Long Shadows (Amos Decker, #7)(84)

“Maybe not exactly age appropriate?” suggested White.

“It’s no business of mine,” said Angstrom firmly. “She could dress however she wanted. But it was just a change in her, I guess. That’s what stood out to me.”

“Any other guys that ‘stood out’?” asked Decker.

“Not really. I was surprised that she was seeing Langley, though.”

“Did she ever talk to you about him?”

“Only once, really, after he came to visit her in chambers and I saw them exchange a kiss. She must have noticed the look on my face. After he left she laughed and said for me not to worry. She knew what she was doing. And that it was just fun for her. She wasn’t going to marry him, even if that’s what he wanted.”

“She said that?” asked Decker. “That he wanted to marry her?”

“Yes. I was relieved. I mean, I think the guy’s a creep. There was some story about him and a prostitute around the time I first got here.”

“Yeah, we heard about that. Did the judge ever mention that to you?”

“No.”

Decker said, “Langley told us that the judge never asked him to her house. Whenever they were…intimate, they were at his house, and they once went to a hotel in Miami.”

Angstrom blanched. “That’s weird. Why would she do that? It’s not like she was married or anything. She could do what she wanted, where she wanted.”

“He explained it away as her perhaps being afraid of something.”

“Are you sure it wasn’t him she was afraid of?” asked Angstrom.

“Did she ever confide in you that she was scared of Langley?”

“No. But when she broke it off she told me that it was time, that he was getting too needy, too, I don’t know, obsessed. And she had to ‘cut the cord’—those were her words.”

White glanced at Decker. She said to Angstrom, “Langley’s girlfriend gave him an alibi for the judge’s murder.”

“You mean Gloria Chase?”

“How do you know her name?”

“Because Langley loves to tell everyone that he’s dating her. She’s apparently some amazing businesswoman. She’s also gorgeous. So he treats her as some big prize.” She paused. “That’s funny.”

“What is?” asked White.

“A friend of mine works at the county clerk’s office. She told me she saw Langley and Chase there.”

“When?” asked Decker.

“Yesterday.”

“What were they doing at the clerk’s office?” asked White.

“My friend said they were getting a marriage license.”





Chapter 61



YOU DRIVE, I NEED TO Google something,” said Decker after they left the courthouse.

As they got into the car, White said, “Let me guess—Florida law on spousal testimony?”

Decker nodded curtly. As they drove off he scrolled through some screens and said, “Okay, Florida has no testimonial privilege, but it does have a spousal communication privilege. So if they get married Langley could stop his wife from revealing confidential communications they had unless a couple of exceptions exist, which I’m sure the smart criminal lawyer will make sure never do.”

“But she already alibied him, Decker.”

“And if she was lying? If he told her to say that and then that communication is privileged and she can’t be asked about whether he told her to lie?”

“But how do we even charge the guy if the lady says he was with her that night?”

“We need to talk to her before she ties the knot.”

“You really think he might be our killer?”

“He sounds like an overbearing, slick creep to me, but I’ve met lots of them and most turn out to be scared of their own shadow. But it only takes one exception to that rule for a murder to happen. And keep in mind that if I’m right and there are two killers involved, nailing Langley only solves half the equation.”

“Again, the two-killers theory is not something I’m convinced of. Although I don’t see a guy like Langley stuffing foreign money down people’s throats and following us to Key Largo and taking out Kelly and shooting an FBI agent. But maybe he’s a sociopath.”

“Let’s also talk to Gloria Chase’s neighbors. And Langley’s. They might have seen him that night.”

“The murder took place in the middle of the night. They might not have seen anything because they were in bed.”

“We’ll never know if we don’t ask.”

*



They struck out in Langley’s upscale neighborhood. The people on either side of him had been out of town since before the murders. The neighbor across the street had seen nothing and couldn’t even tell them if Langley’s car was there that night, since he had a two-car garage.

“We can do traffic camera searches,” suggested White. “He wouldn’t have been going through any tolls, so we can’t capture anything there. We can follow the route from his house to Chase’s and see if anyone might have been around that night who might have seen something.”

“He drives a dark blue Bentley, so at least it’s a memorable vehicle.”