The Innocent

Chapter





49


WHEN ROBIE GOT BACK to S’mores and the other woman, a male reporter he’d seen earlier was circling the pair like a shark after shipwreck survivors.

The reporter looked at Robie. “Playing the Good Samaritan?” he asked, eyeing the bags and beverages.

“Your tax dollars at work,” replied Robie. He handed one bag and coffee each to S’mores and the woman. The latter snagged her food and coffee, grabbed her plastic bags, and disappeared down the street. Robie let her go because he didn’t think she would be able to tell him anything.

S’mores stood there sipping his coffee.

The reporter said, “Can you answer a few questions for me, uh, Agent…?”

Robie hooked S’mores by the arm and walked off.

The reporter called after him, “I’ll take that as a ‘no comment.’ ”

When they had reached the next intersection Robie said, “Tell me what you saw the night the bus blew up.”

S’mores had opened the bag and dug greedily into the bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich. He crammed a handful of hash browns into his mouth and chomped down.

“Take it slow, friend,” said Robie. “Don’t want to choke.”

The man swallowed, took a slurp of coffee, and shrugged. “What you want?”

“Everything you saw or heard.”

S’mores took another, smaller bite of his sandwich. “Boom,” he said. “Fire. Holy shit.”

He took another sip of coffee.

“Anything more detailed than that?” Robie added slowly. “Did you see anyone around the bus? Maybe get off or on?”

S’mores crammed another handful of hash browns in his mouth and chomped. “Boom,” he said again. “Fire. Holy shit.” Then he laughed. “Grilling out.”

Robie decided that his first impression of S’more’s sanity was the correct one. He wasn’t sane. “You didn’t see anyone?” he asked halfheartedly.

“Grilling out.” Then he laughed and finished his sandwich in one bite.

“Good luck to you,” said Robie.

S’mores gulped down the hot coffee.

Robie left him there and fast-walked back to the café.

Jordison had gotten her food and was eating it slowly. There was none of S’mores’s energetic desperation. Robie hoped that boded well for her being able to tell him something useful, or at the very least intelligible.

Robie sat down across from her.

“Thanks for this,” said Jordison quietly.

“No problem.”

He watched her eat for a few seconds and then said, “How long you been out there?”

“Too long,” she said, wiping her mouth with a paper napkin.

“I’m not here to grill you about that. It’s none of my business.”

“I had a house and a job and a husband.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Me too. Surprised me how fast it all went to hell. No job, no house, no husband. Nothing but bills I can’t pay. I mean, you hear about it happening, but you never think it’ll happen to you.”

Robie said nothing.

Jordison continued, “He’s probably homeless too for all I know. My ex, I mean. Well, I call him my ex. He never even bothered to file for divorce. He just up and left. And it wasn’t like I could afford a lawyer to get it done.” She paused and added, “I went to college. Got my degree.”

“It’s been really bad times the last few years,” said Robie.

“Worked hard, did all the right things. The American dream. Right.”

Robie was afraid she might start crying.

She took a quick sip of coffee. “What do you want to know?”

“The night the bus blew up? What can you tell me?”

She nodded. “I’ve been sleeping behind a Dumpster the last couple of weeks. Nights haven’t gotten too cold yet. Last winter was a bitch. Didn’t think I was going to make it. January was my first month on the street.”

“That’s rough.”

“I thought something or someone would come through. Half my friends are like me. The other half will have nothing to do with me.”

“Family?”

“None that are in a position to help anymore. It’s just me now.”

“Where did you work before?”

“Admin support for a construction company. Like the worst possible job to have in this economy. I was just an expense item, generated no revenue. I was one of the first to go even though I’d been there twelve years. No severance, no health care, nothing. Salary stopped but the bills sure didn’t. Then my unemployment benefits ran out. I fought to keep my home for a year. Then my husband got sick. That sucked what little savings we had and left a whole ton of bills. Then he gets better and off he goes. For better pastures, he told me. Can you believe that shit? What happened to the marriage vows for better or worse?”

