Long Shadows by David Baldacci

Author:David Baldacci
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2022-10-11T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 46

T​HOUGH IT WAS AFTER ELEVEN, they got on the road right away.

“Should we alert the local cops about this?” Andrews asked as they drove off.

Decker shook his head. “No. I don’t want them to spook Kelly into doing something stupid or going even deeper into hiding. Let’s just get there as fast as we can.”

Andrews steered them to I-75 and took it across Florida west to east. Then they turned south on the Florida Turnpike and took it to Route 1.

“Okay, we’re five minutes out,” said Andrews.

Decker looked at his watch. The trip had taken a little over three hours.

“Stop just short of the place,” he said a few minutes later.

They pulled down a narrow lane that paralleled the beach. It was quiet and still, and clouds covered the moon, throwing everything into a grim darkness.

Andrews stopped the car. He said quietly, “It must be that one down there at the end.”

Steve Kelly hadn’t been exaggerating. The homes here really were little more than fishing shacks, some near to falling down, others in little better shape. The tide was coming in and the breakers were noisy.

They got out and started to walk quietly toward the house, keeping off the street.

“There’s her car out front,” said White softly.

It was indeed the SUNNY license plate on the white Camry.

Decker took the front, and White and Andrews went around back. The yard was littered with palm leaves and trash and rotting fish heads. The shacks on either side were dark, and there were no cars in front of them. It seemed the only shack occupied was the Kellys’.

Or was it?

Decker edged up to the front door and peered into the small window to the left of the door. He slipped his gun from its holster and placed his finger near the trigger.

He stepped to the side of the door and knocked.

“FBI, Mrs. Kelly, open the door.”

He could hear movement inside.

“I’ve…I’ve got a gun,” said a woman’s tremulous voice.

“So do we,” said Decker. “I’ll slide my credentials under the door. Take a look at them. We need to talk.”

He did so and a few moments later the door opened, revealing a woman who looked like a decades-older version of Alice Lancer. She had on jeans and a light blue sweater. Her feet were bare. She had a gun in her right hand and Decker’s credentials in her left.

She handed them back to him and he asked her to put the gun down, which she did, laying it on a side table.

She turned around as White and Andrews came in the rear door.

“Mrs. Kelly, we need to ask you a lot of questions,” said Andrews.

She pursed her lips and nodded. “I suppose so. Let’s sit down.”

She led them over to a couch with worn upholstery and two rickety chairs set around a small, scarred coffee table. The interior held the musty odor of having been closed up for a while.

They sat, and Kelly clutched her knees with her long, bony fingers.

Decker studied her and said, “First off, are you Alice Lancer’s biological mother?”

“Yes.

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