Dance supposed that Pell had identified both Linda and Rebecca as more of a threat to him than Samantha. Linda was the mother of the Family and would have some authority. Rebecca was clearly brash and outspoken.
But Samantha…he could control her much better and knew she could be trusted with the truth—well, some truth.
Dance was glad she’d decided to come help them.
She noticed that Samantha was looking at the coffeepot.
“Like some?”
“I’m a little tired. Haven’t had much sleep lately.”
“Welcome to the club,” Rebecca said.
Samantha half rose but Dance waved her down. “Milk, sugar?”
“Oh, don’t go to any trouble. Really.”
The agent noticed that Linda and Rebecca shared a faint smile at Samantha’s habitual timidity.
Mouse…
“Thanks. Milk.”
Dance continued, “Linda mentioned Pell might have wanted to move to the country somewhere, a ‘mountaintop.’ Do you have any idea what he was talking about?”
“Well, Daniel told me a bunch of times he wanted to get out to the country. Move the Family there. It was real important to him to get away from everybody. He didn’t like neighbors, didn’t like the government. He wanted space for more people. He wanted the Family to grow.”
“He did?” Rebecca asked.
Linda said nothing about this.
“Did he ever mention Utah?”
“No.”
“Where could he have had in mind?”
“He didn’t say. But it sounded like he’d been doing some serious thinking about it.”
Recalling that he’d possibly used a boat to escape from the Pemberton crime scene, Dance had an idea.
She asked, “Did he ever mention an island?”
Samantha laughed. “An island? No way.”
“Why not?”
“He’s terrified of the water. He’s not getting into anything that floats.”
Linda blinked. “I didn’t know that.”
Rebecca didn’t either. A wry smile. “Of course not. He’d only share his fears with his Mouse.”
“Daniel said the ocean’s somebody else’s world. People have no business being there. You shouldn’t be in a place that you can’t be master of. Same thing with flying. He didn’t trust pilots or airplanes.”
“We were thinking he escaped from the murder scene by boat.”
“Impossible.”
“You’re sure?”
“Positive.”
Dance excused herself for a moment, called Rey Carraneo and had him call off the search for stolen boats. She hung up, reflecting that O’Neil’s theory was wrong and Kellogg’s was right.
“Now, I’d like to think about his motives for staying here. What about money?” She mentioned Rebecca’s comment about a big score—a robbery or breakin, a big heist. “I was thinking he might be here because he hid money or something valuable somewhere. Or has unfinished business. Something to do with the Croyton murders?”
“Money?” Samantha shook her head. “No, I don’t really think that’s it.”
Rebecca said firmly, “I know he said it.”
“Oh, no, I’m not saying he didn’t,” the Mouse added quickly. “Just, he might not have meant ‘big’ in the sense we’d use. He didn’t like to commit crimes that’d be too visible. We broke into houses—”
“Well, hardly any,” Linda corrected.
Rebecca sighed. “Well…we pretty muchdid, Linda. And you folks’d been busy before I joined you.”
“It was exaggerated.”
Samantha said nothing to support either woman, and seemed uneasy, as if afraid they’d call on her again to be the tiebreaker. She continued, “He said if somebody did anythingtoo illegal, the press would cover the story and then the police got after you in a big way. We stayed away from banks and check-cashing offices. Too much security, too risky.” She shrugged. “Anyway, all the stealing—it was never about the money.”
“It wasn’t?” Dance asked.
“No. We could’ve made as much doing legitimate jobs. But that’s not what turned Daniel on. What he liked was getting people to do things they didn’t want to. That was his high.”
Linda said, “You make it sound like that’s all we did.”
“I didn’t mean it like that—”
“We weren’t a gang of thugs.”
Rebecca ignored Linda. “I think he was definitely into making money.”
Samantha smiled uncertainly. “Well, I just had this sense it was more about manipulating people. He didn’t need a lot of money. He didn’t want it.”
“He’d have to pay for his mountaintop somehow,” Rebecca pointed out.
“That’s true, I guess. I could be wrong.”
Dance sensed this was an important key to understanding Pell, so she asked them about their criminal activities, hoping it might spark some specific memories.
Samantha said, “He was good, Daniel was. Even knowing what we were doing was wrong, I couldn’t help but admire him. He’d know the best places to go for pickpocketing or breaking into houses. How security worked in department stores, what designer labels had security tags and which didn’t, what kind of clerk would take returns without receipts.”
Linda said, “Everybody makes him out to be this terrible criminal. But it was really just agame to him.
Like, we’d have disguises. Remember? Wigs, different clothes, fake glasses. It was all harmless fun.”
Dance was inclined to believe Samantha’s theory that sending the Family out on their missions was more about power than money.
“But what about the Charles Manson connection?”
“Oh,” Samantha said. “Therewas no Manson connection.”
Dance was surprised. “But all the press said so.”
“Well, you know the press.”
Samantha was typically reluctant to disagree, but she was clearly certain about this. “He thought Manson was an example of whatnot to do.”
But Linda shook her head. “No, no, he had all those books and articles about him.”