s escaped.”
All the Battles were given round-the-clock security at their home. Harry Carrick, King and Michelle joined them there, since their lives were conceivably in danger too. A massive three-state manhunt jointly conducted by the FBI and area police was begun, but two days later there was no sign of Eddie.
King and Michelle were in the dining room having coffee with Sylvia, Bailey and Williams and talking about the case.
“Eddie’s a very experienced outdoorsman. And he knows this country better than most,” pointed out Bailey. “He’s hunted over it and explored it for most of his life. He can live on next to nothing for weeks.”
“Thanks, Chip, that’s very encouraging,” Williams said sourly. “We’ll find the son of a bitch, but I can’t promise to bring him in alive.”
“I don’t think Eddie will let that happen again,” King said.
“Wouldn’t he have fled the area as fast as possible?” asked Michelle.
King shook his head. “Too many roadblocks and police at all the bus and train stations and the airport. The police car he stole was found abandoned on a back road. I think he took to the hills.”