Long Shadows (Amos Decker, #7)(47)

She smacked him on the arm. “Not done yet, Decker. And as soon as this case is over, however it turns out, I’m getting the hell away from you. And then you can go and play your stupid little mind games and screw over somebody else, because I’m not having it. I am not putting up with your bullshit and you are not blowing up my career. Now, do you understand what the fuck I’m saying to you?”

Several moments of silence passed.

“Decker, I asked you a question.”

“I was just making sure you were done.”

“I hope to hell that I am.”

“You’re right. I screwed with you and I shouldn’t have. It was my fault and I’m sorry.”

“Why in the hell did you do it in the first place?” barked White.

Decker didn’t answer right away. “I don’t handle change well. And you’re not Alex. But even with Alex, it was no picnic with her for a long time.”

“Yeah, she told me. But you eventually warmed up to her. You gave her a chance. Why am I different?”

“You’re not different. Maybe I am.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning, I don’t know. But what I do know is we have a case to work, and it’s going to take both of us to get there.”

“And why should I give you another chance?”

“I can’t think of a single good reason,” he conceded.

White said, “Good. If you had tried to bullshit me I might have shot you.”

They drove for a bit in silence.

“Okay, what did you find out today?” she asked.

He told her about his theory on Draymont and Cummins being lovers.

“The ME confirmed that she’d had consensual sex that night. And the physical evidence substantiates that it was probably with Draymont. DNA on the sheets will confirm. If so, he was probably leaving the house when it happened, while the judge was probably upstairs in bed. She heard the shots and raced downstairs.”

“Shit, what made you think to check that?” said a stunned White.

“No one could confirm that there ever were any real threats against the judge. She’d been threatened before, for real. What did she do when that happened? She notified the U.S. Marshals Service and they assigned her protection. What you don’t do is go out and hire your own protection. There would have been no need. So, another plausible reason for Draymont to be there was sexual. Doris Kline thought the same thing.”

White shook her head, looking confused. “But why go through that sort of subterfuge? She was single. Draymont was, too.”

“That’s what we have to find out. I also spoke with the Perlmans. They just got back from New York. They weren’t much help. They suggested Gamma to Cummins because Maya Perlman’s former legal client made threats against her. They weren’t around during the murders, so they didn’t see anything. But Maya Perlman was really upset. She and the judge were close.”

Next, he told her about his meeting with Kasimira Roe. “That’s why I was in Miami and then drove up to meet you at Lancer’s place.”

“So, she wants you to find out what happened to her father?”

“And if I have to in order to figure out what happened to Cummins, I will.”

“Do you really think there’s a connection?” she asked.

“But for the Slovakian money stuffed down Draymont’s throat I wouldn’t.”

“Did she mention anything about Lancer or Draymont? Or any records of threats?”

“I asked her and she passed the buck to ‘her people,’ and ‘legal counsel.’ But I hope to get some quid pro quo in return for looking into her father’s disappearance, which hopefully means we won’t have to go to court to get the info.”

“But Decker, if they were billing Judge Cummins for Draymont to be there, and I’m assuming they were, she must have given them some reason why she needed protection. And how could they assure it would be Draymont doing the guarding?”

“The thing is, I don’t think he was there on behalf of Gamma at all. Doris Kline said he wasn’t there every night. And we haven’t found anyone to say he was there all night. I think Draymont was just there to have sex with Cummins. This wasn’t running through Gamma at all.”

“But when we met with them, why couldn’t they just tell us that?”

“I guess they were expecting Lancer to do the honors and we saw what happened there.”

“But wouldn’t Roe know if the judge was a client or not?”

“Maybe not—it’s a big organization.”

“But you said the Perlmans recommended Gamma to Cummins, so she must have been looking for some sort of protection.”

“I know. That’s the part that’s puzzling. And she might have talked to someone at Gamma about protection. But I don’t think Draymont was providing it. Or if he was, he was also providing the judge something extra. But the fact that he wasn’t there every night? And apparently no one else came to take his place on a rotation? Doesn’t sound like a standard protection detail to me. But we can confirm it with Gamma, and by an examination of the judge’s financial records. If she did hire them she had to be paying them.”

“So could Draymont have been wrong place wrong time, even with the money found in his throat?”