Page 143 of The 9th Man

“Then we need you to work with Luke,” Stephanie said to her. “You can trust him with your life. We want Thomas Rowland. What he did in November 1963 was a tragic accident. What he’s done here is multiple homicides.”

“You can count on me,” Victoria said.

The call ended.

“I came prepared,” he said to her, “in case I met any resistance. I did not expect to find you.”

“I haven’t heard from David in a few days. Which was unusual. When did it happen?”

“Tuesday. I was there.” He pointed at the picture with the AR-15. “In this picture Rowland does not hold the weapon.”

She seemed to grab hold of her emotions. “That’s true. And that bothered David too. But there’s something else. I lied to you earlier. Forgive me, but I had no idea who you are or why you’re here.”

“About the three missing pictures?”

She nodded. “We were going to obtain those next week.”

“You know where they are?”

“I found Pearl Yates. After a lot of digging, I finally managed to reach her daughter-in-law.”

“Why are they so important?”

“They can’t be denied.”

He got the message.

Important.

“I need those pictures,” he said.

She bit her lip, then said, “Wait here. Let me make a call.”

He waited until the door to the room had closed and she’d left before he made a call of his own. To Marcia Pooler.

“What do you think?”he asked her. “Is it doable?”

He’d supplied her with some information a few hours ago.

“Just about everything’s doable, Lukey. But this is a bell you can’t un-ring, you know that, right?”

“I do. What I’m asking, is can you do it anonymously so we don’t get any blowback?”

“That’s the easy part.”

“How much more time do you need?”

“None. I’ve identified twenty-four hundred of the biggest influencers on the net who are most likely to run with this. I’m talking blogs, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, the whole shebang. Among them they’ve got hundreds of millions of followers. Once we pull the trigger, it will explode.”

“Release it when I give you the word.”

“I am here to serve. It shall be done.”

“You’re the best, Marcia.”

He ended the call just as the door opened and Victoria Sandberg returned with a small piece of paper in her hand.

“Here’s the address. They are expecting you.”