He fell silent again, his features troubled and brooding.
Reel noted this and said, “She wasn’t Laura anymore; you realize that, right? She wasn’t your…Juliet anymore.”
“Maybe she never was.”
“Like you said, people can rationalize anything.”
“But I keep thinking that none of this would have happened if I had just walked into the house that night and taken her with me out of Cantrell. But I just drove off to a new life and left her behind. I abandoned her. Or at least she saw it that way. And maybe she was right.”
Reel considered this for a few moments. “You can’t put that burden on your shoulders, Robie. You can’t live someone else’s life for them. Hell, it’s hard enough living your own.”
“I guess,” he said, not sounding convinced.
Reel looked down at her hands. “But what happened to her, well, it was terrible.”
He looked at her in surprise. “So now you’re defending her?”
“No. I would never do that. But I guess I can understand how all this happened. We’re not all created the same. Some are more fragile than others. And you never know which one you’re going to get. Or which among us is going to crack.”
The door opened and Taggert poked her head in.
“You guys ready?”
“Ready?” said Robie. “For what?”
“To go see your dad.”
Chapter
79
THEY WERE DRIVEN over in a transport vehicle to accommodate Reel’s wheelchair. As soon as they entered the foyer of the Willows, Robie received a shock nearly equal to that of seeing his father standing under the moonlight holding the gun he’d just used to shoot his wife.
Blue Man was emerging from the front room with Dan Robie.
As always, Blue Man was dressed in a suit and tie, but apparently in deference to his current location, and taking in the heat and humidity, he was wearing, of all things, seersucker.
“What are you doing here?” asked Robie.
Reel just looked on in amazement from her wheelchair.
“Briefing your father and getting debriefed in return. Enlightening. Quite enlightening. I think I’ll leave you to it. I’ll be at the airport. You two are riding back with me. Until then, I have one more person to visit.”
“Who?” demanded Reel.
“Little Bill Faulconer, I believe he’s called. We can always use talented hackers. Even more so now that the NSA’s actions have been uncovered. One agency’s loss is another agency’s gain.”
And then Blue Man was gone as quickly as he had appeared.
Robie looked at his father. Dan Robie looked like he had aged ten years. The posture wasn’t as straight, the shoulders sagged, the hair seemed less thick, the man’s energy level was not as robust.
And who could blame him?
“How are you two doing?” Dan said quietly.
Reel said, “I’ll be doing better when I can ditch the wheels.”
Dan looked at his son. “And you?”
“I’m okay.”
“Let’s go in here.”
Dan led them back into the front room. Robie rolled Reel into the room and then sat in a chair next to her and across from his father.
“Your colleague filled me in on some things,” said Dan.
“That is stunning. And possibly illegal,” noted Robie.
“Nothin’ classified, he assured me,” said Dan. “But enough to let me know what you’ve been up to generally, Will.” He looked at Reel. “Both of you.”
Robie could only gape at his father while Reel looked just as surprised but found her voice. “Were you surprised at what your son is doing?”
“I guess I am surprised that I ever found out anythin’ about it.” He looked over at Robie. “Seein’ as how I never thought I’d see you again.”
“How’s Ty?”
“He’s with some friends right now. People he knows. People he feels safe with.”
“But he’s coming back, right?” said Robie.
“I’m not abandonin’ my son,” replied Dan firmly.
As he said the words it was clear to Robie that the man was not simply talking about Tyler.
Robie said, “He saved my life, you know. If he hadn’t screamed when he did I wouldn’t be sitting here.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the drawing that Ty had done of him and Robie. Stick figures with a heart in between. “I’ve never had anything personal where I live. No photos, no mementos.” He held up the drawing. “But this one I’m framing.”
Dan smiled and nodded. “Ty spoke a few words to me and I almost fell over. But now he’s quiet again. The doctors said not to push it. He’s been through, well, through hell and back. He saw me…he saw what I did to his mother. Even though I had to…she was goin’ to…I’m not sure he’ll…”
Dan looked away, shaking his head and rubbing at his eyes.
Robie could imagine what his father was thinking right now. Having to choose between his wife and sons. Under the circumstances it hadn’t been much of a choice, he knew. But that didn’t make it any easier. He hoped to God he was never faced with such a dilemma.
“How did you know where we were?” asked Robie.
His father’s head dropped. But with an effort he lifted it and gazed at his son. “There had been rumors about that shack on Clancy’s property. I mean from many years ago. One of the clients I represented on the oil platform case had been a migrant worker for several years. He told me some things that his child had said about that old shack. It wasn’t enough for an investigation, and I wasn’t a judge back then. But I never forgot about it. And somehow Henry Barksdale’s name came up as well. And in the ambulance you told me you suspected Barksdale was involved in this and you thought he might be at a location on Clancy’s old farm. I thought if Barksdale had taken Victoria and Ty somewhere, it might be to the old shack.”
Robie looked at him closely. “So you never suspected Victoria?”
Dan wouldn’t look at him now. “If you mean did I know that my wife was Laura Barksdale, no, I didn’t.” He hesitated. “But if you mean did I suspect that somethin’ was amiss, then, yes I did.”
“Why?” asked Reel.
“The Range Rover that night. You kept askin’ me if I was drivin’ it. I wasn’t. But…”
“But you thought she might have been? Even though she was supposed to be in Biloxi?”
“I know that sometimes Ty sleeps with Priscilla when they’re travelin’. If Ty did when they were in Biloxi, then Victoria had no alibi for Sherman Clancy’s murder. She could have easily driven back here, killed him, and gotten back to Biloxi before mornin’.”
“Victoria believed that Priscilla had concluded that same thing. It’s why she killed her. But why would you suspect her of killing Clancy in the first place?” asked Robie.
“I didn’t. I thought she might have been…cheatin’ on me with someone closer to her own age.”
“Did you believe she had been sleeping with Clancy? He’s hardly her own age.”
“I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t be sure. It’s why I threatened him. Things looked so fishy. And her story made no sense. She was drinkin’ with him? Why? But I never thought that she killed the man.”
“She planted the evidence against you at the crime scene. She wanted you to be arrested and convicted of the murder.”
“I know that now,” said Dan. “It’s just hard to process that the woman I had a child with…”
“But the Range Rover was seen near where Clancy was killed,” Robie pointed out. “They thought it was you driving but it was actually Victoria.”
“At first I thought the witnesses had to be mistaken. Or else they had seen Clancy’s Rover and not mine. I must’ve been asleep when she came back and took the truck. But I never put that together, principally because I did not know the woman I had married was…what she turned out to be.”