Knock Out

24

FORT PESSEL, VIRGINIA

Monday morning

Savich got a call from Galen as he stepped into Carly Schuster’s house, telling him a hiker had found the Trailblazer in the woods just over North Carolina border, and a dark blue 2001 Chevy Malibu was reported stolen from a small tobacco farm a half-mile away.

He pocketed his cell, turned, and smiled at her as Sherlock said, “We appreciate your taking the time to speak with us, Mrs. Schuster. The principal told us you have no official affiliation with the high school, but you’ve tutored a number of students in computer science through the years, one of them Victor Nesser. Could you please tell us about him?”

She waved them both to the sofa as she said, “Goodness, yes, I taught Victor everything I knew. He was self-taught to that point and really quite talented. I’ll tell you, he was beyond me in a few months. He’s a natural, the first one I’ve seen. He didn’t do that well in his school courses, a teacher friend of mine told me, and he never took any computer classes. He didn’t tell me why. But he was hungry for learning it, you know?”

Savich smiled. “Yes, I know what you mean.”

“Ah, do I have a kindred spirit in my living room?”

Savich only smiled. “Can you tell us what you remember about the Smileys?”

Her lips unseamed and her very white buck teeth appeared again. Carly Schuster nodded. “Ah, yes, the Smileys. I didn’t know Jennifer Smiley very well, saw her in town from time to time, nodded to her, you know, said hi and how are you, but nothing more than that. I’ll tell you though, the word is Mrs. Smiley’s a piece of work. She man-aged the Lone Star Bar out on Route Thirty-three, just south of town, Lots of stories about how the place got drunk and rowdy on the weekends, and she with it. She lived off and on with the owner, a biker with tattoos. I wondered how she could let Lissy live in the same house with that man. Then he was killed driving that motor-cycle of his, ran headlong into a bridge abutment.

“Everyone thought Jennifer Smiley would inherit the place, but he left it in his will to a cousin from up north somewhere. She was very angry about it, I heard. Then one day, maybe three months ago, she and Lissy were simply gone. Yes, it was right after school was over, I remember, though I don’t see how it mattered, since Lissy hardly went. Then poof-—they were gone, their house locked up. Their neighbor, Ms. Ellie, thought they’d gone on a long vacation. It had been just the two of them, you know, since Victor left right after he graduated high school three years ago.”

Suddenly her lips seamed shut over her buck teeth and she was shaking her head. “Oh, goodness, since you’re FBI agents, that must mean Victor has done something illegal. And the Smileys? Will you tell me?”

Savich said, “We’re looking for both Lissy Smiley and Victor Nesser. They’re wanted in connection to a series of bank robberies.”

Sherlock said, “Did you hear about the bank robberies in Kentucky and Virginia by a group called the Gang of Four? Most of them were killed up in Washington, D.C.”

Carly Schuster shook her head. “Sorry, I refuse to watch the news, it’s too pressing.”

Savich wanted to see those buck teeth again; they made her smile quite charming.

Carly said slowly, “So you’re saying Jennifer Smiley was also involved in this Gang of Four?”

Sherlock nodded. “From what we know now, she was the leader.”

“Oh, dear. And Lissy? And Victor?”

Savich said, “Yes. Two other men as well. Jennifer Smiley was shot dead in the middle of a bank robbery in Washington. Lissy and Victor escaped. We’re trying to locate them.”

“But this is a small town, nothing bad ever happens here; well, not like this. I haven’t heard anybody say anything. My husband won’t believe it. He liked Victor, said he was okay for a scruffy geek. I liked him too.”

She pursed her lips, did some thinking, and said, “I just can’t get over Victor. Lissy, now she’s a different story. I hate to say this about a sixteen-year-old girl, but I’m not at all surprised she’s involved. Lissy is ... Well, I’m not sure quite how to say this . . . but she’s off, but it’s more than that. She’s strange in the head, and the way she sometimes looks it people, it’s frightening. The thing I finally realized was that she’s a chameleon, no other way to say it. She can charm you if she wants or look like she’s bored to tears.”

“How do you know all this about her, Ms. Schuster?” Sherlock asked.

“She dated my son for four months,” Carly said simply. “I saw her up close and personal. Of course Jason talked about her. I know she was having sex with him, and I’ll tell you, that scared me.”

Savich and Sherlock waited.

Carly drew in a deep breath. “He broke up with her last spring Though he wouldn’t admit it, I think he was a little frightened of her. After the breakup, she threatened to kill him. That might sound like a melodramatic teenager, but I was afraid for him. She accused him of sleeping with another girl, though he hadn’t. A few days later, the girl, Lindy, was struck by a car while she was riding her bicycle, broke her leg. We never found out who hit her. Lissy didn’t ever hurt Jason, but someone slashed the tires on his old Honda.”

“Is Jason around, Carly?” Sherlock asked.

“No, I’m. sorry. He’s in Spain with his father, my ex. He won’t be back until September. You know, I think Jason breathed a big sigh of relief when Lissy and her mother left town.”