The Innocent

Chapter





21


THREE HOURS LATER Robie lifted his head off the pillow. He showered, dressed, and headed to the stairs. He heard gentle snores coming from the guest bedroom. He thought about knocking but decided to just let her sleep.

He glided down the steps and into the kitchen. He kept the alarm on. He would not turn it off until he left the safe house. In addition to the house alarm, he had perimeter alerts spread around the property. One of those had been triggered by Julie’s escape. It had been easy for him to take a shortcut through the woods and intercept her.

Part of him was glad she had decided to come back. Part of him wasn’t looking forward to the added responsibility.

But more of him was glad that she had returned.

Was it guilt over letting a little kid die right in front of me? Am I making amends this way, by saving Julie from whatever and whoever is after her?

A while later he heard a door open and feet padding across the hall. Later, the toilet flushed and the water in the sink started running. It kept going for a while. She was probably doing a “sink bath” to clean up.

When she came downstairs twenty minutes later, the meal prep was far advanced.

“Coffee or tea?” he asked.

“Coffee, black,” she answered.

“It’s over there, help yourself. Cups in the cabinet by the fridge, top shelf.”

He checked the grits and then opened the carton of eggs. “Overhard, light or scrambled, or hard-boiled?”

“Who does hard-boiled eggs anymore?”

“Me.”

“Scrambled.”

He swished the eggs in a bowl and glanced up at the small TV sitting on top of the fridge. He said, “Check it out.”

Julie pushed her damp hair back over her ears and glanced up as she sipped her coffee. She had changed clothes. It was still partially dark outside. But in the light of the kitchen she looked younger and scrawnier than she had last night.

At least she wasn’t holding the pepper spray anymore. Both hands were cupped around her coffee mug. Her face was scrubbed clean but Robie could see her red, swollen eyes. She’d been crying.

“You have any cigarettes?” she asked, glancing away from his scrutiny.

“You’re too young,” he replied.

“Too young for what? To die?”

“I get the irony, but I don’t have any cigarettes.”

“Did you used to smoke?”

“Yes. Why?”

“You just seemed the type.”

“What type is that?”

“The ‘do things my way’ type.”

The sound on the TV was turned down low, but the scene on the screen that came on was self-explanatory. The still smoking bus, burned to a shell of metal. All flammable objects had pretty much disappeared: seats, tires, bodies.

Both Robie and Julie stared at it.

The bus had had a full tank of gas, Robie knew, for the trip up to New York. It had burned like an inferno. No, it was an inferno. There would be thirty-plus blackened corpses in that ride. Or at least parts of them.

Their crematorium.

The medical examiner would have his hands full with this one.

“Can you turn up the sound?” Julie asked.

Robie grabbed the remote and inched up the volume.

The TV newscaster, a grim-looking man, stared into the camera and said, “The bus had just departed for New York City. The explosion happened at approximately one-thirty last night. There are no survivors. The FBI is not ruling out a terrorist attack, though it doesn’t seem clear at this point why the bus would have been targeted.”

“How do you think it happened?” Julie asked.

Robie glanced at her. “Let’s eat first.”

The next fifteen minutes were spent chewing, swallowing, and drinking.

“Good eggs,” Julie proclaimed. She pushed her plate back, refilled her coffee cup, and sat back down. She stared at his nearly empty plate and then up at him.

“Can we talk about it now?”

Robie crisscrossed his knife and fork over his plate and sat back.

“Guy who was after you might have set it off.”

“What, like a suicide bomber?”

“Maybe.”

“Wouldn’t you have seen a bomb on him?”

“Probably. Most bomb packs are pretty prominent. Dynamite sticks lined together, wiring, battery, switches, and the detonator. But I tied him up, so it would have been impossible for him to set anything off.”

“So it couldn’t have been him.”

“Not necessarily. You wouldn’t need a lot of juice to blow up a bus. It could have been concealed on him. Some C-4 or Semtex and the full tank of gas will take care of the rest. Some explosive vapor in the tank plus a steady supply of fuel for the fire. And it could have been set off remotely. In fact, if that’s what happened, a remote had to be used, since the guy was tied up. About half the suicide bombers in the Middle East never pull the trigger themselves. They’re just sent out with the bombs and their handlers detonate from a safe distance away.”

