Tail Spin

out that it’s an ethical question. How can I presume to have Jimmy’s entire life judged by one incident, and I’m assured that is what would happen. I don’t know what to do, Mr. Cullifer.”
    “Are you still certain it’s what he would have done?”
    “Yes.”
    “Then do it and the fallout be damned.”
    They spoke to Brady Cullifer for another ten minutes. When he hugged Rachael good-bye, she said, “Thank you for accepting me as Jimmy’s daughter, sir. Thank you for your kindness.”
    “Well, I didn’t want to accept you, Rachael, not initially, despite Jimmy’s enthusiasm. I should tell you I hired an investigator to do a thorough check on you and your mother. That was what convinced me. And I didn’t charge your father for the investigator’s time.” He patted her cheek. “You’re an Abbott now, Rachael, all right and proper. If you choose to be his spokesperson, then I’ll be behind you one hundred percent.”

FORTY-ONE
    They ate lunch at a taqueria known for its guacamole and chips, then took an array of photos back to Millie at the diner near Black Rock Lake.
    Millie was busy, and they waited. When she dropped into the seat next to them in a booth, Jack handed her a series of black-and-white shots. She looked at Donley Everett’s photo carefully, the man Jack shot in the kitchen at Slipper Hollow. She shook her head and picked up Clay Huggins’s photo, the man he shot and killed at Slipper Hollow, studied it for a good minute, then regretfully shook her head again. The same for Marion Croop. Jack handed her Roderick Lloyd’s photo, the man who walked right into Roy Bob’s garage in Parlow and started shooting. She shook her head again.
    Rachael was nearly out of hope when Jack looked down at the last photo, then handed it to Millie.
    Millie studied it, then looked up at them. “Now isn’t this a kick? I would have sworn it was a guy who came in last Friday night and ordered the two coffees, but it’s her”—she stabbed the photo with her finger—”all dressed up like a guy.”
    Jack and Rachael stared at Perky’s—aka Pearl Compton’s— photo.
    Rachael’s heart was pounding. “You’re certain, Millie?”
    “Yeah, all that blond hair—if you look at her and think black hair, then it becomes clear. Yes, Agent, it’s her. I’m sure.”
    As they drove back to Washington, a light summer rain falling, Rachael said, “So Perky carried me by my arms down the dock. Who was carrying my feet? Donley Everett or Clay Huggins or Roderick Lloyd? Who’s that fourth guy—oh yeah, Marion Croop?”
    “If so, then who hired them?”
    “Or maybe it was Quincy or Stefanos carrying my feet.”
    “Or Laurel,” he said.
    The windshield wipers moved slowly back and forth, steady as a metronome. “I’m tired, Jack.”
    With no hesitation at all, out of his mouth came, “Sleep with me and you won’t worry about a crook coming in through the window. You’ll sleep soundly. With me.”
    Rachael turned in her seat to look at his profile. “How long has it been since you had a date, Jack?”
    He laughed. “Fact is, I broke up with a very nice woman about a month before I flew to Lexington to pick up Timothy. It seems like ten years ago.”
    “It’s only been a week.”
    He increased the wiper speed.
    Rachael laughed. “I don’t have an umbrella with me.”
    “Old Nemo here has everything in a box in the backseat. Including umbrellas.”
    “Nemo?”
    Jack patted the dash. “Yep, I gave him that name when I drove into a swamp once. I thought he was agoner, but he started right up and steamed on down the road. I love Nemo, been with me eight years now, still runs faster than my dad when Mom chased him with a skillet.”
    Rachael pictured the Toyota Corolla steaming out of a swamp and laughed, then settled back and closed her eyes. “What are we going to do now?”
    “How about we take off a couple of hours, take a nap, maybe on one of the sofas in the living room, anything but that rock-hard bed you put me in last night.”
    She didn’t answer him. She was asleep. Slowly, she slid into him, her head on his shoulder.
    Jack managed to extricate his cell without disturbing Rachael and punched in Savich, told him about Millie’s identification of Perky as one of two people at Mel’s Diner Friday night, not more than a ten-minute car ride from Black Rock Lake.
    Savich was quiet for a moment. Then he said, “Things are beginning to come together. From what you told me about Laurel