a few steps closer. “Asking them what? Try to be as precise as you can.”
Julie screwed up her face, thinking. “He said, ‘How much do you know? What have you been told,’ stuff like that. And then, and then…”
“He hurt one of them?”
Tears trickled down her face. “I heard a gunshot. I ran down the stairs. The guy looked at me. My dad was against the wall over there. He was all bloody. The guy pointed the gun at me, but my mom hit him and he fell down. I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to stay and help her. But she told me to run.”
Julie shut her eyes, but the tears eased out from under her eyelids. “I went back to my bedroom and climbed out the window. Then I heard another shot. And I ran hard. I was a coward. I knew that shot meant my mom was dead. But I just ran. I was a shit. I just left her to die.”
She opened her eyes and stiffened when she saw Robie standing next to her.
“And if you hadn’t run, you’d be dead,” he said. “And that would have done no one any good. Your mom saved your life. She sacrificed her life for yours. So you did the right thing, because you did what your mom wanted you to do. Stay alive.”
Robie handed her a tissue from a box on the table and she dried her tears and then blew her nose.
“So what now?” she asked.
“Do you think anyone around here heard the shots?”
“I doubt it. The place next door is empty. So is the duplex across the street. This used to be an okay neighborhood, but then everybody lost their jobs.”
“Including your parents?”
“They worked at whatever they could find. My mom went to college,” she added proudly. “My dad was a good guy.” She looked down. “He just sometimes got down on himself. Felt like the whole world was against him.”
“What were their names?”
“Curtis and Sara Getty.”
“No relation to the Getty Oil folks, I guess?”
“If so, nobody ever told us.”
He said, “Okay, here’s my plan. We find out who killed your parents and why.”
“But if it was the guy on the bus he’s clearly dead.”
“Did you leave from this house last night and go directly to the bus stop?”
“Yes.”
“Then the guy wasn’t alone. He couldn’t have policed this place, gotten rid of two bodies, and made it to the bus. There have to be others.”
“But why my parents? I loved them, but it’s not like they were important or anything.”
“You sure they weren’t involved in drug dealing or gangs or anything?”
“Look, if they were drug kingpins do you think they’d be living in this place?”
“So no enemies?”
“No. At least not that I know of.”
“Where did they work?”
“Dad at a warehouse in southeast. Mom at a diner a few blocks from here.”
“So your dad would go over there for meals maybe?”
“Yeah. I spent a lot of time at the diner too. Why?”
“Just digging for info.”
“I want to leave here. Like right now. This isn’t my home anymore.”
“Okay. Where do you want to go?”
“I got a place I’m staying.”
“Yeah, I tracked you down there. And it was stupid to steal and use Dixon’s credit card. They’ll bust you for that. And more importantly, people can track you.”
“How did you—” She stopped and looked annoyed. “I have cash.”
“Save it for now.”
“So where do I go? Not back to your safe house. It’s too far out of town.”
“No, I’ve got another place. Why don’t you pack some things and come on.”
CHAPTER
31
ROBIE WAITED UNTIL well after dark. They spent the time in between getting something to eat at a mom-and-pop restaurant on H Street. Robie asked more questions of the young woman, gently probing. She pushed back. She would make a good cop, Robie thought. Her tendency to give away as little as possible was remarkable, particularly for a generation that routinely posted the most intimate details about themselves on Facebook.
Robie drove Julie to his neighborhood in Rock Creek Park. Only he didn’t take her to his building but to the observation post across the street. Like the farmhouse, no one other than Robie knew about it.
They walked in, he turned off the alarm system, and she looked around.
“This is your place?”
“Sort of,” he said.
“Are you rich?”
“No.”
“You seem rich to me.”
“Why?”
“You have a car and two homes. That’s pretty rich. Especially these days.”
“I guess it is.” He actually had another home right across the street, but she didn’t need to