The Good Daughter (The Good Daughter #1) - Karin Slaughter Page 0,173

off. She was supposed to lock the door and hide in the corner at the back of her classroom, but she ran out into the hallway because she knew the first bell was about to ring and she wanted to warn the kids not to come. I mean, if she could do it without being shot. She wasn’t thinking about her own safety, she said.” He looked at Charlie again. “There was a lot of that going around.”

Sam told him, “Boats are very expensive to maintain.”

“I’m not looking for a yacht.”

“There’s insurance, docking fees, taxes.”

Charlie could not listen to her estranged sister talk to her estranged husband about boats. She stared blankly at the road. She tried to work out what had just happened. Ben resigning—that was something she couldn’t deal with right now. She concentrated instead on the conversation with Sam. Ben had prattled on like a jailhouse snitch. Sam had been more circumspect. Kelly pregnant. The gun missing. Charlie had been at the school when the shooting occurred, she had been a witness to part of what played out, but she was more in the dark than either of them.

Ben leaned over to look at Sam. “You should take over the Wilson case.”

Sam laughed. “I couldn’t afford the pay cut.”

He slowed down for a tractor on the road. The farmer was taking up both lanes. His combine was down. Ben beeped the horn twice and the man edged over enough for him to pass on the median.

Ben and Sam resumed their idle boat chatter. Charlie found herself going back to Sam’s questions, trying to see where they led. Sam had always been faster at solving puzzles. Faster at most things, to be honest. She was certainly better in the courtroom. Charlie had been in awe yesterday, and she had also called it right the first time. Sam had looked like the quintessential Victorian Dracula, from her stylish clothes to her air of entitlement, to the way she had unhinged her jaw and swallowed Ken Coin like a plump rat.

Sam asked, “How many bullets were fired?”

Charlie waited for Ben to answer, but then she realized Sam was talking to her. “Four? Five? Six? I don’t know. I’m a really bad witness.”

Ben said, “There’s five on the tape. One in—”

“The wall, three in Pinkman, one in Lucy.” She leaned back over to look at Ben. “How about near Mrs. Pinkman’s room? Anything near her door?”

“I have no idea,” he admitted. “The case is only two days old. They’re still doing the forensics. But there’s another witness. He said that he counted six shots, total. He’s been in combat. He’s pretty reliable.”

Mason Huckabee.

Charlie looked down at her hands.

“What about the audio?”

“There’s a really shaky cell phone call from the front office, but that was made after the shooting stopped. The audio you want came from an open mic on the cop in the hallway. That’s where Coin got the thing about ‘the baby.’” Ben added, “None of the gunshots were captured. We—at least I—don’t have the coroner’s report. There could be one more bullet inside the bodies.”

Sam said, “I think I want to look at that video again.”

“I can’t access it. I was kind of frank in my resignation letter,” Ben said. “I’m pretty sure I won’t get a referral.”

Charlie wanted to crawl under the covers in her bed and go to sleep. They had a mortgage. They had a car payment. Health insurance premiums. Car insurance. Property taxes. All the bills from three years ago.

“I’ll be your referral.” Sam had her hand deep in her purse, a leather bag that would likely pay for all of their bills. She pulled out Ben’s Enterprise USB. “Does Dad have a computer?”

“He’s got a great TV,” Ben said. They had bought Rusty the same model that they had at home. This had been four years ago, before Colorado. Before the boat.

Ben slowed the truck. They were at the HP, but he didn’t turn into the driveway. Blood had stained the red clay an oily black. This was where her father had fallen the night he’d walked to the end of the driveway to get the mail.

Ben said, “They think the uncle stabbed Rusty.”

“Faber?” Sam asked.

“Rick Fahey.” Charlie remembered Lucy Alexander’s uncle from the press conference. “Why do they think it’s him?”

Ben shook his head. “I’m way out of the loop on that one. I heard some gossip at the office, then Kaylee was complaining about getting called out late the night Rusty was