Redemption (Amos Decker #5)(103)

“But you would have to have a way to access it,” said Lancaster.

“A waitress at the restaurant told me some interesting things.” He quickly told her about the trainees and wait staff, the longtime manager, and the seemingly one-year turnover for all except the kitchen staff.

“Okay, this is just getting weirder and weirder,” noted Lancaster. “What is going on in this alleged room underneath the restaurant? Do you think it might be a drug operation?”

“If so, it’s certainly an odd one.”

“And that would mean that instead of an innocent citizen who was murdered for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Katz was dirty. Maybe that’s what led to his getting killed.”

“That could certainly be the case if somebody wanted him out of the way.”

“But why kill the Richards family too?”

“Don Richards gave him the loan for the Grill. Maybe that ties in somehow.” He paused. “I wonder about something.”

“What?”

“I’m wondering if the loan was ever paid off,” said Decker.





Chapter 66



“OKAY, I’VE GOT BAD NEWS and bad news, which do you want first?”

Decker was talking to Alex Jamison on his cell phone.

“Well, I guess it doesn’t matter, does it?” he said.

“Okay, we struck out on the shell companies you gave us. We can’t penetrate them.”

“Okay.”

“And the tattoos on the two dead guys? I ran them through the relevant databases and came up with zip. I mean, most of the tats taken separately are well known. But the Bureau has never seen them all strung together like that before. It’s quite a mix of hate groups. Nazi, Aryan, Klansmen.”

“Well, thanks for checking.”

“No, you don’t understand, Decker. I’ve got people freaking out here. When the FBI can’t find out something, that’s news. And they’re also afraid that maybe these different hate groups are starting to come together, sharing resources, coordinating terrorist actions, accomplishing more terrible things together than they can separately.”

“You mean the shell companies are unusually hardened, and the tats may reflect some new sort of new terrorist threat?”

“Bingo. When I told Bogart, he was really concerned.”

“Well, I share that concern.”

“Anything from Rachel Katz yet?”

“She hasn’t regained consciousness. The doctors are getting worried.”

“What else can you do?”

“I can find out what’s in the basement of the American Grill.”

“Haven’t you seen the movies? You never go down to the basement.”

“I did in Baronville.”

“My point exactly.”

Decker clicked off and went in search of Lancaster, finding her getting some coffee in the break room.

“You want a cup?” she asked.

He shook his head. “We need to go to the bank.”

“Why, do you need money?”

“No, answers.”

*



On the drive over to Don Richards’s old bank, Decker said, “David Katz owned a late-model Mercedes sedan when he was killed. It’s the car I think his murderer drove over in. Katz and his wife were living in a very nice apartment in town. He owned the American Grill after building it with a construction and operating loan. And he might have had other loans.”

“So?”

“So how do you get a big loan like that without putting up collateral?”

“Maybe he put up collateral.”

“Meaning he had money of his own.”

“Well, yeah. He came to town with money. You know that. Duncan Marks mentioned it at dinner.”

“Yeah, everybody keeps telling me that. But no one can tell me where the money came from.”

“Well, maybe the bank can help.”

“Only reason we’re going there. Otherwise I wouldn’t set foot in one.”

“You don’t like banks?”

“Not since they foreclosed on my house here and repossessed my car. And with my shitty credit score, they don’t like me either,” replied Decker.

*



Bart Tinsdale was the bank’s vice president. He had been at the institution long enough to have known Don Richards. Tinsdale was tall and lanky but his suit was ill-fitting, the pants and coat sleeves too short for his limbs. His shoes were old and battered, and his socks seemed to have lost their elasticity.

However, he had an alert eye and firm handshake, and quickly guided them back to his small glass-enclosed office area off the main lobby, where they all sat around his desk.

He pointed out the window. “Every time I look out that window and see the Grill, I think about Don and David.”

“So you knew them both?” asked Decker.

Tinsdale nodded. “I was just a bank clerk back then.”

Lancaster said, “Well, you worked your way up. VP now.”

Tinsdale’s face crinkled. “I’m a little fish in a little pond. And I’m perfectly happy about that. Good place to raise kids, and I’ve got five.”

“Wow, I’ve got one and some days it’s more than I can handle.”