Long Shadows

Chapter 32

“S​o, nothing?” asked Decker.

White eyed him as they stood outside Alice Lancer’s neat little bungalow a half hour north of Miami. He had phoned her and driven directly there from Roe’s condo in the sky.

“In official parlance the term is ‘fuckin’ zip.’ Same at Draymont’s apartment, which is no surprise, since someone had already searched his place.” She looked at the house next door. “But there was something. A neighbor looked out the window and saw a car pull into the driveway. She described two large men getting out of the car and going into the house.”

“When?”

“Right after Lancer disappeared.”

“So they snatched her and came right here?” said Decker.

“Looks like it.”

“And she didn’t see Lancer?”

“No,” replied White. “She might have been drugged and in the trunk for all we know.”

“And the neighbor didn’t call the cops?”

“She had no idea that Lancer had disappeared. But she said she was going to call the cops. Then one of the guys unlocked the door and they went in like they owned the place, so she thought they must be friends of hers.”

“She get the license plate number?”

White shook her head. “But she gave us a description of the car.”

“Well, at least she was more helpful than the other neighbor we talked to. So, had her place been previously searched, too?”

White said, “Not like Draymont’s. But something tells me a search was made. And there was no laptop or desktop computer here.”

“Did the neighbor see them carrying anything out?”

“No, she went out for a walk and didn’t see them leave.”

“Okay, so they’re still a couple steps ahead of us. We have to change that at some point.”

“And what have you been up to, Decker?”

At that moment Andrews walked out of the house.

“I’ll fill you in, but later.”

She glanced over at Andrews. “Okay.”

“Decker,” called out Andrews. “Long time no see.”

“Yeah. I understand not much here.”

Andrews walked up to them. “We’re a day late and a dollar short. But the team is still in there processing. They still might find something useful. How did things go with you?”

“They’re still going.”

“I thought I’d go back to the office and write up my report so far and check in with the forensics folks. You two want to grab some dinner back in Ocean View later?”

“Yeah, that sounds good, we’ll give you a call when we get back,” said Decker. “We have to go report in, too. I’ll drive back with Agent White.”

Andrews gave them a thumbs-up and walked off to his car.

Decker led White over to the rental and they climbed in and drove off.

They had barely gone thirty feet when White unloaded. “I don’t appreciate getting dumped by my partner.”

“I can—”

“Shut up, ’cause I’m not done. In fact, I’m just getting started. I’m a good agent and I’ve been busting my hump for a long time and I don’t deserve this shit from you or anyone else.”

“Look, I—”

She stuck a finger in his face. “I’m not done, so shut the fuck up, Donnie!”

“Didn’t take you for a Big Lebowski fan,” said Decker, referring to the line from that classic film.

“If you ever pull that shit on me again, I will lay your ass out so fast, you’ll think Muhammad Ali came back from the grave and used you for punching practice. And I already told you I have a double black belt in karate, so I can lay your butt out. I don’t care how big you are.”

“I’m trying—”

She smacked him on the arm. “Not done yet, Decker. And as soon as this case is over, however it turns out, I’m getting the hell away from you. And then you can go and play your stupid little mind games and screw over somebody else, because I’m not having it. I am not putting up with your bullshit and you are not blowing up my career. Now, do you understand what the fuck I’m saying to you?”

Several moments of silence passed.

“Decker, I asked you a question.”

“I was just making sure you were done.”

“I hope to hell that I am.”

“You’re right. I screwed with you and I shouldn’t have. It was my fault and I’m sorry.”

“Why in the hell did you do it in the first place?” barked White.

Decker didn’t answer right away. “I don’t handle change well. And you’re not Alex. But even with Alex, it was no picnic with her for a long time.”

“Yeah, she told me. But you eventually warmed up to her. You gave her a chance. Why am I different?”

“You’re not different. Maybe I am.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning, I don’t know. But what I do know is we have a case to work, and it’s going to take both of us to get there.”

“And why should I give you another chance?”

“I can’t think of a single good reason,” he conceded.

White said, “Good. If you had tried to bullshit me I might have shot you.”

They drove for a bit in silence.

“Okay, what did you find out today?” she asked.

He told her about his theory on Draymont and Cummins being lovers.

“The ME confirmed that she’d had consensual sex that night. And the physical evidence substantiates that it was probably with Draymont. DNA on the sheets will confirm. If so, he was probably leaving the house when it happened, while the judge was probably upstairs in bed. She heard the shots and raced downstairs.”

