Redemption

Chapter 67

Decker and Lancaster were seated across from Bill Peyton in his small office at the American Grill. Peyton was a big man, about six-two, two-twenty, with thick shoulders and muscular arms. His gray hair was cut in a bristly flattop turning silver at the temples. In his early sixties now, he looked like he could bench-press a truck.

“Thanks for meeting with us,” said Lancaster.

“No problem. How is Ms. Katz doing?”

“She hasn’t regained consciousness,” said Lancaster. “But the doctors are still hopeful.”

Decker slid a photo out of a slip of plastic and handed it across to Peyton. “Do you recognize this man?”

Peyton fingered the photo. “No, who is he?”

“The man who attempted to murder your boss. He was killed during the encounter. His name is Eric Tyson. Former military.”

“No, never seen him before, certainly not here. I can ask around to the staff and see. But the fact is, Ms. Katz didn’t come here much.”

“But she still owns the place,” pointed out Lancaster.

“She does. But in the grand scheme of her empire here, we’re small potatoes.” He grinned briefly. “And she trusted me to run the place, just like her husband did.”

“You’ve been here from the get-go,” said Decker.

“That’s right. David Katz hired me.”

“I guess you’ve run restaurants before?”

“I know my way around the business.”

“It can be challenging. Lots of restaurants fail.”

“Yes, they can. And we’ve had some new competition come in. But we’re holding our own.”

“Were you around when the place was being built?” asked Decker.

“I was, yes. David brought me on early enough, so I could have input in the process.”

“How was David Katz to work for?”

“I always found him professional and focused. Later, I found his wife to be the same.” He looked at his watch. “Anything else?”

“What will happen to the business if Rachel Katz doesn’t recover?” asked Decker.

“I have no idea,” said Peyton. “I guess that depends on what’s in her will and what her relatives want to do. I hope we don’t get to that point.”

“Absolutely,” said Decker. “Well, thanks for your time.” He pulled out another photo of Eric Tyson from his pocket and handed it to Peyton. “And let us know if anyone remembers seeing that guy around.”

Peyton took the photo without looking at it. “Will do.”

They left and went outside.

“Well?” said Lancaster.

Decker took out the plastic slip with the photo inside. “Looks like a beautiful print on the photo. We’ll run it and see if Mr. Peyton is who he says he is.”

Decker dropped Lancaster and the photo off at the station and continued on to the hospital, where Mars was once more ensconced in Katz’s hospital room.

“Nothing?” said Decker as he sat down next to him.

Mars shook his head.

“Got something to tell you.” He filled Mars in on his theory of money laundering.

“So you think she was in on it?” asked Mars as he glanced at Katz.

“I don’t know for sure, but it would be a stretch to conclude that she didn’t know about it. She’s got financial backers that even the FBI can’t pierce.”

Mars slowly nodded. “Could be the reason for her guilty conscience and all the weird stuff she was saying to me.”

“Could be. We met with the guy who manages the American Grill. We got his prints through a bit of sleight of hand, and Mary’s running them through the database.”

“What could that tell you?”

“I don’t think this is just about money laundering, Melvin. I think something else is going on. You don’t need to build a basement under a restaurant to run a money laundering business. You just need legitimate businesses to flush bad money through and turn that bad money into other assets and a clean line of cash flow. That’s what all of Katz’s businesses could allow them to do.”

“But you don’t think that’s all. So what else could there be?”

Decker shrugged. “I don’t know. But I believe that David Katz and Don Richards were killed because something went wrong.”

“Went wrong. Like what?”

“Something in the business. Someone felt threatened somehow, by one or both of them. They killed them and pinned it on Meryl Hawkins, with his daughter’s help.”

“And her payoff?”

“She got remade, new life, new everything. From the bottom to the top in a flash.”

“Like Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady. One of my favorite films.”

Decker looked at him in a bemused way. “Didn’t see you as a My Fair Lady kind of guy.”

“Hell, I could relate, Decker. I had to remake myself every second of every day, when I was growing up in West Texas and then when I was in prison. And when I got out of prison.”

“Why not just be yourself?”

“Easy for you to say.”

Decker sat back. “I guess you’re right about that.”

“Yeah, I was the high school and college sports star back then. Whole damn state loved me. I was a hero. But God forbid I eat at their table. Or date their daughters.”

Decker suddenly glanced at Katz. “Jenny Marks said that Katz had been a real mentor to her. Showing her the ropes of being in business.”

“I heard that. So?”

“So, even though Katz said she didn’t know her, I wonder if she did the same thing for Mitzi Gardiner?”

“Wait a minute, you think Gardiner was Hepburn?”

“And that means Rachel Katz might have been in the role played by Rex Harrison.”