Page 54 of Girl, Remembered

I used to play A Boy Named Sue right next to that spot.

I spent a lot of nights outside the ‘gator pen butchering that song.

That’s where my old man ended up. On the business end of an ass.

The conclusion was a grim one.

‘Is that really what happened?’

‘Oh yeah. My favorite ‘gator – the big bastard – he’d eat a whale if he could. By the way, I know why you’re here, and I can’t help you find Lindsey.’

Luca had a lot to process. The earlier stuff could wait.

‘You don’t know where Lindsey is,’ Luca repeated.

‘No. Why would I? I saw her a few times a week in Angola and that was it. One day she disappeared and I haven’t seen or heard from her since. Don’t think me and her had anything going on, because we didn’t.’

‘But you had an easy way out of the death penalty. All you had to do was say that the woman in that jail cell was Lindsey and you’d have been spared. You still said no. You don’t do that if the person means nothing to you.’

Creed smiled. ‘Is that so?’

‘That is so, and I know that Doyle and her family lived a few miles from your old farm. That sounds like a strange coincidence to me.’

Creed shut his eyes and inhaled deeply. He let it go with a slump of his head. ‘This is unfortunate. I was beginning to like you. Now you’re asking the same old questions. Unless you want to talk guitars again, I think our time is at an end, don’t you?’

Luca felt the thing beginning to sour. What did he have? A mysteriously missing father and a lack of guitar playing ability. It wasn’t nothing, but it might as well be. He’d wanted a name, a road, a direction – something that Ella could use. ‘Guess I overstayed my welcome.’

‘Not at all. I had a blast.’

‘Well, thanks.’ Luca stood up and headed for the door, leaving the man in chains still at the table. Just as he went to knock, Creed rattled.

‘Agent Hawkins, you know that Lindsey sees me as something I’m not, don’t you?’

‘Yes. I see that.’

‘And you’re wondering why. What’s so appealing about a skinny, talentless idiot like me?’

‘We’ve been asking that question for a while.’

Creed turned around to face him. ‘You know, after my dad disappeared for the second time, we had to use farmhands to keep our place running. Mom was useless. I was too young.’

‘Okay. And?’

‘I might not play guitar so well, Agent Hawkins, but I didn’t murder Johnny Cash. Not Johnny Cash, anyway.’ Creed rolled his jumpsuit up to the top of his arm, just beneath his shoulder. ‘I loved that giant gator. I loved him so much I even got him tattooed on me. I did it myself. Look.’

Luca’s knuckles were still resting against the door. Curiosity got the better of him. He took three steps back toward Creed and checked the artwork on his bicep.

And suddenly, his wish had come true.

He’d discovered something Ella hadn’t.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Ella sped the five miles back to HQ in five minutes and didn’t remember any of them. She stormed toward the war room with Dever somewhere behind her. He’d been smart enough not to ask questions in the car, because doing so might have distracted Ella from her dangerous driving.

‘Ripley! Vernon!’ Ella breathed as she burst into the room. Just one of them still being in the office at 9PM was unheard of, and both of them being here was a miracle.

‘Oh, and you brought Dever with you. Great.’