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CHAPTER79
THE DOORBELL RANG AROUND NINE THIRTYthat night at Gibson’s home.
When she answered the door, there stood Earl Beckett.
“Marshal, what can I do for you?” she said, looking surprised.
“Got your address from Sullivan. Mind if I come in?”
She stepped back and he walked past her, taking off his hat as he did so.
They sat in the small living room.
“Guess your kids are asleep?”
“Oh, yeah. They go down around eight thirty and explode again at around six.”
“Never had any kids,” said Beckett. “Guess my career was my family.”
“It is for a lot of people.”
“Look, Sullivan came by to see me today.”
“Right, he said he was going to do that.”
“I saw the pictures. Sure looked like the Langhornes to me. He said you used a software program to find them?”
“That’s right, proprietary software that ProEye uses.”
“Damn, I wish we’d known about it. We could have found them a long time ago.”
“Well, the software has only been available for a couple of years.”
“Thing is, I’d like to see them if I could. I wanted to let the kids, well, they’re not kids anymore, know that I was thinking about them. And—”
“—and you’re wondering if they killed their father?”
He looked uneasy with the query. “Look, I don’t want to think they did that. And it’s not my case to go after them. It’s Sullivan’s.”
“But still?”
“Of course they would have a motive to do it. He treated them bad, real bad. I told you about the play and how he wouldn’t let Dougdo any sports.”
“Yeah, sounded really awful.”
“I told Sullivan to keep eyes on them.”
“Unfortunately, they disappeared before he could do that. But we’ll get on their trail again,” she said when Beckett looked stunned.
“Sullivan also mentioned that you know where the treasure is?”
“It’s what I do for a living. In fact, I was thinking that if I found it, I might get a finder’s fee. I’m a single mom with kids and, as you can see, I’m not rich. So the money would be very welcome.”
“But with Francine and Doug in the area, what if they’re after it, too? What if they get there first now that you lost them?”
Gibson looked alarmed. “Shit, I didn’t think of that. You believe they might?”
Beckett started talking fast. “If they killed him, they were probably after the treasure, too. You said they left the place where you saw them. Well, they might be at Stormfield right now. Sullivan said we would go there tomorrow, but what if that’s too late?”
