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“Meaning?”
“Meaning he never thought that this was the only way I was ever going to get to him. And trust me, I’ve wanted to for two decades. And now he’s given me a shot. I’m going to make him regret the day he ever thought about coming at me or hurting someone I care about.”
“Now that’s the Jessica Reel I know. And this time the guy is going to prison for good.”
“If he ever makes it to trial,” replied Reel quietly. “And I wouldn’t bet the farm that he does, Robie. I really wouldn’t. Because this son of a bitch…is mine.”
As she left the room, Robie had one overriding thought.
He was very glad he was not Leon Dikes.
Chapter
41
LEON DIKES SAT DOWN ACROSS from Julie, who was just finishing up a plate of food. She wiped her mouth, took a drink of water, and sat back watching him. Her face was swollen from where he had struck her.
“You want something?” she asked.
“How did you meet Jessica?”
“Why do you want to know?”
“Because it is better to know things than to not know things.”
“She’s just a friend I met through another friend.”
“The names they gave at the prison were Jessica Reel and Will Robie. I have had them checked out. There is very little known about them. Very little. In fact, really nothing.”
“I don’t know anything about that.”
“But I think that you do. Did you know that Sally, or Jessica, was in Witness Protection?”
“Because of you, right?”
“Now, I believe that this Will Robie might also be in Witness Protection, or else he might be a U.S. marshal assigned to protect her.”
“Maybe he is.”
“That answer is really not good enough.”
“Like I said, we’re just friends.”
“Simple friends do not risk their lives for one another. Jessica offered to give herself up to me in exchange for your safe release. Why would she do that, I wonder?”
“Because she’s a good person,” replied Julie in a casual tone. “That must be hard for you to relate to. Probably why you find the concept so puzzling.”
“Your arrogance in the face of imminent harm is really deserving of both admiration and puzzlement, a most unusual combination.”
“I’m a complicated person.”
“I want you to tell me everything you know about Jessica Reel and this Will Robie.”
“I’ve told you what I know about Jessica. I don’t really know Will Robie. Tonight was the first time I’d met him.”
Dikes did not appear to be listening. “Are you yourself perhaps in Witness Protection? Is that how you met?”
“Why do you think that?”
“Because I have also made inquiries about you, and the results have been, shall we say, scant, which is problematic to me.”
“Well, I’m not in Witness Protection, and even if I were I don’t think they make a habit of putting different people in the program together or letting people in the program know the identities of others in the program.”
“You are too young to have been placed in the program when Sally was.”
“Jessica.”
“To me she will always be Sally Fontaine.”
“Whatever floats your boat,” replied Julie curtly.
“Her father was able to reach her through Witness Protection. Whether she is still in the program or that was merely a conduit to deliver a message to her, wherever she is now, I do not know.”
“Well, neither do I,” said Julie.
“I think that you’re lying.”
“Think what you want.”
“I will ask my questions and if I receive no answers I will have to ask more persuasively. It will not be pleasant for you, but if I have no choice…?”
Dikes clapped his hands together. The door opened at once. The person now in the doorway must have been waiting there for this command, Julie thought.
He was huge, but his uniform fit him. Apparently, Dikes’s group had more money to spend on uniforms than the Alabama correctional system did.
The prison guard Albert stared down at her. In one hand he held a fireplace poker, which was glowing red at one end. In his other hand was a whip that looked well used.
Dikes said, “This is my chief interrogator. I will allow him to take charge of you for a while, unless there is something you wished to tell me.”
Julie looked from Albert and his poker back to Dikes.
“What do you want to know?” she said fearfully.
“What I want to know is everything.”
Julie said, “Then I’ll tell you what I know.”
Chapter
42
I WANT TO TALK TO her,” said Reel.
“No, I don’t think so,” said Dikes.
“Then you can forget it. Knowing you like I do, she’s probably already dead. And so I’m not putting myself or Laura in danger if she is.”
“You are so tiresome,” said Dikes with an exaggerated sigh. “It was one of your least attractive features.”
“I want to talk to her. Now!”
A few moments later Reel heard Julie’s voice.
“I’m okay,” Julie said.
“I’m so sorry about all this, Julie. Have they hurt you?”
“Nothing I can’t handle. And they’re standing right next to me in case I say something wrong.”
“I know. I just want you to know that things will turn out okay, Julie. No matter what happens, you’re going to be safe, okay?”
“Okay,” Julie said in a small voice.
Reel heard a gasp from Julie, and Dikes said, “All right, you’ve confirmed that she’s just fine.”
“And she better remain that way,” warned Reel.
“You are in no position to make demands. And don’t attempt to employ your U.S. Marshal friends in WITSEC.”
“What?”
“Your little friend told me all about you. That you’re still in WITSEC. And that you are engaged to marry her guardian, Jerome, who is a very rich man.”
“You bastard,” snarled Reel. “Did you torture her to get her to tell you that?”
“The mere threat was enough. She’s only a child. A precocious one, but still only a child. And she apparently lives in a fantasy world. She tried to feed me a cock-and-bull story about her being kidnapped by a Saudi prince, as if I’d believe that. But the mere sight of my, uh, chief interrogator, and she confessed all. It was rather pathetic.”
“She’s just a kid, Leon,” barked Reel.
