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It came unbidden out of Sala’s mouth. “Sir, I don’t want to take time off or go see my family. Look, I failed both Octavia and the bureau. I’ve got to do something, focus on something other than what happened to her.”
22
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Maitland said, sarcasm thick in his voice, “Sure you failed—tell you what, wake me up out of a dead sleep and stick a knife in my wife’s throat and see what I manage to do. Nesser had this planned out. Stop drowning yourself in buckets of guilt, it won’t help us or anyone else. All right, Sala, stay and help the chief. Get the bones you found today to Quantico.”
“All right. Sir, one of the chief’s deputies will take the bones to Dr. Thomas. You know Dr. Thomas will be there. I’ve explained to Ty he won’t be able to articulate all of the skeletons, but he will get a count on the number of bodies we find in the lake. Also, there might be DNA left in the bone marrow, and they can do facial approximations on the skulls we’ve found. That will take longer.”
Maitland said, “I’ll hurry the process along as much as I can. Knowing Dr. Thomas, security at Quantico will have to kick him out at night to make him go home until he’s finished identifying those bones.
“Using a lake as a dump site is nothing new, but it’s always very disturbing. Any evidence the Serial’s a local?”
Sala said, “Makes sense, since the lake was convenient for him. Chief Christie told me there haven’t been any missing persons in Willicott itself. She’s reaching out to law enforcement all around here to begin with, see what that gets us.”
“He could have trolled far and wide for victims. You know Chief Christie called the Hoover Building herself Friday morning and managed to work her way up to me? Goldy wants to meet her, thinks the chief’s got guts. I hope she’s got brains to go with the guts. Savich seems to think she does.”
“I’d agree, but her biggest strength is her kindness.” He swallowed, and said simply, “Ty is very kind.”
Maitland heard the pain in his agent’s voice. The chief was evidently dealing well with it. He made a decision. “Sala, I don’t think we need both you and Flynn in Willicott. I’m going to pull Flynn back. We got handed multiple stabbing murders in Birmingham, Alabama, Flynn’s hometown. He can assist the local field office.”
Sala would miss Flynn, he never missed a detail, but Sala would take up the slack. “Yes, sir, thank you. I’ll stay on, then.”
“Where are you staying? Savich said the book festival had filled up every available room.”
“I was with Chief Christie last night. I hope she lets me continue on until I have to come back on Tuesday—for Octavia’s funeral.”
Maitland said, “Yes, of course. I’ll be there myself. There will be a lot of people there. Octavia was well liked. Bring Chief Christie with you. I want to meet her. I want to meet the actual human being who got past Goldy.”
“I’ll ask her to come along.”
“Good. Sala, keep your eyes open. When Nesser finds out you survived, he might come back.”
“I will. Sir, I read up on him. I’ve dealt with him face-to-face, and I’ll be ready. But I doubt I’m on his radar. It was Savich who killed Lissy Smiley, and Sherlock shot him in the foot. I only happened to be with Octavia.”
“After he failed to take Sean Savich, I guess he decided to go on to Octavia, although, to be objective here, it still surprises me. No matter what she said that offended his manhood, she kept him from a life sentence.
“Don’t worry, Sala, I’ve got protection on Savich and Sherlock.” He heard what sounded like a forkful of potato salad going into Maitland’s mouth, then Sala hung up, and turned to see Ty with her head cocked to one side. She’d been listening. She said, “Octavia Ryan kept Nesser from going to trial, got the judge to rule he was incompetent, so he was sent to Central State Hospital in Virginia. He was so young, only early twenties when he was sent to Central, and now he’s only twenty-three. From what I’ve read, he was so infatuated with Lissy Smiley he’d do anything for her. And both Lissy and her mother were crazy as loons. It explains why he went crazy himself when Lissy died, why he’s out to avenge her now. Do you know more about Victor or Lissy’s family?”
Sala slipped his cell back into his pocket. “I remember Victor moved in with his aunt, his mother’s sister, Jennifer Smiley, when he was sixteen. When Lissy turned thirteen, she seduced him. From all accounts she was the love of Victor’s life. Savich believes she felt the same way. Only, well, she was crazy, so who knows? I guess you know, too, Victor was the driver for the Gang of Four, as they called themselves. Mother, daughter Lissy, and two other guys whose names I don’t remember. When they hit a bank in Georgetown, Savich happened to be there. Lissy recognized him from a news show. She was ready to kill him, but he kicked her so hard in her belly that she had to have surgery on her duodenum. Victor managed to sneak her out of the hospital, and they ran, all the way back to where Victor had an apartment in Winnett, North Carolina. He tried to blow them up, took another agent captive. It was
pretty hairy, lives on the line, as you can imagine, and in the end, Savich was forced to kill her. I heard he had help from a little girl, but when anyone asked him what little girl, he only shook his head. There was lots more, but those are the salients. Have I repeated everything you already knew?”
Ty laughed. “Only a little.”
“And he tried for Sean again yesterday at the book festival. Go figure that. We’ve got to find him fast before he tries for someone else.”
“What he did was pretty lamebrain, wasn’t it, with Sherlock there ready for him?” Ty took another sip of her water. “I can’t imagine the stress, your kid in danger right along with you and your husband. I wonder where Victor Nesser is hiding. I also wonder, if Lissy was indeed the love of his life, why he now has a new girlfriend.”
“And I’m wondering if he knows he’s been identified yet. You know it’ll come as a real shock when he finds out. I only hope it doesn’t send him on a rampage. Yeah, a new girlfriend. It doesn’t make much sense to me. Doesn’t to Savich, either.”
23
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EAST CAPITOL STREET NE
WASHINGTON, D.C.
