Page 94 of Whispers at Dusk
“What?” he demanded.
“Oh, come on, please! Of course, we know about you! Unwed mom, you probably bounced around with your mother’s friends, started doing well in school, and earned your way into the good graces of your grandfather. Ah, but he did well enough, apparently, and then not, because you should have had a nice inheritance but...well, the government stepped in.”
“And you think I’m evil! The taxes...that was pure evil. They took away everything a man—a family—had worked for over generations!”
“I’m fond of roads, public schools, and that kind of thing,” Della said. She shrugged. “So, I pay my taxes.”
“And I thought you were intelligent—intelligent people figure out how to not pay them.”
“Really? Then how did you lose the property?”
“I didn’t lose it—and I wouldn’t have.”
Gideon was still at her side—having a much easier time with the brush than she was. But he whispered to her now, “Careful. You’re making him angry. You want him to get you to the girls, you want to let the others know where you are!”
“I guess not because...wow. I mean, how did you do it? Come up with what it must have cost to go hopping from country to country like that?”
“Well, these bayous hide a lot of sins.”
“Meaning? Come on, tell me!” Della said. She decided to heed Gideon’s warning. “I must admit, I am in awe of the way you’ve managed all that. But how... Oh!”
“Oh?” he said.
“Prisons! You visited old accomplices or friends in prison. You found out where they stashed whatever it was they stole! And here’s another—the amount of fake IDs and personae you have! Astounding!”
“Well, thank you. See? I am a genius,” Dante assured her easily. “Okay, so yes, on the one. I visited old friends in prison and made a few new ones. By the way, it’s easy to collect saliva. Have baggy, will travel! And some guys in prison believe you’re going to get them out. And that means they’re willing to share their ill-gotten gains, little realizing the same money can be used to pay the families of fellow convicts who are happy to see that...well, that the original thief never has a chance to regain those same ill-gotten gains. Della, you could be so good at all this! Get your nose out of the air. What has the old establishment ever done for you? You chase killers—but those killers might kill you and what will you get? A nice funeral? Think about all I’m offering you. Think about all I’ve been capable of doing, and how much more I’d be capable of with you at my side!”
“I don’t think I’d like blood,” she said.
“Have you tried it?” he queried, grinning.
“No.” Della made a pretense of swatting another mosquito. “How much farther are we going?”
“Not that far. Just ahead.”
“The old homestead, huh?”
“Oh, seriously. You’ve obviously figured out who I am. You and your goons have researched the property, right? Would I go somewhere obvious?”
“Maybe. You do have confidence.”
“Ah, well, I still might fall to a hail of bullets. But if I die or if I’m taken, the girls die.”
“Lead me to them.”
He smiled at her. Again, she saw he had begun his flight into this madness. He looked like the all-American young man, eager and ready to have fun while still being kind.
“We’re here!” he said.
“We’re where?”
He walked a few steps ahead and moved the low hanging branches of an elm. There was a wooden door, with whatever lay behind it well hidden in the brush. It was a cabin, crumbling to the elements and hidden in the denseness of the foliage.
“Ladies first, of course.”
Della stepped in. The trees shaded out whatever sunlight tried to filter through the branches and foliage, but her eyes adjusted.
Two young women were seated in chairs set in the middle of the room.
