Charlie picked up his pace, reaching Miles’s car just as it was pulling out on the street. He tapped the window even as the car was still moving. “What’s going on?” Charlie demanded.
Miles waved him out of the way, and Charlie froze with a look of confusion and disbelief. Instead of rolling down the window, Miles flicked on the siren, hit the gas, and tore out of the parking lot, his tires squealing as he turned onto the street.
A minute later, when Charlie called on the radio, demanding that Miles let him know what had happened, Miles didn’t bother to respond. From the sheriff’s department, it normally took less than fifteen minutes to reach the Timson compound. With the siren blaring and the squad car speeding, it took less than eight minutes-he was already halfway there by the time Charlie had reached him by radio. On the highway, he hit ninety miles an hour, and by the time he reached the turnoff to the mobile home where Otis lived, his adrenaline was pumping. He was holding the wheel hard enough to make parts of his hands go numb, though in his state he didn’t realize it. Rage was surging through him, blocking out everything else.
Otis Timson had hurt his son with a brick.
Otis Timson had killed his wife.
Otis Timson had nearly gotten away with it.
On the dirt drive, Miles’s car slid from side to side as he accelerated again. The trees he flew past were a blur; he saw nothing but the road directly in front of him, and as it veered to the right, Miles finally removed his foot from the accelerator and began to slow the car. He was almost there. For two years, Miles had waited for this moment.
For two years, he’d tortured himself, lived through the failure.
Otis.
A moment later, Miles brought the car to a skidding halt in the center of the compound and pushed his way out of the car. Standing by the open door, he surveyed the area, watching for movement, watching for anything at all. His jaw was clenched as he tried to keep control.
He unsnapped his holster and began moving for his gun.
Otis Timson had killed his wife.
He’d run her down in cold blood.
It was ominously quiet. Aside from the ticking of the engine as it cooled, there were no other sounds at all. Trees were motionless, their branches absolutely still. No birds sat chirping on fenceposts. The only sounds that Miles could hear were his own: the rustle of the gun sliding out of his holster, the harsh rhythm of his breathing.
It was cold, the air crisp and cloudless, a spring sky on a winter day. Miles waited. In time, a screened door cracked open, squeaking like a rusty squeezebox.
“What do you want?” a voice rang out. The sound was raspy, as if ravaged by years of smoking unfiltered cigarettes. Clyde Timson.
Miles lowered himself, using the car door as a shield in case shots broke out.
“I’m here for Otis. Bring him out.”
The hand vanished and the door slapped shut.
Miles slipped the safety off and found his hand on the trigger, his heart thumping hard. After the longest minute of his life, he saw the door creak open again, pushed by the same anonymous hand.
“What’s the charge?” the voice demanded.
“Get him out here,now!”
“What for?”
“He’s under arrest! Now get him out here! Hands above his head!” The door slammed shut again, and with that, Miles suddenly realized the precarious nature of his position. In his haste, he’d put himself in danger. There were four mobile homes-two in front, one off to each side-and though he’d seen no one in the others, he knew there were people inside. There were also countless junked cars, a few on blocks, between the homes, and he couldn’t help but wonder whether the Timsons were stalling for time, closing in around him. Part of him knew he should have brought help with him; he should call for help now. He didn’t.
No way. Not now.
In time, the door pushed open again and Clyde appeared on the doorstep. His hands were by his side; in one hand he held a cup of coffee, as if things like this happened every day. When he saw Miles’s gun pointed at him, however, he took a small step backward.
“What the hell do you want, Ryan? Otis ain’t done nothin’.”
“I’ve got to bring him in, Clyde.”
“You still ain’t said what for yet.”
“He’ll be charged when he gets to the station.”
“Where’s your warrant?”
“I don’t need a warrant for this! He’s under arrest.”
“A man’s got rights! You can’t come barging in here and making demands. I got rights! And if you ain’t got no warrant, you get the hell out of here! We’ve had enough of you and your charges!”
