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“So she vanished, reappeared, and vanished again. All in the middle of nowhere,” said Robie.
“Seems so,” snapped Malloy. “And just so you know, I want to find her as much as you do!”
Reel stared at her. “I hope that’s the truth. Because if it isn’t, you’re in a shitload of trouble.”
“Don’t try to intimidate me, Agent Reel. I don’t break easily.”
“So I’ve heard so many say.”
Robie broke in. “You said you had gotten her help. Where was that?”
“There’s a rehab facility about an hour from here.”
“Give us the address.”
“Why? She’s not there anymore.”
“Just give us the address. And the names of the people in charge of her care.”
Ten minutes later Robie and Reel were on the road.
“What are you thinking?” asked Reel as Robie drove.
“I’m thinking we have to get traction on this case. You’re right, all the other crap we’ve stumbled on here has nothing to do with why we’re here.” He paused. “Until it does have something to do with it.”
“I don’t think I understand what you mean.”
“Someone put that note in my jacket pocket. Maybe it was Holly or maybe whoever she hooked up with put it there. But it seems to me that those words could be interpreted as her having known what happened to Blue Man, and that was why she was sorry. And that means it’s a lead we have to explore.”
“Do you think Blue Man is dead then?”
He glanced at her. “Like I told you before, no, but you knew that was always a possibility with this.”
“Yeah, I knew.”
“He told me it was never about luck.”
She shot him a look. “What?”
“My mission in London. He sent an e-mail. He told me he would have wished me good luck, but he wasn’t going to because it was never about luck.”
Reel did a quick intake of breath.
“What?” asked Robie.
“He wrote me the same e-mail before I deployed to Iraq.”
Robie nodded. “Two peas in a pod. Well, he was there for us in Mississippi.”
“There for you, Robie. And I was there because Blue Man ordered me down to clean up your mess.”
“I thought you came down on your own volition.”
“Well, you thought wrong. I was just following orders. Just like we’ve both been trained to do.”
“You haven’t always followed orders, Jess. Not that long ago you pulled the triggers on people you were never authorized to kill. And I had to come in and clean up that mess.”
“So I guess that makes us even.”
“I guess it does,” replied Robie.
Chapter
21
“SHE LEFT HERE about a week ago,” said Brenda Fishbaugh. “Her sister came and picked her up. She’d completed her treatment here. That’s the last I saw of her.”
They were seated in the office of the director of the rehab facility where Holly Malloy had gone to address her addiction issues.
“When I asked her name, she said it was Sheila,” said Robie.
“She would occasionally tell people her name was Sheila,” admitted Fishbaugh. “Sort of like a defense mechanism. That was when she first came here and was pretty suspicious of everyone here. She was a bit paranoid, actually,” she added quickly. “She was here for about three months. As I said, she went through our program. And successfully completed it. Or so we thought.”
“She might have stayed clean. When I saw her she wasn’t strung out on drugs, but she was with a skinhead.”
Fishbaugh nodded sadly. “Luke Miller. He came to visit her here often.”
“We understand that they knew each other,” said Reel.
“Yes. Holly was here voluntarily, although rehab was part of her parole. We couldn’t stop her from talking to Miller. Her sister actually got her into our program.”
“But it seems that fraternizing with a skinhead would run afoul of her parole,” observed Robie.
“Miller didn’t have a criminal record.”
“We know that,” said Robie. “I took a picture of his license plate. We ran a check on him. He’s clean. Except for the fact that he’s running around with some pretty bad people.”
“To tell the truth, I don’t think he really was ever a neo-Nazi. He just liked tattoos and riding around on motorcycles and belonging to something.”
“Well, since they were coming to kill him last night you might be right about that,” said Reel.
“I do think he loves Holly,” said Fishbaugh slowly. “I mean, he showed her great tenderness, and he would inquire as to how her treatment was coming.”
“Sounds like a real sweetheart,” said Reel sarcastically.
Fishbaugh looked at her. “This is a very tough place to live in. People like their independence, and they tend to rely on themselves and not the government. They join groups that represent what they believe in. Sometimes that’s a good thing and sometimes it’s not, with the skinheads being a case in point. But if you want my critical opinion on Luke and Holly, it’s that they were two lost souls looking for something. And maybe they had found it in each other.”
“So why not get married and live happily ever after?” said Reel, shooting Robie a quick glance that he did not notice.
“Maybe that was their plan. But Luke could never do that while he was with the skinheads. They wouldn’t have allowed it. And I doubt Luke would have wanted Holly anywhere near those people. They are bad news.”
Robie said, “Maybe that’s why they came for him. Because he told them he was leaving the group so he could start a new life with Holly.”
Reel said, “That actually makes sense. Too bad we don’t know where either one is so we can ask them. The police let Luke go and he’s disappeared.”
“Did Holly have any other visitors?” asked Robie.
“Her sister, Valerie, on a regular basis. A couple of young women she knew. Her parole officer also visited regularly, of course. But Luke came more often than anyone else. Now, let me see if there were any others. We keep records of all of them.”
She turned to her computer and clicked some keys.
“Yes, there was another person.” She glanced at the name on the screen. “Roger Walton.”
Both Reel and Robie tensed.
“When did he come by?” asked Reel.
Fishbaugh clicked some more keys. “He came by only once.”
“When was that?”
“Five days ago.”
“So, shortly before he disappeared. Did you talk to him?”
“Briefly. He seemed to know this area well. When I asked him he said he had been born in eastern Colorado.”
“Did he say why he wanted to talk to Holly?” asked Robie.
“He said he was a friend and just wanted to see how she was doing. Holly voiced no objections to seeing him.”
“Were their conversations monitored?”
“Well, we had someone in the visitor’s room, because that’s part of our procedures, but we don’t record conversations, if that’s what you mean.”
“Did anyone else here have interactions with him?”
Fishbaugh thought about this for a few moments. “Probably the nurse on duty.” She clicked some keys. “Laura Boyd. She might have spoken with him.”
“Can we talk to her?” asked Reel.
“She’s on duty now. I can get her for you.”
They met with Boyd in an empty office. She was in her fifties with brown hair streaked with silver, a compact build, and alert green eyes.
“Brenda said this was about Holly Malloy?”
Robie nodded. “That’s right. She had a visitor, Roger Walton?”
“Yes. He came once recently. I escorted him back, and he and Holly spoke.”
“Did he talk to you at all?” asked Reel.
