'I'm a lawyer in private practice with lots of connections, and while my dad has never mentioned what he actually does for the government, I know it's not some State Department crap, that's just a cover. Can you at least confirm that? Please?'
Alex hesitated, but the pleading sound in her voice finally got to him. 'As best I can figure he was doing investigative work for the CIA, or at least in connection with them somehow.'
'Over something critical?'
'Critical enough. He's trying to find somebody who doesn't want to be found.'
'Can this person be dangerous?'
'Most people who don't want to be found are dangerous.'
He thought he could hear a groan from her. 'What should I do?' she said. 'My mom's dead. My brother's in the Marines in Iraq. What should I do, Agent Ford? I don't know anybody else to call.'
Alex sat there staring off. It was as though his nearly twenty years in the Service had simply disappeared from his memory. If Hayes had had his way, that would be more true than not. So why sit here waiting for the nuke to hit him in the head?
'Give me a number where I can reach you anytime. I'll poke around and see what I can find.'
'Oh, God, thank you so much.'
'I can't promise that if I find out anything it'll be what you want to hear.'
'Agent Ford, I know you don't know my father, but if you were in trouble there wouldn't be anybody else you'd want covering your back more than Joe Knox. He's as straight as they come. I hope that means something to you.'
'It does,' Alex said quietly.
CHAPTER 56
LATER THAT NIGHT Stone sat up in his hospital bed staring at the wall opposite. He checked his watch and then slipped open the nightstand next to his bed and pulled out Danny's phone. He called Abby first and Tyree next. Abby was working at the restaurant and Tyree was out in the field trying to track down Lonnie Bruback, who, he said, seemed to have disappeared. They had found nothing in Willie's trailer other than a couple of torn-apart propane tanks and the remnants of the cookstove, he told Stone.
'I've got a bomb squad guy from the Virginia State Police coming to examine the scene. I know you don't want to hear this, but it might have been an accident. Willie was gone, maybe the propane was leaking and Bob lit a cigarette when Willie came through the door, and boom.'
'If the propane was leaking, it would have exploded before then. I saw Shirley there like I told you and she
'I know. But why would they want to kill Willie so badly?' Tyree asked. 'First an overdose and now a bomb?'
'He knew Debby didn't kill herself. He was going to keep making noise until the truth came out. Somebody obviously didn't like that.'
'But now that they killed him we know there's something going on,' Tyree pointed out.
'But these people are good and we have no proof that a crime's even been committed. So in their eyes it's better.'
'Well, I'm not giving up until I get to the bottom of this.'
'Tyree, everybody needs to watch their back here, and that includes you.'
'I hear you.'
Stone clicked off and stared down at the phone. Danny had a late-model Verizon cell phone with all the bells and whistles, including e-mail. Stone had never been into mail that didn't involve pen and paper. He scrolled down Danny's contact list. The names there were mostly female. He'd even made annotations by each entry indicating the lady's strong suits, and each contact also came with a digital photo of the woman. Several of the pictures would have qualified as pornography, at least in Stone's estimation.
He shook his head. Danny needed to seriously upgrade the quality of his female companions.
He looked outside. It was dark. He slowly eased himself from the bed. He was pretty stiff and sore but the more he moved around, the better he felt. His butt was already numb from lying in the damn bed all those hours.
He walked out of the room and over to the nurses' station. After being chastised for being out of bed, he asked and was told where Danny's room was.
He walked down that hall and saw a man sitting outside of Danny's room. When Stone approached the man stood. 'Can I help you?'
'You the deputy Tyree put on Danny?'
'That's right. Wait a minute, you're that Ben fellow, aren't you?'
'Yes. I wanted to see Danny?'
'Seeing as how you saved his life, sure, go on in.'
When Stone popped his head in, Danny was sitting up in bed, his face red and his eyes puffy slits.
'Danny? Can I come in?'
He looked over at Stone. He didn't say anything but waved him in with a feeble sweep of his hand.
Stone pulled up a chair and sat down. 'I'm really sorry about Willie.'
Danny didn't look at him but kept his gaze on the pillow he held over his midsection. When he did speak his voice was heavy and slow. The meds, Stone thought.
'He didn't deserve to die that way.'
'Nobody does.'
Danny glared at him. 'Some people do.'
'I guess you're right. Maybe some people do.'
'He never hurt anybody, you know that?'
'I know.'
'And Bob. I mean he's a damn old man. And they blew him up too?'
'Who blew him up, Danny? Who are we talking about?'
Danny glanced at Stone. 'Why ask me?'
'Why'd you leave Divine?'
'Fresh start, like I told you.'
'And why'd you come back?'
'My business.'
'You want to tell me about Debby Randolph?'
'What's to tell? She was Willie's girl. He loved her, man. They were going to get married.'
'So you knew about that?'
Danny nodded absently. 'I was all over his case to get off the drugs. Mine work was killing him. He was in pain, okay, I get it. But I saw what the shit did to my old man. I didn't want that happening to Willie. And then Debby came along and she got him back on the right track, you know what I mean? He was doing all right. Called me up out of the blue, told me he was thinking about proposing. Asked me what I thought. Part of me wanted to say, 'No man, run the other way, you're too young. We got stuff to do. Girls to bed.' But deep down, I was jealous, man. I got pieces of meat on my plate. He had a woman who loved him.'
'So what'd you end up telling him?'
'I told him to go for it. I knew Debby. She was a great gal. And great for him. He asked me to be his best man.'
'Sounds like you two had patched up your differences.'
'We never had any real differences. It was just crap really.'
Danny fell silent and Stone sat back in his chair and watched him for a while as the darkness fell more heavily outside.
