Again, Decker couldn’t think of an answer.
So back to the original question: Should they head to Tuscaloosa? They would see where the bombed NAACP office had been. They knew Montgomery had been there. Bailed out by a confederate or lackey of one of the Three Musketeers?
They couldn’t show that, because the records were long since gone.
They had nothing to even take into court. They couldn’t even get a search warrant. And what would they be searching for anyway?
Three guilty men were potentially going to walk.
Decker slumped back on the bed, as depressed as he’d been in a while.
His phone rang. He checked the time.
Five minutes past six.
It was Bogart. His voice was strained.
“I’m being recalled to D.C. along with my whole team.”
“Why?”
“The FBI is trying to build a new headquarters. The Hoover Building is falling apart.”
“And what does that have to do with you?”
“Apparently there have been inquiries from Capitol Hill about the Bureau wanting appropriations for the new facility at the same time that we are, quote, ‘wasting taxpayer funds on needless investigations.’ So I’m being recalled to go and testify on the Hill and this investigation is being suspended.”
“Let me guess, the Ways and Means Committee?”
“Thurman Huey is apparently more subtle than that. It was one of the subcommittees, of which there are apparently an endless number. He won’t appear in this at all. His hands will be clean. But I have to go.”
“Understood.”
“Anything I need to know before I do go?”
Decker debated whether to tell him about Mars’s run-in with Roy. But what could Bogart do about that? He had to go to D.C. to save his career. Let him focus on that.
“Nothing. Good luck.”
“I think you’ll need more luck than me, Decker. And I’m sorry about this. Seems like I keep popping in and out of this.”
“Nature of the beast.”
Decker clicked off and lay back down again.
The Three Musketeers’ counterattack had begun.
Huey had fired his salvo.
He just wondered what McClellan and Eastland were planning.
His plan to spook them might just have backfired.
Big-time.
CHAPTER
64
GONE?”
Jamison stared across at Decker at their table in the motel’s dining room.
Decker nodded. Mars was beside him.
“It’s Huey’s doing.” Decker glanced at Mars. “Tell her about last night.”
Mars took a few minutes to fill her in.
When he’d finished she said, “Okay, so Roy’s not going to help us. The FBI’s been knocked off the case. We have no proof of anything. Which means we’re right now in the lion’s den with no cover.”
“You want to get out of town?” asked Decker.
“I don’t know. What do you want to do? And don’t say find the truth, because that one I get. I’m talking about what do we do today, right this very minute, in fact. And staying alive might be a good goal.”
Mars said, “She’s making sense.”
Decker said, “If we can only find what Roy has.” His face suddenly brightened. “Melvin, where is your mother buried?”
“She’s not. She was cremated, her ashes were scattered.”
“You know this for a fact?”
“I was there, Decker. I scattered them. This happened before I was arrested. I did the same with my da— well, with the guy I thought was my dad. But of course we know it wasn’t him. It was ashes of the guy he killed.”
Mars fell silent and looked down at his plate. He hadn’t touched any of his food.
Decker rubbed his chin while Jamison watched him.
“Well, you guys look cheery.”
They watched as Mary Oliver walked toward them pulling a rolling suitcase. She sat down in the fourth chair and wearily rubbed her face.
“Left before the crack of dawn. Three connections later, here I am…Obviously, haven’t even checked into my room yet.” She looked around. “Where’s Agent Bogart?”
“He and his team have been recalled to Washington,” replied Jamison.
“Not again. Are you joking?”
Jamison shook her head. “I wish I were.”
“Any news on Davenport?” asked Oliver.
Decker answered. “No ransom demand, no nothing.”
Oliver grabbed a piece of toast from the stack on a plate in the middle of the table and started buttering it. “Sorry, they didn’t even have peanuts on any of the flights. And all the planes were like the size of my car, by the way.” She bit into the toast and sighed.
Mars said nervously, “How’s it going on the legal end?”
She looked at him sympathetically. “I don’t think you have to worry about that, Melvin. From what I can tell the prosecutors in Texas have decided that you are a pit of vipers that they don’t want to go near. At least right now. If they were going to try anything I would have had to have been notified.”
He breathed a sigh of relief. “Well, that’s something good at least.”
Oliver studied him. “Melvin, what’s wrong?”
He glanced up at her. “What do you mean?”
“I’ve been around you long enough to know your moods. Something’s bothering you.”
Jamison said, “He got a visit last night from his father.”
“Only he’s not my father.”
Oliver choked on her toast. “What?”
Mars took a few minutes to explain.
Oliver looked stricken. “My God. I never would have thought…I mean.” She touched Mars’s hand. “That’s awful.”
Decker said, “And it also means Roy has no incentive to help us.”
“But wait a minute. I need to get filled in. What have you discovered so far?”
Mars and Jamison looked at Decker. He cleared his throat. “We have some persons of interest. We have no proof against them.”
“Who are they?”
“The police chief of this town, for starters,” said Jamison. “Roger McClellan.”
“The police chief! Wait a minute. What crimes exactly are we talking about?”
“Bombings in the 1960s,” answered Jamison.
Oliver looked bewildered. “You have totally lost me. Bombings?”
Decker said, “We followed some leads. We learned some things. But we still need proof.”
The waitress came over and asked Oliver if she wanted some coffee. She said, “Yes, and make it extra strong.”
The waitress smiled and picked up the cup in front of Oliver. “Let me just swap this out, hon, it’s dirty.”
“Thanks.”
Decker flinched like he’d been slapped. He mouthed one word: Swap.
Oliver turned back to Decker, who instantly refocused. “Do you think you can get the proof?”
“We have some avenues to get there. But it won’t be easy.”
The waitress came back and poured out fresh coffee for Oliver and everyone else. After she left Oliver said, “What can I do to help? If it’s legal issues, I can definitely provide assistance.”
Decker nodded. “Thanks. It may very well come to that.”
Jamison added, “The key will be to find what was in Roy Mars’s safe deposit box. We think that will be more than enough proof.”
Oliver said, “And since he met with Melvin, we know he’s nearby.”
“He was nearby,” corrected Decker. “He could be a long way away by now. Particularly if he got on a plane.”
Mars looked at the others. “I’m not sure we should pursue this.”
They all looked at him.
Oliver said, “Melvin, we have to.”
“Why? To correct the wrongs of the past? By my count a mother has been killed and her son left as an orphan because of our investigation. The guy I thought was my father is a stone-cold killer. My mother was dying of brain cancer before he blew her head off. Decker, Milligan, and me almost died in a fire set by these assholes. And these crimes from the sixties? I’m not saying I don’t want to nail the bastards responsible, but at what price? Are you going to get killed next, Mary? Or Alex? Or Decker?”
Decker said, “We all signed on for this.”
“Well, I didn’t. I think maybe I need to get on with whatever life I have left.” Before they could say anything else, Mars rose and left.
“He’s upset and frustrated,” said Oliver. “I’ll talk to him.”
“Let him be for now,” said Decker. “He’s had to deal with one body blow after another. Those punches add up. I’m surprised he’s still standing.”