didn’t answer him. She just sat there thinking that with an app like that, Jerry could have been waiting for them at the spot in the road and opened fire.
But why try to kill the man he was devoted to? And, as Straub had pointed out, with Lineberry alive they had jobs. With him dead, they were unemployed.
So Jerry had the opportunity and the means. But what would his motive be?
“Agent Pine?”
She looked up to see Straub staring worriedly at her.
“You okay?” he asked.
“I’m not sure,” said Pine. “I’m really not sure. But I want you to do something for me.”
“Okay.”
“Anything seems off, give me a call.” She handed him one of her cards.
“Off how?”
“Use your gut, your instincts. It’s important.”
“Okay.”
Pine walked out, her mind going a million miles an hour.
Chapter 64
PINE AND BLUM were sitting in the breakfast room at the Cottage having coffee. She had just finished filling in Blum on all that Lineberry had told her about her parents.
Blum sat there speechless for quite a long time. Finally, she leaned in and said, “Well, that is quite extraordinary and actually explains a lot.”
Pine sipped her coffee and set the cup down carefully, though her fingers trembled a bit. “Well, I for one feel like I just got run over by a train.”
Blum poured Pine some more coffee and then patted her hand. “And is there any wonder in that? You were told last night that your mother was a plant, or informant or call it what you will, against the mob. That they had to flee for their lives because the four of you were nearly killed while in Witness Protection. On top of that you were nearly killed last night, and you were wounded. I mean, that’s more stunners than most people get in a lifetime.”
“It had to be the reason Mercy was taken and I was nearly killed all those years ago. But as I said before, I think Mercy was the winner on the nursery rhyme. She had to be. Otherwise, why wouldn’t he have tried to kill both of us? Why bother taking her?”
“I don’t know, Agent Pine. But what you say makes sense,” she added slowly.
“But you don’t believe it,” said Pine warily.
“As you advised before, I don’t want us to get ahead of ourselves.”
“You’re right. I am getting ahead of myself.”
“But I guess one thing is clear.”
“What’s that?” asked Pine.
“Daniel Tor was not involved in this.”
Pine grimaced. “He was stringing me along the whole time. I can’t believe I wasted all that time with the bastard.”
“But you had to go down that road because it was a viable lead. Only it didn’t pan out, like most leads.”
“But looking back, it didn’t fit his MO. He told me himself he had never taken a child in that way. And what we knew about his crimes supported that. But I was trying to pound a square peg into a round hole. Because I wanted a boogeyman to point the finger at.”
“I understand that. But there is a positive.”
Pine recalled her last meeting with Tor. Where he had demanded that she call him Dan. “I’m never going to have to see that asshole again.” She tacked on a grim smile to this.
“Exactly.”
“Okay, we need to follow this up, but in a logical way.” She set her coffee aside and sat forward. “If what happened to me and my sister is connected to what my mother was involved in back in New York, that means someone from that world found them down here.”
“But in such a small town wouldn’t a mobster from New York have been noticed?”
“Well, it’s not like all mobsters look like Al Pacino or Marlon Brando and talk like they’re on an episode of The Sopranos.”
“But how could someone have gotten past your parents, even if they were drunk? They wouldn’t let a stranger just waltz past them and go upstairs unless they were completely unconscious. That’s never made sense to me.”
“I have a theory about that.”
“What is it?”
“My mother’s routine was abnormal that night. Remember I told you that.”
“Yes. I assume you’ve been thinking about it. Have you reached any conclusions?”
“I have.” Pine paused to marshal her thoughts. “She put us to bed at the regular time but didn’t check on us and she came into our room at six A.M., far earlier than usual. That was in the police file.”
“What does that tell you?”
Pine glanced up. “That she and my father weren’t at the house that night. They were somewhere