KnockOut (12 page)

FORT PESSEL, VIRGINIA

Monday morning

Savich got a call from Galen as he stepped into Carly Schuster’s house, telling him a hiker had found the Trailblazer in the woods just over the North Carolina border, and a dark blue 2001 Chevy Malibu was reported stolen from a small tobacco farm a half-mile away.

He pocketed his cell, turned, and smiled at her as Sherlock said, “We appreciate your taking the time to speak with us, Mrs. Schuster. The principal told us you have no official affiliation with the high school, but you’ve tutored a number of students in computer science through the years, one of them Victor Nesser. Could you please tell us about him?”

She waved them both to the sofa as she said, “Goodness, yes, I taught Victor everything I knew. He was self-taught to that point and really quite talented. I’ll tell you, he was beyond me in a few months. He’s a natural, the first one I’ve seen. He didn’t do that well in his school courses, a teacher friend of mine told me, and he never took any computer classes. He didn’t tell me why. But he was hungry for learning it, you know?”

Savich smiled. “Yes, I know what you mean.”

“Ah, do I have a kindred spirit in my living room?”

Savich only smiled. “Can you tell us what you remember about the Smileys?”

Her lips unseamed and her very white buck teeth appeared again. Carly Schuster nodded. “Ah, yes, the Smileys. I didn’t know Jennifer Smiley very well, saw her in town from time to time, nodded to her, you know, said hi and how are you, but nothing more than that. I’ll tell you though, the word is Mrs. Smiley’s a piece of work. She managed the Lone Star Bar out on Route Thirty-three, just south of town. Lots of stories about how the place got drunk and rowdy on the weekends, and she with it. She lived off and on with the owner, a biker with tattoos. I wondered how she could let Lissy live in the same house with that man. Then he was killed driving that motorcycle of his, ran headlong into a bridge abutment.

“Everyone thought Jennifer Smiley would inherit the place, but he left it in his will to a cousin from up north somewhere. She was very angry about it, I heard. Then one day, maybe three months ago, she and Lissy were simply gone. Yes, it was right after school was over, I remember, though I don’t see how it mattered, since Lissy hardly went. Then
poof
—they were gone, their house locked up. Their neighbor, Ms. Ellie, thought they’d gone on a long vacation. It had been just the two of them, you know, since Victor left right after he graduated high school three years ago.”

Suddenly her lips seamed shut over her buck teeth and she was shaking her head. “Oh, goodness, since you’re FBI agents, that must mean Victor has done something illegal. And the Smileys? Will you tell me?”

Savich said, “We’re looking for both Lissy Smiley and Victor Nesser. They’re wanted in connection to a series of bank robberies.”

Sherlock said, “Did you hear about the bank robberies in Kentucky and Virginia by a group called the Gang of Four? Most of them were killed up in Washington, D.C.”

Carly Schuster shook her head. “Sorry, I refuse to watch the news, it’s too depressing.”

Savich wanted to see those buck teeth again; they made her smile quite charming.

Carly said slowly, “So you’re saying Jennifer Smiley was also involved in this Gang of Four?”

Sherlock nodded. “From what we know now, she was the leader.”

“Oh, dear. And Lissy? And Victor?”

Savich said, “Yes. Two other men as well. Jennifer Smiley was shot dead in the middle of a bank robbery in Washington. Lissy and Victor escaped. We’re trying to locate them.”

“But this is a small town, nothing bad ever happens here; well, not like this. I haven’t heard anybody say anything. My husband won’t believe it. He liked Victor, said he was okay for a scruffy geek. I liked him too.”

She pursed her lips, did some thinking, and said, “I just can’t get over Victor. Lissy, now she’s a different story. I hate to say this about a sixteen-year-old girl, but I’m not at all surprised she’s involved. Lissy is…Well, I’m not sure quite how to say this…but she’s off, but it’s more than that. She’s strange in the head, and the way she sometimes looks at people, it’s frightening. The thing I finally realized was that she’s a chameleon, no other way to say it. She can charm you if she wants or look like she’s bored to tears.”

“How do you know all this about her, Ms. Schuster?” Sherlock asked.

“She dated my son for four months,” Carly said simply. “I saw her up close and personal. Of course Jason talked about her. I know she was having sex with him, and I’ll tell you, that scared me.”

Savich and Sherlock waited.

