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Crix had been right. The run up the hill, the long swim through the cold, bracing, natural pool and the hike down under the stars had cleared my mind, strengthened my body, and renewed my spirit. I was a strong, capable, smart, tough motherfucker who had done the impossible before and would do it again now.
“Occam's Razor.”
Crix was standing in the middle of the room looking at all the information we had posted on the walls.
“Occam’s Razor.” He repeated.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Deke asked from the doorway. He and Betty had just walked in. It looked like Betty had showered and changed into a pair of yoga pants and one of Deke’s tee shirts, but aside from that, she didn’t look any more rested or less stressed. Deke remained at her side and assumed what looked like a protective stance. Although I took note of this new protective vibe he had going on towards Betty I couldn’t care less about it. Because if I had to jump all over Betty Owens to find Liddy, I’d run right over Deke to do it.
“Occam's razor. It’s a logical principle developed during the middle ages.” Crix explained in a way that shocked the hell right out of me. “The main intent of the definition has to do with math and data, but the simple idea is this; you shouldn’t make more assumptions than the minimum needed. In other words, my brothers, sometimes the simplest explanation is the best one. You find thewhy, it’ll lead you to thewho. And thewherewill follow.”
Then Crix puffed out his chest a little and damn if he didn’t sound a little hurt when he said, “I’m surprised that that big fucker Bonny didn’t explain that to you. Ha! Maybe that Wizard of All, ain’t all that! You know, sometimes you need to look in your own backyard first before you look outside for help. Fuck those Saints.”
“Point taken.” I gave him that. Never took Crix for the sensitive type but there it was. I thought about the other guys out there in the compound pacing around and trying to be helpful and respectful of the process. I wonder if they harbored the same resentment or had hurt feelings because we went outside for help in finding one of our own. The boys had had to swallow a lot with the Hells Saints taking the lead on things lately. They had been good soldiers and had done what they needed to do, but now I realized that it probably wasn’t without personal cost. There is a necessary and natural arrogance about outlaws, and my guys had it in spades. But when they had had to put their egos aside and do what was best for the club and now for Liddy they had stepped up.
Respect.
“Tell us more.” Betty walked up to stand next to Crix. She put a light hand on his arm.
“You keep thinking you’ve been missing something, and you are,” Crix told us. “You’re going too big, casting too wide. You’re assigning blame based on assumptions. This was a home invasion and you’re making it about the club. Maybe it has nothing to do with us. Maybe you’re making it what it ain’t.”
“Sometimes a rose is just a rose,” Betty muttered.
“Exactly.”
“Put the photos up again,” Deke ordered.
We went over them all again. Slide by slide. This time with Crix in the room. Same overturned chairs, same overturned tables. The same hurricane that Liddy had left in her path….
And then.
WHAM!
There it was.
Plain as day.
Liddy had left a hurricane in her path.
We could literally follow her attempted escape pattern from the front door to the living room through the hallway and to the kitchen. All evidence pointed to Liddy being chased through the first floor of the house and taken out of the back kitchen door.
“They weren’t there to take Liddy,” I said my head spinning with the sudden epiphany.
Deke continued to look at the screen with an intense scowl on his face. Betty turned to me with big, wide, frightened eyes. Crix saw it the same time that I did and simply said, “Word.”
“If they were there for Liddy and they chased her from the living room to the kitchen and out again then why the hell was the upstairs a goddamn mess? They took her from the first floor, so why would they be rifling through that second floor?” I shot out.
Deke pinned his eyes on Betty. “What’s on the second floor?”
Betty let out a small gasp and then sunk down to the chair as if her legs couldn’t hold her body up any longer. “I wasn’t supposed to be home. Nobody was supposed to be home.”
“Bingo,” Crix said.
“What’s upstairs?”
“Nothing…”
“Jesus, woman! Think! These assholes were looking for something and I’d bet my left nut that it wasn’t Liddy.” I got close up in Betty’s face. “Think!”
