Redemption (Amos Decker #5)(24)

He wanted to tell her to find another way to do the parking thing, and not to be so oblivious about her surroundings while she eagerly examined her critically important social media happenings. But he figured she’d just call the cops on him for harassing her.

This scene was dutifully uploaded to his cloud for no apparent reason other than it always went there.

Last shot. An elderly couple walked by, hand in hand. He looked a bit younger than she, perhaps in his early eighties. Her hand was trembling, and she had a tremor along one side of her face. The other side drooped. Either Bell’s palsy or she’d previously suffered a stroke. The man had hearing aids in both ears and what looked to be a melanoma growing on his nose. And yet they shuffled slowly along together. Growing old, nearing the end, and still in love. That was the way it was supposed to work.

Decker tried but failed to not upload that to his cloud. But he did try to stick it in a particularly remote part of his memory.

So, with Jamison gone, he was alone again. In some ways, he preferred it. He had been on his own after his family had been taken from him. And he had survived.

Maybe it was for the best. Maybe he was destined for a solitary existence. It just felt more comfortable.

He shifted his sole focus to the problem at hand.

Meryl Hawkins. Decker had approximately one million questions and not nearly that many answers. In fact, he had none at all. But he was not parked on this bench merely for his health, or for the sake of nostalgia.

He had spoken to one widow, Susan Richards. Now he was awaiting another.

Rachel Katz walked down the pavement a few minutes later. She and David Katz had never had any children. She lived alone in a condo downtown. It was a luxury loft in an old factory building. Decker had learned that she still worked as a CPA and had her own practice. And she still owned the American Grill. Her office was a five-minute walk from her loft.

Several years younger than her late husband, she was now forty-four. A striking-looking woman when Decker had first met her all those years ago, she had aged exceptionally well. Her blonde hair was still long and skimmed her shoulders. She was tall and fit, with a swagger to her walk. She moved like she owned the world—or at least Burlington, Ohio.

She was dressed in a black jacket with a white cuffed shirt underneath and a long skirt. Her choice of lipstick was flaming red, her fingernails the same shade. The briefcase she carried lightly smacked against her thigh as she walked.

A couple of construction workers catcalled out to her as she passed by. Katz ignored them.

Decker heaved himself off the bench and went to work.

Just like old times.





Chapter 14



SHE LOOKED UP AT HIM, recognition flitting across her features as he stopped her on the sidewalk.

“I remember you.”

“Amos Decker. I investigated the death of your husband when I worked on the Burlington police force.”

“That’s right.” She frowned. “And I heard on the news that the man who killed him came back to town. And that he was found murdered.”

“That’s right. Meryl Hawkins.”

She shuddered. “Well, I can’t say that I was sorry. But I thought he was in prison for life. What was he doing here? The news didn’t say.”

“They let him out because he was terminally ill with cancer.”

She had no reaction to this. “And what are you doing here?” she asked.

“I just have some questions for you.”

“Do you still work for the police? I thought I heard that you left town.”

“I work for the FBI now. But I’m still a sworn officer in Ohio.” He showed her his official credentials.

“And what exactly are you investigating?”

“Hawkins’s murder. And that of your husband and the other victims at the Richardses’ that night.”

She shook her head, looking confused. “We know who killed my husband and the Richards family. Meryl Hawkins.”

“We’re taking another look at it.”

“Why?”

“There are some anomalies we need to sort out.”

“What sort of anomalies?”

“Do you want to go somewhere to discuss this rather than out on the street? Or we can go down to the police station.”

She looked around at several passersby staring at them. “My condo is right over here.”

He followed her into the building, which had a concierge, and they rode up in an elevator to her floor.

“Didn’t know they had places like this in Burlington,” noted Decker as they walked down the plush corridor. “At least they didn’t when I lived here.”

“We just completed this a year ago. I’m actually involved with the development company that renovated this building. We’re working on two others. And I’m also working with another group in several new projects around town and a slew of businesses, including some restaurants. We have big plans for Burlington.”

“Economy finally turning around?”

“Seems to be. We hope to get several large companies to come here. We’re really rolling out the red carpet. Two Fortune 1000s have already started building regional headquarters in the area. And a high-tech start-up just opened its headquarters downtown, which brought in a lot of young, affluent people. It’s a lot cheaper to live here than in, say, Chicago. And we enticed a hospital system to build a new facility. And we’re well along to getting a parts supplier to the Big Three in Detroit to build a new factory on the north side of town. Those people have to live, shop, and eat out somewhere. New restaurants and places to live downtown are already popping up, in addition to what I’m working on. So, yes, things are looking up.”