Long Shadows

Chapter 29

A​t around half past twelve a Mercedes sedan pulled into the home’s wraparound driveway and came to a stop. A man in his early seventies with neatly trimmed white hair and wearing a blazer and dark slacks got out from the rear driver’s side. He was around six feet tall and thin. A tall, slender woman in her late fifties with long silvery hair and dressed in a billowy navy blue skirt and long-sleeved white blouse climbed out of the rear passenger side.

The driver clambered out, popped the trunk, and pulled out two rolling suitcases.

The man tipped him and took the suitcases.

As soon as the Benz pulled off, Decker steered his rental into the driveway.

He got out and said, “Mr. and Mrs. Perlman?”

Mr. Perlman turned to him. “Yes? Who are you?”

Decker held out his credentials. “Amos Decker with the FBI.”

Mrs. Perlman glanced sharply at her husband. “FBI? What is going on, Trevor?”

Trevor glanced toward the house. “My God, what’s happened? Have we been robbed?”

Decker drew closer. “No. But a crime was committed next door.”

Both Perlmans looked around. “Which neighbor?” he said.

“Julia Cummins. Can we go inside and talk about this?”

“We just got back from a long trip,” protested Trevor, indicating the suitcases.

“It won’t take much time. Just a few questions.”

Trevor said resignedly, “All right.”

The interior of the home was spacious, with a flowing floor plan, lots of neutral colors, and an abundance of rear windows opening out to views of the Gulf beyond.

Decker noted the costly furnishings and oil paintings on the wall and the sculptures resting on pedestals, and thought that, unlike Doris Kline, the Perlmans had the money to keep their home up.

On the wall were photos of the Perlmans on a sailboat and another of Trevor Perlman at the wheel of a cabin cruiser with a captain’s hat worn at a jaunty angle. They looked happy and carefree. When he glanced over at them now, they looked anything but.

Trevor put the suitcases in a corner and turned to his wife. “Maybe some coffee, Maya?” He looked at Decker. “Would you like some?”

“Thank you, yes.”

After the coffee was made and given out, they sat on the lanai, where, with the press of a button by Trevor, a wall of glass opened up.

“Nice place,” commented Decker.

“We like it,” said Trevor. “Now, you mentioned a crime?”

“Yes, I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but it was a double homicide at Judge Cummins’s home. She and her bodyguard were killed.”

Maya gave a little shriek and nearly spilled her coffee. Trevor stared blankly at Decker, as though he could not have possibly just said what he had.

“Julia... was... killed?” said Trevor.

“Yes. And her bodyguard, Alan Draymont.”

“Oh my God,” wailed Maya. She stood up, staggered, and fell back onto the sofa with her eyes shut.

“Maya!” cried out her husband. “Maya!” He gently smacked her cheeks and glanced at Decker.

“Water, there’s a fridge right over there.”

Decker grabbed a bottle of cold water. With her husband’s aid, Maya had come around and sat up. She drank the water and her color returned.

“I... I need to... compose myself.”

“Of course,” said Decker.

Trevor helped her from the room and then came back to the lanai and sat down.

“My wife and Julia were very... close.”

“So I understand. I’m sorry.”

“Do you... what in the hell happened?”

“As I said, someone killed her and her bodyguard. We have no suspects yet. How long have you and your wife been out of town?”

“For the last week. We were visiting some of Maya’s children in New York. From her previous marriage,” he added.

“When was the last time you spoke to or saw Judge Cummins?”

Trevor put his coffee cup on a side table. “I think I saw her a couple of days before we left. Just in passing. Just to say hello. Maya may have seen or talked to her before we left.” He looked up at Decker, his face taut. “How... was she... killed?”

“I can’t get into that. I understand that you recommended Gamma Protection Services to Judge Cummins?”

His voice breaking, Trevor said, “Y-yes, w-we did.”

“Why was that?”

He sipped his coffee and composed himself. “Maya was a lawyer. A defense attorney. No lawyer wins every case. One she lost involved a man accused of sexually assaulting his wife and children. He was sent to prison. But he got out about six months ago. He apparently didn’t think Maya had done a good enough job. He made threats. He even came by the house a couple of times. We got a restraining order. But he broke it. So we hired Gamma.”

