Long Shadows

Chapter 30

As he was about to drive off, his phone buzzed. He didn’t recognize the number.

“Decker.”

“Please hold for Ms. Roe.”

A moment later a familiar voice said, “Mr. Decker, it’s Kasimira Roe. I wonder if we can meet?”

“I’m game. We didn’t really finish the first time, did we?”

“No, we didn’t.”

“At your office?”

“No, at my home. It’s on Miami Beach. I’ll switch you back to my assistant and she can provide the address.”

“When?”

“As soon as you can get here.”

“Anything particular you want to discuss?”

“Just get here as soon as you can. I’ll transfer you back.”

Decker got the address, plugged it into his phone, and set off once more for Miami.

The high-rise looked ultramodern and expensive and super chic, thought Decker, which meant he hated it. He half expected Justin Bieber, or some other young celebrity he really knew nothing about, to walk out dressed in torn jeans that cost more than Decker had in his checking account and jump into a Lamborghini.

He cleared security after both the guard and concierge ran unimpressed gazes over his rumpled and distinctly uncool clothes and deeply scuffed shoes.

And this is my nice stuff.

He rode the elevator up and walked to a double set of white doors at the end of a wide hall.

He knocked, and the door was immediately answered by a young woman in a maid’s uniform.

Jesus, do they really still make them wear that get-up?

The woman asked Decker to take his shoes off, which he did reluctantly, since his socks were not in the best shape and then there was the smell. He had always had sweaty feet. And the humidity here didn’t help matters.

She led him down a plushy carpeted corridor that was outlined with soaring white columns. A wall of windows looked over the ocean. The other walls were covered with what looked to be some serious artwork.

The maid knocked on a door at the end of the hall, and a woman’s voice said to come in.

Decker stepped into the small, intimate room with cushy furnishings and a gas fireplace that he imagined didn’t see much work in this climate.

Roe rose from her chair. She was dressed in a white pleated skirt and dark blue jacket with a white blouse peeking out from underneath. Her shoes were flats. Her hair was tied back in a bun. She shook his hand and asked him if he wanted anything.

“Information,” he replied as he sat down across from her.

“I checked you out, Mr. Decker. I hope you don’t mind.”

“I would’ve been surprised if you hadn’t, knowing the business you’re in.”

She smiled and it was a pretty smile, he thought, lots of teeth and more girlish than professional woman. “May I be frank?”

“I prefer it, since I always am.”

“You were described by just about everyone I talked to as possessing a motor that just won’t quit, a deep desire to get justice. And for also being a royal pain in the butt.”

“My language about myself wouldn’t have been nearly as polite.”

The girlish smile faded, and the professional shield came down. “Alice Lancer has not been located.”

“That’s right. Do you know a woman named Patty Kelly?”

“I don’t believe so, no. Why?”

“She’s Judge Cummins’s secretary. Looks like she’s done a runner, too.”

She looked genuinely startled. “Do you think it’s connected to Alice’s disappearance?”

“What do you think?”

“I would think you can’t rule it out at this point.”

“Did you find a record of any threats against the judge? Or any reason why Cummins needed protection?”

“My people are looking at our records. But any disclosure has to be cleared through our legal counsel.”

“But I was hoping for some professional courtesy. I came all this way, after all. At your invitation.”

“Um, I’m going to have a glass of wine if you’d care to join.”

“Never got into wine. But if you have beer?”

She rose, opened a glass door set in the cabinet, took out a bottle of open red wine, grabbed a glass from the overhead cabinet, and poured out a goodly portion into her wineglass. “Dos Equis okay?”

“Fine.”

She pulled a bottle of beer from the fridge, poured it into a glass, and handed it to him. She resumed her seat and took a sip of her wine. “My father was the one who got me into wine.”

“They made wine in Czechoslovakia?”

“No, in California. My father immigrated there initially. As a teenager he worked in a vineyard for two years to earn money for college. Then he came east, went to college, joined the Secret Service, and then left to build what eventually became Gamma Protection.”

“Sounds like he was quite a force of nature.”

“He was.” She stared out the window. “And I miss him dearly.”

“I’m sure. So, you wanted to meet?”

She looked back at him, an expression on her face Decker couldn’t really read. “I understand that a wad of old Slovakian money was found in Alan Draymont’s throat.”

Decker sat up straighter and eyed her, barely concealing the anger he was feeling. “And how did you find that out?”

“I know that you’re upset by that. But I have resources everywhere, it’s just the nature of the business I’m in.”

“Resources are one thing, getting confidential information about an ongoing federal criminal investigation is something else.”

“Is it true?” she asked.

“What if it were? What would that tell you?”

“You already know of my father’s connection to that country.”

“But even if he had any enemies, your father is beyond their reach. And why take it out on Draymont in any case?”

“As to your first query, Gamma and my father were interchangeable. He may be gone, but the company is still there.”

“So they want to destroy the company your father built, you mean?”

“It could be. It’s certainly one possibility.”

“And as to my second query?”

“I don’t know why they would target Alan Draymont. My initial thought was the most obvious. That the real target was the judge and he died defending her.” She glanced up at him. “Could that still be true?”

“Anything’s possible.”

“But you think it unlikely?”

“With the cash in the throat? I doubt they just happened to be carrying expired Slovakian currency when they showed up at the judge’s house to murder her.”

“But it could be a device to throw you off the scent. To distract?”

“They would have to know Draymont was guarding her, and they might have known who employed him. How well-known was your father’s background, that he came from Czechoslovakia?”

“Well-known enough. We have the clock in our office.” She attempted a smile.

For Decker, this was an exercise in futility, since he already believed that there were two unrelated killers at the house that night. But he also might be wrong about that.

“Then your theory is that someone wanted to get back at Gamma. So they killed Draymont, stuffed his mouth with Slovakian money, then killed the judge to take out the witness?”

“It’s one possibility,” she replied.

“Why target Draymont? Out of all the agents you have? And why kill him when he’s on assignment, which means they might well have to kill the protectee, too?”

She sipped her wine and looked thoughtful. “I know it might seem implausible when you say it that way.”

Decker took a swig of beer. “When I say it any which way.”

She stared at him. “So, what is your theory then?”

“Is that what this is about?”

“What do you mean?”

“You call me to meet, throw out a bullshit theory which I shoot down, and then you put me on the spot to tell you my theory to make me look smart. But you really want to find out where we are in the investigation.”

She smiled demurely and set her wine aside. “Would you like to come and work for Gamma? We can use people like you.”

“Don’t think it would work.”

“Why?”

“I don’t wear ties. Except at funerals.”

She sat forward, her expression more urgent. “I am afraid that this will have a negative impact on Gamma.”

“And despite my winning personality, I don’t do PR.”

“The media has already picked up on the fact that one of our operatives was killed.”

“I don’t really care about your business. I just want to catch whoever killed two people.”

“I can understand that, but I have a lot of people to think about.”

“Okay, you think about them and I’ll focus on my job.”

“You’re not very cooperative.”

“Am I supposed to be with someone who’s gotten information on a case she shouldn’t have, and tried to con me into spilling even more without telling me a goddamn thing in return?”

She looked down. “I guess I deserved that.”

Decker set the beer aside and rose. “I gotta get back to work.”

“Could you... walk with me on the beach?”

“Do I really look like a beach guy to you?”

“Just for a few minutes? Please?”