The 6:20 Man(82)
He looked at Campbell; the man didn’t seem overly confident.
“What is it?” asked Devine.
“There’s the matter of proof.”
“What I got—”
“—is inadmissible, Devine. Fruit of the tainted tree.”
“But I’m a civilian.”
“Any competent defense lawyer would argue that you had been effectively deputized by the government, and, indeed, used a piece of specialized surveillance equipment provided by the federal government. We won’t have a legal leg to stand on.”
“I guess not,” conceded Devine.
“But there are perhaps ways to work around that.”
“I sure as hell hope so. What did you learn about Hancock, the imposter in NYPD detective clothing?”
“We can’t confirm this yet, of course, but my sources told me it sounds an awful lot like a chap named Eric Bartlett. He’s a former CIA operative. Left government service about eight years ago. He’s popped up here and there working for some unsavory types. But he was too slippery to catch and hold. He’s previously pulled impersonations like this for different clients.”
“Well, hopefully we can put an end to those impersonations, and to him. Because I don’t want to run into that guy again if I don’t have to.”
*
When Devine got home later that night, Tapshaw’s light was out, but Speers’s light was on. He knocked on her door.
“Yes?”
“It’s Travis, got a minute?”
She opened the door and eyed him appraisingly. “Jill told me about the mugging and your warnings to her—to all of us. How bad was it?”
“Could have been worse.”
“Only it wasn’t a mugging, was it?” said Speers.
“It was the guy who was pretending to be NYPD, and a pair of thugs. They had guns and knives. That’s how I got this scratch.” He held up his hand.
“Impressive you got away alive, then,” she said coolly.
“More luck than not.”
“I doubt that. The Army taught you well.”
He looked over her shoulder at the stack of books. “How’s the studying coming?”
“It’s coming. Torts are easy. Criminal law is harder.”
“That’s what all the criminals say,” quipped Devine.
“I’ve seen the news. Jennifer Stamos is dead.”
“Yes.”
“Was she the one who came here to visit you the other night?”
“Yes.”
“And you told me she was having an affair with Brad Cowl and you had proof of it.”
“Yes.”
“That does not look good, Travis. For you.”
“I didn’t kill Stamos, Helen. Why would I?”
“You keep lobbing legal softballs at me. Your motive is she decided to call your blackmail bluff and threatened to expose you. So you silenced her. Do you have an alibi?”
“No, but I found out that Cowl got called out at just around the time she died. And now he’s pulled a disappearing act. So either he killed her, or else he found the body, called the police, and went into hiding.”
Speers said, “Maybe he killed her and called the police.”
“Why would he do that?”
“Guilt, or thinking it might help him somehow. People under stress do strange things.”
He looked over her shoulder at the pile of books again. “Well, I’ll let you get back to it.”
As he walked off he had a brand-new problem. And that problem was Helen Speers.
Because those books and study guides hadn’t been touched since the last time he’d seen them. They were all in the exact same position.
She wasn’t studying for the bar. She might not have graduated from law school. Her name might not even be Helen Speers. He had had no reason to check before.
Now he did.
CHAPTER
54
THE 6:20 WAS DELAYED FOR five minutes by some problem at the station; then it lumbered on its way.
Later, the train slowed and then stopped. Devine looked out at Cowl’s pool area. It was empty this morning. No meditation for Montgomery in a bathing suit. And Cowl might have already fled the country, if he had indeed killed Stamos.
As the train remained motionless, Devine once more checked the video feed on his phone. Area 51 was still dead as a doornail. What the hell had happened between his looking at the feed the previous morning on the train ride in to find everything firing away, to his checking the feed as he arrived in the city only to find Area 51 shut down?
Devine decided to call Montgomery to check on her.
She answered on the fourth ring, sounding groggy.
“Sorry it’s so early,” he said apologetically.
“No, it’s okay. What’s up?”
“I passed by Cowl’s house this morning. And you weren’t out by the pool. But it made me think of you. Just wanted to touch base with you to make sure everything was okay. And whether you’d heard back from Cowl.”
“I haven’t heard from Brad. And I’m fine. I stayed in the city last night.”
“I was surprised that you were out by the pool yesterday after everything that had happened the night before. I forgot to ask you about that when we had lunch yesterday. But Stamos’s murder sucked up all the oxygen.”