The Homecoming Read Free Page A

there.”
    “
Deitz
did this?”
    “Parkhurst can’t confirm the voice, but the caller ID was BD SECURICOM , which is Deitz’s company. I called the number back when I got here, and got Deitz’s voice mail.”
    “So it really was Deitz.”
    “I’d say so. The caller claimed to be FBI, but when Parkhurst asked for a badge number, the guy lost it, started screaming, swearing—”
    “That’s Byron.”
    “All over. Parkhurst hung up on him, cleared the jet for takeoff. After that, things went all rat-shit and he never thought about the caller again until the First Responders started asking him questions. I was about to go up and talk it over with Parkhurst right now. You wanna—”
    “Let me get this straight. Deitz was on his way
here
.”
    “Looks like he was on the cell phone screaming at Parkhurst when the State Patrol guys clocked and locked him. Anyway, you wanna come along? Maybe we’ll find out something.”
    Nick stared at her, trying to take all this in.
    “If Deitz did the First Third, he killed four cops. Why is he still alive?”
    “Early in the day, Nick. He could still be dead by sundown. Patrol is taking him to their HQ up in Gracie. Boonie Hackendorff is on the way up to see that the FBI gets a piece of him. First Third is a multistate bank, so it’s a federal beef.”
    “Jesus. Mavis, does Reed Walker know?”
    Reed Walker was Kate’s brother. A blade-thin guy with the air of a raptor about him, intense, aggressive, crazy-brave, he drove a Police Interceptor pursuit car for the Highway Division of the State Patrol and was, in Nick’s opinion, certifiably nuts. Two of the cops who had been killed in the First Third robbery were his personal friends, one of them aguy he had trained with at the Police Interceptor Training School. Reed was up in Virginia, looking for Kate’s father, who had not been seen since Saturday afternoon.
    Mavis was ahead of him.
    “It’s covered, Nick. Marty Coors called him up at VMI and told him to stay there. He said if Reed came flying back and showed up anywhere around Deitz he’d shove him into the back of a dog car and let one of those werewolves chew on him. Reed’s handled. For now, anyway.”
    A silence.
    “Anything on that, Nick? On Kate’s dad?”
    Nick looked at his hands, shook his head.
    “Not so far. There’s a state cop up at VMI, name of Linus Calder. He’s doing everything he can. I was supposed to chopper up there and help, but now we have … this.”
    He made a gesture, taking in the crash, all the cops, and the media trucks that were finally arriving on the scene.
    “So he’s just … gone?”
    “There’s more to it, Mavis. When I can, I’ll fill you in.”
    “But not now?”
    “Can’t. Sorry.”
    “Why?”
    “Because you’d think I was a fucking fruitcake if I told you the whole story. I don’t believe it myself.”
    “I already think you’re a fucking fruitcake.”
    “I know. So do I.”
    Mavis studied his face for a moment, saw what was there, and set the thing aside.
    For now, anyway.
    “So what do you want to do about this rat-fuck right here, Nick? CID has jurisdiction. So far.”
    “Man. What a cluster … can you stay with it?”
    “I’d love to.”
    “Talk to Parkhurst, Mavis, if you don’t mind. Follow up on the Deitz connection from this end. And give Boonie a wake-up on this Chinese national thing, will you? Before State and the FBI director land on him?”
    “I will. What are you gonna do?”
    Nick looked back to see where Beau was. He was in the middle of a group of Niceville uniforms and, from the grin on his face, talking trash, having a good time.
    “I’m going to have to call Beth and tell her.”
    “Maybe not right away? Wait and see how it shakes out.”
    “Deitz won’t be able to talk his way out from under a sheaf of stolen cash.”
    “No. But if you give it a bit you’ll have more to tell Beth than what we have now. And there’s her kids to consider. The more you know, the