The Innocent

Chapter





31


ROBIE WAITED UNTIL well after dark. They spent the time in between getting something to eat at a mom-and-pop restaurant on H Street. Robie asked more questions of the young woman, gently probing. She pushed back. She would make a good cop, Robie thought. Her tendency to give away as little as possible was remarkable, particularly for a generation that routinely posted the most intimate details about themselves on Facebook.

Robie drove Julie to his neighborhood in Rock Creek Park. Only he didn’t take her to his building but to the observation post across the street. Like the farmhouse, no one other than Robie knew about it.

They walked in, he turned off the alarm system, and she looked around.

“This is your place?”

“Sort of,” he said.

“Are you rich?”

“No.”

“You seem rich to me.”

“Why?”

“You have a car and two homes. That’s pretty rich. Especially these days.”

“I guess it is.” He actually had another home right across the street, but she didn’t need to know that.

He showed her how to use the alarm system and then let her look around. She picked out her bedroom from the two there. She dropped her backpack and a second bag she’d packed before leaving her house on the bed and continued to wander around the apartment.

“What’s the telescope for?” she asked.

“Stargazing.”

“That’s not an astronomical telescope. And there’s not really an angle here to point it skyward.”

“You know about telescopes?”

“I do go to school, you know.”

“I like to watch things,” he said. “Especially to see if people are watching me.”

“So are we going to be, like, staying here together?” She looked nervous by this prospect.

“No. I’m staying somewhere else. But it’s close by.”

“So you have three places?” she said incredulously. “What do you do for a living? I think I want to do it too.”

“You should have everything you need.” He took a cell phone out of his pocket. “This is for you. It’s got my number loaded on speed dial. It’s untraceable, so feel free to use it anytime.”

“How far away will you be?”

“I thought you were nervous that we were going to be staying here together.”

“Look, I know you’re not some creep who gets off on underage girls, okay?”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I’ve had to deal with those sorts of jerks before. I know what to look for. You don’t have the signs.”

“Did you learn that in foster care?” he asked quietly.

She didn’t answer him. And Robie thought about Gerald Dixon and wondered if he should have just shot the prick when he had the chance.

“You should have everything you need,” he said. “I stocked up the kitchen last week. Anything else, give me a call.”

“What about school?”

This caught Robie off guard.

Shows what a great parent I’d make.

“Where do you go to school?” he asked.

“At a G and T program in northeast D.C.”

“G and T? That’s a cocktail.”

“Not gin and tonic. Gifted and talented.”

“You’re fourteen, so you’re in ninth grade?”

“Tenth.”

“How so?”

“I skipped a grade.”

“Pretty smart, then.”

“In some things. In other things I can be pretty stupid.”

“Like what.”

“I don’t like highlighting my weaknesses.”

“Considering what happened to your parents, I’m not sure I want you going back to school. Whoever killed them will know where you go. Or it’ll be easy enough to find out.”

“I can use the cell phone to text my program coordinator and feed her some bullshit.”

“You think you’re smarter than all adults?”

“No. But I’m smart enough to know how to lie and make it sound like the truth.” She looked at him closely. “I think you’re probably really good at that too.”

“The foster care people will be looking for you.”

“I know. Won’t be the first time. They’ll go to my parents’ house. They’ll think they skipped town and took me with them. Then they’ll go to the school, find out I texted my coordinator, assume I’m okay, and that’ll be a dead end. They’ve got too many kids in the pipeline a lot worse off to spend any more time on me.”

“Thinking several moves ahead. That’s good. You play chess?”

“I play life.”

“I get that.”

“So how close will you be?” she asked again.

“Pretty close.”

“I’m not just going to sit in this place and do nothing. I’m going to help you find the people who got my parents killed.”

“You can leave that to me.”

“Screw that! If you don’t let me help, I won’t be here when you come back.”

Robie sat down in a chair and stared at her. “Let’s get something really straight. You’re a smart kid. You know the streets. But the people who are after you are at a whole different level. They will kill anyone who gets in their way.”

“Sounds like you know the type real well,” she shot back.

When Robie said nothing, she said, “The guy on the bus? The way you got us away from the dude in the alley? The way you analyzed the crime scene at my parents’ house? The way you tracked me down? And you said you were working with the FBI. You’re not just some guy in a cubicle working nine to five. You’ve got safe houses and guns and untraceable phones and telescopes pointed at who knows what.” She paused and then added, “You kill people too, I bet.”

Robie still said nothing.

Julie looked out the window. “My parents were all I had. I ran away when I could have stayed and helped them. Now they’re dead. I know I’m young, but I can help you. If you just give me a chance.”

Robie looked out the window too. “Okay. We’ll do this together. But it’ll be tricky.”

“So what do I do first?” she said eagerly.

“You have a paper and pen in your bag?”

“Yes. And I have the laptop my school gave me.”

“How long ago did you see your parents?”

“About a week.”

“Okay, you write down everything you can remember about the last couple of weeks. I want you to try and recall anything you saw, heard, or suspected. Anything your parents said. No matter if it seemed insignificant. And anyone else around who they knew or were talking to.”

“Is this busy work or is it really important?”

“Neither one of us has time to waste on busy work. This is stuff we need.”

“Okay, I’ll do it. I’ll start tonight.”

He rose to go.

“Will?”

“Yeah?”

“I’ll make a good partner, you’ll see.”

“I have no doubt, Julie.”

But his gut was ice. He much preferred to work alone. He didn’t like having another life riding on him.