“Shit, what made you think to check that?” said a stunned White.

“No one could confirm that there ever were any real threats against the judge. She’d been threatened before, for real. What did she do when that happened? She notified the U.S. Marshals Service and they assigned her protection. What you don’t do is go out and hire your own protection. There would have been no need. So, another plausible reason for Draymont to be there was sexual. Doris Kline thought the same thing.”

White shook her head, looking confused. “But why go through that sort of subterfuge? She was single. Draymont was, too.”

“That’s what we have to find out. I also spoke with the Perlmans. They just got back from New York. They weren’t much help. They suggested Gamma to Cummins because Maya Perlman’s former legal client made threats against her. They weren’t around during the murders, so they didn’t see anything. But Maya Perlman was really upset. She and the judge were close.”

Next, he told her about his meeting with Kasimira Roe. “That’s why I was in Miami and then drove up to meet you at Lancer’s place.”

“So, she wants you to find out what happened to her father?”

“And if I have to in order to figure out what happened to Cummins, I will.”

“Do you really think there’s a connection?” she asked.

“But for the Slovakian money stuffed down Draymont’s throat I wouldn’t.”

“Did she mention anything about Lancer or Draymont? Or any records of threats?”

“I asked her and she passed the buck to ‘her people,’ and ‘legal counsel.’ But I hope to get some quid pro quo in return for looking into her father’s disappearance, which hopefully means we won’t have to go to court to get the info.”

“But Decker, if they were billing Judge Cummins for Draymont to be there, and I’m assuming they were, she must have given them some reason why she needed protection. And how could they assure it would be Draymont doing the guarding?”

“The thing is, I don’t think he was there on behalf of Gamma at all. Doris Kline said he wasn’t there every night. And we haven’t found anyone to say he was there all night. I think Draymont was just there to have sex with Cummins. This wasn’t running through Gamma at all.”

“But when we met with them, why couldn’t they just tell us that?”

“I guess they were expecting Lancer to do the honors and we saw what happened there.”

“But wouldn’t Roe know if the judge was a client or not?”

“Maybe not — it’s a big organization.”

“But you said the Perlmans recommended Gamma to Cummins, so she must have been looking for some sort of protection.”

“I know. That’s the part that’s puzzling. And she might have talked to someone at Gamma about protection. But I don’t think Draymont was providing it. Or if he was, he was also providing the judge something extra. But the fact that he wasn’t there every night? And apparently no one else came to take his place on a rotation? Doesn’t sound like a standard protection detail to me. But we can confirm it with Gamma, and by an examination of the judge’s financial records. If she did hire them she had to be paying them.”

“So could Draymont have been wrong place wrong time, even with the money found in his throat?”

“No. I think Draymont and the judge were killed by two different people, at two slightly different times.”

White nearly came out of her seat. “What!”

He explained to her about the ME’s confirming that the blood on the wall and carpet was Draymont’s, not Cummins’s.

“She comes downstairs, maybe after hearing the shots, and then she goes back upstairs. Why not call the cops from downstairs?” Decker wondered.

“But it could still be the person who killed Draymont who then went after her and prevented her from sounding the alarm.”

Decker shook his head. “They were two totally different crimes. If you have a gun and want to silence a witness, you don’t pull out a knife and kill her slowly while she screams her head off and fights for her life. And for her to get Draymont’s blood on her means she had to touch him. As I said before, she probably heard the shots, went into the study, saw him lying there, touched the wound, maybe tried to perform CPR. Whoever shot Draymont wouldn’t have stayed around to watch that. And if they had meant to kill her, they would have gone to find her, not waited for her to come downstairs. For all they knew she would call the cops from her room.”

“That all makes sense. But the cut-up blindfold on her? And the legal phrase on the paper?”

“Could be something very personal to her, which would make sense if there were two separate killers. And but for the money in Draymont’s throat and the very different criminal elements, I might think he was killed in protecting the judge and then they went and finished her off. But that’s not how this played out. At least I don’t think it did.”

“And why not wait and fill in Andrews on this, too?” asked White.

“Because Roe knew about the Slovakian money in Draymont’s throat. She said it came from her ‘sources.’ I think her source was Andrews.”

“He does seem more deferential with her than I would like, but you can’t know for sure he told her.”

“We will.”

“How?”

“I’m going to ask him.”

“And if Andrews did tell her?”

He shot her a look. “Then you can turn into Muhammad Ali and use your double black belt to kick his ass.”