Long Shadows (Amos Decker, #7)(115)

He sent Roe an email and got a reply back a few minutes later.

Judith Kilroy, with an address in West Palm.

*



After traversing the state of Florida once more, Decker and White arrived at Judith Kilroy’s home, a large, oceanfront stucco house with wavy palm trees out front. Decker knew he could have simply called the woman, but he liked to see the people he was talking to. And doing that on a computer was just not the same thing, at least to him.

Kilroy was in her early sixties and dressed casually, although the jewelry she had on was anything but casual. She led Decker and White into a room with a lovely view of the Atlantic, which, for some reason, Decker found slightly nauseating.

“I’m as certain that that man robbed me as I am of my own name. How dare they claim I was trying to get out of paying the bill? My husband’s firm was footing that. And besides that, we’re rich, for God’s sake.”

“And who made that claim?” asked White.

“Some woman. I forget her name. She called and made up a pack of lies. I was never that insulted in my life. When it first happened my husband was considering legal action, but then we decided it would be too much of a hassle, and the necklace was insured.”

“I understand. But why were you so sure he stole it?”

“I caught him in my bedroom. That’s where I kept my jewelry. That necklace was there before he went in there, and then it was gone right after he left. No one else was in the house during that whole time. Oh, he did it all right.” She took a deep breath and composed herself.

Decker looked around the grand space. On one wall were photos of Kilroy and presumably her husband and their children over a series of years.

“The passage-of-time wall, I call it,” said Kilroy as she noted what Decker was looking at. “It goes by so fast. But when your kids are little and the days seem like they’re forty-eight hours long, you just can’t see that. And everyone with grown kids tells you that they grow up in the blink of an eye and will be out of college and on with their lives before you know it. And young parents listen but never really believe it.” She paused. “Until it happens to them. I was fortunate to be able to stay home with my kids while my husband worked his way up the corporate ladder. I will never exchange that experience for anything. I understand a lot of people don’t have that opportunity. Still, I miss the days when my kids were all at home.”

Decker glanced at a stricken White, who looked like she might be sick to her stomach.

He said quickly, “Anything else you can tell us about Alan Draymont?”

“When I found the necklace missing I confronted him, but he denied having taken it. He was so smug and condescending. Said I was mistaken, but he could understand my being upset at having misplaced something so valuable. Can you believe that? The arrogance.”

“That must have been traumatizing,” said Decker.

“Yes, indeed it was.”

“Did anyone contact you later?”

“Contact me? What do you mean?”

“We think that the man and the woman you spoke with were involved in a blackmail ring. So I was wondering if they tried to do something like that with you. Perhaps to get you to drop your claims about the necklace being stolen.”

Kilroy set her lips firmly. “In order to blackmail someone, they have to find something to blackmail with. And my husband and I have led an exemplary life. A scandal for my husband was wearing a brown belt and black shoes.”

“I’m sure.”

“Is there anything else?” she asked.

“I guess not,” said Decker, rising and pulling up a still-distracted White with him.

“Sorry about that,” said White as she drove them back to Ocean View.

“Sorry about what?”

She glanced at him and let out a curt laugh. “Thanks.”

“My wife, Cassie, worked long hours. She was a nurse. She hated being away from Molly, but we couldn’t make it on just my paycheck. And my schedule was beyond ridiculous, so she worked full time and carried the laboring oar at home, too.”

“I think you’ve just described a lot of marriages, Decker.”

“Yeah, I suppose so.”

“Did she regret it? Your wife?”

Decker glanced over at her. “Some days she’d come to bed crying.”

“What’d you tell her?”

“If you want the truth, I never really knew what to tell her. I just held her until she stopped crying.”

“Maybe that was exactly what she needed,” said White in a wistful tone.

“I hope so,” replied Decker.





Chapter 87



L?ATER THAT AFTERNOON, AFTER GETTING back from West Palm, Decker and White sat out in their rental in front of Cummins’s house.

“In some ways it seems like we’ve been investigating this thing a lot longer than we have,” observed White.

Decker wasn’t listening. He looked at Doris Kline’s house and then at the Perlmans’.

“Not easy transporting Lancer’s body into a house unseen.”

“They could have just brought it in the trunk of a car,” noted White.

“And then what? Pulled into the driveway and hauled the corpse out?”

“Well, they obviously did it late at night when no one was around.”