“Was it Alan Draymont?”

“I... I don’t know. What does he look like?”

Decker produced a picture on his phone. “This is him.”

Trevor looked at it and shook his head. “I don’t know. It might be him. But it was more than one person. After a while, they blur together.”

“I can understand that. How long did you have protection?”

“For about a month, I think.”

“What happened to your wife’s old client?”

“He attacked someone living in his halfway house and nearly killed the guy. He’s back in prison awaiting another trial. Hopefully, this time they put him away for good.”

“Do you think your wife is up to talking with me now? It’ll save me having to come back.”

“Let me check.”

He went off while Decker finished his coffee. He rose and walked around the lanai.

Decker hadn’t owned a home since the one his family had been killed in. After that, he’d ended up basically living in a cardboard box in the back of a Walmart parking lot for a longer time than he cared to remember. You never think that would happen to you, until it did. And then your thinking changed measurably to, I’m never going to get out of this nightmare.

He had gained a hundred pounds from eating crap and not exercising at all. He could barely stand with the extra weight. And the only thing that saved him from remaining on the streets and probably dying there was waking up one day, seeing the cardboard ceiling of his “home,” and realizing how ashamed his wife and daughter would be of him.

His recovery had not happened overnight. It had taken nearly a year. During that time he had gone to live at a local Residence Inn, and used the dining area as the office of his fledgling detective business.

When the first few clients came to him, he knew they were repulsed by what they saw in him. A huge, hulking, not overly clean man with a thick beard and nothing approaching an outgoing and engaging manner. The only thing that saved him was the fact that Decker was damn good at his job. He could figure out just about anything.

I hope that holds for this case.

“Agent Decker?” said a woman’s voice.

He turned to see the Perlmans at the entrance to the lanai. Trevor was holding his wife’s hand. She looked pale but collected.

“I’m sorry about... what happened earlier.”

“No need to apologize. It was a shock, I know. I won’t take too much more time. Just a few questions if you’re up to it.”

They sat down across from him.

“When was the last time you saw or spoke to Judge Cummins?”

“I talked to her on the phone right before we left for New York, so about nine days ago. I was just giving her our travel details, in case of emergency. We always did that with each other.”

“And the last time you actually saw her?”

“A couple of days before that. We had a drink, down near the courthouse.”

“Did she seem okay, nothing troubling her?”

“No, she was fine.”

“You practiced at that court?”

“Yes, but never before Julia, of course.”

“I understand from your husband that a former client threatened you?”

“Yes, Gerald Garvey. He’s the sort that gives defense attorneys a bad name. I knew he was guilty, but he was entitled to legal representation. I got him a sweetheart deal, but he didn’t see it that way.”

“And you hired Gamma Protection?”

“Yes.”

“How did you hear of them?”

“I think it was someone at the courthouse. Plus, they’re a well-known firm.”

“Did you know Alan Draymont? Your husband didn’t know if he was one of the people who guarded you.”

Decker held up the picture of Draymont.

“Yes, he looks familiar. But, as you alluded to, there were several different people who protected us. Men and women. I don’t remember all their names. They had credentials and everything, and we were sent a secure email with their names and pictures to verify their identities.”

“Can you look up those emails?”

Trevor interjected, “Surely, you can get those details from Gamma?”

“You’d think, wouldn’t you? But they’re having some personnel problems right now.”

She said, “I can look later. Right now, I just need to go lie down. This has been a terrible shock.”

She rose and her husband stood with her. “I think that’s all for now,” he said.

He escorted Decker to the door and closed it firmly behind him.

Decker took in the sunshine and felt the warmth and heard the ocean and then the thwack of a golf ball from somewhere. On a cart path that cut through the trees, two people in their sixties rode past on bikes and waved at another couple drifting by from the other direction on their spiffy, decked-out golf cart. They all looked happy, content.

Decker walked back to his car.

I’m never moving here.