Long Shadows (Amos Decker, #7)(18)

White hiked her eyebrows at Decker. “You mean out on all that sand?” she said.

“Fine,” said Decker. “Why don’t you wait here, Agent White? And let them know where we went.”

White was about to protest, but then she glanced at Tyler and slowly nodded. “Sure, I can let you footballers have some alone time.”

The two big men walked off, leaving White to sit down in a chair and wait, her lips pursed and her gaze hanging on Decker’s broad back.





Chapter 11



I’M…UM, I’M SORRY ABOUT your mother,” said Decker as they reached the sand and headed south. Decker had taken off his shoes and socks and rolled up his pants. Tyler had slipped off his flip-flops and was carrying them. Decker was awkward at social encounters like this. As a young man, before his brain injury, he could be empathetic and consoling and even glib. Now, on the other side of his near-death experience, he was none of those things.

“I think I’m gonna wake up and she’ll be there waving at me.”

“I can understand that. So, when was the last time you actually saw your mother?”

“I stayed with her last week, this week I’m with my dad.”

“Tough going back and forth?”

“It was at first, but then I got into a routine. Well, I did with Mom. Dad never has had much of a routine.”

“So you saw her last a week ago?”

“No, I had lunch with her three days ago, at the golf clubhouse where she lives.”

“Wasn’t she at the courthouse then?”

“She had the afternoon off, she said.”

“She seem okay, no problems?”

“Yeah, she was fine.”

“Did you ever meet her private bodyguard?”

“No. When I was with her last week, she didn’t have a bodyguard around.”

That remark caught Decker by surprise but he decided not to comment on it. “But at some point did she tell you that she had one?”

“Yeah, she mentioned it at lunch. I asked her what was up.”

“And what did she say?”

“She said it was over some stupid stuff from being a judge, but she didn’t want to take chances.”

“She wasn’t more specific?”

“No. But she’d gotten threats in the past and nothing had come of it.”

“Were you worried that you might be in danger while you were over there?”

“I’m a big guy, I can take care of myself. But I always worried about my mom. Lots of psychos out there, you know.”

“When you were over there, did you ever see anything weird?”

“Nope. By the time I got home after school, I was pretty beat. Usually ate dinner, listened to some music, did my schoolwork, and then hit the sack.”

“You on a year-round workout schedule?”

He nodded. “We were runner-up for state, so everyone’s gunning for us. The team that beat us lost half their starters to graduation, while we’re still stacked. I was first team All-State as a junior. And even though I’ve got my scholarship offers, my take is I’ve got to be even better than I was last year. Weight room, cardio, playbooks, passing and blocking drills. Never stops.”

“Same way in college. And in the pros, it’s your life.”

“Maybe I’ll make enough money to buy my own team one day.”

“There you go. So you never saw or heard anything else troubling your mother?”

“Except for my dad.”

“What do you mean?” Decker said sharply.

Tyler suddenly looked fearful. “No, hey, I just mean, well, he’s like a little kid who never grew up. Nothing wrong with that. He just loves life, you know?”

“I get that, but was that the reason for the divorce?”

“Yeah, and there was some dumb tax issue that she was really upset about. This was about five years ago, after she became a judge. She filed for divorce pretty soon after that. I didn’t really get it. I mean, blow up a marriage over taxes? They both had plenty of money. Anyway, Mom didn’t like Dad’s lifestyle after the divorce, and she didn’t want Dad having his girlfriends stay over while I was with him. She didn’t think it was right.”

“What did you think about that?”

“Well, I have to admit, it was nice seeing the young ladies running around the condo in T-shirts and pretty much nothing else, or tanning themselves on one of the balconies or by the pool, but it did get old after a while. I mean, it was my dad! And they were only in it for his money anyway. Even though he does keep himself in decent shape, he’s almost fifty. Twentysomething ladies don’t go for that without the cash to back it up.”

“So, you were with your father last night? Here?”

“Yeah. I got home around seven. We had dinner, watched some TV, and I finished some schoolwork. Then I went to bed.”

“What time?”

“About ten thirty or so. I was beat.”

“And your dad?”

“I heard him talking in his office. My bedroom’s right next door. He has clients all over the world, so he operates in different time zones. Kept waking me up when he went on the Zooms. It’s like he thinks he has to talk loud because they’re in Asia and shit.”