Carly drew in a deep breath. “He broke up with her last spring. Though he wouldn’t admit it, I think he was a little frightened of her. After the breakup, she threatened to kill him. That might sound like a melodramatic teenager, but I was afraid for him. She accused him of sleeping with another girl, though he hadn’t. A few days later, the girl, Lindy, was struck by a car while she was riding her bicycle, broke her leg. We never found out who hit her. Lissy didn’t ever hurt Jason, but someone slashed the tires on his old Honda.”

“Is Jason around, Carly?” Sherlock asked.

“No, I’m sorry. He’s in Spain with his father, my ex. He won’t be back until September. You know, I think Jason breathed a big sigh of relief when Lissy and her mother left town.”

THEY’D JUST CLIMBED INTO
the Porsche when Céline Dion’s beautiful voice sang out the theme from
Titanic
on Savich’s cell phone.

“Savich.” He listened, then said, “I’m betting on a twenty-two and a Bren Ten, ten-millimeter auto ammo. Yeah, verify when you know.” He slipped his cell back into the pocket of his leather jacket. He met Sherlock’s eyes.

“You wanna know something fantastic? The deputy is alive, out of surgery, and we can head up to Overlook Hospital in Pamplin, try to speak to her. The hospital is filled with her family and cops. The sheriff said we’re to go directly to the ICU on the third floor. He’ll meet us there.”

“It had to be Victor and Lissy, on their way down here. I wonder why she’s alive?”

“I don’t know, but I’m sure hoping she can tell us.”

Sherlock said, “The license number was off an old Impala, right?”

He nodded again.

Sherlock closed her eyes, remembering clearly getting shot herself, wondering if she would die. “What’s the deputy’s name?”

“Gail Lynd. She’s been in law enforcement for six years. She’s married, two small kids. As for the deputy they killed, he also had a family.”

“We’ve got to get them fast, Dillon, before they kill anyone else.”

“My gut keeps telling me Victor will head for home, for Winnett, North Carolina, though I know that doesn’t make sense. We were right about Fort Pessel, but they’re not stupid. Everyone and his mother are looking for them. But they’ve got to go under for a while before they try for me. Maybe Victor knows a place to hide in or near Winnett. I want to get home, though, after we speak to Gail at the hospital.”

When Savich pulled into the parking lot in front of the hospital, Galen called again, told him about the break-in at Kougar’s Pharmacy in Fort Pessel, and the couple dozen stolen Vicodin. “Maybe that’s why she fell asleep.”

Sherlock and Savich walked the long third-floor corridor. The walls were a light green, meant to be restful, she supposed, but it didn’t work for her. She felt itchy, jumpy. They passed some uniformed officers and what must have been family in the waiting room but didn’t slow or look in.

The sheriff wasn’t waiting for them.

Nurse Dolores Stark eyed them and their creds over her bifocals. “The sheriff had to leave on an emergency.”

Sherlock said, “Talk to us about Deputy Lynd.”

Dolores, an ICU nurse for twenty-three years, tough as her mother-in-law, said with a big smile, “She got through surgery, both of them. Dr. Lazarus worked on her for four hours, and then had to go back in for bleeding. They lost her twice but got her back. She’s going to make it, barring anything else coming down the road we’re not expecting. I’m not sure she can speak right now, they just extubated her a couple of hours ago. Ah, Dr. Lazarus, these are Special Agents Savich and Sherlock, here to see Deputy Lynd.”

Dr. Lazarus didn’t look happy. But neither did he look like he’d spent the night inside someone’s chest. He wasn’t rumpled, didn’t have any bags beneath his eyes, like he wanted to fall over and sleep for a year. Instead, he looked like he’d just waltzed in from the golf course but had shot too many bogies. “You can’t,” he said. “She’s not up for it yet. Maybe tomorrow. Call me.”

Sherlock gave him a lovely smile, walked up into his face. “Would you like to accompany us, Dr. Lazarus? We’re hopeful she’s with it enough to give us information about who shot her. What room, Nurse Stark?”

“Room Three forty-three,” said Dolores.

Savich and Sherlock walked quickly down the hall, Dr. Lazarus on their heels. “Wait! You can’t do this. I can’t allow—”

Savich waved Sherlock on and turned to say easily, “You can monitor, Dr. Lazarus, all right?”

When they walked in, it was to see Sherlock bent over Gail Lynd, her fingertips lightly stroking her forearm. “Gail, can you hear me?”

No response.

“You see, she’s not—”

“Gail? Can you hear me? I’m Special Agent Sherlock, FBI, and I really want to find the yahoo who shot you and throw him in the Mariana Trench. That deep enough for you?”

Gail Lynd moaned.

