Divine Justice (28 page)

The knock on the door came barely thirty seconds later, which told Alex that his boss was in communication with his “visitors” and had just given them the all-clear. He poured the rest of his beer down the kitchen sink, tucked in his shirt, quickly adjusted his tie and opened the door.

Alex was six-three but the white-haired, bony-faced fellow facing him had him by at least two inches.

“Agent Ford, my name is Macklin Hayes. I’d like to have a word with you.”

Alex stepped back and motioned the man in, peering behind him to see if he was alone. There wasn’t anybody else, but Alex knew enough about Hayes to understand that the man went nowhere by himself. He closed the door and indicated a chair for Hayes to sit in.

“Thank you.”

Alex plopped down across from him and tried to appear nonchalant.

“What can I do for you, sir?”

“I believe that one of my subordinates, Joe Knox, came to see you about a certain matter?”

Alex nodded. “He did. Had some questions about someone I knew.”

“John Carr?”

“He asked about Carr, but I don’t know anyone by that name.”

“Oliver Stone then? You do know the man calling himself Oliver Stone?”

“Most Secret Service agents who’ve pulled White House protection duty do.”

“But you were closer than most?”

Alex shrugged. “I’d call him an acquaintance.”

“You were far more than an acquaintance. And you’re going to tell me everything that you knew about his plans to assassinate Carter Gray and Senator Simpson. And whether you helped him to escape. At worst that makes you a coconspirator. At best, an accessory before and after. In a matter as grave as this one, either one gets you put away for life.”

Well, the man doesn’t waste any time, does he?
“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

Hayes drew a slip of paper from his coat and glanced at it. “Nearly twenty years in the Service, good record. You were the one guarding the president in Pennsylvania when he got kidnapped.”

“I was the only one left standing.”

“So you were there when he disappeared. Did you have anything to do with his reappearance? And more to the point, did your friend Stone?”

“Again, I—”

Hayes didn’t let him finish. “Ever heard of Murder Mountain? A vanished CIA agent named Tom Hemingway? A piece of evidence that your friend Stone held over Carter Gray? Or a former Russian spy named Lesya?”

Alex, of course, knew about all of these things, but stayed silent because what could he possibly say that would do him any good?

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

“Oliver helped break up a spy ring operating in D.C. It involved one of your employees. Maybe you heard of it? He received a commendation from the FBI director.”

“Wonderful for him, but I doubt that will carry much weight when he’s caught and prosecuted for two murders.”

“What exactly do you want from me?”

“I want to know what Knox asked you, and I want to know what you told him.”

“Can’t you just ask him yourself? I’m sure he has it down in some nice, neat report and—” Alex stopped. “Do you not know where Agent Knox is?”

“I’m not here to answer questions, merely to ask them. I believe you received a phone call from a superior at the Secret Service telling you to cooperate fully.”

Alex spent the next two minutes telling Hayes what he and Knox had discussed.

“That’s all?” Hayes said in a clearly disappointed tone. “I must have Knox go through an interrogation refresher course.”

“He said he’d be coming back around to ask more questions. I’ll be sure to tell him you’re looking for him,” Alex said, getting in a subtle jab.

Hayes rose. “One piece of advice. If I find that any of what you’ve told me tonight is untrue, or if I discover that you withheld anything of importance from me, you can catch up on your solitary confinement skills at the Castle.”

“The Castle? That’s the military prison at Leavenworth. I’m not military.”

“Actually, it’s also for prisoners convicted of national security crimes. But to more directly answer your question, you’re anything I want you to be.”

As soon as the door closed behind him, Alex realized he’d been holding his breath. He let it out with a gush and stood up on wobbly legs. He might as well have banded with the Camel Club to help find Oliver since it looked like he was headed to prison anyway.

The phone rang again. It was probably his boss telling him he hadn’t been particularly cooperative and how did suspension without pay sound?

But he was wrong. The caller ID readout surprised him.

“Agent Ford? My name is Melanie Knox. My father is Joe Knox. Someone broke into his house and I can’t get hold of him. The only thing I found was a list with your name on it.”

