THE TWO WOMEN stared back at him. One grown, one still a child and who would forever remain so, while the other would not grow a minute older.
Because both were now dead.
Decker sat in a chair in his motel room and stared down at the photo of his wife and daughter.
He took out the picture whenever he was feeling sad or hopeless and simply needed to see their faces. He would never have to worry about forgetting them. About their memories fading into the dim recesses of his mind.
His mind had no dim recesses.
It was like Times Square all the time.
He was feeling claustrophobic, as though a compression of his entire being was taking place and he had no power to stop it.
The news that neither Roy nor Lucinda Mars had ever been in Witness Protection had been a staggering blow. He had been so certain that he was right about that. Yet Bogart had checked and then double-checked. And the U.S. Marshals would have had no reason or basis to lie. If they had lost a protectee they would have documented it seven ways from Sunday.
He had leads, he had developments, but that was all. Yet none of these things appeared likely to give him what he so desperately wanted.
The truth.
At times it seemed the most elusive thing in all of creation.
He had notched another belt hole as his appetite seemed to weaken along with the prospects of solving the case. Given a choice, he would gladly have packed the pounds back on to find out who had killed the Marses.
Even if they hadn’t been in the U.S. Marshals’ care, they could still be running from a dark past. In all likelihood they were. He just had to find out what that past was. And to do that he needed information.
That was the first part.
The second part was figuring out who had paid off the Montgomerys and why.
He rose and went to the window. The rain had started again, pushing the heat away. The day was overcast, chilly and miserable. Matching his feelings perfectly. It wasn’t supposed to rain much in this part of Texas, but the current weather was certainly bucking that trend.
Because of his perfect memory it seemed that some people regarded him as a machine. And while his social skills were not close to what they had once been, and in some ways he did appear to be unfeeling, even robotic, Decker did still feel things. He grew sad and depressed. And there was nothing his perfect memory could do about that. If anything, it made it worse.
He was surprised by the knock on the door.
“Yeah?”
“It’s me.”
He slipped the photo into his pocket and opened the door to see Mars standing there.
“Got a minute?”
“Yeah.”
Mars came in and they sat a foot apart from each other. Before Decker could ask him what he wanted, Mars took out something and handed it across.
Decker looked down at the photo.
The man was very tall. His hair was brown with a bit of white and curled around his head. The face was rugged but good-looking. The nose had been broken and not reset very well. The eyes were flat, appeared lifeless. The mouth was small and drawn as a slash across the lower part of the face.
The woman could not have created a greater contrast. She was tall and lean and her luxuriant hair cascaded down around her broad shoulders. Her skin was dark brown and flawless. The face held no imperfections that Decker could see. The eyes danced with life. The mouth swept up into a beaming smile that was infectious. Indeed, Decker felt his own mouth tug upward as he looked at her image.
He glanced up at Mars. “Your parents, obviously. This was the picture you mentioned before, the one you had taken?”
Mars nodded.
“Where’d you get it?”
“Always had it. Took it to prison with me.”
“You could have shown it to me before.”
Mars wiped at his eyes. “Yeah, I could’ve.”
“So why now?”
“Because I wanted you to see them as real people, not just little puzzle pieces, Decker. And I wanted you to see my mom’s smile. And my dad’s eyes. I just wanted you to know that…that they existed.”
Decker looked back down at the photo, his features a bit strained by the other man’s frank admission.
And maybe my frank omission.
“I can understand that, Melvin. When was it taken?”
“When I graduated from high school. They were real proud. I’d already committed to UT. I was going away. My mom cried a lot.”
“And your dad?”
Mars hesitated. “Not so much.”
“Sometimes it’s that way with fathers.”
“Yeah.”
“Your mom was beautiful. Truly stunning.”
“Yeah, she was.”
A long moment passed as the two men stared at each other.
“Got something else on your mind?” Decker asked.
“It’s like I don’t exist, Decker.”
“Why do you say that?”
Mars glanced at him. “I don’t know anything about the two people in the photo. Where they came from. Who they really were. Why they were killed. Nothing. And since I came from them, meaning nothing, what can that make me?” He put up his hands. “Nothing.”
A minute of silence passed as the rain started to pick up outside. The drumming of the drops seemed to march in parallel with the heartbeats of each of the men.
Decker took out the picture of his wife and daughter and handed it across to Mars. Mars looked at it.
“Your family?”
Decker nodded.
“Your little girl is super cute.”
“Was super cute.”
Mars looked uncomfortable. “I know you must miss them.”
Decker leaned forward. “The point, Melvin, is that I knew everything about them. Everything. There was no mystery at all.”
“Okay,” said Mars slowly, evidently unsure of where this was going.
“And they’re gone. And I’m…nothing too. Same as you.”
Mars looked like he wanted to hit something. “So is that it? There’s nothing else? Then what the hell are we doing this for?”
“We’re doing it because there can be something else. It’s up to us.”
“But you just said—”
“I said I am nothing. Today. Tomorrow I may be something. That’s the only guarantee any of us have. It’s a big, free country. There are opportunities for all to do something.”
“It’s different for me.”
“Why?”
“Damn, why do you think? I’m black. You’re white. Biggest difference there is.”
“You think?”
“And you don’t? You got a bigger one?”
“I was thinking more along the lines of Longhorns and Buckeyes. Race doesn’t matter there, just winning.”
Mars gave him a smirk. “Nice one. But it don’t change reality. I’m a black ex-con, pardon or not. Remember them assholes from the truck diner?”
“Forget them. They’re a shrinking segment of society. But finding out who really did this can change things, Melvin.”
Mars shook his head, but Decker continued. “Half the people still think you killed your parents.”
“I don’t give a shit what they think.”
“Hear me out.”
Mars was about to say something else, but he stopped and nodded curtly.
Decker continued, “There are few things more powerful than the truth. Once you get truth on your side, good things tend to happen, black, white, or anything in between.”
“But you thought they were in this Witness Protection thing. They weren’t. So we’re right back where we started.”
“In a game when the play broke down and the first hole was plugged, what did you do, fall on the turf and give up?”
“Hell, what do you think?”
“So what did you do?”
“I found me another hole to run through.”
“Well, that’s what we’re going to do, Melvin. We’re going to find another hole to run through.”
“How?”
“Did your dad keep a safe at the house?”
“A safe? No.”
“Would he have used one at work? That only he would have access to?”
“They had a safe there, but my dad told me the owner was a real prick. Hovered over him all day, afraid he was stealing. Even after working there for years. So there’s no way that my dad would have been the only one to have access to that safe.”
“Then that really leaves only one alternative.”