She glanced up at him, looking ashamed. “I know you don’t need to hear this.”

“I can understand how you might need to get it off your chest.”

“I’ve already vented plenty, thanks.” She finished her breakfast and pushed the plate away.

She took a few moments to collect her thoughts. “I saw the bus come down the street. It was really noisy so it woke me up. I don’t sleep well on the street. Concrete isn’t too comfortable. And it’s just not… well, safe. I get scared.”

“I can see that.”

“And then the bus stopped, right there in the middle of the street. I remember sitting up and leaning around the Dumpster and wondering why it had stopped. I’ve been over to that bus terminal going through the trash cans. It wasn’t a city bus. It goes up to New York. Leaves same time every night. Seen it before. Sometimes I wish I were on it.”

Not that night you don’t, thought Robie.

“What side of the street were you on? Side facing the bus door or the other side?”

“The door was on the other side.”

“Okay, go on.”

“Well, it just blew up. Scared the hell out of me. Saw stuff flying everywhere. Seats, body parts, tires. It was horrible. I thought I was in the middle of a war zone.”

“Did you see anything that might have caused the bus to explode?”

“I just assumed it was a bomb on the bus. You mean it wasn’t?”

“We’re still trying to figure it out,” said Robie. “But if you saw something, anything impact the bus, that could be important. A shot fired into the gas tank, maybe? Did you see or hear anything like that?”

Jordison shook her head slowly. “I know I didn’t hear a shot.”

“Did you see anyone?”

Robie stared directly at her but hid the tension he was feeling.

“After the bus blew up, I saw two people on the other side of the street. Before the bus was blocking my view. But then there wasn’t any more bus. A man and what looked to be a girl, maybe a teenager.”

Robie sat back but kept staring at her. “Can you describe them?”

Better it come out now, he thought.

“The girl was short, wearing a hooded coat, so I didn’t see her face.”

“What were they doing?”

“Getting up. Well, the guy was. The blast must’ve knocked them both down. Maybe knocked them out. I guess I was far enough away and the Dumpster I guess acted as a barrier. But they must’ve been closer. They were on the other side of some parked cars.”

“What happened next?”

“The guy came to first and then he went over and helped the girl up. They spoke for a few moments and then the guy started looking around the parked cars. That’s when the old guy back there started dancing around yelling about s’mores. Then the guy and girl took off.”

“Any idea where they came from?”

“No.”

“What did the guy look like?”

She stared at him pointedly. “He actually looked a lot like you.”

Robie smiled. “I guess I look like a lot of people. Can you be more specific?”

“I’ve got great eyesight. Had eye surgery done before my life fell apart.”

“But there were flames and smoke between you and the man. And it was dark.”

“That’s true. I couldn’t pick him out of a lineup, if that’s what you mean. But the fire really turned night to day.”

“But my height, build, age roughly?”

“Yeah.”

“And you’re sure you saw nothing hit the bus before it blew up?”

“Well, I was pretty wide awake by that time. But I didn’t see or hear anything that would have made that bus detonate.”

“Thanks, Diana. If I need to get back in touch with you, will you be around here?”

“I really don’t have any other place to go,” she said, her gaze downcast.

Robie handed her a card. “I’ll see what I can do to get you off the streets.”

Jordison’s voice shook as she looked down at the card. “Whatever you can do, mister, I’d really appreciate it. There was a time when I didn’t take charity. Figured I could get it done by myself. Those days are long gone.”

“I understand.”

Robie drove back to Donnelly’s and was getting out of his car when Vance spotted him.

“We got a break in the case,” she said after hurrying over to him.

“What?”

“ATF guys found the source of the detonation.”

“Where?” Robie asked sharply.

“Wheel well of the bus, left side. Had a motion sensor. Bus starts going, engages the timer. A few minutes later, boom.”

Robie stared at her, his mind racing.

The guy after Julie certainly wouldn’t have gotten on a bus he had just rigged to explode.

That left only one explanation.

I was the target.