Long Shadows (Amos Decker, #7)(29)

“She have many visitors?”

“Not that I’ve seen. I mean, occasionally.”

Andrews took out his phone, brought up a screen, and held it up. It was a picture of Alan Draymont. “This man?”

The woman said, “Yes, I have seen him. He’s been over to see Alice many times, at least that I’m aware of. I assumed they were dating.”

“Did they seem romantically engaged?” asked White.

“Not particularly so. I just assumed. Has…has something happened to Alice?”

“We’re trying to find out. What else can you tell us about her?” asked Decker.

“She lives quietly. She keeps to herself. Never spoke of having children. I thought she had something to do with law enforcement.”

“Why’d you think that?” asked White.

“I saw her getting in her car once, and she had a gun on her belt.”

Andrews handed her a card. “If you think of anything else, please give me a call. And if you see Ms. Lancer back here, please alert me right away.”

“Alert you? Is she in some sort of trouble?”

“Like we said, we’re trying to find things out,” said Decker. “Thanks.”

As they got back into the car White said, “So Draymont and Lancer were maybe a couple?”

Decker said, “Draymont gets murdered, and Lancer fakes a fainting spell to get out of answering our questions. This is not a dating issue. This is something more than that.”

“What could they have been involved in?” said Andrews.

Decker replied, “They both worked at Gamma. That might be the common denominator.”

“You mean involving Gamma?” asked Andrews.

“Not necessarily. But let’s keep an open mind, okay?” Decker added.

“It would be hard to believe that an organization with the sterling reputation of Gamma would be—”

Decker interrupted. “Yeah, go tell that to Bernie Madoff’s investors. And where’d you get that photo of Draymont?”

“From Gamma’s website.”

“And you need to file that search warrant request for Lancer’s place.”

“I’m on it,” said Andrews, hitting a speed dial number and putting the phone to his ear.

“And now, we go to court,” said Decker.





Chapter 19



T?HE FORT MYERS FEDERAL COURTHOUSE was on First Street. To Decker it looked like a lot of other federal courthouses he had seen, only this one had palm trees out front.

They cleared security with their credentials and were allowed to keep their weapons. They were escorted to the office of Ken Caine, who was the deputy U.S. marshal in charge of courthouse security. Andrews told them that Caine was a friend of his.

“We play golf together.”

“Does everybody play golf in Florida?” growled Decker.

“It’s one of the main reasons people come here, Decker,” retorted Andrews.

Caine was in his fifties, with grizzled gray hair, and his blue blazer and gray slacks rode well on his fit six-foot frame. He struck Decker as a no-nonsense, no-bullshit kind of guy. But he had been wrong about that before.

Caine shook their hands and said, “Damn, I can’t believe that Judge Cummins is dead. She was the nicest person you’d ever want to meet.”

Andrews said, “I know, Ken, it was a shock.”

“What can I do to help?” said Caine.

Andrews explained about possible threats Cummins had received. And also that Cummins had hired Gamma to protect her possibly because of those threats.

“What in the hell?” exclaimed Caine. “Why didn’t she alert us as to any threats?”

“You’re sure she didn’t?” said Decker. “I mean, not you but someone else here?”

“Any threat to a federal judge in this court is my jurisdiction. There are procedures in place. Judge Cummins has been threatened before. This is south Florida, violent gangs and drug smugglers abound here. And she had quite a few of those on her docket. We always protected her. I just don’t understand why she didn’t tell us.”

“Did she mention anything to you about any recent concerns she had?” asked Andrews.

“No, nothing.”

“And you didn’t know she’d hired Gamma?” asked White.

“No, I did not,” Caine said heatedly.

“Are you familiar with Gamma?” asked Decker.

“I know of them. I’ve been to some security conferences where Kanak Roe spoke.”

“Do you know his daughter?” asked Decker.

“Kasimira? I’ve had some interactions, but I don’t know her all that well.”

“Still, what’s your opinion of her?” asked Decker.

“She makes a lot of money.”

“About her professionally?”

“She was with the Secret Service, so she knows what she’s doing. Her father was excellent at his work. She’s, well, she’s more business oriented than he was. She’s nearly doubled the size of the firm just since she took over. That big office building in Miami? She bought that two years ago. Gamma has the top six floors and she rents out the rest. Makes a fortune just off that.”