stenciled on the wall.
There could be a firebomb in here somewhere, but he didn’t focus on that. There was a woodstove, a table, chairs, and a bed. And a small toilet and sink. Just like his cabin. On the table was a battery-powered lantern. He examined it for booby traps, found none, turned it on, and the room became dimly illuminated.
Also on the table were two pictures set in frames.
One was of Doug Jacobs.
The other was of Jim Gelder.
Black slashes had been drawn across the pictures of the dead men.
There were three other frames lined up next to them. There were no pictures in them. In front of the frames was a single white rose.
He picked up the pictures of Jacobs and Gelder and checked to see if anything was hidden behind them. There was nothing. He did the same with the three other frames.
Robie wondered whose pictures Reel intended to insert in these when and if the time came. And he still didn’t know why, other than that for some reason she thought these men were traitors to their country.
Robie still had no proof of that.
But what had happened to Janet DiCarlo made him realize that something was off. He touched the white rose. It felt moist. Perhaps it had recently been placed here.
He whipped around so fast, he heard her gasp at the speed of his reflexes.
His gun was pointed right at her head, his finger past the trigger guard and near the trigger itself. One twitch of his finger and she was dead from a third eye between her other two.
But it wasn’t Jessica Reel.
It was Gwen from behind the counter at the Bull’s-Eye Inn who stared back at him.
CHAPTER
57
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?” demanded Robie.
He did not lower his pistol. She was old but she could still be a threat.
She said calmly, “I could ask you the same question, young man. This is not Cabin 14. This is Cabin 17. As I told you, it’s already rented.”
“Doesn’t seem to be anyone here. Doesn’t look lived in at all. Just photos and a white rose on the table.”
Gwen looked past him to the photos and flower then drew her gaze back to him. “Doesn’t matter. They paid, and it’s theirs to do with what they want.”
“Who exactly are ‘they’?”
“Like I said before, confidential.”
“I think we’re well past confidences, Gwen. I think you need to tell me right now.”
“She won’t but I will.”
Robie swung his pistol around to take aim at the newcomer.
Jessica Reel was standing in front of him.
What surprised him was that she had no gun. Her arms were down by her sides. Robie ran his gaze quickly over her.
Reel said, “No weapons, Will. No throwing knife. No tricks.”
Robie remained silent as she took another deliberate step into the room. He kept swiveling his gaze between both women.
Reel had said she was unarmed, something he didn’t believe. But she hadn’t said the old woman wasn’t packing. And at this short distance even an eighty-year-old could shoot and kill him.
“You two know each other?” he asked at last.
“You could say that,” replied Reel. “She was my security blanket.”
Robie cocked his head questioningly at her.
“I thought if she was here you wouldn’t put a bullet in my head.”
“I didn’t in Arkansas.”
“I appreciate that more than you’ l l ever know. But circumstances change.”
“Yes, they do. But why would you think her being here would stop me from killing you now?”
“Because if you kill me, you’d have to kill her. And you don’t kill innocent people. It’s not how you’re wired.”
“If you were a good foster parent, why was she taken away?”
Reel answered, “There is no logic in foster care. What happens happens.”
“Okay, but that doesn’t explain why she’s here.”
Reel said, “I bought this place four years ago. Under an alias, of course. I brought Gwen up to run it.”
“You own the motor court?” said Robie in surprise.