The Last Mile (Amos Decker, #2)(39)

“Doesn’t matter what I believe. It matters what the truth is.”

“And that doesn’t come close to answering my question,” Mars said irritably. “Why do you have to make everything so damn hard, Decker?”

“My job is to find the truth, Melvin. I told you that the first time I met you. Right now, I don’t believe anybody.”

“Including me?”

“With you, I’m getting there. Faster than I normally do.” He added, “It’s probably because you’re so lovable.”

Mars laughed. “Didn’t think you had a sense of humor.”

“I don’t. You must be rubbing off on me.”

“So where do I go while all this stuff is being decided?”

“A safe house maintained by the FBI. It’s in Austin.”

“Haven’t been back to Austin since I played at UT.”

“I figured.” Decker paused. “Got a question for you.”

“Okay, shoot.”

“I read your mother’s full autopsy report.”

Mars stiffened as he looked warily at Decker. “And what? Did you see something off?”

“I saw that the coroner concluded that your mother had terminal brain cancer.”

Mars nearly toppled off the stool. He managed to keep his balance by slamming a hand down on the floor and righting himself.

“I can tell from your reaction that you didn’t know.”

“That’s bullshit,” exclaimed Mars.

“Not according to the report. There were pictures of the tumor. I won’t show them to you because the shotgun blast had done a lot of damage. Stage Four, pretty much always fatal. It’s what Ted Kennedy died of.”

Mars was staring at the floor, his eyes wide in disbelief. “She never said anything to me. Nothing.”

“Did she show any signs of being sick?”

Mars pressed the towel against his face and began to sob into it.

Decker, unprepared for this, sat back and simply waited.

When the sobs finally subsided, Mars rubbed his face dry and slowly sat up, his chest still heaving.

“She’d lost weight. Didn’t have much of an appetite. And she had headaches. Migraines, she said.”

“Did she ever go to a hospital? Receive any treatment?”

“I can’t believe this. She had brain cancer and they didn’t tell me? She was dying and they didn’t think to mention it to their only child?”

“I know this is a shock, Melvin. But if she’d started treatment you would have known, right?”

“I don’t know. I was gone a lot. But she didn’t lose her hair or nothing like that. I would’ve noticed that.”

“Was she still working at the end?”

Mars looked up. “No. Dad said he wanted her to take a break. I just thought it was because of the money I’d be getting. I never…” His voice trailed away.

“Would they have gone to a doctor in town?”

“I guess. They had their dentist. And Mom used a chiropractor sometimes. All the work she did made her stiff.”

“Do you know the name of the doctor?”

“No.” He paused. “I guess back then it was all about me, Decker. I really didn’t have that much to do with my parents. I was so busy with football. But…but I still loved them. I was going to take care of them. But…shit.”

He looked down, his features full of a guilty misery.

“You were dealing with a lot for a young guy, Melvin. I wouldn’t beat yourself up too badly.”

“This brain cancer. Do you think it has anything to do with their deaths?”

“I don’t see how. But what I don’t see right now could fill a library.”

Mars sat up and wiped his face again. “What do I do if they let me loose, Decker?” he said in a hollow tone. He looked across at Decker like a little boy lost in a world he didn’t even know existed.

Decker appeared uncomfortable at this query and said nothing.

Mars looked down and continued, “I was nearly twenty-two when I left the world. I’m almost forty-two now. I was a kid then, now I’m a man. But back then I still had plans. Lots of ’em. Now, I don’t have a…damn clue what I’m supposed to do.”

He glanced up at Decker, saw the blank face staring back at him, and looked away. “Forget it. I’ll figure it out. Always do.”

“Let’s take it one step at a time, Melvin.”

“Yeah, right,” said Mars absently.

Decker leaned forward. It was time to discuss what he had come here to talk about.

“What if you didn’t do it and Charles Montgomery also didn’t do it?”

Mars sat up looking bewildered. “What?”

“What’s the third option, Melvin? That’s what I want to know.”

“Third option?”

“Your parents’ past is too fuzzy. Nobody looked at that back then because they had you dead to rights for the murders. But there are too many holes. There might be something in one of those holes that would explain why they were killed.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know.”

“But why don’t you believe Montgomery? He knew stuff from my house.”