The FBI Thrillers Collection Books 6-10 - Catherine Coulter [665]
“We know a driver with Flying Cabs picked Gordon up on the street behind his house and drove him to Elderville. He was dropped off in a residential neighborhood. No one we’ve spoken to in the area knows him, no one saw him. Someone else must have picked him up from there.”
“Good for him, I say,” Cynthia said, and toasted all of them with her last bite of muffin.
“Uncle Gordon was free to go, Dix. And you don’t really have any proof against him, do you?” Tony asked. He sat forward, clasped his elegant hands between his knees. “Who cares if he took off? If you find out where he is, you still can’t bring him back.”
“He left because there wasn’t anything here for him anymore, Dix,” Cynthia said. “He was ruined. He couldn’t face the humiliation, so he left.”
Dix said, “That’s certainly putting the best face on it, Cynthia. The fact is, though, Gordon is no more accomplished a criminal than Helen Rafferty was. He knows he’s left tracks. That’s why he snuck off while he could.”
The silence returned, none of them meeting Dix’s eyes.
Dix looked at Tony. “I find it interesting that you didn’t bother to tell me all of Gordon’s accounts were closed out. I don’t suppose you helped him with that, Tony? I certainly can’t imagine Chappy doing it.”
“It isn’t against the law to give a man his own money,” Tony said.
Dix looked at each of them, wondering if there were words that would convince them. He didn’t think so. They were finally together on something, not set against one another. He gave it a try anyway. “I know Gordon wouldn’t have had the knowledge or the wherewithal to plan something like this.”
Chappy chuckled. “Evidently old Twister’s got unplumbed depths. Who would have thought it possible?”
Tony asked, “Who cares if someone helped arrange transportation, money, ID, whatever, for him, Dix? It’s not against the law.”
Chappy grinned. “Hey, maybe I did it for old Twister.”
Dix shook his head. “Chappy, you’re the only one I wouldn’t suspect of that. You can’t be in the same room with Gordon without your tearing into each other. I wouldn’t have thought you’d do anything for Gordon except visit him in jail, joking about a file in a cake.”
Chappy rose slowly to his feet. He shook a finger at Dix. “Are you nuts, Dix? Gordon and I are brothers. All we’ve ever done is have some fun with each other.”
Ruth said, “You know where he is, don’t you, Chappy?”
Chappy smiled down at her. “He was going on about killing himself, the little pissant. I wasn’t going to let my own brother do that, not after we lost Christie, Dix. And he’s not going to spend the last years of his life rotting in prison, either. Not unless you can prove what he did and, of course, find him. Naturally, I have no clue where he is, Agent Ruth.”
Dix said, “So I gather Gordon won’t be coming for a visit anytime soon. If he does, I think we’ll have to notify the Justice Department about a fake passport, won’t we?”
Dix rose together with Ruth. “Chappy, you never cease to surprise me. I’d like to bring the boys over sometime soon. This has been a difficult time for them. Would that suit you?”
“That would be nice, Dix,” Chappy said. “Real nice.”
CHAPTER 39
GREYHAVEN INN
GREAT BEAR ROAD
MAESTRO, VIRGINIA
MONDAY LUNCHTIME
“SORRY WE’RE LATE, guys, but we had a little business with Chappy, Tony, and Cynthia.”
Sherlock grinned up at them and Savich rose to hug Ruth and shake Dix’s hand.
“You two look like you could use a little more sleep,” Dix said. “You had a wild time last night.”
“True enough,” Savich said. “We slept in this morning.”
“At least until Sean jumped on the bed and began a war dance,” Sherlock said.
Once they were all seated and had ordered, Dix looked around the large room with a huge quarried gray stone fireplace at one end and beams overhead.
“This is one of the best-kept secrets for lunch in Maestro. Wait till you taste the vegetarian minestrone, Dillon.” He raised his coffee cup. “To a conclusion, of sorts, to the trouble in Maestro.