Point Blank

can’t get past the fact that two of the victims were his lovers. Maybe he’s told us all about the students, but Helen wasn’t a student, now was she?”

CHAPTER 27
    QUANTICO FRIDAY MORNING
    AT TEN O’CLOCK Dr. Emmanuel Hicks walked into Savich’s small office in Quantico’s Jefferson Dormitory and sniffed. “Pepperoni.” He looked at the young black man slouched in a chair beside Savich. “From the Boardroom?”
    The young man nodded. “Double pepperoni, Doc.”
    “Ah, my favorite, sometimes even for breakfast. My name is Dr. Hicks and I’m harmless.” He shook the young man’s hand. “This will be very easy for you, Dewayne, no discomfort at all as I’m sure Agent Savich has told you. We’re simply going to help you remember all the details you’ve already got stored away on your hard drive.” Dr. Hicks tapped his head, to which Dewayne answered, “Cool.”
    Ten minutes later, Savich pulled his chair closer to Dewayne’s and laid his hand lightly on the young man’
    s forearm. “I’d like you to think now about the first time you saw the old man and the young girl in Denny
    ’s yesterday, Dewayne. You have them in your sights?”
    Dewayne nodded.
    “Good. Tell me what you see.”
    “She’s taking off those big sunglasses and looking around. She’s something—pretty, real pretty, and she knows it. She’s flirting with everybody.”
    “What about the old guy?”
    “He’s sitting back in the booth, his arms crossed over his chest, and he’s grinning. I don’t think he does anything but grin. He’s real old, you know, his face is all seams and wrinkles. She’s maybe his great-granddaughter, I’m thinking, he’s that old. She’s looking through the menu, taking her time. The old guy, he doesn’t even open the menu, just orders a hamburger.”
    “Melinda waited on them?”
    “Yeah, that’s right. When she came to the kitchen to place the order, she told us we should check her out. All us guys already had.
    “She knows all the guys are talking about her. Man, it’s nearly freezing outside and she’s wearing this tiny top, showing off her belly button.”
    “She have a ring in her belly button?”
    “Oh yeah, a little silver ring. And boy, her belly’s sweet, a little baby fat, but sweet.”
    “Do you ever get close enough to hear them speak to each other?”
    Silence, then a slow nod. “Yeah, I’m taking a combo meal, a surf ’n’ turf thing, to this couple sitting two booths down from them. I sort of slow down, you know, because she winks at me, really winks, and gives me a big grin, tosses her head. She’s got four gold earrings up her right ear.”
    “Do you hear anything they say before she notices you and winks?”
    Dewayne nodded. “Something about a redhead—that was the old guy talking. He looks crazy, you know? Those army fatigues and those stupid army boots, all scuffed up, muddy, like he’s been out on a battlefield, you know? I didn’t know who this redhead was they were talking about, but I wanted to hear her talk some more so I walked slower. She says something like, ‘I’m thinking the next stop should be a bank, Moses. What do you think?’ And the old guy grins some more and shakes his head. ‘I don’t think so, sweetcakes.’ Yeah, that’s what he called her. I nearly laughed to hear that old buzzard call the little chick that. Then the folks hollered at me to get them their food, so that’s all I heard. No, wait a second. I think he said something like, ‘He’s probably got himself all staked out like a goat, waiting for me to call.’”
    Savich waited a beat, but there wasn’t any more. He said, “That’s excellent, Dewayne. Okay, now you go outside for the cigarette break. You’re smoking when you see that pretty girl walk out of Denny’s, right?”
    Dewayne jiggled the change in his pocket. “Yeah, there she is.”
    “Tell me exactly what you see.”
    “She’s pulled that fluffy jacket back on but it isn’t long enough to cover her butt. Man, she’s got a fine butt, really nice, and she’s swinging it all over the parking lot. She knows I’m watching, even looks in my direction and smiles at me, but she’s really not paying me much attention because she’s talking on her cell phone, real intense now. Then the old guy comes roaring out of the restaurant, maybe because he sees her on the cell phone. He starts yelling at her. I thought he was going to hit her for a moment, and she says something like ‘Don’t hurt