out about the area. In particular, if anything unusual there has attracted their attention of late.’
Bimsdale went out, his cheeks red. Sebastian might have been a good investigator, but his management sucked.
The major stood up. ‘I’m going to see how things are progressing,’ he said, then left at speed. He didn’t want the senior FBI man to lay into him.
That left the three of us.
I glanced at Quincy. ‘Fancy a trip to Texas?’
‘Why not? It isn’t too hot at this time of year. Still need your bug spray though, especially in those woods.’
‘If I could interrupt your vacation planning,’ Sebastian put in, ‘nobody’s going anywhere without my sayso.’
I gave him a tight smile. ‘To coin a phrase, have you got a better idea? I take it there still haven’t been any sightings of Nora Jacobsen.’
He glanced at his laptop, then shook his head.
‘No more Hitler’s Hitman killings?’
Another shake, this one abrupt.
‘You know the state police here aren’t going to find anything.’
This time he reacted with words. ‘Let’s wait and see what the major comes back with. In the meantime, what exactly do you two superheroes think you’re going to do down in Texas? For all you know, Nora Jacobsen might have a boy toy in the Big Thicket.’
‘And I might be Jimi Hendrix’s long lost twin brother,’ I said, raising a smile from Quincy. ‘Come on, Peter, this is all we’ve got.’
Mary Upson looked up as Matt came back into the interview room. Although the rings beneath his eyes were still pronounced, there was a glint in them that hadn’t been there before.
‘What is it?’ she asked.
He sat down opposite her. ‘We think we know what your mother was saying. Was she planning a trip?’
‘Can’t you leave my mother alone?’
‘Just answer the question, Mary.’
‘Yes, as a matter of fact she was. On Friday. She has a friend in Indianapolis. She goes about this time every year.’
‘Did you see any tickets?’
‘What? No…’
‘Has she seemed different to you lately?’
Mary frowned. ‘If you must know, yes, she has. Ever since we were dragged over the coals by the FBI, she’s kept herself even more to herself. She was never very open, but she’s gotten more secretive. I think she’s going senile. That’s why I gave up my job and moved back down here with her.’
‘And you?’ Matt asked, his tone more tender.
She ran her tongue over her lips. ‘Oh, I’m all right. Out of work, bored, unhappy in love…’
He reached across and took her hand. ‘You’ll be okay.’
‘Will I? Will you, Matt? I’m so sorry about your…your…child. It must be awful.’ She paused. ‘I could help.’
He tugged his hand away. ‘No, you couldn’t,’ he said, in little more than a whisper. ‘Nobody can.’
Mary Upson watched as he left the room. She had never seen anyone bearing such a weight. His shoulders were sloped and it seemed to take a great effort for him just to move his body. They could have been so good together, but fate had driven them apart. She would happily have given him a child, she still could-if only he would look at her like a woman rather than a pawn in the mad game he was playing.
‘All right,’ Peter Sebastian said, running a hand over his unwashed hair, ‘let’s go through this again.’
I was at the table with him, Arthur Bimsdale and Quincy Jerome.
‘Fine,’ I said. ‘Mary Upson has confirmed that there’s some kind of Antichurch gathering at this time of year.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Bimsdale said, peering at his notes. ‘That’s not how you reported it. She said that her mother visited a friend in Indianapolis every December.’
‘Use your imagination, Arthur,’ I said. ‘That’s what she told Mary. I’m willing to bet your salary several times over that the old woman hasn’t got any friends except Antichurch members.’
‘Leave that point for now,’ Sebastian ordered. ‘According to Major Hexton, the CSIs have found traces of human blood and tissue on one of the inverted crosses and on the floor in the barn house, though the knife Nora Jacobson pulled was clean. The jawbone we turned up has small cuts all over it, suggesting the flesh and other matter was scraped off. Identifying the person the bone came from will not be easy.’
I closed my eyes and tried to black out an unwanted vision of the mutilation being carried out. Could one elderly woman have killed and dismembered the victim on her own? Could Mary have been dissembling? If so, she was very good.
‘As regards the fugitive mother,’ the senior FBI man continued, ‘witnesses have placed her in Portland around the times of all four Hitler’s Hitman murders. Apparently she’s a fixture in the markets and shops, telling people what she thinks of the way they live.’
‘So what are we saying?’ Quincy asked. ‘She’s involved in this Antichurch, but she’s not our killer?’
Arthur Bimsdale laughed. ‘That’s quite a deduction, Sergeant.’
The big man looked on the verge of introducing Bimsdale’s laptop to his head.
‘Indeed,’ Sebastian said, nodding at Quincy. ‘If she’s a follower of Rothmann, she probably is a Nazi. Judging by what we’ve seen here, she may well also be a murderess. But it seems she’s not up for these four killings.’
‘Far as I’m concerned, she’s going down, whoever she killed,’ Quincy said, his face set hard.
I studied him, then turned to Sebastian. ‘Mary Upson. I suggest you let her go.’
He gave me a black look. ‘You had the handcuffs removed from her mother, Matt. That wasn’t such a good idea.’
‘Keep her under surveillance. Maybe her mother will contact her, or vice versa.’
He thought about that, and then nodded. ‘What did our friends in Houston tell you, Arthur?’
Bimsdale hit keys on his laptop. ‘They sent a profile of the area. As the sergeant said, it’s heavily wooded and treacherous ground, largely unpopulated. There are no ongoing Bureau investigations in Tyler County, and no recent buildings on the 1943 road other than private homes.’
‘So if Rothmann’s down there,’ I said, ‘he’s using an existing structure.’
‘Correct.’ Sebastian looked at me. ‘Are you sure you want to go?’
‘Oh, yes.’ I turned to Quincy. ‘You still in?’
He grinned. ‘Sure.’
‘How do you want to do it?’ Sebastian asked.
‘No FBI planes. We’ll go to Houston by commercial flight-Quincy at least five rows behind me. I’ll hire a car at the airport. I want to be obvious to Rothmann’s people. When I locate him, you can send your people in.’
Sebastian frowned. ‘You’ll be taking a big risk.’
‘You put a bug in my arm, didn’t you? Just make sure you’ve got people close by-but not too close. Quincy can take point on watching my back.’
‘Not many black folks in those parts,’ the sergeant observed.
‘You’re good at camouflage, aren’t you?’
He laughed. ‘Yes, sir, that I am.’
‘We’ll give you a locator so you can track Matt,’ Sebastian said.
‘What about weapons?’ Quincy asked.
‘I’ll arrange for some to be waiting for both of you in the airport luggage lockers. You can pick the keys up from airport information.’
That seemed to cover most of the bases. I had turned myself into bait, but I didn’t care. Getting to the piece of shit who killed my family was all that mattered.
Sara Robbins, currently Colette Olds, got out of the Lexus and went to the diner opposite the police headquarters building. She was wearing a black wig and pulled a Boston Red Sox cap low over her eyes-even
