Overkill(75)

“Around noon. I’d gone down to the break room to get my lunch out of the community fridge. When I got back to my desk, the light on my phone was blinking. She’d left a message for me to call her.” When Cal glanced over at Theo, he blurted, “I didn’t, though. I was afraid if she started asking questions, I’d say something that would give us away.” He waited a beat, then added, “Her voice sounded like maybe she was upset.”

“She is. She’s been calling me all day, but I haven’t answered or called her back.”

“Is that fair to her? Keeping her in the dark? How much does she know?”

“Nothing. Nothing except that I left the house this morning with a suitcase.”

“Did she ask where you were going?”

“I didn’t give her a chance.”

“Afraid she would talk you out of it?”

“Afraid she would try. But nothing she’d have said would change my mind, and I didn’t want to leave with a fight between us.”

“Yeah, but, Cal, she’s your wife. She—”

“Drop it, Theo. It’s hard enough as it is, okay?”

Theo mumbled an okay. Neither spoke for a time, then Theo cleared his throat. “All I’m saying is, maybe you should have included Melinda in this decision. Maybe rethinking it wouldn’t be a bad idea for us, either. Maybe we should stop and re—”

“I’m not stopping. I want Eban off my back for good. I won’t go one day more letting him run my life, ruin my life. I just won’t.”

Immediately Cal felt bad for berating Theo, whose intentions were so well meant. “Look, Theo, you don’t have to go along with this. You’re under no obligation to me. This is my choice. I won’t think less of you if you’ve had a change of heart. Say the word, I’ll take you back to the library.”

Theo looked straight ahead, staring through the rain-streaked windshield at the three lanes of red taillights that stretched to the horizon. “No, we decided this together. I’m with you. I won’t back out.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure.”

He’d stopped cracking his knuckles. He was no longer rocking. His jiggling leg had fallen still. For the first time in Cal’s memory, Theo wasn’t fidgeting.

“I’m long overdue getting that bastard off my back, too, Cal. All these years, he’s pretended to be my friend. But I’ve been like one of those fools in a king’s court. Eban’s kept me around solely for his entertainment. Someone to poke fun at. Indirectly. Subtly. Tongue-in-cheek.” He looked over at Cal. “I don’t think he realizes that, all along, I’ve gotten the joke. It’s time he learned.”

Cal nodded. Theo was more discerning than any of them. He had Eban pegged. “Okay then, brother. We’re a go.”

Theo turned his head and looked out the windshield again. “Did you have any trouble getting a gun?”

Cal replied with dead calm. “None at all. While my father-in-law was consulting with a client, I sneaked out with the pistol he keeps in his desk drawer.”





After leaving Melinda Parsons, Zach and Kate were at loose ends. Also at odds. He couldn’t put his finger on why.

As he drove out of the residential neighborhood into a more commercial area, he said, “I could use a cup of coffee.”

“Fine.”

“Did you know, the last ten words you’ve said have had only one syllable?”

“You’ve been counting my words?”

“I can count to ten. Hut hut.”

“Very funny.”

“You want my opinion?”

“Have I asked for it?”

“No, but you’re asking—begging—for a fight,” he said. “Why?”

She ran her fingers through her hair, which left it sticking up in spikes like the Statue of Liberty. Taking into account her fractious mood, he had the good sense not to comment on it.

She said, “I don’t know what to do with Melinda’s warning.”

“Well, here comes that opinion you didn’t ask for. What you do with it is, you report it to your boss, then you and I head for the hills.”

She gaped at him. “Pardon me? I’ve already told you no.”

“You said you didn’t dare, but that was before we knew about Franklin’s suicide note and what Melinda told us.”

Her brows were drawn together. He took that as a sign that she was seeing reason, so he continued.

“We go to my place. The bags we packed for our indefinite stay in New Orleans are still back there.” He tipped his head toward the cargo space. “You don’t even have to go home first. For now, my truck is fine in your garage. We go to my place, where we can regroup and FIO. That stands for figure it—”

“I know what it stands for.”

She was still testy, but he was making progress. “So, do we head for North Carolina?”

“I suppose.”

He wheeled into the parking lot of a coffee franchise. “Going inside will take less time than waiting in the drive-through line. Make your call to the AG.”

He got out. The line at the counter was long, too. While waiting his turn, he called Bing. “Hey, what are you doing?”