“Remember, there were two adults with those kids. People might have discounted most of what the boys said about it, but they’d have believed Jaborski and Lincoln. Maybe there was so much at stake that the security men at the installation decided Jaborski and Lincoln had to die. Then it became necessary to kill the kids to eliminate witnesses to the first two murders.”
“That’s… diabolical.”
“But not unlikely.”
Tina looked down at the wet circle that her glass had left on the table. While she thought about what Elliot had said, she dipped one finger in the water and drew a grim mouth, a nose, and a pair of eyes in the circle; she added two horns, transforming the blot of moisture into a little demonic face. Then she wiped it away with the palm of her hand.
“I don’t know… hidden installations… military secrets… it all seems just too incredible.”
“Not to me,” Elliot said. “To me, it sounds plausible if not probable. Anyway, I’m not saying that’s what really happened. It’s only a theory. But it’s the kind of theory that almost any smart, ambitious reporter will go for in a big, big way — if we can come up with enough facts that appear to support it.”
“What about Judge Kennebeck?”
“What about him?”
“He could tell us what we want to know.”
“We’d be committing suicide if we went to Kennebeck’s place,” Elliot said. “Vince’s friends are sure to be waiting for us there.”
“Well, isn’t there any way that we could slip past them and get at Kennebeck?”
He shook his head. “Impossible.”
She sighed, slumped back in the booth.
“Besides,” Elliot said, “Kennebeck probably doesn’t know the whole story. He’s just like the two men who came to see me. He’s probably been told only what he needs to know.”
Elvira arrived with their food. The cheeseburgers were made from juicy ground sirloin. The French fries were crisp, and the coleslaw was tart but not sour.
By unspoken agreement, Tina and Elliot didn’t talk about their problems while they ate. In fact they didn’t talk much at all. They listened to the country music on the jukebox and watched Charleston Boulevard through the window, where the desert dust storm clouded oncoming headlights and forced the traffic to move slowly. And they thought about those things that neither of them wanted to speak of: murder past and murder present.
When they finished eating, Tina spoke first. “You said we ought to come up with more evidence before we go to the newspapers.”
“We have to.”
“But how are we supposed to get it? From where? From whom?”
“I’ve been pondering that. The best thing we could do is get the grave reopened. If the body were exhumed and reexamined by a top-notch pathologist, we’d almost certainly find proof that the cause of death wasn’t what the authorities originally said it was.”
“But we can’t reopen the grave ourselves,” Tina said. “We can’t sneak into the graveyard in the middle of the night, move a ton of earth with shovels. Besides, it’s a private cemetery, surrounded by a high wall, so there must be a security system to deal with vandals.”
“And Kennebeck’s cronies have almost certainly put a watch on the place. So if we can’t examine the body, we’ll have to do the next best thing. We’ll have to talk to the man who saw it last.”
“Huh? Who?”
“Well, I guess… the coroner.”
“You mean the medical examiner in Reno?”
“Was that where the death certificate was issued?”
“Yes. The bodies were brought out of the mountains, down to Reno.”
“On second thought… maybe we’ll skip the coroner,” Elliot said. “He’s the one who had to designate it an accidental death. There’s a better than even chance he’s been co-opted by Kennebeck’s crowd. One thing for sure, he’s definitely not on our side. Approaching him would be dangerous. We might eventually have to talk to him, but first we should pay a visit to the mortician who handled the body. There might be a lot he can tell us. Is he here in Vegas?”
“No. An undertaker in Reno prepared the body and shipped it here for the funeral. The coffin was sealed when it arrived, and we didn’t open it.”
Elvira stopped by the table and asked if they wanted anything more. They didn’t. She left the check and took away some of the dirty dishes.
To Tina, Elliot said, “Do you remember the name of the mortician in Reno?”
“Yes. Bellicosti. Luciano Bellicosti.”
Elliot finished the last swallow of beer in his glass. “Then we’ll go to Reno.”
“Can’t we just call Bellicosti?”
“These days, everyone’s phone seems to be tapped. Besides, if we’re face-to-face with him, we’ll have a better idea of whether or not he’s telling the truth. No, it can’t be done long-distance. We have to go up there.”
Her hand shook when she raised her glass to drink the last of her own Coors.
Elliot said, “What’s wrong?”
She wasn’t exactly sure. She was filled with a new dread, a fear greater than the one that had burned within her during the past few hours. “I… I guess I’m just… afraid to go to Reno.”
He reached across the table and put his hand over hers. “It’s okay. There’s less to be frightened of up there than here. It’s
“I know. Sure, I’m scared of those creeps. But more than that, what I’m afraid of… is finding out the truth about Danny’s death. And I have a strong feeling we’ll find it in Reno.”
“I thought that was exactly what you wanted to know.”
“Oh, I do. But at the same time, I’m afraid of knowing. Because it’s going to be bad. The truth is going to be something really terrible.”
“Maybe not.”
“Yes.”
“The only alternative is to give up, to back off and never know what really happened.”
“And that’s worse,” she admitted.
“Anyway, we have to learn what really happened in the Sierras. If we know the truth, we can use it to save ourselves. It’s our only hope of survival.”
“So when do we leave for Reno?” she asked.
“Tonight. Right now. We’ll take my Cessna Skylane. Nice little machine.”
“Won’t they know about it?”
“Probably not. I only hooked up with you today, so they haven’t had time to learn more than the essentials about me. Just the same, we’ll approach the airfield with caution.”
“If we can use the Cessna, how soon would we get to Reno?”
“A few hours. I think it would be wise for us to stay up there for a couple of days, even after we’ve talked to Bellicosti, until we can figure a way out of this mess. Everyone’ll still be looking for us in Vegas, and we’ll breathe a little easier if we aren’t here.”
“But I didn’t get a chance to pack that suitcase,” Tina said. “I need a change of clothes, at least a toothbrush and a few other things. Neither one of us has a coat, and it’s damn cold in Reno at this time of year.”
“We’ll buy whatever we need before we leave.”
“I don’t have any money with me. Not a penny.”
“I’ve got some,” Elliot said. “A couple hundred bucks. Plus a wallet filled with credit cards. We could go around the world on the cards alone. They might track us when we use the cards, but not for a couple of days.”
“But it’s a holiday and—”
“And this is Las Vegas,” Elliot said. “There’s always a store open somewhere. And the shops in the hotels
