Redemption (Amos Decker #5)(83)

He looked at them more closely and was once more struck by the unusual variety of images inked there. But they all had something in common: They were symbols of hate groups. He looked over them, starting with the right forearm and going over to the left arm. Decker knew many of these symbols from his work with the police and later with the FBI. The folks represented by these tats were not exactly law-abiding.

The number 88. That was the numerical equivalent (the eighth letter of the alphabet being H) of “Heil Hitler.”

Then the shamrock and the swastika, taken together, was often the mark of the Aryan Brotherhood.

The Blood Drop Cross, which was the primary insignia of the KKK and known by the acronym MIOAK, meaning “mystic insignia of a Klansman.”

And the initials KI, which might refer to another hate group, though Decker didn’t recognize them.

Still, there were some Decker had had to Google. The Aryan Terror Brigade symbol, and Weiss Macht, which was German for “white power.” The sonnenrad, which was an ancient Indo-European sun-wheel and had been co-opted by the Nazis, who had placed the swastika dead center.

Then there were the SS bolts, another Nazi symbol, and the triangular Klan symbol, which looked like three triangles within a triangle, but upon closer inspection would show itself to be three letter k’s in the triangle facing inward.

All in all, it was quite the smorgasbord of ink. Decker had no idea why the man had all this on him, but he had obviously been one seriously demented man.

The guy looked tough, even in death. A man with no scruples about ending someone else’s life. As Decker’s eyes traveled over the body, he saw scars and old wounds and other indicia of a violent life.

He thought about Mitzi Gardiner. She’d had a rough life growing up. And then she’d turned it around. She’d once more become her father’s little star, of sorts. Like on the back of the photo he’d found in Hawkins’s wallet. Her star had fallen. And then she had been reborn. Or had she?

Decker glanced over at the wall of slide-out cabinets where the corpses were kept. He strode over to the last one on the left. He opened the door and slid the rack out. He lifted the sheet and looked down at the body of Meryl Hawkins. He reached down and lifted up the man’s arm.

The tattoo with the arrow piercing the star.

Symbolic of what? Then it clicked.

He phoned Lancaster. She was still at the office filling out forms.

“Hawkins told us the prison initiated his compassionate care release.”

“I know he did,” said Lancaster.

“I think he was lying.”

“Why?”

“His daughter was his star. He drew stars on the back of his photo of her that he carried around. The latest tat he got was the arrow through the star. I think he ran into Karl Stevens and Stevens told him the reason why his daughter framed him. And then Hawkins applied for a compassionate care release, got his tat, and got out of prison to come back here.”

“But he said the prison people came to him,” countered Lancaster.

“I think when we check into that, we’ll find out that’s not how the system works. The inmate files for it, not the prison authorities.”

“Okay, but you believed that he suspected that his daughter helped set him up from the get-go. And he did nothing back then.”

“Only then he didn’t know the real reason. The people behind it. Maybe he just thought she was stoned and had screwed up somehow. It could have been some of her drug addict friends looking to do a robbery and he didn’t want to implicate her. Then he found out the truth.”

“You mean you think he found that out from Stevens?”

Decker said, “That’s right. And maybe Stevens knew somehow that Mitzi was now living high on the hog. At that point Hawkins didn’t care about his daughter. She’d cashed in big-time by framing him. Before he died, he wanted his name cleared. He put an arrow through his little ‘star,’ got out of prison, and came to us.”

“If his daughter knew that, she would be a prime suspect in killing him.”

“She didn’t have an alibi for his murder, so we’re going to have to dig deeper on that.” He paused. “Oh, and Mary?”

“Yeah.”

“Thanks for saving my butt tonight.”

After Decker clicked off, he looked back down at Hawkins’s shriveled body. The man had gone to prison for a crime he hadn’t committed. Then he’d found out that he had been set up and he wanted the truth to come out, as his last act before dying.

Well, Decker was going to carry the ball forward now.

“I’m sorry, Meryl. You deserved better. From me and everybody else.”

He rolled Hawkins’s remains back into the cabinet and closed the door.

It was too late to see Mitzi Gardiner now, but he had somewhere else he needed to go.





Chapter 54



HE DROVE OVER to the spot where he’d nearly lost his life tonight. But he didn’t go back into the abandoned building. He ventured inside Rachel Katz’s condo building and took the elevator up after flashing his creds at the officer guarding the crime scene’s perimeter.

The forensic team was still processing the area. Decker nodded at Kelly Fairweather, who was doing a bloodstain pattern analysis by the couch. In another corner of the apartment, Natty was talking with a second tech. He saw Decker and quickly headed over.