Long Shadows (Amos Decker, #7)(75)

“Dad?” said Tyler. “Is that true?”

Davidson wouldn’t look at his son. “Okay, I told you that, but in my heart of hearts I knew it was over. I’ve moved on with my life. The divorce was years ago.” He rose. “Now, if there’s nothing else, Tyler and I need to head out or we’ll be late for our reservation.”

“You drive a Mercedes S600?”

“Yes.”

“There are cameras in the garage here?”

“Yes, and if you check the film you’ll see that my Mercedes never left the garage. And I didn’t take Tyler’s car, either. And there is no record of me going through Julia’s gate.”

Decker gave him a piercing look. “You checked?”

“I should have said I know there is no record of me going through the gate, since I never left the condo, as I told you before.”

“I told you all that, Agent Decker,” chimed in Tyler. “My dad was here. I heard him. I would’ve known if he had left.”

Davidson said heatedly, “And do you really think I could have butchered my wife and then gotten back here and then calmly held a meeting? You could check with my business clients. I wasn’t covered in fucking blood when I did the Zoom call!”

“Dad!” exclaimed Tyler. “Calm down. You didn’t kill her, okay?”

Decker took all this in and then said, “Who said she was butchered?”

Davidson glanced anxiously at his son. “You…you said she’d been stabbed. You told me that,” he added.

“Oh, I remember exactly what I said. But I didn’t say ‘butchered.’ In fact, I didn’t say how many times she had been stabbed. It could have been only once.”

Davidson nervously licked his lips. “And what about the man? Was he stabbed, too?”

Decker rose. “I guess you two had better get on to your dinner.”





Chapter 54



A?S DECKER WAS DRIVING BACK to the hotel his phone buzzed.

When he answered White said, “Good, you’re still alive. I didn’t want to have to break in a new partner so soon.”

“Find anything useful?” asked Decker.

She took a few minutes to fill him on what she had learned about Draymont and Lancer.

“So partners in blackmail from way back?”

“And both forced to pull their tent and go play in another sandbox,” she said.

“Florida made sense for Lancer, since her mother was here. I wonder why Gamma?”

“They just need dirty little secrets, and they’re off and running.”

“And being part of an investigation firm would be a great platform to get those secrets,” agreed Decker. “So, they met on Capitol Hill but we don’t know exactly how?”

“She was lobbying and he was protecting.”

“And they were both doing a side business.”

“Maybe they were initially doing it separately and then that’s what drew them together.”

“Maybe,” said Decker.

“So what did you find out?”

Decker told her about his meetings with Gloria Chase and Barry and Tyler Davidson.

“So Langley and Gloria Chase actually ran into Judge Cummins at this restaurant?”

“Yeah. And Barry Davidson might have seen and overheard it, too.”

“You think he knew about them dating?”

“It’s kind of a small town. Tyler was surprised by it, but his dad didn’t seem to be. And despite what he told us about wanting to reconcile with Cummins, he said he’d gotten on with his life, but he was obviously lying. And another thing.” He told her about Davidson’s use of the word butchered.

“No way he could have known that,” said White. “We held that detail back.”

“He claims he just assumed that from my telling him that she had been stabbed.”

“Do you buy that?”

“No more than I did his moving on with his life.”

“So you think he had her killed somehow?”

“I don’t know. Could he have made it over there in time to kill her and then get back for his next Zoom? I guess it’s possible. But Tyler was adamant that his father never left the condo that night.”

“The ME was really certain on the timing of the deaths. Even without Tyler’s alibi it would have been really tight for Barry to commit the murders. And then to just do a Zoom meeting right after?”

“Yeah, he actually made that point.” He paused. “How are your kids?”

“I’m driving up to Baltimore to see them now. I plan to fly back down in the morning, unless there’s anything else you want me to check up here.”

“I guess not. You’ve done good work. We now know they were running a blackmail scheme up there and they were probably running one down here.”

“Any word on Kelly’s killer?”

“None. They found a car abandoned about five miles away. No plates and wiped clean, not a print on the damn thing. Whoever it was is long gone by now.”

“Unless they’re hanging around to take shots at us.”

“That could be,” agreed Decker.

“So watch yourself. Alex also told me you don’t really care about your own safety when you’re on a case.”