“I guess the handlers have the easy job, then.”

Robie thought back to his own handler, a safe distance away calling the shots—literally.

“I wouldn’t disagree with that.”

“So if the guy wasn’t the source of the explosion?”

“Then something else hit that bus.”

“Like what?”

“Incendiary round into the gas tank is one possibility. Ignites the vapor, and boom. Then the gas-fed fire does the rest.”

“Did you hear a shot? I didn’t.”

“No, but it could’ve been so close to the explosion that we might not have.”

“And why would they blow up the bus?”

“How do you think the guy found you on the bus?”

“He came on fast and last,” she said, adopting an analytical tone as she gazed at him.

Robie appreciated that tone. He used it often. “So he either just got the assignment at the last minute and was playing catch-up. Or more likely they lost you but then reacquired you.” He paused. “Which do you think it is?”

“No idea.”

“I’m sure you have some idea. Even a guess.”

“How about the guy in the alley with the rifle?”

“He was after me.”

“Yeah, that I know. You had the tracking device. But why was he after you?”

“Not something I can talk about. Like I said before.”

“Then that’s my answer too,” Julie shot back. “So what now?”

“I can drive you to the gas station. You can call for a cab. Get another bus to New York. Or maybe the train?”

“Train tickets have names on them.”

“Yours would just say Julie.”

“And yours would just say Will,” she replied. “But that’s not exactly enough, is it?”

“No.”

They sat staring at each other.

“Where are your parents?” Robie asked.

“Who says I have any?”

“Everybody has parents. It’s sort of a requirement.”

“I meant parents that were living.”

“So yours are dead?”

She looked away, fiddled with the handle of her mug. “This arrangement is probably not going to work out.”

“Do we go to the police?”

“Will that work for your situation?”

“I meant for you.”

“No, it really wouldn’t.”

“If you tell me what’s going on, I can maybe help you.”

“You’ve already helped me, and I appreciate that. But I’m not sure what else you can do, realistically.”

“Why were you going to New York?”

“Because it isn’t here. Why were you going?”

“It was convenient.”

“Well, it’s not convenient for me.”

“So you had to go. Why?”

“Need to know,” she said. “And you don’t.”

“What? Are you a junior spy or something?”

He glanced at the TV when he caught it out of the corner of his eye. Two sheeted bodies on gurneys were being wheeled out of a condo building. One body was big, one very small.

Another reporter was out front talking to a spokeswoman from the D.C. Metro Police.

The spokeswoman said, “The victims, a mother and her young son, have been identified, but we’re withholding their names until next of kin are notified. We have several leads that we are pursuing. We’re asking for anyone who saw anything to contact us with that information.”

“And it’s been reported that the FBI is heading up the investigation?” asked the reporter.

“The deceased woman was a federal employee. The Bureau’s involvement is standard operating procedure in those situations.”

No, it really isn’t, thought Robie. He kept staring at the screen, hungry for more information. It seemed like a year ago since he had escaped from the building, which was now surrounded by police and federal cops.

“And there was another child?” asked the reporter as she held the mike up to the spokeswoman’s face.

“Yes. He was unharmed.”

“Was the child found in the same apartment?”

“That’s all we can say right now. Thank you.”

Robie turned back to find Julie staring at him.

Her eyes were like acid, eating through any defense or façade he could muster.

“Was that you?”

He said nothing.

“Mother and kid, huh? And what? You help me to make up for that?”

“You want anything else to eat?”

“No. What I want is to leave.”

“I can drive you.”

“No, I’d prefer to walk.”

She went up to her room and was back down a minute later with her backpack.

As he turned off the alarm and opened the front door for her, he said, “I didn’t kill those people.”

“I don’t believe you,” she said simply. “But thanks for not killing me. I’ve got enough shit to deal with as it is.”

He watched her hurry down the gravel drive.

Robie went to get his coat.