Long Shadows

Chapter 78

W​hite had made a dozen calls and come up essentially empty.

The senior members of Tanner’s former Senate staff were almost all either deceased or long retired. She had gotten some names and a few pictures online of these people from their younger days. She supposed they could show them to Deidre Fellows to see if she recognized the man in the bedroom helping Kanak Roe to wrap up a dead woman and stuff her into a suitcase.

But if the person had been a young aide, a secretary, or some very junior member of the staff, it was going to be really difficult to track that person down now. It wasn’t like they kept exhaustive lists of such personnel in some neat and tidy archive. A lot of the staff had probably gone on to work with other members of Congress after Tanner retired, or left the political arena entirely. If the man was a personal aide of Tanner’s and not part of his political operation, they still might be able to identify him, but she wasn’t sure how. Mrs. Tanner was dead. Mr. Tanner would be of no help. Deidre was an only child, and she hadn’t recognized the person that night. Kanak Roe would know, but he was probably dead, too. And all of this had happened before Kasimira Roe was even born.

She had contacted the Miami — Dade Police Department and spoken with someone from their Cold Case Squad. Without revealing specifically what her case was about, she gave the woman’s description and the date and location in question. The officer said he would get back to her — but she was in a long queue, he had warned, and without a name it was not going to be quick or easy. In fact, he said, it was going to be pretty much impossible.

There was a Cold Case database run by an independent organization that covered forty-six states and fifty Florida counties, but, again, without a name White’s search turned up no hits when she put in the information she had.

Shit. She rubbed her eyes and wondered how Decker was getting on.

She got some email responses on other lines of inquiry they had started. The traffic cameras had turned up nothing on Langley’s Bentley or Chase’s Aston Martin at the time in question. Barry Davidson had made no suspicious payments. They hadn’t heard back from the liquor store, so she had called and was told the night clerk had remembered seeing Langley come in that night at the time he said he had.

Three strikes and we’re out.

She forwarded all of this to Decker, and then called her mother to check on the kids. She had refrained from getting her children phones yet, but she knew that would change soon, especially for her oldest.

And in no time they’ll be in college and then married and off living their lives far, far away from their mother.

And you are wallowing in self-pity, Freddie, and it is definitely not a good look.

“Hi, honey,” said her mother. “How’s it going in sunny Florida? Sunny Baltimore is currently in the forties.”

“It’s going slowly. I’m not sure when I’ll be back again.”

“I meant to ask you, don’t they have FBI down there? Why did you and Decker get called in for this?”

“I’ve been asking myself that from day one. And the agent we’ve been working with down here was not particularly happy about it.”

She had not told her mother that Agent Andrews had been shot, and that she had been shot at, too. And she prayed her mother did not see it in the news somewhere.

“Well, it could be that the Bureau considers you and Decker crackerjack agents and you get sent out only on the tough ones.”

“Yeah,” said White sarcastically. “I’m so crackerjack I’m two promotions behind. But that might just be due to my winning disposition.”

“And the fact that you don’t take crap from anybody, particularly from male agents who try to put you in a place they want you to be. But you keep fighting the good fight, honey.”

They spent some time going over how the kids were doing, and White told her mother she would get up to see them as soon as possible.

She clicked off, sat back, and wondered again why they had been sent down here when there were FBI agents all over South Florida, and the Bureau also had large field offices in both Tampa and Miami.

It’s not me, that’s for sure. So, is it Decker? I mean, I know the guy is good, but is that it?

She couldn’t very well ask her superior about it.

Hey, sir, why did you send our sorry asses down here when you already got all that manpower in the Sunshine State?

On a whim she decided to call Jim Pollard, a friend of hers at the Hoover Building who kept his ear to the ground and knew all the Bureau gossip.

“Hey, Freddie, how goes it?” said Pollard in a booming voice.

His voice matched his stature, she knew. He was a big, gregarious guy with the rep of a good agent, but he had a secret desire to act — and did so in local productions. Everything about the man was larger than life. He also loved the inner drama of the Bureau, of which there was an endless supply.

“I’m down in Florida on a case.”

“I know you are, Freddie. With the one-of-a-kind Amos Decker, no less.”

“So you knew that?”

“Hell, everybody knows that. Sorry you got stuck with him as his new partner. I heard his old one ran away to New York.”

“Actually, Alex Jamison thinks the world of him,” retorted White, who was surprised at how angry his comment had made her.

“Not what I heard.”

“What did you mean everyone knows about us being down here?”

“You mean you haven’t heard?”

“Heard what?”

“Ross Bogart was Decker’s protector. Now that he’s retired the Bureau is getting tired of the man. Granted he’s had some success, but word is Decker is an absolute dick to work with.”

“He’s a little out of the mainstream, but he’s got a brilliant mind and a softer touch with people than I would have imagined.”

“Wow, I didn’t expect to hear that from you.”

“I just call them like I see them,” she replied coldly. “And what do you mean they’re getting tired of him?”

“They want to get rid of him, that’s what. I’ve heard scuttlebutt from the executive suites that they just want to cut bait on him. He’s rude, won’t follow orders, won’t toe the Bureau line, and is never going to fit in.”

“He gets results, Jim. I looked at his record. He has a one hundred percent solve rate. Name me another agent who has that. He got an innocent guy off death row. And he saved a U.S. president’s life once, and got a medal for it.”

“The execs don’t care about that. They want people who will walk the walk and talk the talk on the Bureau’s terms. And he never even wears a suit. I’ve seen him a few times at the WFO when I was over there. He looks like he’s homeless.”

“He’s not an official FBI agent. He’s a consultant.”

“Which makes it easier to cut him loose. I’m stunned he’s lasted this long.”

White had to bite back the comment she was about to make and calm her rising anger. “But that doesn’t explain why we got assigned to this case. Last time I looked Florida had lots of agents.”

“Federal judge and a private security guard, right?”

“Right. How did you know those details?”

“Grapevine. It looked to be a really complicated case where nuance was required.”

White did not like his gleeful tone. “Where exactly is this going, Jim?”

“I think the powers that be sent Decker down there to fall flat on his face. With his termination to come right after.”

“Why run the guy around by the nose like that? Why not just fire him?”

“He’s made some enemies here, Freddie. It’s payback time. They want to rub his face in it.”

“And I’m down here with him, so what happens to me if we don’t solve this sucker?”

“I don’t know.”

“I’ve made enemies, too, but it’s mostly because some male agents don’t want me around.”

“Look, Freddie, what you need to do is make sure you stay far enough away from the fallout so that you survive this intact.”

“What the hell are you talking about, ‘stay far away’? Not do my job? Sabotage the investigation?”

“Of course not. I’m just saying don’t go down with the ship.”

“But what about Decker?”

“What about him? Don’t tell me you like the guy?”

“I haven’t known him that long, but—”

He interrupted, “Well, hopefully, you won’t have to know him much longer. Hang in there. Gotta go, hear the boss coming. Bye.”

White slowly put her phone down.