“That’s it,” Sherlock said, and continued to lightly rub her fingertips over Gail’s forearm. “You don’t have to open your eyes, but I would like to see you, if you can manage it, and you to see me.”

Deputy Gail Lynd managed to open her eyes. She looked up into blue eyes the color of the August sky. “The Mariana Trench should be fine,” she whispered.

“It’s good to meet you, Deputy Lynd. We both have blue eyes. Call me Sherlock. Do you think you can tell me what happened last night?”

“Last night? It was just a moment ago, no, it was—” Gail felt something wonderfully cold and wet rubbing lightly against her mouth, and she licked it. Sherlock turned to Dr. Lazarus, who looked like he wanted to leap on her to protect his patient. That made her smile a bit. “Water?” she asked him. “A little bit?”

At his unsmiling nod, Sherlock held Deputy Lynd’s head up a bit and put a straw between her lips. “Just a little bit, we don’t want you to get sick to your stomach.”

“Thanks,” said Gail Lynd, her voice a croak. She blinked, surprised she could actually speak.

“Are you in pain?”

Gail thought about that a moment, then shook her head. “No, fact is, I feel dead from the neck down.”

“Probably a good thing,” Sherlock said. “Now, Gail, I don’t want you to overdo. If you get tired or there’s pain, tell me and we’ll stop.”

She started slowly, but ended in a rush. “…and I heard the shot, saw Davie go down, and I went running toward the Impala, yelling at Davie, and then this young guy leans out of the driver’s side and he shoots me.” She looked at Sherlock, her eyes pooling with tears. “No one ever shot me before. I know what it’s supposed to be like, you know, we discuss it, but it wasn’t like I thought—it slammed into me like a sledgehammer, knocked me backward. I saw him coming down over me. I heard the girl yelling at him to shoot me between the eyes because if I didn’t die right away, I could live long enough to tell someone. Her mother told her that.” She broke off, held very still for a couple of moments, raised her eyes to Sherlock’s face. “Her mother,” she whispered. “This is what her mother told her to do.”

“Thankfully for the world, her mother is dead,” Sherlock said matter-of-factly. “Did she say anything that might help us find them?”

“She was crazy, Agent Sherlock. I don’t know about him, but that girl was crazy. I couldn’t do anything except lie there, helpless. It was…horrible. To wait, knowing you’re going to die. Just waiting, and you hurt so bad you can’t really accept it, not really, and you wait.”

Sherlock gently wiped the tears that were seeping out of the corners of Deputy Lynd’s eyes. “You want to rest now?”

“No, no, let me finish it. I want you to catch these two. The thing is, when the young guy—she called him Victor—when he came back down over me, I knew he was going to shoot me right between the eyes, I knew it, and I was helpless. Helpless.”

No one said a word. Dr. Lazarus stared at the young woman whose life he’d managed to save. Sure, he’d been inside her chest, taking out the bullet and repairing her lung, he’d watched her heart stop twice, but now he was inside her head, living her memories with her of being shot with that bullet, of what it was like to almost die, and know it. He didn’t think he’d ever forget this moment as long as he lived. He took a step back from the big FBI guy in front of him. He rubbed his hand over his chest. It hurt to listen to her, hurt—

“It was so weird; he winked at me, twice, and he fired, only the bullet hit the pavement maybe six inches from my head. I heard her yell, ‘Notch that boy’s belt!’—something like that. I heard Randall—he’s the dispatcher—yelling on my cell, and I knew in that moment that maybe I had a chance.” She raised her eyes to Dr. Lazarus. “You saved my life?”

He nodded, wordless.

“Thank you, Doctor. Agent Sherlock, will you please get these two killer kids?”

“Yes, we’ll get them.”

“The girl, Lissy, she shot Davie?”

Sherlock nodded.

“She would have shot me between the eyes too.”

Again, Sherlock nodded.

“I wonder why he didn’t?”

Because Victor knew Lissy couldn’t see what he was doing. Sherlock closed her hand around Gail’s, squeezed just a bit. “That is an excellent question. Maybe there’s something in him that can still be redeemed.”

Sherlock leaned close. “I know it was horrible. You will always remember this as being horrible, but you know what? The shock of it, the pain, the hopelessness of what you felt, it will fade when you begin to laugh again, when you smile at yourself in the mirror, when you hug your kids. I was shot not long ago, and you know what? It is beginning to fade. Never forget, Gail, you survived. I’ll be checking on you. You get well, no setbacks, okay?”

Gail Lynd managed a smile as she closed her eyes.