Long Shadows (Amos Decker, #7)(67)

The first shot dropped Andrews. The second round drilled a hole right through Patty Kelly’s forehead.

Decker and White flattened themselves to the sand, guns out and searching for something to shoot. When the car started up, they rose and ran forward. They both fired at the taillights of the car but missed.

They ran back to the fallen people.

Andrews was breathing, but Kelly had reached the end of her life.

White called for help, while Decker staunched the blood coming from the unconscious Andrews’s shoulder.

When the ambulance showed up along with the police, Decker helped them load Andrews onto a gurney, and it sped off with the man to the closest hospital. White rode in back with the wounded agent.

Decker turned to look at Kelly, lying there dead in the sand in front of her now-widowed husband’s fishing shack. She looked at peace when her life had ended in any way but peacefully.

The electric light blue was engulfing him, like a big wave on the beach. He was surprised that he wasn’t used to it by now. But it still took his breath away, still made him feel sick and lightheaded. But perhaps death deserved to have that effect, particularly the deaths Decker typically encountered.

He glanced away from the body and closed his eyes. Kelly dead and Andrews wounded, none of that was fair. Not one single bit.

Decker opened his eyes, let the electric blue dissipate, along with the nausea, and then he went back to work.





Chapter 47



ANDREWS WAS GOING TO RECOVER, but it would take time. He had undergone surgery and was being transported back to a hospital in Ocean View. It was now just Decker and White as the visiting team taking over for the locals.

Patty Kelly’s body had been transported to Fort Myers and was currently undergoing an autopsy by Helen Jacobs. Steve Kelly had been informed of his wife’s murder. They had no leads on who had done the deed. Neither Decker nor White had gotten a good look at the car. There had been no license plate on the rear.

As Decker sat in his hotel room having a late breakfast after dealing with the Key Largo cops and driving back with White, he thought about Patty Kelly’s not even knowing her daughter had been murdered.

What does it matter now?

As he was having his final cup of coffee, White knocked on his door and he let her in. Her hair was still damp from her shower, and she had on a fresh set of clothes and looked ready for anything. She sat down and eyed him.

“Somebody followed us last night,” she said. “Or maybe they discovered where Kelly was.”

“No, if they had they would have beaten us to it. They definitely followed us from Steve Kelly’s place.”

“I never saw anyone back there.”

“Because they knew what they were doing.” He had a sudden thought. “Have our rental checked for a bug.”

“You think?”

“It would explain a lot.”

White made a call and then put her phone down. “Kelly managed to tell us some things before she died.”

“Discovered info, probably of a sensitive type. Draymont and Lancer were using it as blackmail to make some money.”

“Only what happened?” said White.

“They got their hands slammed in the cookie jar.”

“Whoever they were trying to blackmail are some serious people.”

“You don’t blackmail the penniless and powerless.”

White nodded. “I suppose. Do you really think Kelly didn’t know the who and the what?”

“We’ll never know now, will we?”

“So we’re back at square one then. And down an agent. You want me to see if they can dial somebody else up? Either from Fort Myers or maybe Miami or Tampa?”

“No,” said Decker emphatically. “Just you and me.”

“Is that a vote of confidence?”

“And it’s a vote of I don’t want to involve another person if I don’t have to. It would take too long to bring them up to speed and we don’t have the time.”

“FBI agent got shot. They take that seriously. I’m surprised they don’t have an army of agents down here beating the bushes regardless of what we think.”

“An army tends to muddy the ground. And it’s not the number of agents, it’s what the agents you have on the ground actually do.”

“You really don’t like working with people, do you?”

Decker rose. “You ready?”

“For what?”

“Another go at Gamma.”

“You really think they’re hiding something?”

“I do. And they may not even know they are.”

*



“Ms. Roe is not in today,” said the receptionist at Gamma’s front desk.

“Where is she?” asked Decker.

“I’m not authorized to give that information out.”

“Well, I can call Kasimira and ask her to tell you to give it out.”

“You know Ms. Roe?”

“She’s like a sister,” said Decker.

The woman looked at him doubtfully. “Then you better call your sister.”

Decker moved to the corner and made the call. It went right to voice mail. He left a message and walked back over to the receptionist. “Okay, we need to talk to anyone here who dealt with Alice Lancer and/or Alan Draymont.”