The Last Mile (Amos Decker, #2)(66)

He glanced up at Mars. “Your parents, obviously. This was the picture you mentioned before, the one you had taken?”

Mars nodded.

“Where’d you get it?”

“Always had it. Took it to prison with me.”

“You could have shown it to me before.”

Mars wiped at his eyes. “Yeah, I could’ve.”

“So why now?”

“Because I wanted you to see them as real people, not just little puzzle pieces, Decker. And I wanted you to see my mom’s smile. And my dad’s eyes. I just wanted you to know that…that they existed.”

Decker looked back down at the photo, his features a bit strained by the other man’s frank admission.

And maybe my frank omission.

“I can understand that, Melvin. When was it taken?”

“When I graduated from high school. They were real proud. I’d already committed to UT. I was going away. My mom cried a lot.”

“And your dad?”

Mars hesitated. “Not so much.”

“Sometimes it’s that way with fathers.”

“Yeah.”

“Your mom was beautiful. Truly stunning.”

“Yeah, she was.”

A long moment passed as the two men stared at each other.

“Got something else on your mind?” Decker asked.

“It’s like I don’t exist, Decker.”

“Why do you say that?”

Mars glanced at him. “I don’t know anything about the two people in the photo. Where they came from. Who they really were. Why they were killed. Nothing. And since I came from them, meaning nothing, what can that make me?” He put up his hands. “Nothing.”

A minute of silence passed as the rain started to pick up outside. The drumming of the drops seemed to march in parallel with the heartbeats of each of the men.

Decker took out the picture of his wife and daughter and handed it across to Mars. Mars looked at it.

“Your family?”

Decker nodded.

“Your little girl is super cute.”

“Was super cute.”

Mars looked uncomfortable. “I know you must miss them.”

Decker leaned forward. “The point, Melvin, is that I knew everything about them. Everything. There was no mystery at all.”

“Okay,” said Mars slowly, evidently unsure of where this was going.

“And they’re gone. And I’m…nothing too. Same as you.”

Mars looked like he wanted to hit something. “So is that it? There’s nothing else? Then what the hell are we doing this for?”

“We’re doing it because there can be something else. It’s up to us.”

“But you just said—”

“I said I am nothing. Today. Tomorrow I may be something. That’s the only guarantee any of us have. It’s a big, free country. There are opportunities for all to do something.”

“It’s different for me.”

“Why?”

“Damn, why do you think? I’m black. You’re white. Biggest difference there is.”

“You think?”

“And you don’t? You got a bigger one?”

“I was thinking more along the lines of Longhorns and Buckeyes. Race doesn’t matter there, just winning.”

Mars gave him a smirk. “Nice one. But it don’t change reality. I’m a black ex-con, pardon or not. Remember them assholes from the truck diner?”

“Forget them. They’re a shrinking segment of society. But finding out who really did this can change things, Melvin.”

Mars shook his head, but Decker continued. “Half the people still think you killed your parents.”

“I don’t give a shit what they think.”

“Hear me out.”

Mars was about to say something else, but he stopped and nodded curtly.

Decker continued, “There are few things more powerful than the truth. Once you get truth on your side, good things tend to happen, black, white, or anything in between.”

“But you thought they were in this Witness Protection thing. They weren’t. So we’re right back where we started.”

“In a game when the play broke down and the first hole was plugged, what did you do, fall on the turf and give up?”

“Hell, what do you think?”

“So what did you do?”

“I found me another hole to run through.”

“Well, that’s what we’re going to do, Melvin. We’re going to find another hole to run through.”

“How?”

“Did your dad keep a safe at the house?”

“A safe? No.”

“Would he have used one at work? That only he would have access to?”

“They had a safe there, but my dad told me the owner was a real prick. Hovered over him all day, afraid he was stealing. Even after working there for years. So there’s no way that my dad would have been the only one to have access to that safe.”

“Then that really leaves only one alternative.”





CHAPTER

36



DECKER AND MARS faced the stone building as fresh storm clouds built overhead. Darkness had arrived early thanks to this new weather system.