Liar Liar - James Patterson Page 0,32
interested in yourself.”
“I’m taking you off this case completely, Morris.” Woods straightened. “I’ll send an officer to let you know what your reassignment is.”
“Call it what you want.” Pops shrugged. “Consulting. Observing. Reassigned. Active or suspended—I’m not leaving the building and I’m not giving up my hold on this case, not while my best detectives are still out there.”
Woods scoffed.
“You need to warn all the victims by phone, and put physical protection on every victim Harry’s dealt with from Nowra to Melbourne,” Pops said. “There’s a reason Banks went so far south. He’s out in the wilds now. He won’t double back to the city to go after Harry’s mother, who everyone knows means very little to her. If we can find out where Regan’s going, we can—”
“I don’t have time for this.” Woods held his hands up. “You’re rogue, mate. Your ‘best detectives’ are rogue, and you’ve joined them. This will be the case that ends your career.”
“My career is the last thing I’m thinking about, you power-hungry prick.”
It was rare that Trevor Morris lost his cool. But he was losing it now. He drew a deep breath, glanced through the windows of the briefing room, where a dozen or more officers were pretending not to watch.
“You won’t find Regan Banks before Harry does,” Morris said. “You’re too blind. Too stupid. I just hope she finds him before he strikes again.” He turned to leave.
“You’ve just expressed your support for the intentions of an officer who’s going to commit premeditated murder,” Woods began to shout as Pops walked away. “I’m suspending you, and I’m putting that in the report!”
Put this in the report, Pops thought as he raised his middle finger and headed for the elevators.
Chapter 41
I HITCHHIKED A whole bunch as a teenager. It was often the fastest way to get out of town if I had decided to leave a foster home to go find my brother. I realized pretty quickly that the first place my foster family would look for me was at the local bus and train stations. They figured I wasn’t stupid enough to get in a car with a stranger. I was plenty stupid enough.
A couple of cars passed me in the first five minutes after I rejoined the highway heading south. It was still raining and had been all night while I tried to sleep, fighting off memories of Bonnie Risdale’s house. Not wanting to risk showing my face at a hotel in the area, I’d lain down in the loading dock behind a closed service station, using my backpack as a pillow. I’d awakened with the expected aches and pains, renewed sensation in the bumps and scrapes I’d acquired jumping from the train.
I wasn’t sure the passing vehicles could see me in the deluge, but I pressed on along the highway with my thumb out for a couple of kilometers. When a big truck put on his brakes after I’d spent fifteen minutes in the rain, I felt my whole body swell with relief and gratitude. I climbed up into the warm, dark cabin and threw my backpack on the floor.
“You must be nuts, walkin’ around in this,” the driver said. He was a typical trucker. Potbellied, weary eyes under a dusty cap. I took the offered towel and wiped my face and neck as he started the vehicle back up.
“As close as you can get to Narooma, if you don’t mind,” I said.
He merely shrugged. Ten minutes passed in which I watched the trucker’s face out of the corner of my eye to see if he was taking any interest in my body or belongings. I casually passed my backpack into the tiny room behind our seat that held cupboards and a small camp bed for the long haul, and took a quick glance around the darkened space for knives, rope, guns, anything threatening. There was nothing but chip packets, empty pie trays, beer cans and water bottles, piles of clothes reeking of sweat, and a change of boots. On the floor, I spied a map of Alice Springs. If this guy had come from as far away as Alice, maybe he was out of the loop with the search for Regan and me. In any case, I kept my cap low and my profile to the man in the driver’s seat.
I thought about Regan. He’d said he’d always been bad, that the “layers” he’d built up over his life had just been hiding something evil lurking at his core.