The Escape (John Puller, #3)(105)

Dan made a cutting motion in the air with his hand. “I wouldn’t bother with her if I were you.”

“Why not? She works in the area.”

“At DTRA. But you’ll learn nothing from her.”

“I don’t understand. It was her husband.”

“Yeah, it was her husband, how about that?”

Puller leaned forward. “I really need to understand what you’re saying here.”

Dan had looked away again at the passing cars. “I was eleven when my dad was killed. My sister was nine.”

“Must’ve been tough.”

“It was hell. My dad left to walk to the store and he never came back.”

“His favorite coffee shop.”

Dan looked at him. “No, he went to the store to get some things.”

“But they found a coffee cup from his favorite shop near the body. At least that’s what I was told.”

“I didn’t know that. I knew he went to the store. He usually didn’t leave me and my sister alone like that. But she’d called.”

“Who had called?”

“My mother.”

“And told him what?”

“To get some things from the store. Stuff she said we needed. At least that’s what my dad said. He wasn’t happy about it, because like I said he didn’t like to leave us. But she had that way about her.”

“What way?”

“To get what she wanted. My dad was a tough FBI agent. But around her, well, he just seemed to shrink to nothing. I think he was afraid of her.”

“I understand that she’s a fine shot.”

Dan looked disgusted. “Her guns! She’s so proud of her guns. Loved them more than she loved us. I went in and messed up her ‘trophy room’ one day when I was seven. Threw her hardware all over the damn place. I just wanted to get her attention. I thought she was going to beat me to death. It was lucky that Dad was there.”

“She sounds unbalanced. It’s a wonder she could pass a polygraph and get her security clearances.”

“Jekyll and Hyde, Agent Puller. She could walk the walk and talk the talk when she wanted to. What went on inside our house was a totally different story. But you’ll never find a finer actress. Meryl Streep has nothing on my mother.”

Puller ran through some possible questions and angles in his mind before saying, “Your dad could have taken you with him to the store that night.”

“No, my sister had broken her leg that summer and she was in a cast. In fact, she was already asleep when my mom called. He would never have left her alone. I stayed to watch her.”

“Where was your mom?”

“Overseas somewhere. Eastern Europe maybe.”

“Well, if it was night where you lived on the East Coast, it would be very early morning over there.”

“I guess so. But she called. I heard the phone ring. And I talked to her for a minute or so.”

“And then your dad went out?”

“Yeah.”

“If he wanted to hurry because you two would be alone, why not just drive?”

“The car wouldn’t start. He came back into the house mad as hell about that. So he just grabbed his jacket and went on foot. It wasn’t that far.”

“And you only had the one car?”

“My mother’s was at her workplace. She always left it there when she was overseas.”

“So he was on his way back because they found the coffee cup but they didn’t find any of the stuff from the store? How do you explain that?”

“I don’t know. It was a hit-and-run. At least that’s what we were told. We were kids, they didn’t tell us much.”

“Look, if I’m wrong on this, please say so. It’s just the cynical investigator coming out in me.” Puller hesitated, choosing his words with great care. “But you seem to have doubts about this whole thing. Am I right or wrong?”

Dan turned to look at Puller again. “If you’re asking whether I think my mother set my dad up to be killed, then, yeah, I do.”

Puller took this revelation in slowly. “That’s quite an allegation.”

“I’m a lawyer, I know it’s a serious allegation.”

“So when did you arrive at this conclusion? Surely not when you were a kid.”

“No, it was later, when I was grown.” He gave a wry smile. “When I became cynical too.”

“Okay,” said Puller encouragingly.

“Things didn’t add up. Why call him that late to go to the store to get stuff? Why couldn’t it have waited? And my dad had taken the day off and driven my sister to the doctor for her leg and the car worked fine. So why wouldn’t it start later?”

“So he’d have to walk to the store, that’s what you concluded?”

“And get hit by a car, yeah.”

“Did you ever raise this possibility with anyone?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“My mother can be pretty intimidating for an adult, much less a little kid. And by the time I became really suspicious, what could I do? Years had gone by. The evidence was gone. There would have been no point.”

“There was a large insurance payout.”