Mind Games

“Oh yeah, you can have one, but I’m going to read you your rights anyway.”

“Got the watch here on the bed,” someone called out from the bedroom. “The kid’s picture. Key to the BMW and all the rest.”

“Gotcha, Ray. Out of the tub. Somebody hand him a towel so I don’t have to look at his junk when I Mirandize him.”

* * *

Lucy found Tate and Alice on her front porch again. When she saw them, she pressed a hand to her mouth.

“They got him. We wanted to tell you in person.” Because she trembled, he took Lucy’s arm. “Why don’t you sit out here on the porch, and I’ll tell you.”

“Yes. Yes. I’ve got fresh lemonade.”

“Don’t you trouble.”

“We’ll get it.” Thea spoke from behind her, where both kids stood at the base of the stairs.

They could move quiet as ghosts, Lucy thought, when they wanted.

“We’ll get it,” Thea repeated, “if you don’t tell what happened until we bring it out.”

Lucy nodded. “You have a right to hear it, too. We’ll wait for you.”

She sat in one of the chairs she used when the mood struck so she drank her morning coffee and watched the sunrise.

The dogs came around to wag and sniff.

“Tate, could you carry that chair over to this side? That’ll make three, but there’s more around the kitchen table.”

“I can stand, ma’am,” Alice told her.

Rem carried the pitcher out, his tongue caught between his teeth as he concentrated on not spilling any. Thea came behind him with ice-filled glasses on a tray.

“I can pour it, Grammie.”

“All right. Rem, come sit here with me. Me and this big chair could use some company.”

The ice crackled as Thea poured. She had always liked the sound it made, and today, she considered that sound a kind of celebration. Not really a happy one, but a kind of one.

She passed the glasses out. “Deputy, you can sit here.”

“No, honey, you sit there. I’m fine.”

When she had, Tate began, and some of it she could see before he said it. But she only listened.

“He checked into a motel off 95, the other side of Fayetteville, like you said, Thea. About four in the morning. Looks like he slept late today. The police were already checking motels along the route. After what you told me, they started working that area hard.”

“They believed me.”

“I did. And they had the sketch, showed it around. Turns out the night man worked a double, so that was some luck, seeing as he recognized the face, when he’d checked him in. Even without the luck, they’d’ve found your daddy’s car. Parked around the back, and right in front of the room he took.”

Room 205, Thea thought. She could see it now.

“They busted in and found him naked as a jaybird in the shower. And they found the things you said he took from your house. They found the gun.”

“Did they kill him?” Rem asked.

“No. Remember, he was naked, unarmed, but they arrested him on the spot, and he’s on his way back to Fredericksburg. They got him cold, you understand that. He’s going to get a lawyer, and he’s entitled to one, but they got him cold. He’ll be going to prison for the rest of his life.”