Nemesis (FBI Thriller #19)(53)
Ms. Louisa sidled her wheelchair into the kitchen and pulled up close to the table, a child on either side of her. She nodded to Savich and said in a scratchy drawl, “Well, Marly, did I lie? Isn’t he a looker? As for you, Liggert, don’t go all huffy and stick your knife in his gullet just because Marly appreciates the look of the man. That wouldn’t be polite.” She grabbed a bit of a child’s pancake, and stuffed it into her mouth. She laughed. “At least let him enjoy his breakfast first.”
“That isn’t funny, Mother,” Deliah said as she flipped another pancake.
Marly sent a nervous look at her husband, who was busy forking down a pancake, ignoring her and ignoring his grandmother.
Ms. Louisa said, “The boy’s here for a reason, Morgana. I’m helping him out. So now you’ve met both of Dilly’s older boys, Liggert and Jonah. They’re buff and loud and tough, aren’t they? Their daddy was as tough as they were once, but later on he wasn’t, not at all. Like I told you yesterday, Dilly was weak.”
“That’s not fair, Mother,” Deliah said patiently as she turned another pancake. “He was the strongest man I’ve ever known. After the first Gulf War, he simply couldn’t abide violence.” She said over her shoulder, “He was in Iraq. It . . . changed him.”
“It changed a lot of people,” Savich said.
Ms. Louisa cackled. “But would you look at how Dilly bit the big one. He didn’t croak it like a man should, he got himself run down by a stupid car and a driver who didn’t care enough to stop and see if he was still breathing. It’s a cruel world, Morgana, a cruel, cold world. You should be glad two of your boys can take care of themselves.”
Brakey burst out, “I can take care of myself, Grandma, most of the time. Agent Savich is here because he thought I’d escape, isn’t that right? You know what happened to my ankle bracelet, don’t you?” He suddenly fisted his hand around his fork. “I didn’t kill anyone else, did I?”
No one died, Brakey.” Savich turned to Deliah. “Sorry about breakfast, but please tell Tanny to take all the children into the living room. I don’t think they should be here for this.”
She gave him a long look, then nodded toward Tanny, who started to protest. Deliah overrode her. “Everyone take a last bite. The pancakes will be here when you get back. Now all of you go with Tanny to the family room. Watch TV, all right? I’ll call you when you can come back.”
After the children had filed out of the kitchen, Savich said, “I showed all of you except Liggert the drawing of Stefan Dalco.” He called up the photo on his phone, handed it down the table. Liggert only glanced at it, shook his head, impatient.
Savich looked around the table. “I believe one or more of you know who this man is, you recognize that sketch but aren’t telling me. Why? Because you want to protect this person who calls himself Stefan Dalco? He is one of you, or someone you know? I have seen this man. He is a psychic and he appeared to me in a dream as he did to Brakey and Walter Givens, and now Charles Marker. Dalco wanted Sparky Carroll and Deputy Kane Lewis dead, and he told them what he wanted them to do, forced them to commit murder and then forget all of it.”
Brakey said, “Charlie? What does Charlie have to do with this? Is he all right?”
“Charlie Marker is in the hospital, Brakey. He has a gunshot wound, and he’s in surgery. He tried to shoot Agent Hammersmith and me a little while ago in the pine woods about ten miles west of here. Charlie obviously got the bracelet from you early this morning, though you don’t remember that. He used your ankle bracelet as the lure to get us to follow him into those woods.
“Charlie will probably pull through, but like you, Brakey, and Walter Givens, I’m sure he won’t remember anything. Dalco sees to that; it’s one of his orders.
“Again I know one or more of you know this murderer, or you are this murderer, and I intend to find out which of you it is.”
“This is nuts,” Liggert said, and half rose from his chair.
“Sit down!”
Liggert’s face filled with rage, but he saw violence in this FBI agent and he slowly sat down again.
Jonah stared at Savich, his head cocked to one side. “Charlie Marker shot at you, this morning, in some woods ten miles west of here? That stand of thick pines, next to the field they cleared?”
Savich nodded.
“It sounds like the McCuttys’ land,” Jonah said. He looked around the table. “My grandfather used to own that land. All of us know it very well, but so do most people in town. Agent Savich, you can’t really mean you think one of us got control of Charlie’s mind, made him try to kill you? Come on, I mean, that’s crazy.”
“It sounds crazy, yes,” Savich said, “and Stefan Dalco is afraid I’ll prove it. He’s afraid enough to try to kill me. He won’t succeed.”
Deliah was on her feet, her palms pressed flat on the table. “It’s frightening to think anyone has such powers, especially for a Wiccan. I believe that if this person does exist, the evil he does will be returned to him, his own powers will be turned back against him. I wish we could help you find him. You know I would do anything I could to help Brakey. The simple truth is we can’t.”
Savich said, “You can’t? And what does that mean? I see, it’s the Wiccan party line. Don’t get involved, trust that bad people will have their evil turned back on them. Karma in all its glory.” He banged his fist on the table, rose. “One of you knows full well what’s going on here, possibly all of you. I will find out.” Savich looked at them dispassionately, then he turned on his heel and walked out of the kitchen.