Cam remembered seeing the ubiquitous AOL discs. “We never found any blogger.”
“You wouldn’t. He could clip the video attachment, post it out there anonymously on the hot-chat site du jour. First guy who saw it would forward it. Something really interesting gets out on the Web, it can spread like wildfire. Think geometric progression. Did the same thing with the second one. You can be anybody with one of those free discs, for a little while anyway.”
“Still, I’d think the feds could have traced it back.”
“I’ve heard they’re pretty good at that,” Marlor said. “Maybe they did but just didn’t share. Either way, the best they could do was Charlotte. All I know is that it was out and running in about two hours.”
“To mixed reviews, of course.”
“Not from anyone who knew what those bastards did,” Marlor said. He eyed Cam curiously. “What’d you cops think of it?”
“I’m in law enforcement, Mr. Marlor. We frown on citizens taking matters into their own hands.”
“I asked what you thought of it. Say, in terms of justice.”
“That’s a separate question,” Cam said.
Marlor grunted again, but he didn’t say anything.
“What did you do with Flash?” Cam asked.
“Fed him to the turbines at a hydro plant,” Marlor said.
Cam was silent for a minute. Then he had another question. “You said, ‘That’s two’ at the end of the second execution. Like there was going to be a third.”
Marlor sniffed and shook his head. “Thought about the judge,” he said. “It’s one thing to snatch up street trash. But a judge? With police protection?”
“How’d you know she had protection?”
Marlor smiled but didn’t answer. Cam considered pursuing that question. Either Marlor had done a drive-by or someone had told him that there were cops on Annie’s door. Someone inside the Sheriff’s Office?
“Besides,” Marlor continued, “I concluded she was just doing what she thought was her job. Unlike the two shooters, who didn’t think twice about slaughtering my family.”
“She did have other options,” Cam said.
“So you said at that meeting,” Marlor replied. “So what the hell was she doing?”
Cam hesitated. “We think her decision was aimed at us. She didn’t exactly hold most cops in high esteem.”
Marlor raised his eyebrows. “‘Didn’t hold’? Past tense?”
“Somebody put a bomb in her car the other night,” Cam said. “She’s dead.”
Marlor frowned and pursed his lips for a moment. “I didn’t do that,” he said finally.
Something in Marlor’s overall demeanor made Cam believe him. Here was a man who’d as much as said he was going to commit suicide tonight. He was calm, relaxed, even peaceful about it. Cam believed that if Marlor had planted that bomb, he’d admit it. “How’d you find Simmonds and Butts in the first place?” he asked.
“Got an E-mail,” Marlor said. “I assumed it was from somebody inside law enforcement. Didn’t much care as long as the information was reliable. It was.”
“And that M-sixteen?”
“Mine from a prior life.”
“And the blanks?”
“In the mail.”
“You mail-ordered blank ammo for an M-sixteen?” Cam asked incredulously.
“No.” Marlor said, giving him a look that said he wasn’t going to elaborate. Cam waited. “I guess you could call it a gift,” Marlor said finally.
“From the same people who sent you the E-mail?
“Maybe. Don’t remember.”
Cam nodded. Didn’t remember, or wouldn’t. He wondered if they could find Marlor’s computer. “That electric chair still out there somewhere?”
Marlor nodded. “I left the welding machine there, too,” he said. “Should anybody want to use it again.”
“Welding machine,” Cam said. “We didn’t think of that. We kept looking for power transformers. Or a generator.”
“You were assuming two-forty AC. I used direct current. Much simpler. Takes a little longer, though.” He made a sarcastic clucking sound of faux regret.
And longer was what you were after, wasn’t it? Cam thought. The wind puffed up again and he wondered if he’d brought a heavy-enough coat. The dogs noticed it, too, and were sniffing the air. Marlor finished his whiskey and put the tin cup down on the floor. He leaned back in the chair and grimaced, as if an old injury was bothering him. “Are we finished here?” he asked. “I’ve got places to go, things to do.”
“How about the location of that electric chair?” Cam asked.
“I sent a reply to that anonymous E-mail-the one that told me where I could find those two killers? Whoever that is, he knows where the chair is.” He gestured at the sky with his chin. “You’d best be getting back. That trail won’t be visible if this gets thick.”
“Dogs will get me back,” Cam said. “Should I try to talk you out of what you’re going to do?”
Marlor shook his head. “I killed those two bastards,” he declared. “Not your precious judge. I lost my first wife to a drunk driver, who got off with two years of probation because, as the judge observed, it was his first offense. That made it okay, I guess. Justice for my second wife and only child was given away by the so-called justice system. Now that I’ve squared accounts, it’s time for me to wrap it up.”
“I guess I could try to stop you,” Cam said. “For your own protection.”
Marlor snorted. “You didn’t come here to arrest or protect me. And I am not going to any damn prison.”
Cam nodded. Actually, what Marlor intended to do seemed pretty reasonable to him. He’d probably do the same thing. “Anything I can do for you?” he asked. “Anybody to see later?”
“My sister will never understand it,” Marlor said. “Tell her something nice, if you want to.” He looked out across the slope, frowning. “Where is all your backup?” he asked, looking over at Cam. “You guys don’t work alone, but I don’t sense anyone else out there in the woods.” He eyed Cam. “You’re a lone ranger on this, aren’t you?”
“Meaning what, exactly?” Cam said, trying to deflect him.
“Meaning you’re here on your own. You’re not in uniform. Those are your dogs, not police dogs.”
Amazing, Cam thought. Maybe the approach of death was sharpening Marlor’s intuition. What the hell, he thought. Tell him. He explained his situation, and why he was on leave of absence. He also described what he suspected was going on in the Sheriff’s Office.
“You and that judge were in a relationship?” Marlor asked.
“Yeah,” Cam said. “It was complicated.”
Marlor didn’t say anything for a minute. “When is it not complicated,” he said finally.
“I actually thought you’d just gone away,” Cam said. “That maybe some vigilante cops had done the executions. Except for the fact that you absolutely disappeared. Nobody just does that.”
“That took some planning and doing,” Marlor admitted. “But, no, I did those two bastards. The judge, now, you may be right. About cops, I mean.”
“That’s why I need to know about that E-mail,” Cam said. “The one locating Flash and K-Dog for you.”
“Can’t help you there,” Marlor said. “First, I really don’t remember, and frankly, I don’t care. In my book, cops taking care of business aren’t necessarily bad cops.”
“Yeah, they are,” Cam said. “Because once that starts, it only gets worse. Especially once they get a taste for it. Then they become like any man-eater.”
“Still don’t care,” Marlor said, rubbing his face with his hands.
“Did you cash a five-hundred-dollar check recently?”
Marlor shook his head. Then he looked over at Cam. “You ever married?”
“Briefly,” Cam said. “Didn’t work out.” Until recently, he thought.
“Any particular reason why you didn’t try again?”
“The job seemed enough,” he replied, although even as he said it, it sounded lame.
“Then you have no idea of what I’ve just lost,” Marlor said.
“Tell me.”
Marlor blinked, poured himself some more of the whiskey, and then started talking. Starting slowly but building in passion, he described every one of the good and valuable things that had been ripped from his life by the holdup. Cam listened to a rushing litany of the individually mundane but collectively seamless and even glowing elements of a good marriage and a solid, loving family: dependent, striving, caring, forward-looking, optimistic about the future, fully participating in the stream of life-rocks, shoals, and all. Cam saw tears on Marlor’s face when he finally ran out of steam and words. Marlor was right: He had had no idea.