Simply Lies

Chapter 51

Gibson sat there for a bit after ending the call. Langhorne seemed to really be having fun with all of this from-the-grave crap. The man’s first cryptic message had been “Look harder. It’s worth it.” And now this.

She had a sudden thought. Had he written the phrase Do as I say, not as I do on the wall of the room where he’d died? Perhaps writing with one hand and then the other to make it look like two people had done it? No, that probably couldn’t be. The same phrase had shown up at Oxblood’s home, after Langhorne was dead.

Gibson looked at the words again that she had written in her notebook: Now you see it, but then you don’t.

It felt off to her somehow. She looked it up online.

The common phrase actually was: “Now you see it, now you don’t.” Although she found other references that had it as “Now you see them, now you don’t.” But the origin seemed clear: It referred to a magician’s trickery and sleight of hand. You wanted to hide something, so you did something interesting with one hand to get the audience’s attention, while you secreted what you really wanted to hide with the other hand while people weren’t looking. And then what did it mean to take away the eight? What eight, and from what was it supposed to be taken away? And then Sesame Street with the leftovers?

Trickery and deceit and hiding shit. Langhorne had definitely chosen the right phrase to use.

But then her spine stiffened. This is what you do for a living. And you got to Tremayne and he told you what Langhorne wanted him to tell. That was more than you knew five minutes ago.

Which is why Clarisse picked you in the first place.

What Gibson still didn’t get was that if she got there first, Clarisse wouldn’t see a penny. So why bring her on if Clarisse could just find the stuff on her own? There was another thing. Gibson wasn’t sure she would share this information with Sullivan, either, because her cop radar was telling her there was something off about the man.

So what is your goal here, Mick?

She looked around the modest room in the modest home she lived in. Two kids, no husband. Her working life would be a non-stop grind until the kids were grown and off to college or wherever their lives were going to take them.

But what if you found the treasure? College funds taken care of. Helping her parents. Another house in a nicer neighborhood, not having to juggle a million things at the same time. Having a life. All of that could be accomplished with...

Gibson stared into the screen at her reflection, suddenly unsure of who she was seeing there.

You’re getting into dangerous territory, lady. You were a cop, for God’s sake. An honest one. And you don’t want that asshole’s blood money.

Her phone rang, jarring her out of these disturbing thoughts. It was Wilson Sullivan.

“Prints came back on Daryl Oxblood. FBI has already called.”

“Let me guess. They got pinged on the database search because Oxblood was WITSEC?”

“Yep. In fact, his whole family was. His name was Bruce Hall. His father, Tony, was a midlevel enforcer for a mob boss in New York City. Turned informant and got put in the program with his wife and son.”

“So how did the mother and son end up in The Plains, Virginia?”

“Tony Hall had a heart attack and died. Bruce and his mother opted out of the program after that and literally disappeared. No word from them since.”

“Where were they located when they were in the program?”

“That I don’t know. FYI, I got a call from an FBI Special Agent Cary Pinker. He’s coming in from DC to talk to me about the case.”

“Any idea why?”

“Nope. But just so you know, I did tell him about you.”

Gibson said, “Okay, what are the odds of my sitting in on the meeting with him?”

“Zero and nada.”

“Just thought I’d give it a shot.”

“Yeah, I would have, too.”

“Can you let me know what he says?”

“Within professional boundaries, yes.”

“Thanks.”

She clicked off and looked down at her hands. He was holding back. And she was holding back. And Gibson wasn’t sure where that would get either of them.

But you’ve been taking your own tack on this. And he knows nothing about Clarisse, or Langhorne’s cryptic message left with his registered agent in South Dakota. So just keep pushing.

She picked up the phone and called Earl Beckett. She told him about Daryl Oxblood’s being Bruce Hall.

“Jesus,” he exclaimed. “So he’s dead, too? We didn’t get an alert from the FBI yet.”

“And we think there’s a connection between his death and Harry Langhorne’s.”

“What kind of connection?”

“You tell me. Where were the Halls located when they were in WITSEC?”

“I don’t know that offhand.”

“Can you find out?”

“I could. But I’m not sure I can tell you.”

“Why not? They’re not in WITSEC any longer and they’re all dead.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“You told us about Langhorne.”

“I told you when you were with Detective Sullivan. But on your own you’re just a civilian. And as a rule the Marshals Service doesn’t talk about WITSEC without serious justification.”

“Two people’s being murdered seems like justification enough for me. And all I want to know are two things: Was Bruce Hall his WITSEC name or his real name? And where were they located when they were in the program? That’s it.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” said Beckett.

“And were you able to find handwriting samples for Francine and Doug Langhorne?”

But Beckett had already hung up.

She sat back and fiddled with her pen. Okay, he’s clearly not getting back to me.

So who had the motive to kill Bruce Hall? Clarisse?

But why, if she and Julia Frazier were one and the same, would she go back to the scene of the crime? She had tried to erase the phrase on the wall, for sure. And she had looked at the comic book that Gibson now had. She was probably regretting that she hadn’t simply taken it.

But according to the neighbor Barbara Cole, Frazier had seemed shocked by the discovery of the body. And she had told Cole to call the police before hightailing it out of town.

If not her, then maybe Francine — if Clarisse wasn’t her — and/or Doug Langhorne had killed Hall. They could have also killed their father. Although Clarisse hadn’t said so, it might have been Doug visiting Langhorne shortly before he was killed, with Francine waiting for him in the car.

She thought it too improbable that former WITSEC members would just run into each other. But why kill Hall? Was he looking for the treasure, too? Did he know something, and Doug and Francine had tracked him down and silenced him after getting that information?

Or was there another reason?