Redemption (Amos Decker #5)(110)

“Maybe they were afraid with another murder so soon after the others that people would get suspicious and start digging. With Meryl fingered as the killer, no one looked anywhere else. I know that better than anyone.”

Mars said, “And it worked, apparently, all this time.”

Decker looked thoughtful. “But now, with Gardiner and Katz in the fold, we may be able to find out what’s going on.”

“Well, Katz hasn’t woken up yet, despite what the doctors told us, and Gardiner isn’t out of danger yet,” said Lancaster. “And you heard the doctor about the state of her memory if she does come out of it. I’m not sure we can rely on either one.”

“I agree,” replied Decker. “Ground zero for us is the American Grill. We have to find out what’s inside there.”

“Okay, but we have no probable cause whatsoever to search the place for an underground room,” pointed out his old partner.

“We can ask nicely,” said Mars.

Decker shook his head. “And this Bill Peyton will be within his rights to say that the only person who can properly grant that request is lying in a hospital bed unconscious. And if we tip him off, and he is in on whatever’s going on, that would not be good. The guy struck me as really cagey.”

“So what do we do, then?” asked Mars.

Decker looked at Lancaster. “Did you run Peyton’s print?”

“We did. And got nothing back. He’s not in the system.”

“Just because he has no criminal history doesn’t mean much. Can we do a deeper dive on him? Try to find out his background? What he was up to prior to coming here?”

“We can. I just don’t know how far we’ll get. If he’s not in the system, it might be hard to build a profile on the guy. I presume that there are a lot of Bill Peytons in this country.”

“Yeah, I did a preliminary search online and found squat. But we have to find a way to search for that secret room,” said Decker.

“I agree. I just don’t know how we can.”

“If Katz wakes up, we can get her consent.”

“Right, but that might be never,” retorted Lancaster.

“Then we have to try something else,” said Decker.

“I get that, but what?”

“Up to this point, we’ve been entirely reactive. They’ve been leading us around by the nose. And I’m getting sick of it.”

“Okay, so?”

“So, let’s jerk their chain for once.”





Chapter 70



THE CALL CAME IN at one in the morning. Smoke coming from the American Grill. A fire, apparently. Two fire companies responded, along with the police.

Decker, Mars, and Lancaster followed on the heels of the arson squad as they approached the smoke-engulfed restaurant. The firefighters reported that it was only smoke and no fire.

That made sense, because the smoke bombs that had been placed earlier on the roof of the Grill and in the Dumpster in the rear could produce no flames.

Decker looked at the arson boss, Chuck Walters. “That’s very suspicious, Chuck. I think we need to look inside for a point of origin. This might be some sort of feint, with the real fire to come once we leave.”

The notion was fairly nonsensical, but Chuck nodded and said, “I think that’s a good idea. Never know what might be on the inside.”

“Never know,” agreed Decker.

But hopefully we’re about to find out.

They forced open the front door of the restaurant, which immediately set off the alarm. One of the firefighters hastened to turn it off using a special code he inputted into the alarm panel.

“A call will go out to whoever’s on the notification list,” said Lancaster.

“What I’m hoping for,” replied Decker.

The firefighters went in first and gave the all-clear about twenty minutes later.

“Okay,” said Decker, turning on the lights. “We need to search this place for possible arson materials. No stone unturned. Let’s hit it.”

The officers fanned out.

Decker immediately went into the kitchen area, followed by Lancaster and Mars.

The kitchen was spacious, scrupulously clean and organized, and virtually everything in the place looked made of stainless steel. They spent an hour going over every inch of it.

Afterward, Decker leaned against one of the counters and looked around, his thick arms folded over his chest.

“They’re not making this easy,” said Lancaster.

“Lots of people come in and out of this kitchen, including people who have no connection to any of this. So it can’t be apparent. But even so, it has to be somewhat accessible.”

Lancaster looked around. “I don’t see anything that fits the bill unless we’re talking a trapdoor in the floor.”

Mars looked down. “It’s tiled. With no breaks. A trapdoor would be pretty obvious.”

Decker pushed off the counter and went back into the large freezer room. It was about ten feet deep and eight feet across. He shivered slightly as he moved around the space, examining all the shelves and food stacked on them. He came back out and looked at the outside of the freezer compartment.

“Anybody got a tape measure?” he asked.

Neither Lancaster nor Mars did, but one of the cops had a rolling distance tracker in his trunk. He used it to measure distances during traffic accident reconstructions.