Shaw nodded.
“A fine weapon,” Merritt continued. “Thought you wouldn’t want to lose it. A gunsmith can fix it up. Good as new.”
Shaw now studied Merritt and was aware that prison had not been kind. He was pale, and eyes sallow. The thinning hair added to this image. He’d lost muscle recently. He slouched.
Hannah spoke in a whisper of disbelief. “You shot her!”
It was Colter Shaw who responded. “I don’t think Kristi was who she seemed to be.”
Merritt added, “Shewasa Marshall County deputy, that’s true. But she was working with them, those two who burned up your camper.”
“But,” Parker whispered, “youhired them...”
Merritt appeared confused. “Me? Where’d you get that idea?”
“This’s a trick,” Hannah blurted. She turned her fierce eyes toward him. “You killed Mom’s lawyer!”
“Oh, David? He’s fine. Well, pissed off, I don’t doubt. But fine. He’s out by now.”
“Out?” Parker asked.
“I thought he knew where you were hiding. He didn’t. After we had a talk I was convinced of that. But I didn’t know if I could trust him, so I taped him up in the basement of one of the old factories on Manufacturers Row. I mailed letters to the police and his paralegal telling them where he was. Mail, you know, with a stamp. I didn’t want him out too soon.
“No, Han. I didn’t hurt him. I didn’t hurt anybody, the past couple days. Not seriously. Shot a clay pot of your friend Dorella’s.”
“What?”
“No danger. Just needed her and her shotgun back in the house. And I stole this woman’s Buick. Mrs. Butler. Threatened her, scared her some. But I didn’t hurt her. That tweaker I got the drugs from? I shot him, yeah, but only in the foot. I couldn’t have him running back to his kin. I needed to get on your trail. He probably got a concussion when he fainted and hit the ground. Felt bad about it. But, then again, that boy did not make a very wise career decision.”
Parker seemed to be wrestling with all this. Trying to decide whether or not to believe him.
Colter Shaw was inclined to. About seventy to eighty percent.
A chill voice, Hannah’s, asked stridently, “And Mr. Villaine?”
“Villaine? What about him?” Merritt’s pale brow furrowed. “Oh, no... is he?” His shoulders slumped farther.
“He’s dead,” Parker said angrily.
“Jesus Christ... No, no...” He looked in the direction of the hill in front of the cabin. “They found out about him because of me.” Dismay flared. Merritt lowered his head to his hands. “I was so stupid...”
Parker said, “I don’t understand... Any of this.”
But Colter Shaw did. Finally. He looked over the former cop as he sat placidly in the stern wooden chair. “He hasn’t been trying to kill you. He’s been trying to save you.”
“That’s a fact, sir.” Merritt directed a smile toward his daughter. “And what’ve you two been doing the whole time? Playing hide and seek.”
81
Something about me being released from County was wrong from the start.”
But then Merritt stopped talking, glanced at his daughter. “You colored it. Your hair. It’s nice.”
She gave no response, just looked back with a steady gaze, then returned to surveillance duty.
Shaw said, “You thought you were being set up.”
He nodded. “Didn’t make sense. Good behavior? Doesn’t get you out earlier, not unless it’s in the plea deal. And to free up beds? Since when does County give a shit about conditions in a fucking lockup?” To Hannah. “Sorry.”