Redemption (Amos Decker #5)(34)
“He could have stolen a car,” she pointed out.
“That’s true. But no car was seen approaching the Richardses’ house that night except for David Katz’s.”
“Wasn’t it raining like crazy that night? How could anyone say for sure they didn’t see a car?”
“Fair point. Talk to me about the discovery of the murder weapon at your parents’ home.”
“What about it?”
“It was found behind a wall panel in your parents’ closet?”
“Okay. So?”
“Did you know about that panel?”
“No. I’d never been in their closet. I never had any reason to.”
“And one of the techs found it?”
“I think so.”
“You were there?”
“I had to be. I couldn’t leave my mother alone.”
“So you were there on the day of the murders and then afterwards?”
“Yes. Again, I couldn’t leave her alone.”
“And you never saw your father after the time of the murders?”
“No. I never left the house. I answered the door when you and your partner showed up that night.”
“That’s right.”
She looked at her watch. “Now, if there’s nothing else?”
“There’s just one thing.”
“Yes?”
“How did the gun get in the closet?”
“What?”
“If your father didn’t come home after the murders, how did the gun he used to kill those people end up behind the panel in the closet?”
“I…I don’t know.”
“Maybe you were asleep? Or…?”
“Or maybe I was stoned out of my mind?” she said, a bitter look on her face.
“When we came to interview you later that night, you were sort of out of it.”
“Then there’s your answer. My father came home, hid the gun, and then left again. And neither my mother nor I saw him.”
“Right, that would explain it. And the stuff he stole never turned up.”
“I don’t know anything about that. You didn’t find it in our house.”
“No, we didn’t. And we looked for it.”
“Okay.” She made a show of looking at her watch again.
“He had five hundred dollars in his pocket. Any idea where that came from?”
“I assumed from him selling the stuff he stole.”
“Right, well, thanks for your time.”
She showed him out. At the door Gardiner said, “I’m not really sure why you’re putting yourself through this, Detective Decker.”
“That thought had crossed my mind.”
Decker walked down the drive and the gates automatically opened as he approached them. When he got to his car, he suddenly looked back at the house in time to see a curtain on one of the front windows flutter closed.
He got into the car thinking that people were interesting. Sometimes they just couldn’t distinguish the truth from bullshit. Sometimes they didn’t want to. It was often easier just to believe a lie.
He drove off with more questions than he’d started the trip with.
And for some reason, that made him happy.
Amos Decker actually smiled as he drove back to Burlington.
He stopped smiling when something rammed into his car on a back road in the middle of nowhere.
Chapter 19
DECKER HAD SEEN THE HEADLIGHTS coming up on him but figured the person would slow down and back off.
That was not how it played out. Not even close.
The first strike catapulted his big frame straight ahead. His front and side curtain airbags deployed, and he felt his skin tingle and then burn slightly from the released gases powering the safety devices.
Momentarily disoriented by the collision, Decker looked in the rearview mirror and saw the lights coming at him again. The headlights were set higher than his taillights.
Truck. A big one. He thought he could see the huge metal bumper right before…
The rear of his car was lifted completely off the road with the next impact.
His airbags having already burst open, Decker felt his chest hit the steering column after colliding with the airbag and crushing it. But the air pocket still prevented serious injury.
He cut the wheel to the right, and then the left. The truck mirrored those movements. He could smell gasoline.
Great, his tank must’ve gotten cracked.
He floored it and the car leapt forward.
The truck accelerated to match this burst of speed.
Decker dug in his pocket for his phone. His fingers tapped on the screen.
If he could just call 911…
Then the phone was flung out of his hand when the truck smashed into him again. This sent his car into a sideways spin. He felt like a NASCAR driver who’d had his car’s rear tapped by another at high speed. Fishtailing, totally out of control. It was not a great feeling.
But Decker had been in high-speed chases before as a cop. He knew what to do. He didn’t fight the wheel but rather steered in the direction of the spin to regain control of the car.
He slid sideways down the asphalt, tires smoking, fuel leaking, and Decker fearful that heat from one would ignite the other.