Long Shadows (Amos Decker, #7)(96)

“But a president, now that’s really cool,” said Decker in a prompting manner. “So, do you have an archive or something we could look at?”

“We do actually, but I helped put it together, so I know it doesn’t include this speech by President Reagan. I’m sorry. Maybe I should go and research that.”

“I suppose there’s no one working now that was here at that time?”

Lawrence went on her computer and checked. “Our longest-serving employee started in 2010.” She glanced up. “Hospitality has a high turnover rate, even in a place like this.”

“I’m sure it has nothing to do with the attitude and behavior of the guests,” said Decker.

“Isn’t the customer always right?” said Lawrence brightly.

“Ask yourself that in two years.”

They left. White drove while Decker checked his phone.

“Okay, Google was no help, maybe we need to do it the old-fashioned way.”

“Meaning?”

“The local newspaper. Reagan’s in town to give a speech? It might be in their news morgue.”

“Now you’re really showing your age.”

“And there’s something else.”

“What?”

“Arthur Dykes said that Reagan was there to give a fund-raising speech.”

“Right, so what? Politicians do those all the time.”

“Dykes also said it was eight months after John Hinckley shot Reagan. Well, Reagan was shot in March, so eight months later was November of 1981.”

“Which was before I was born!”

“The point is, why would Reagan be doing a fund-raiser not even a year into his term? I know how politics has gotten nowadays, but back then you didn’t need a billion bucks to run for president.”

“I guess that is odd.”

“But he might have been doing a fund-raiser for someone else.”





Chapter 71



THEY SAT IN THE PARKING lot while Decker accessed the digital archives of the Miami Herald. To do the searches necessary Decker had to activate a free membership. He plugged in Reagan’s name and the year and hit the search key.

A story came up about Reagan’s speech. Decker read that it was well received, but he didn’t really care about that. What he did care about was the fact that the fund-raiser was being held for the benefit of Mason Tanner, who was seeking the seat of a retiring U.S. senator in Florida.

Decker looked at a picture of Reagan and Tanner shaking hands. Tanner was tall, in his midforties, with thick dark hair and an easy smile. However, Decker didn’t like the look of the man. He seemed fake and smarmy. Then again he didn’t care for most politicians, so that might just have been his own bias.

He held up his phone so White could see the image. “Mason Tanner. Candidate for the U.S. Senate.”

“The fund-raiser was for him?”

“Yeah. Although according to this, he didn’t really need the money. The story says his grandfather was a bigwig in Standard Oil and he inherited a ton. And his wife was one of the heiresses to the E. F. Hutton fortune.”

“Nice birth luck, if you can get it.”

Decker Googled something on his phone. “Says here he won the following year, by quite a large margin.” He looked at another article. “He served three terms and is now retired and living in New York.”

“Whatever happened to Kanak Roe back in 1981 may have nothing to do with the speech or Tanner.”

“We won’t know for sure until we rule it out.”

“So do we go to see Tanner and try to get some answers from him?”

“I don’t think it would be much help.”

“Why?”

“According to this article he’s now in his late eighties, lives in New York City, and has late-stage Alzheimer’s.”

White let out a long sigh. “Great. Nothing like running into a brick wall around every corner.” She glanced at him. “I thought you solved your cases fast?”

Decker shot her a look. “We’ve only been on this sucker a few days.”

“Says Superman.”

“You called me shrimpy before.”

“I didn’t know you then,” she shot back.

He wrote out a long email and sent it off.

“Who did that go to?” she asked.

“Alex.”

“Trying to replace me already?”

“She’s in New York. I asked her to check and see if Tanner maintained an office there, or had relatives who we could talk to.”

“Good idea.”

“For a guy to change his whole life over something that happened one night, it must’ve been something really terrible. I mean, Kanak was a seasoned agent by then. And whatever happened rocked him to his core.”

“If that’s what happened, yeah.”

“Yeah,” said Decker thoughtfully.

“But?”

Decker didn’t answer. He had nothing to say.





Chapter 72



A?S SHE SAT IN HER car, Alex Jamison glanced up at the four-story brownstone located on New York’s Upper East Side. This was the home of the extremely wealthy octogenarian Mason Tanner.