Long Shadows

Chapter 83

D​ecker immediately contacted Roe and asked for a meeting without mentioning what they had just uncovered.

White showed Decker the documentation on the currency purchase. “I don’t remember the bills that came out of Draymont’s and Lancer’s throats. But we can get them from the evidence locker.”

“No need. I remember them.”

“Seriously, I mean, to that level of detail?”

“I can see them in my head, Freddie, including serial numbers.”

“Well, look at you, Rain Man. Maybe we should go to Vegas.”

They left their hotel and got into the rental. As she drove them to Miami, he went over the pictures of the money in the email.

“Well?”

“It’s the same money.”

“Shit, I did not see that coming.”

“It doesn’t necessarily mean what you think it might.”

“How could it not?”

“That’s why we’re heading to Miami. To ask her.”

“And you think she’ll really answer truthfully?”

“We’ll see, won’t we?”

He had been told to go to Roe’s home instead of the office. They took the elevator up, and the woman herself answered their knock.

“Not working today?” said Decker.

“I’ve decided to take some time off.”

She was not her usual put-together self, Decker noted. She was dressed in faded jeans and a T-shirt, and was barefoot. Her hair was unbrushed, and her face, normally made up to an exacting degree, was apparently free of anything other than the woman’s actual skin.

She led them into a room set up as a small study. Decker looked around, his gaze first fixing on the object over the door, and then moving to two items resting on a small table. He glanced at White but said nothing.

They all sat and Roe looked across at them.

“How can I help you?”

“Are you a fan of eBay?” asked White.

“Excuse me?”

“It’s an online market—”

“I know what eBay is. Why do you want to know if I’m a fan?”

“Have you ever used it?”

She sat back. “Well, I guess I have purchased a few things from them over the years.”

“What sort of things?” asked Decker.

“Look, where is this going?”

“Did you buy something around three weeks ago?”

“What exactly are we talking about?”

Decker said, “You should be able to remember if you bought something on eBay three weeks ago.”

She looked put off. “Why won’t you tell me what this is about?”

“We’d prefer to hear an answer from you first,” said Decker.

“Okay, I don’t specifically remember buying anything on eBay three weeks ago. In fact, I don’t think I’ve bought anything from there since I was in college.”

“Okay.” Decker looked over at White.

She held up her phone. “We got confirmation from eBay that you purchased Slovakian money from one of their vendors three weeks ago. And Decker has confirmed that the bills purchased are the same ones found in the throats of Draymont and Lancer.”

Roe stared at White like she couldn’t really understand what she was saying. “Why would I buy old Slovakian currency?”

“It was your father’s homeland,” replied Decker.

“But my father has been gone for three years. Where did you get this information?”

“From eBay.” White showed her the screen. “It shows the credit card account you have on file to make the purchase and a PO box delivery address.”

“I don’t have a PO box. And since I haven’t bought anything on eBay since college, any credit card would have long since expired.”

“Okay, then somebody could have hacked into your current credit card account and linked it to a bogus account set up on eBay. Can you check your statements to see if that charge appeared on it?” asked Decker.

Roe rose and got her laptop. After a few minutes on it she glanced up. “Okay, there is a charge here from eBay that matches the amount paid for the money. But I did not purchase it.”

“So why didn’t you challenge the amount?”

“I don’t go over all my charges line by line. If it’s over a certain amount the bank contacts me. This purchase wasn’t even close to that. Less than fifty dollars.”

“The PO box is in Naples.”

“Like I said, I have no PO box. And even if I did, why would I have it in Naples?”

“Then somebody stole your credit card information, bought the currency, and had it shipped in your name to the PO box. Why go to all that trouble?” White wanted to know.

“To frame me for two murders, apparently,” said Roe.

“Interesting, since we’ve already made an arrest and the gun used for the killings has been tied to that person.”

“I don’t profess to understand it.”

“If you’re telling the truth, it seems like someone is trying to punish you, Kasimira,” noted Decker.

She shook her head. “I can’t imagine what I’ve done to elicit that sort of hatred.”

“I don’t think it’s connected to you. I think it’s connected to your father. And something he might have done.”

“What are you talking about?”

Decker took a few minutes to tell her about what had happened in Miami back in 1981.

As he finished, Roe looked devastated by these revelations. “And... and you think my father—”

“I don’t know how he saw what he did, but he was in that room, helping to put a dead prostitute in a suitcase. The body has never been recovered.”

“And Senator Tanner?”

“Was probably very grateful. Which might explain how your father was able to quit the Secret Service and start his security firm. It might also be that as a senator and wealthy, well-connected businessman, Tanner managed to throw a bunch of business your father’s way.”

“In return for keeping his mouth shut?”

“I’m not sure I see another reason, unless you do?” said Decker, who was watching the woman closely.

Roe seemed to hover between screaming or crying, and he was unsure, ultimately, which way it would fall.

She surprised him by doing neither. She sat up straight and said, “Then why, after all these years, did this happen now? My father presumably kept the confidence.”

“You told me your father was religious. He obviously raised you the same.”

“What?”

Decker pointed to the crucifix over the doorway into the room, and a set of rosaries lying on a credenza next to a bible.

“Yes. He was a devout Catholic. That’s how I was raised.”

“And when people are dying, someone like a devout Catholic harboring a guilty secret, what might they do?”

Roe walked over to the credenza, picked up the rosaries, and began fingering them. “They would confess their sins for absolution of their soul in the eyes of God, so they could be forgiven and go to Heaven.”

“And if your father went further, and told others who were also involved in that secret that that was his intent? To make his secret public, and not just confess it to a priest in private?”

Roe walked over and sat back down.

“So you think those people killed him to prevent him from confessing his guilt, and theirs?”

“It’s certainly one plausible theory.”

Finally breaking down, Kasimira Roe put her face in her hands and started to weep.