Redemption (Amos Decker #5)(91)

Now no one would ever know.

Yes, it had been a great Christmas. They’d gone out to dinner after the play and celebrated Molly’s performance. They’d toasted her with vanilla sundaes.

Decker had relished every moment but had of course believed there would be many, many more just like them. Enough to fill a lifetime of memories, even for someone like him. She would grow up, marry, have kids, and he would become the doting grandfather, or as close to that as someone like him could be.

He glanced over at the window again as he saw the little girl sit on the sofa next to her mom. A book was opened. A story was commenced.

Decker started up the car and drove off.

He could barely see the road for the tears.

He should never have come back here. It was literally tearing him apart, when he could least afford it.

It’s always about the next case, though, right? Even when Cassie and Molly were alive. He had never dwelled much on all the time he had missed with them because there was always some bad person he had to track down. All the nights getting home long after they both had gone to bed. And then getting up and leaving before they awoke.

I just thought I’d have more time. Just…more time.

But then again, another sunrise was guaranteed to no one. Certainly not to his family.

And by association, not to him.

Thankfully, the farther away he drove, the faster these thoughts left him. For now.

He drove downtown and stopped in front of the building where he’d almost died. Across the street was where Rachel Katz had nearly perished, lending a macabre symmetry.

He checked in with the officer guarding her apartment and started to look around. He glanced across at the broken window, the blood on the couch and carpet. That told a story he already knew.

Katz had mysterious backers, offshore shell companies funneling the money for her myriad projects in little old Burlington, Ohio. What was the attraction?

It did make one wonder.

And then there was the American Grill. There were thousands of places just like it all over the country. Thick piled-high burgers, mammoth mounds of fries, chicken wings, pitchers of beer, large-screen TVs for sports. There would always be a clientele for that, but no one was getting rich off it, like Katz had told Mars.

He had done another search of her apartment and came away not knowing any more than he had on entering the place.

They would just have to wait until she woke up.

This was a frustrating case because he could not seem to make traction on any lead. He could not make Mitzi Gardiner talk. And he had nothing to charge her with. There was absolutely not enough evidence. He knew that she had worked to frame her father, but he couldn’t prove it. She had been amply rewarded, with a new life. And yet as he’d left her home, he’d also left behind a woman who was clearly racked by guilt.

But that meant nothing in building a case. He would have to find a road to the legal truth somewhere else. It would not apparently go through Mitzi Gardiner.

He sat down on a chair in the kitchen and studied his possibilities. There weren’t many, so they didn’t take him long. He quickly settled on one.

Sally Brimmer.

She’d been killed for a reason. He had to find out what that reason was.

And he could start in one of two places.

He picked one, called Lancaster to meet him there, and set off.





Chapter 59



LANCASTER MET DECKER OUTSIDE of Sally Brimmer’s apartment building on the west side of town. It was a nondescript six-story structure wrapped in dull brick.

“How’s Katz?” Lancaster asked as she walked up to him.

“Still not conscious, but apparently out of danger.”

“Well, that’s good.”

“Yeah, and it’ll turn into great if she wakes up and tells us everything.”

They walked into the building and rode the elevator up to the fourth floor. Lancaster had a key to Brimmer’s apartment.

“It’s already been gone over, and nothing was found. But I’m not sure how thoroughly it was done. After all, we thought you were the target.”

“I did too until I stopped thinking I was.”

They entered the apartment and looked around. Brimmer’s job had not paid all that much, they both knew, but her apartment was well laid out and nicely furnished, with pillows and curtains and sturdy furniture and lovely oriental rugs over the hardwood floors.

Decker looked at Lancaster. She said, “Her parents have money. I was over here once for a holiday party and met them. Very nice people. They helped her out financially, I came to understand.”

“Okay.”

“They were devastated, obviously. They came to get her remains. The family’s from the East Coast.”

“How’d Brimmer end up here?”

“She went to college up the road from Burlington. Had a couple of PR jobs out of school. Her brother’s a cop in Boston. I guess she got interested in that field from him. The department had an opening. She moved here and was doing some really good work. I doubt she would have stayed here long-term, though. She had a lot of potential. And she was still so young.”

“We all have a lot of potential, until we don’t,” noted Decker grimly.

“So what are we looking for?”

“Anything that seems to be relevant.”

“Great, thanks for the hint.”