“I’m not kidding around, Clyde. Get him out here or I’ll have every sheriff in the county here in a couple of minutes and you’ll all be under arrest for harboring a criminal.”
It was a bluff, but somehow it worked. A moment later, Otis appeared from behind the door and nudged his father. Miles shifted the gun, taking aim at Otis. Like his father, he didn’t seem particularly worried.
“Step aside, Daddy,” Otis said calmly. The sight of Otis’s face made Miles want to pull the trigger. Biting back the wave of choking rage, he raised himself, keeping the gun pointed at Otis. He began moving around the car, into open view. “Out here! I want you on the ground!”
Otis moved in front of his father but stayed on the porch. He crossed his arms.
“What’s the charge, Deputy Ryan?”
“You know damn well what the charge is! Now put your hands in the air.”
“I’m afraid I don’t.”
Despite the possible danger, which suddenly didn’t matter at all, Miles continued to approach the house, his gun still pointing at Otis. His finger was on the trigger and he could feel it tightening.
Make a move… Just make a move…
“Get down off the porch!”
Otis glanced at his father, who looked ready to erupt, but when he turned back to Miles, he saw an uncontrollable fury in Miles’s eyes that made him step down quickly from the porch.
“All right, all right-I’m coming.”
“Hands up! Let me see your hands in the air.”
By now, a few others had poked their heads out of their mobile homes and were watching what was going on. Though rarely on the right side of the law, none of them considered running for his gun. They too saw the look in Miles’s face, the one that made it clear that he was looking for any excuse to shoot. “Get on your knees!Now! ”
Otis did as he was told, but Miles didn’t holster his gun. Instead he kept it pointed at Otis. He glanced from side to side, making sure that no one would stop him from what he was about to do, and closed the gap between them. Otis had killed his wife.
As he approached, the rest of the world seemed to vanish. It was just the two of them now. There was fear and something else-weariness?-in Otis’s eyes, but he said nothing. Miles paused as they stared at each other, then he began moving slowly around him, to the back.
He inched the gun closer to Otis’s head.
Like an executioner.
He could feel the trigger under his finger. One tug, one quick pull, and this would be over.
God, he wanted to shoot him, he wanted to end this now. He owed it to Missy, he owed it to Jonah.
Jonah…
The sudden image of his son brought a burst of reality to what was happening.
No…
Still, he debated for a couple of breaths before finally exhaling hard. He reached for his handcuffs and slipped them from his belt. With a practiced move, he slipped one of the cuffs around the nearest of Otis’s upraised wrists, then moved his hand behind Otis’s back. After holstering his gun, he slipped on the other cuff, locked them both down until Otis winced, then pulled him up. “You have the right to remain silent…,” he began, and Clyde, who’d been frozen in place, suddenly exploded into activity, like an anthill that had been stepped on.
“This ain’t right. I’m calling my lawyer! You’ve got no right coming in here like this and pointing your gun that way!”
He continued to scream long after Miles had finished with the Miranda warning, loaded Otis into the back of his car, and started toward the highway.
***
In the car, neither Miles nor Otis spoke until they’d reached the highway. Miles’s eyes remained locked on the road. Despite the fact that he had Otis in custody, he didn’t want to so much as glance in the rearview mirror at Otis for fear of what he would do to him.
He’d wanted to shoot him.
With God as his witness, he’d wanted to do it.
And one wrong move, from anyone who’d been out there, and he would have.
But that would have been wrong.
And you were wrong in the way you handled it out there. How many regulations had he broken? Half a dozen? Letting Sims go, failing to obtain a warrant, ignoring Charlie, not requesting help, pulling his gun straight off, putting it to Otis’s head… He was going to catch hell for this, and not only from Charlie. Harvey Wellman, too. The yellow broken lines came at him, passing rhythmically from sight.
I don’t care. Otis is going to jail, no matter what happens to me. Otis will rot away in prison like he made me rot for two years.
“So what are you bringing me in for this time?” Otis asked flatly.
