In Her Tracks (Tracy Crosswhite #8)(92)

Bibby almost called out to him, then decided to leave him be.



“Evan was hiding on the hillside, or thought he was. Jackpot sniffed him out. You know what your brother said?”

Franklin shook his head. He could only imagine.

“‘Hey, Bibby.’” Bibby smiled. “Just like that. ‘Hey, Bibby.’ Then he said, ‘What are you doing?’ Either he hadn’t seen a thing or had already forgotten. Back in the day I would have beat him and sent him home with a message to keep his mouth shut. But I’m not young anymore.”

“No, you ain’t,” Franklin said.

“I figured I could be in a real bind if I didn’t play it right. So I told him I’d found the girl there, unconscious, that it looked like she’d hit her head. He asked me what I was going to do. I said I was going to call the police but now I didn’t think it was a good idea, that the police would consider him to be the primary suspect. By then I realized the idiot had left behind all kinds of evidence that would lead back to him and to you and Carrol. The Maxwells got that camera on the porch. I figured it would show Evan out walking around the same time the young girl headed to the park. And I knew they’d find his bootprints on the hillside. Didn’t know he’d also left behind DNA.”

“DNA?”

“The cigarette butt. I deduced that from the police questions. He left a butt behind the bushes. I told Evan, ‘We can’t call the police, not knowing who hurt her, maybe killed her.’ I told him the police would think he did it, and they’d put his ass in jail.”

Franklin clenched his jaw and balled his free hand into a fist.

“That scared him good. I thought he might cry. But I told him I’d help him. I told him that he needed to hide the girl, carry her back up to the house and put her in the basement. He was hesitant, until I said, ‘I’ll bet she’d play games with you for saving her, the way Lindsay did.’” Bibby laughed. “He actually smiled at that. Your brother was my perfect alibi. Hell, I doubted he’d even remember what had happened by the time he got her up to the house. Once he did, I knew I’d put the turd in your pocket. Even if Evan could remember, who were you going to call? You had your dad’s problems to worry about buried in your basement.”

“If you’re so smart, Bibby, if the turd is now in my pocket, why’d you come up here?”

“Because the police kept coming by, asking me questions. My bootprints were in the ravine also, and Jackpot’s paw prints. I came up with a story for them. But then they came with questions for Lorraine.”

“Lorraine? What’d they want with Lorraine?”

“They asked her about Lindsay.”

“Lindsay?”

“That’s right.”

“Lindsay’s dead.”

“Presumed dead. We never did find out one way or the other. We don’t know for certain. If they find her, well, then, I got problems as big as you.”

“That’s nonsense, Bibby. And Lindsay is dead. Hasn’t been around in years.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. I don’t like loose ends. I learned that from your daddy.”

Franklin looked at the gun, wondering if he could somehow get it. “Lindsay’s dead and nobody’s going to believe a word Evan says, Bibby, even if he could remember. Which he don’t. And like you said, I can’t say shit. So just walk on out of here and I’ll take care of the rest. Why do you think I came up here?”

“You might be able to do that. But I figured Evan would tell Carrol, if he didn’t already know, and Carrol never was a good liar, not with all that stuttering and spitting. And now he’s at the house with a whole lot of police detectives. I don’t like it.”

“Evan didn’t tell Carrol, and he didn’t tell me. That should be clear by now. I’ll take care of the girl, Bibby.”

“So, she’s still alive.” Bibby looked out the door, to the barn.

“She’s alive,” Franklin said. “But I brought her up here to get rid of her. Let me do it. Like you said, my daddy left me with a whole bunch of turds. I can’t very well run to the police.”

“Something else your daddy liked to say.”

“What was that?”

“‘The dead don’t see. And they can’t talk.’”

Bibby squeezed the trigger and the rifle fired.





CHAPTER 38

Herr pulled open the gate and Peterson drove through, then waited for him to get back into the cab on the other side. Tracy felt the cold air when Herr opened the cab door, and snowflakes fell onto the seat as Herr kicked his boots against the truck’s side to knock off the snow.

The distinct crack of a rifle shot broke the snowy silence. Tracy turned to Peterson. He’d recognized the sound as well. “Let’s go,” he said.

Peterson drove forward before the door fully closed, nearly clipping it on a tree trunk. He drove as fast as the conditions allowed. The fresh tire tracks had compacted the snow, making it somewhat easier to get traction. The immediate problem was the wind-driven snow falling from the sky and from the tree branches, making for near whiteout conditions. Several minutes into the drive, a second rifle crack echoed.



Stephanie Cole sat shivering on the dirt floor, despite the blankets the men had left for her and Donna and Angel. Evan had offered her his jacket, but she had declined. She couldn’t very well put it on with her hands chained to the pole, and when she asked him to remove the shackles, Evan said, “Franklin said I can’t. I’ll get a beating if I do.”