“When’s the last time you heard from him?” She told him. “I spoke to him before that. I haven’t heard from him since. It could be a burglary. You should call the cops.”

“Nothing of value was stolen. The two safes he had weren’t even touched.”

“I’m not sure what I can do about it.”

“What did he talk to you about?”

“I’m afraid I can’t disclose that.”

“Agent Ford, I am really worried about my dad. The last time I talked to him he sounded, well, he sounded like maybe he was talking to me for the last time. I really think he might be in trouble.”

Maybe that was why he’d gotten the visit from Hayes. His faithful dog had gone off the scent and the old man was operating blind. “When you talked to him did he give you any indication of where he might be?”

“He said something about being west of here, only a little more rural. I joked about terrorists in the hollers. And he said you just never knew.”

“This isn’t really my bailiwick, Ms. Knox.”

“I’m a lawyer in private practice with lots of connections, and while my dad has never mentioned what he actually does for the government, I know it’s not some State Department crap, that’s just a cover. Can you at least confirm that? Please?”

Alex hesitated, but the pleading sound in her voice finally got to him. “As best I can figure he was doing investigative work for the CIA, or at least in connection with them somehow.”

“Over something critical?”

“Critical enough. He’s trying to find somebody who doesn’t want to be found.”

“Can this person be dangerous?”

“Most people who don’t want to be found are dangerous.”

He thought he could hear a groan from her. “What should I do?” she said. “My mom’s dead. My brother’s in the Marines in Iraq. What should I do, Agent Ford? I don’t know anybody else to call.”

Alex sat there staring off. It was as though his nearly twenty years in the Service had simply disappeared from his memory. If Hayes had had his way, that would be more true than not. So why sit here waiting for the nuke to hit him in the head?

“Give me a number where I can reach you anytime. I’ll poke around and see what I can find.”

“Oh, God, thank you so much.”

“I can’t promise that if I find out anything it’ll be what you want to hear.”

“Agent Ford, I know you don’t know my father, but if you were in trouble there wouldn’t be anybody else you’d want covering your back more than Joe Knox. He’s as straight as they come. I hope that means something to you.”

“It does,” Alex said quietly.

CHAPTER 56

L
ATER THAT NIGHT
Stone sat up in his hospital bed staring at the wall opposite. He checked his watch and then slipped open the nightstand next to his bed and pulled out Danny’s phone. He called Abby first and Tyree next. Abby was working at the restaurant and Tyree was out in the field trying to track down Lonnie Bruback, who, he said, seemed to have disappeared. They had found nothing in Willie’s trailer other than a couple of torn-apart propane tanks and the remnants of the cookstove, he told Stone.

“I’ve got a bomb squad guy from the Virginia State Police coming to examine the scene. I know you don’t want to hear this, but it might have been an accident. Willie was gone, maybe the propane was leaking and Bob lit a cigarette when Willie came through the door, and boom.”

“If the propane was leaking, it would have exploded before then. I saw Shirley there like I told you and she
was
smoking a cigarette. And you would think Bob would’ve smelled the propane. The odor they put into the gas is pretty pungent for that very reason.”

“I know. But why would they want to kill Willie so badly?” Tyree asked. “First an overdose and now a bomb?”

“He knew Debby didn’t kill herself. He was going to keep making noise until the truth came out. Somebody obviously didn’t like that.”

“But now that they killed him we know there’s something going on,” Tyree pointed out.

“But these people are good and we have no proof that a crime’s even been committed. So in their eyes it’s better.”

“Well, I’m not giving up until I get to the bottom of this.”

“Tyree, everybody needs to watch their back here, and that includes you.”

“I hear you.”

Stone clicked off and stared down at the phone. Danny had a late-model Verizon cell phone with all the bells and whistles, including e-mail. Stone had never been into mail that didn’t involve pen and paper. He scrolled down Danny’s contact list. The names there were mostly female. He’d even made annotations by each entry indicating the lady’s strong suits, and each contact also came with a digital photo of the woman. Several of the pictures would have qualified as pornography, at least in Stone’s estimation.

He shook his head. Danny needed to seriously upgrade the quality of his female companions.

