Page 90 of Edge of Steele
“Well, yeah, but that’s not murder. Had to be an accident.”
Ryleigh locked eyes with the guy. “Setting a bomb is not an accidental act, Mr. Horne. It’s murder, plain and simple, and if you had knowledge of this bomb before it was detonated, you’re as guilty as the person who set it.”
“Something you would already know from your other arrests,” Russ added.
“Look.” Horne flipped back straggly long hair the color of the fluffy white clouds above. “I saw him on Friday morning, so what? We talked about old times. That’s it.”
“What was he doing in Oregon?” Russ asked.
Horne rubbed the stubble on his face and looked beyond them as if he might not answer. He finally lifted his chin and sighed. “He was looking for his old flame. Carla Nye.”
“Why?” Russ asked.
“She dumped him, and he’d never let his wife leave him. He’s kind of a possessive guy, and he wants to get her back, but she’s running from him.”
“Why?” Ryleigh asked.
Horne stuck out his chin. “I don’t know him all that well so I don’t know, and he didn’t say.”
“Why did you go to Alabama for the protest?” Russ eyed the man. “That’s a long way to travel for a protest.”
“Not if you like road trips like I used to. ’Sides, it’s good to go back and visit your roots every now and again.” He smiled in the direction of his VW. “Old Van Gogh’s taken me a lot of places over the years.”
“But you specifically went for that protest.” Ryleigh brought him back on track.
“Yeah, so what?”
“So if we dig into what happened back then, will we find that a bomb was detonated at that protest too?” she asked.
“Nah, Sovereign Earth didn’t set no bombs when I was with ’em. Closest we came was to a guy who was with the Alabama group for like a minute. A real radical who liked to blow things up, but we weren’t like that, and we kicked him out.”
“And what was this guy’s name?”
“Pauly—Paul—Wasser.”
“You know where we can find this Pauly guy?” Russ asked.
“Six feet under.” Horne cackled, revealing stained teeth.
“Did he have a favorite method of detonating bombs?” Ryleigh asked.
“Guy was nuts. Thought he could set them off using some weird device that detonated the bomb when light hit it.” Horne shook his head. “Don’t know if he ever got one to work that way.”
“Do you mean photoelectric cells?” Russ asked.
“Hey, yeah. Yeah. That’s it. A photoelectric cell. Crazy right? That’s not something that seems like it would even work.”
Ryleigh agreed it was indeed crazy. Not because it couldn’t work but because it could work and had worked. Leaving them to find the person who might’ve followed in Wasser’s footsteps. Perhaps Dean Keenan.
20
At the original bomb site, Finn waited for Ryleigh and Russ to climb out of the sheriff’s patrol car. Eyes alight with excitement, she stepped around the back of the car to join Finn. Russ moved at a slower pace.
“What did you learn?” Finn asked and started them heading toward the area where the Veritas team was hard at work.
“We have a solid lead.” Ryleigh updated Finn on the visit to Horne, telling him about a guy named Pauly Wasser who used or wanted to use a photoelectric cell as a bomb detonator.
“We already have Colin looking into him,” Ryleigh said, that enthusiasm riding in her tone too. “And searching for any connection he might have to this bomb.”
