“This is Denise Powers, his wife.” Sally growled. “Ex-wife, I should say. He’s wanted for questioning in her murder.”
Yes, he did have that Ted Bundy-esque charm. Her fingers scrolled through the report. “There’s no fingerprints at the scene, just footprints leading away from the house.”
“He was the sole beneficiary of the wife’s life insurance policy.” Sally rolled back on her heels until she sat on the floor. “He blamed her for the deaths of their kids and has two domestic violence calls against him during their marriage.”
Motive was good, but was it enough? The evidence was still circumstantial and… Mavis’s heart sank. And David had collected the evidence. It didn’t matter that they hadn’t been involved at the time. Appearances were all that mattered. And to many it would appear that she and the military were colluding to eliminate a man of the faith.
And it would appear that she was colluding with the military to railroad a man of God. She had absolutely no doubt, Trent Powers would cling to the sham of ministry until the last.
“What else?”
Sally’s eyes widened. “That’s not enough?”
Mavis shook her head and hand the tablet back. “You’ve met him, been charmed by him. He’s good at hiding his true self.”
She’d give the scumball that. Good thing, she was better. Experience with despots, tyrants and dictators had made her that way. Her hands curled into fists, nails dug into her palms. Unfortunately, she couldn’t just put a bullet in his head and throw his body in the mounds of corpses.
She was in a position of power, with the military at her beck and call.
One misstep and she would be accused of being a despot, tyrant or dictator. Not exactly a good position if she hoped to created a new civilization.
“This should do it then.” Sally called up another page and tossed the tablet in Mavis’s lap. “If this doesn’t convince you that the dog needs to be put down, I don’t know what will.”
Bits of bone shone through the blobs of skin and black blood. Only the one perfect eyeball behind a slit lid told Mavis it was a face. A human face. Bile soured her mouth. God, who would do such a thing? But she knew.
“His fingerprints are at the scene of the crime, on a wineglass and fork, no less.”
Mavis nodded, scrolling through the list of evidence. “There’s a witness.”
“Yeah.” Sally hunkered low in her jacket. “Emmanuel Saldana, aged seventeen. He saw Trent throw the woman’s body off the balcony into a pile of hungry rats.”
The bastard probably hoped the vermin would get rid of the evidence for him. Mavis shoved off the sleeping bag and reached for the wad that was her jacket. After stuffing her arms inside the cold, stiff fabric, she stomped into her shoes. “Where is Trent Powers now?”
“I don’t know.” Sally shrugged. “I haven’t really looked for him. And he definitely hasn’t searched me out. Are you going to arrest him?”
Hooking the walkie to her waist, she crawled for the exit. “I have to consult with David, er, Sergeant-Major Dawson and General Lister first.”
She had to keep the military out of it as much as possible. The last thing she needed was people to start mistrusting the folks with the guns. Someone might get shot. Grabbing the tablet, she opened the door and stepped outside.
“And then are you going to arrest him?”
“Something like that.” If no one has seen him, she’ll just put a bullet through his head and pretend he was one of the ones who were swept away by the river last night. If folks had seen him…. Then she’d have to think of plan B.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Hey!”
Manny jumped at the sound of Irina’s voice. His ear rang for a moment and he stuck his finger inside it. The engine of the personnel carrier rumbled through him. He swayed on the bench to the motion. “What did you yell at me for?”
Sitting on his left, she grinned then winced. Green ringed the purple bruises on her jaw and temple. “Because you were snoring.”
“Are we boring you, Manny?” On his right, Beth elbowed him. Her bruises were just a tad fresher from the pervert that tried to rape her in her father’s church.
A church for pity’s sake. Manny rubbed his ribs. “I didn’t get much sleep last night.”
He’d been with the soldiers looking for the bodies of last night’s drowning victims. And finding them. His stomach tossed the vanilla milkshake he’d had in his morning MRE. He swallowed it down and rubbed the image off his eyes. His parents had looked peaceful when they’d died. Not so, those poor people.
Beth bit her bottom lip. A curtain of black hair covered her face. “Then I guess we’ll let you sleep.”
“Just don’t snore.” Irina set her head on his shoulder. “Or we’ll wake you up again.”
“I don’t snore.” Manny glanced across the aisle of the personnel carrier.
A man twisted the crucifix hanging from a thick gold chain around his neck. Black chest hair waved from the vee of his unbuttoned polo shirt. His gaze narrowed; it bounced from Irina to Beth.
Manny glared back at him. What? They were friends. He hadn’t beaten them up. He choked down his anger. They should never have listened to the Benedict fellow who told them to separate from Henry, his wife, Mildred and Connie and the niños.
“You do too.” Irina opened her mouth and made an obnoxious sound. “That’s exactly like what you sound like.”
“No. No.” Beth reached across him to tap Irina on her jean-clad knee. She made a bizarre honking noise that ended on a loud snort. “That’s what he sounds like.”
Like he needed to hear bad snoring in stereo. He’d better change the topic. “Aren’t you supposed to be helping the girls?”
He jerked his head toward the dozen teenagers sitting near the front of the personnel carrier. Three sat on the floor but they all whispered across and around each other.
“Nah,” Irina dismissed them with a wave of her hand. “They weren’t raped or anything. The Sergeant-Major and his men saved them.”
From rape. “They were chained together like animals.”
Most had rings of torn skin on their wrists. He rubbed his own. He knew what that was like.
Beth set her hand over his. For a moment, her fingers dug into his thumb. “Relax. They’re talking about it between themselves. Because they understand. They were there.”
And who did Beth talk to about her experience now that Henry wasn’t around? He set his hand over hers. “How are you doing?”
“Good.” She smiled and pulled her hand away. “It helps that I fought him off then ran him off with my father’s gun. I wasn’t helpless…”
But she was for a time. He heard it in her voice. And that scared him. Hell, he knew what helpless felt like. Everyone here did.
He pushed off the bench, lifted his hands over his head and stretched.
Irina tugged at his pants. “Hey, where you going? You should sleep. At lunch, we’ll rejoin Mildred and Connie then you’ll have to watch the niños all day.”
A smile wiggled over the man with the crucifix’s lips.
Unease settled in Manny’s gut. What was that about?
The man arched an eyebrow.
Manny stared out the back of the truck. He blinked. “Hey! There’s no truck behind us!”
Silence filled the interior for a moment, then fabric rustled. People groaned.
Beth stood in front of him. “Where are the soldiers?”
“Everyone sit down.” The man with the crucifix’s voice boomed inside.
Irina dug her nails into his back.
“Now!”
The girls from the school yelped. One started crying.