He looked outside. It was dark. He slowly eased himself from the bed. He was pretty stiff and sore but the more he moved around, the better he felt. His butt was already numb from lying in the damn bed all those hours.

He walked out of the room and over to the nurses’ station. After being chastised for being out of bed, he asked and was told where Danny’s room was.

He walked down that hall and saw a man sitting outside of Danny’s room. When Stone approached the man stood. “Can I help you?”

“You the deputy Tyree put on Danny?”

“That’s right. Wait a minute, you’re that Ben fellow, aren’t you?”

“Yes. I wanted to see Danny?”

“Seeing as how you saved his life, sure, go on in.”

When Stone popped his head in, Danny was sitting up in bed, his face red and his eyes puffy slits.

“Danny? Can I come in?”

He looked over at Stone. He didn’t say anything but waved him in with a feeble sweep of his hand.

Stone pulled up a chair and sat down. “I’m really sorry about Willie.”

Danny didn’t look at him but kept his gaze on the pillow he held over his midsection. When he did speak his voice was heavy and slow. The meds, Stone thought.

“He didn’t deserve to die that way.”

“Nobody does.”

Danny glared at him. “Some people do.”

“I guess you’re right. Maybe some people do.”

“He never hurt anybody, you know that?”

“I know.”

“And Bob. I mean he’s a damn old man. And they blew him up too?”

“Who blew him up, Danny? Who are we talking about?”

Danny glanced at Stone. “Why ask me?”

“Why’d you leave Divine?”

“Fresh start, like I told you.”

“And why’d you come back?”

“My business.”

“You want to tell me about Debby Randolph?”

“What’s to tell? She was Willie’s girl. He loved her, man. They were going to get married.”

“So you knew about that?”

Danny nodded absently. “I was all over his case to get off the drugs. Mine work was killing him. He was in pain, okay, I get it. But I saw what the shit did to my old man. I didn’t want that happening to Willie. And then Debby came along and she got him back on the right track, you know what I mean? He was doing all right. Called me up out of the blue, told me he was thinking about proposing. Asked me what I thought. Part of me wanted to say, ‘No man, run the other way, you’re too young. We got stuff to do. Girls to bed.’ But deep down, I was jealous, man. I got pieces of meat on my plate. He had a woman who loved him.”

“So what’d you end up telling him?”

“I told him to go for it. I knew Debby. She was a great gal. And great for him. He asked me to be his best man.”

“Sounds like you two had patched up your differences.”

“We never had any real differences. It was just crap really.”

Danny fell silent and Stone sat back in his chair and watched him for a while as the darkness fell more heavily outside.

“I saw you crying over Debby’s grave. You want to tell me about that?”

Danny’s head snapped up. “Nothing to tell. I was sorry she was dead. And I knew Willie was all busted up about it.”

“You know who killed her, don’t you?”

“If I did I would’ve told Tyree, wouldn’t I?”

“Would you?”

“I’m tired, man. Going to sleep.”

“You sure you don’t want to tell me?”

“Sure as I’m lying here doing nothing.”

Stone returned to his room but did not get back in the bed. Something was gnawing at him. Something he’d seen, heard or maybe both. Something that just did not add up.

He absently pulled out Danny’s phone. He went through the contact list again, to see if anyone on there would provide him with a clue and explain why Danny refused to tell him what had happened. Yet nothing stuck out.

He continued pressing buttons, pushing the phone’s memory into advanced fields of content. Then he stopped as the screen came up with only one name and phone number on it.
Tyree.
Yet the phone number next to the name was not the one Stone knew for the lawman. He punched it in. A few rings later a voice answered.

“Danny?” the man said.

Stone immediately clicked off. It was Tyree. He’d recognized the voice. Why would Danny have the man’s name and a different phone number hidden in his phone’s memory? And if this number was to be a secret, why not just memorize it? Why input it where someone like Stone could find it? He looked back at the regular contact list. Even on here he saw the numbers for Abby’s house, the restaurant, numbers Danny should have easily remembered. On impulse he called Abby and told her about his conversation with Danny, though he didn’t tell her about finding Tyree’s number on her son’s phone.