“You mean he has tunnel vision where murder is concerned.”
“Pretty much. He has a tendency to lose sight of the overall picture and miss something big. That’s how hard he focuses.” It was also how he’d screwed himself in Iraq. “We all have failings, Mel. Whatever else he might be, Satyr’s human and prone to the same weaknesses as the rest of us.”
“Funny, McCabe doesn’t strike me that way. Prone to weaknesses, I mean.”
“You don’t know him well enough to say that.” Johnny’s eyes narrowed. “Do you?”
She smiled when she looked at him. “No, I don’t.” Following his gaze to the rearview mirror, she drew her brows together. “Are we being followed?”
“Not that I can see. Doesn’t mean someone is there. How far to our first stop?”
“Pappy Laundy lives a few miles north of here. He’s not the closest, just more of a priority than the Brewers.”
“Brewer.” Johnny frowned. “As in Danny, Sam, and company? How hard did Gert hit the kid?”
“Sam’s fine. The oldest girl’s the one with the problem. Her father called me yesterday, then asked if I could come and help him out.”
“Her brothers got to your house just fine last night. Why couldn’t her father bring her to you?”
“Because she won’t leave the property. Her name’s Cadence, but Cady’s what they call her. She’s twelve. She misses her mother.”
“Is her mother dead?”
“Nope. Ran off two years ago. She wanted something more than swamp life, nine kids, and a husband who figured she didn’t bring home a paycheck, so he got to make all the rules.”
“Oh, you must love this guy.”
“We’ve reached a détente. I treat his kids. Unless it’s an emergency, he goes to a doctor in Bellwater, about thirty miles from here. Turn left.”
“So now we’re taking a goat path?”
“It’s easier on foot, but I need a vehicle to reach my last patient. You keep looking in the rearview mirror.” She twisted around to see behind them. “Do you really think anyone would follow us on this road? ”
“Goat path, Mel. I’m checking for two-legged goats.” The vehicle tilted to the right where the path dipped toward the water. “For the record, I don’t trust your friend Steve. A SEAL would know how to build a bomb.”
She shook her head, waited until the road leveled, then sipped her coffee. “Steve quit the SEALs and the fire department. Word is—and God knows how accurate any word around here is—that he left both things due to stress.”
“Meaning?”
“Johnny, building a bomb would be a stressful task. Didn’t you notice his tremor?”
“I thought it was anger. Pretty sure he didn’t buy your cousin-from-California story.”
“You really need to let go of some of that animosity you’re feeling. And don’t ask me again if he’s gay. The come-on you witnessed, while not as determined as it might have appeared on the surface, was a definite male-female thing.”
“What did his ex do?”
“Okay, fine. She was a dental hygienist. From what I’ve been able to gather, she fell from the balcony of their Miami condo.”
Johnny slid her a sideways look. “What floor was the balcony on?”
“Twelfth.” She drank more coffee. “Steve was taken in for questioning, but never charged.”
“And?” Johnny sensed more.
“And that was the end of it.” Pausing, she rested her head on the seat back. “His father might have helped in that regard. Not that I think Steve was involved in her death, but his dad does have clout.”
“In what way?”
“In the way politicians sometimes do. Steve’s father is the attorney general of the state of Maine. ”
Chapter Six
Melia wasn’t entirely sure Pappy Laundy wouldn’t shoot first and claim Johnny’s injuries were her fault later. He tended to be a bit trigger happy, particularly when he discovered trespassers on his land. He had a phone line that worked most days. Whether he would answer or not remained to be seen.
“Come on, Pappy, pick up,” she said into her cell. “We both know you called me for help.”
“Your patients are strange, Mel.” Johnny circled a finger while they waited for Pappy to answer. “Let’s go back to Steve. Tell me more about his father the attorney general.”
“I’ve told you everything he told me. The death of an ex isn’t exactly comfortable conversation, and despite what you might think, I hardly know the guy.”
“He knows you like the Beatles.”
“That’s knowledge born of small talk. He likes sci-fi and going to Star Trek conventions. I told him I don’t do conventions. I didn’t tell him why.”
“Bullet to the heart there, Mel. I’d delve deeper, but this isn’t the time or place, and I sense you’re not ready yet in any case.”
“Uh-huh. Pick up, Pappy,” she ordered the invisible man. “I don’t believe Steve had anything to do with his partner’s death. That doesn’t mean he can’t be bought by someone like Ben Satyr.”
“Or Mockerie.”
“Or him. One or both of them could be using information he or they dug up about Steve’s partner’s death to make him comply. I also heard what you and McCabe said about Mockerie and/or Satyr having an FBI connection.”
“It’s a good bet.”
“One that doesn’t inspire a whole lot of— Pappy? Are you there? It’s Melia.” She covered her free ear. “Pappy?” Twisting her cell up, she said, “All I hear is heavy breathing.”
Johnny grinned. “Yeah? How old is Pappy, and does he have a wife?”
“Eighty-eight, and no.” She frowned, listened for several more seconds. “I think I’m hearing Gomer. Pappy’s hound dog,” she elaborated. “He probably got tired of listening to the ringtone and knocked the phone over.”
“So what now, doc?”
“I’ll go in. You wait here.”
“Try again, sunshine.”
“He might shoot you, Johnny. He won’t shoot me.”
“Then you go first and announce me. Tell him I grow medical marijuana, and I love whiskey.”
Melia recognized his tone of voice. Most days, Johnny could be reasonable and reasoned with. But there were times when she found herself slamming into a wall. This was one of those times.
“Don’t shoot him,” she warned as she pushed aside a tattered curtain of Spanish moss. Pausing, she touched his arm. “I don’t want to see you get hurt, and I guarantee he’ll have his shotgun out.”
“He fires, I fire. That’s the deal.”
Hitching her medical bag higher on her shoulder, Melia breathed in and out, then advanced.
Pappy’s house sloped downward in more ways than one. A strong wind would probably send it tumbling into the river in the not-too-distant future. But Pappy swore by the rock foundation, which had been built by his grandfather sometime in the 1800s.
Naturally, Johnny spotted him first. He gestured with his Glock. “Ten o’clock. He’s sitting with his back to that rickety outbuilding. He’s almost hidden in the weeds. Sun just glinted off the barrel of his totally illegal sawed-off shotgun.”
“Right. The shotgun’s illegal, and the still inside the rickety outbuilding isn’t? Not to mention the back forty.” She swatted a wasp out of her way and raised her voice. “Pappy, it’s Dr. Mel.”
“What happened to Dr. Rose?”
“Depends on the patient.” She upped the volume again. “I brought a friend with me. Don’t shoot him.”
The shotgun went off. Melia grabbed Johnny’s forearm and pulled him lower before he could respond. “That was a warning shot.”
“Since we’re both still standing, I gathered that. Warn him he’s not to do it again.”
“Pappy, Johnny’s not here because of you. I need his help, that’s all. He doesn’t have anything to do with the law.”
“Tell him to stand back.”
“Shit.” Johnny walked past her and raised his own voice. “Not gonna happen, old man. Dr. Mel’s got trouble, and I’m here to help her take care of it. You want your foot treated, you let us both on your property. Otherwise, you’re on your own.”