The 6:20 Man

Chapter 52

To say Cowl and Comely was like a morgue might have been an understatement, Devine thought.

Everyone looked on edge. Everyone looked like they wanted to be somewhere else.

Me included.

The firm had had an all-hands-on-deck meeting at nine o’clock in the largest conference room. Surprisingly, Brad Cowl didn’t speak. He wasn’t even there. Neither did the mysterious Anne Comely pop out of a cake and give her two cents’ worth to the troops. Instead, one of the top executives provided scant information about the crime.

Stamos had been found in her bedroom. The police had not released any information on how she had died. When someone asked who had found her and called the police, the executive said he didn’t know. The firm was providing counselors for anyone who wanted them.

And that was about it. Everyone went back to work.

And that included Devine, until a message dropped into his personal mailbox.

Devine stared dully at the message. Again, he didn’t recognize the sender. It was just a series of numbers like last time.

Devine texted Montgomery, asking if she could meet him for lunch in the city. She texted back in the affirmative and he ducked out of the office around twelve thirty.

They met roughly halfway between the Cowl Building and her walk-up in SoHo. Montgomery had on white jeans and a blue short-sleeved blouse. Her features were strained and her eyes were puffy.

Devine had a terrible thought. “Wait a minute, he didn’t—”

She held up a hand. “No, he didn’t force himself on me. I... I let him. I encouraged it, actually.”

“You didn’t have to do that, Michelle. When I said ‘distract him,’ I didn’t mean—”

“Then what did you mean?” she shot back. “For me to read him fucking poetry? As soon as I got back he grabbed the phone and was going to make a call. I had to think fast and that was the only thing I could think of.”

“God, I’m an idiot. I’m so sorry.”

“Just... just forget it. It’s over and done with. It’s not like I haven’t screwed the guy before. It’s the only reason he has me around.”

“You’re taking this pretty calmly.”

“Sex is sometimes just sex, Travis, okay? Men look at it differently than women. So long as I controlled things and it ended on my terms, I can deal with it. So please just deal with it too, okay?”

“Okay,” he said quickly.

They went inside a small brick-faced café, sat at a table in the back, and ordered. After they got their drinks Montgomery said, “Did you get what you were looking for on that floor?”

“Yes.”

“What’s going on?”

“Transfers of money in amounts that are beyond belief. And that money is being distributed to lots of different entities, which, in turn, use it for other purposes.”

“But isn’t that what Brad’s company does? What all those companies do?”

“Not like this.” He took a sip of his iced tea. “Something about this has me confused.”

“Just one thing? Wow, you’re way ahead of me.”

Devine continued, “I was sure that Cowl had framed me in connection with Sara’s murder, cloning my security card and putting me on the security video around the time of her death.”

“What?” she gasped.

“Yeah, that’s right, I didn’t tell you that before.”

She looked at him suspiciously.

He said in an exasperated tone, “I didn’t do it, Michelle. I talked to the night security guard at the building, and he told the cops no one came in at the time the video of me was on the security film and my security card showed up on the entry log. So the frame would have been worthless. But Cowl didn’t know that.”

“Okay.”

“But last night I point-blank asked him about trying to frame me. And he denied it.”

“Come on, what else did you expect him to do, confess?”

“I know, I keep going back and forth with that, too. Did he or didn’t he? But the more I think about it, the more I think he was telling the truth. He is one competitive prick and he always wants value for his money. And he was pissed that he hadn’t thought of framing me. He was also ticked off at his highly paid advisers because they didn’t think of it either. He said he saw the security log and video later, and then he was going to use it to put this problem behind him. In fact, based on that evidence, I think he thought I really had killed Sara. He doesn’t want the police snooping around here, and after what I found last night, I can understand why. But then I countered with some dirt I had on him that stopped him from revealing what he thought he had on me.”

“What kind of dirt?”

Devine thought of Stamos, now the dead Jennifer Stamos. “Just something that he would never want to see the light of day. But the point is, if he didn’t try to set me up, who did?”

“I can’t help you there. I have no clue.”

He looked over at her, his own suspicions ratcheting up. “When did you leave the penthouse last night? I saw you by the pool from the train.”

“Around one in the morning. I couldn’t sleep after, well... that. And Brad got woken up by a call from someone. And he said he had to go out. But that I could stay the night if I wanted, which I didn’t, not after what happened. We went down together in his private elevator and then he called a car service for me. I decided to go out to his place in the suburbs. I didn’t want to be in the city at all last night.”

“Did he take his Bugatti?”

“No, he called a car service, too.”

“Did he say who called him or where he was going?”

“No, why?”

He eyed her nervously. “Because Jennifer Stamos, a woman he was having a sexual relationship with at the office, was murdered last night at her home between midnight and three.”

Montgomery had taken a sip of her Coke and almost spit it out. “What!”

“And we had a big meeting of everyone at the firm this morning. With two people murdered, folks are getting edgy. Only Cowl wasn’t there. Some other guy filled in for him.”

“You asked me before if I knew Jennifer Stamos.”

“I did, yes. Because I knew she and Cowl were a thing.” He eyed her closely.

She flinched and said, “Wait a minute, you’re not... are you suggesting that Brad... killed her?”

“I don’t know. It would make sense that she would call him late at night. Even if he didn’t kill her, he might have found the body. The guy this morning didn’t say who had notified the police or who had found her.”

“Do you think Brad might be dead, too?”

“I think we would have heard about that if he was.”

“Unless they haven’t found his body,” countered Montgomery.

“He also might have called the police anonymously and then run for it. If he found her dead, he’d probably think, like I did, that people would believe that he had killed her. And others might know of their relationship. I gave him a lot to ponder last night — and a murder on top of it, with a woman he was screwing around with? The press would have a field day with that. And the cops would be all over him.” He paused and said, “Did you have any idea he was seeing somebody else?”

“With Brad it was pretty much a given. And our relationship wasn’t going to be permanent. And I asked you over to swim in the pool. I was ready to go to bed with you the other night. So I have no problem with him sleeping around when I’m willing to do the same. Fair is fair.”

“Okay.”

She shook her head. “And I thought I had a shitty night. That poor woman.”

“I have something else to tell you.”

“What?”

“I got a message from her killer.”

“Travis!”

He explained about the email he’d gotten that morning, and about the previous one he’d received after Sara Ewes had been killed. And about both messages being untraceable.

“Why would the killer be contacting you?”

“I don’t know, Michelle. I knew both women. That’s the only connection I see. But so did lots of other people.”

“But you and Sara had a thing. You slept together.”

“That’s true,” he conceded.

“And there’s no way to find out who sent the messages?”

“I had a world-class hacker try. And fail. I have someone else trying.”

“This is beyond bizarre.”

“Agreed, but we have to keep pushing forward.” He paused, took a sip of his iced tea, and said quietly, “Look, can you contact Cowl and tell him that I want to talk to him about Stamos’s murder?”

“That’s a little vague, isn’t it?” she replied.

“It’s meant to be.”

She pulled out her phone and texted the message to Cowl. She set her phone down and fingered her Coke. “Where did you go after you left there last night?”

“I went home and started going over the stuff I found. Let me know if you hear back from him.”

“Do you really think he killed Stamos?” she asked.

“Someone sure as hell did, and it wasn’t me.”