I DROVE THE FEW MINUTES back to the Cantabon parking lot, which by this time was filled with state patrol vehicles.
Delilah was dressed in a hospital smock and covered in blankets. She clutched Remy’s cell phone, talking to her little sister while seated on the back lip of an open ambulance.
My partner’s arm was patched and in a sling.
A state cop introduced himself as Lawrence Neary. He was slender, with gray spiky hair and a mustache. He wore the rank of a senior investigator.
“We just pulled Mr. Meadows from the cave,” Neary said. “That was one big boy soaking in a pool of his own blood, Detective Marsh.”
“Yeah,” I said.
Nothing more unless he asks, Purvis urged.
“Is there a reason you called us when you got here, Detective? You know, your own people would’ve gotten here faster.”
“It’s your jurisdiction,” I said. “I worked the area as a rook. I remember the year we handed it over to the state.”
Neary nodded. “Can I ask how you took ’im down? You’re a big guy, but Meadows must’ve had ten inches on you.”
“Luck, I guess,” I said. “Meadows slammed me against the rock floor about ten times. I remember blacking out. In one of those moments I felt the knife in my back pocket. Until then I’d forgotten about it.”
“Well, twenty-six slashes later, he’s not getting back up.”
I bit my lip. In my mind I’d cut Meadows four or five times, searching for his femoral. Not twenty-six.
Neary peppered me with other questions he’d need for his report. I told him how Remy and I had found Kendrick in the field, just hours after finding Virgil Rowe. How Meadows and Cobb had hired the arsonist to burn Kendrick alive.
I left out parts that I couldn’t explain. Parts that involved magic and wonder.
“Can I ask you a favor?” I said to him.
“Name it.”
“We’re still sorting out a couple questions,” I said. “How information got out of our department. You mind leaving a car with Delilah overnight? For her safety . . .”
Neary agreed. “If there are some loose ends and you need a clean team on this, P.T.,” he said, “you just let me know.”
Then he asked if Remy wanted to take Delilah back to her family.
We drove in silence, with Delilah in the back of the Charger with Remy. Occasionally I’d hear her sniff, and Remy would pull her in close.
Back at her house, Delilah’s family expanded quickly. Cousins came out of nearby houses. Friends arrived from church.
Bowls of salad and macaroni were laid out on an end table. Piles of sandwiches on a dining table.
In the kitchen, Remy’s grammy gave me a big hug.
I stared out the window at a dead tributary of the river. Dried twigs piled a foot high along each side, and I couldn’t help thinking about which things in life made sense and which didn’t. My wife’s SUV had been swept down a different branch of this same river. She was gone, but I was still here.
Kendrick was gone, but Delilah had been saved.
I walked out into the field and crouched in the high grass.
I thought of Lena, full of goodness, and Jonas, an innocent. Had I killed the two men tonight to settle a score? And what the hell was I doing? Putting a gun in Cobb’s girlfriend’s mouth? Who was I now?
I fell to my knees. All that sadness masquerading as anger melted, and I broke down. A whimper turned into a sob. Before I knew it, my head was buried in the saw grass, and my shoulders shook like I was having a seizure.
When the tears stopped, I stood up and wiped at my face, heading back to the house.
I sat on the porch, my foot resting on an old soccer ball hidden in the thick kudzu that was pervasive in Georgia.
I would have to go talk to Miles. Abe was my former partner. But there was only one path with a dirty cop: cut out the cancer.
Delilah walked onto the porch with Remy, the young girl’s hair wet from a long shower.
“How are you holding up?” I asked.
She shrugged but didn’t speak.
“You’re a brave girl, Delilah,” I said.
“I was scared,” she said. “But then I heard you guys were coming. At that point I was just holding on. Trying to buy time.”
I scrunched up my brow, not following her.
“Sorry,” I said. “What do you mean, you heard we were coming?”
“About five minutes before you got there, the really big man got the heads-up that you were on your way to the cave. Said they might have to move me to some other location nearby. ‘Change how it’s always been done.’”
Remy’s eyes met mine. The words “how it’s always been done” were creepy enough, but it wasn’t that.
How the hell did they know we were coming?
Wade Hester could’ve had a change of heart and called Meadows. But Remy had sent a state police car up to Shonus to check on Wade. They’d found him passed out on his couch. Front door unlocked and sleeping the liquor off.
“You heard them say those words?” Remy said. “The cops are coming?”
Delilah nodded, and we asked her more, but that was all she knew.
I’d been leaning against the edge of the porch, and I stood up. Feeling something tighten in my stomach. A spasm. A wave of nausea.
I wiped at the blood that lined the corner of my mouth, right where Abe had clocked me.
I’d gotten it wrong.
“A military guy. Through and through,” I whispered. The expression that Abe had used. A sentence about chain of command.
“What is it?” Remy said.
“Stay with Delilah,” I said. “Until I figure something out.” I turned and headed out to the Charger.
“Where are you going?” Remy asked.
“I’m not sure yet,” I said.
But it was a lie. I sped out of Dixon and on toward Mason Falls.
Over the bridge at the Tullumy River I passed the Landing Patch. A couple minutes later I found a dirt road that led up to a ranch-style home.