“Shut the hell up,” Miles responded.
“I have a right to know what the charge is.”
Miles turned around, stifling the anger that bubbled up in him at the sound of Otis’s voice. When Miles made no response, Otis continued, oddly calm. “I’ll let you in on a little secret. I knew you weren’t going to shoot. You just couldn’t do it.”
Miles bit his lip, his face turning red. Keep control, he told himself. Keep control…
Otis, however, went on.
“Tell me, are you still seeing that girl you were with at the Tavern? I was just wondering, because-” Miles slammed on the brakes, the wheels screeching, black scars left on the highway. Because he was unbuckled, Otis shot forward into the safety cage. Miles pressed the accelerator to the floor again, and like a yo-yo, Otis was flung back into his seat.
For the rest of the ride, Otis didn’t say another word.
Chapter 20
So what the hell is going on?” Charlie demanded.
A few minutes earlier, Miles had shown up with Otis and had walked him through the station down to one of the holding cells. After locking him in, Otis asked to see his lawyer, but Miles simply headed back up the stairs to Charlie’s office. Charlie closed the door behind them; other sheriffs stole quick glances through the window, trying their best to hide their curiosity. “I think that seems pretty obvious, doesn’t it?” Miles answered. “This isn’t the time or place for jokes, Miles. I need some answers and I need them now, starting with Sims. I want to know where the paperwork is, why you let him go, and what the hell he meant by this matter of life and death. And then, I want answers as to why you went charging out of here and why Otis is locked up downstairs.”
Charlie crossed his arms and leaned against the desk.
Over the next fifteen minutes, Miles told him what had happened. Charlie’s jaw dropped open, and by the end, he was pacing around the office. “When did all this happen?”
“A couple of years ago. Sims didn’t remember exactly.”
“But you believed the rest of it?”
Miles nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “I believed him. Either he was telling the truth, or he’s the best actor I’ve ever seen.” In the wake of the adrenaline rush that was slowly dissipating, Miles felt tired.
“So you let him go.” A statement, not a question.
“I had to.”
Charlie shook his head, closing his eyes for a moment. “That wasn’t your call to make. You should have come to me first.”
“You had to have been there, Charlie. He wouldn’t have said anything at all if I started running around here, trying to cut deals with you and Harvey. I made a judgment call. You might think I was wrong, but in the end I got the answer I needed.”
Charlie looked out the window, thinking. He didn’t like it. Not at all. And not just the fact that Miles had overstepped his bounds and there was a whole lot of explaining to do.
“You got an answer all right,” he said finally.
Miles looked up. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It just doesn’t sound right, that’s all. He knows he’s going back to jail
unless he can cut a deal, and he suddenly has information about Missy?” He
turned to face Miles. “Where was he the last couple of years? There’s been a
reward, and you know how Sims earns his money. Why hasn’t he come forward before
now?”
He hadn’t thought of that. “I don’t know. Maybe he was afraid.”
Charlie’s eyes darted toward the ground.Or maybe he’s lying now.
Miles seemed to read Charlie’s mind.
“Look, we’ll go talk to Earl Getlin. If he corroborates the story, we could cut a deal so he testifies.”
Charlie said nothing. Christ, this was a mess.
“He ran down my wife, Charlie.”
“Sims saysthatOtis said he ran down your wife. There’s a big difference between the two, Miles.”
“You know my history with Otis.”
Charlie turned, holding up his hands. “Of course I do. I know every part of it. And that’s why Otis’s alibi was among the first we checked out, or don’t you remember that? There were witnesses that put him at his house the night of the accident.”
“They were his brothers…”
Charlie shook his head in frustration. “Even though you weren’t in on the investigation, you know how hard we looked for an answer. We aren’t a bunch of buffoons running around here, and neither are the men at the highway patrol. We all know how to investigate a crime, and we did it right, because we wanted the answer as badly as you did. We talked to the right people, we sent the right information into the state labs. But nothing tied Otis to this thing-nothing.” “You don’t know that.”