The Last Mile (Amos Decker, #2)(53)

He rose and said, “Yeah?”

“Do you have a few minutes, Amos? I’d like to talk.”

It was Davenport.

He debated silently for a few moments.

Obviously sensing his hesitation, she said, “It really won’t take long.”

He opened the door. She stood there with a bottle of beer in each hand.

He eyed them and then looked down at her. “I’m on a diet.”

“Which is why I got light beer. Only ninety calories. After today you probably need the carbs.”

They sat and sipped their beers.

“Well?” asked Decker.

“We got off to a bad start.”

He shrugged. “It’s good.”

“I think being open and honest is the best policy.”

“Okay.”

“So here’s my open and honest statement. I made my decision to join the team only after Bogart told me about you.”

Decker took another drink of his beer, sat back in his chair, and listened to the rain falling outside. “And why was Bogart telling you about me a deciding factor?”

“Don’t get me wrong, I sincerely was interested in the offer from Ross. It sounded fascinating and I had pretty much done everything I could in my field. And I like to seize opportunities. I’m a classic Type A overachiever. Only child, two academic, doting parents. Excelled at every level. I was also a distance runner in college at Stanford before I went on to Columbia.”

“Impressive. But it didn’t answer my question.”

“I wasn’t meaning to brag about myself. The fact was, it was you that led me to join the team when Ross called.”

“You mentioned something like that when we first met.”

“I know I did.”

“And the parallels in my case and Melvin’s. You thought it might make a fascinating case study.”

“Exactly.”

“And I told you it would have nothing to do with my cognitive anomalies. That the focus would be on Melvin’s guilt or innocence.”

Davenport sipped her beer. “And I told you that would be a wasted opportunity.”

“I know, but how exactly?”

“I wanted to see if you would allow me to include you in a professional study. The fact that you have turned your unique mental abilities to fighting crime only heightened the uniqueness. I thought it would make a wonderfully compelling paper or even a book. It might even be a bestseller,” she added enticingly.

Decker finished his beer. “I have no interest in that whatsoever.”

She looked at him resignedly. “Which I knew would be the case about five minutes after I met you.”

“So where does that leave you?”

“I already told you that I’m here until the end. I’ll give you my all to solve this case.”

“Why?”

She started to say something but then hesitated, tearing off a bit of the bottle’s label. “I could give you a standard professional answer that would be mostly gobbledygook. Or I could go with the truth.”

“I’ll take the latter.”

She sat forward and stared directly at him for the first time. “It was the execution. The way that man died. Maybe he deserved it. I’m not going to get into a debate on the pros and cons of capital punishment. But Melvin Mars is innocent and was very nearly executed. How many other innocent men have been put to death?”

“As I said before, one is too many,” replied Decker. “So why did you show up here tonight?”

“Like I said, we got off on the wrong foot. Don’t get me wrong, it was all my fault. I just wanted to square things before we moved forward to tackle this case to the end.”

“Okay, consider us square.”

She smiled weakly. “Just like that?”

“Just like that. But tomorrow is a new day.”

Davenport nodded as she got his meaning. “I guess we all have to prove ourselves. Every day.”

“That’s the way I’ve always seen it.” He held up his bottle. “Thanks for the light beer.”

She rose. “Thanks for listening.” She turned to leave but then looked back at him. “Ross told me about your family. I’m so very sorry, Amos. So very sorry.”

He stared back at her but said nothing.

“How hard is it not to ever forget?” she said, her expression matching the sad tone of her words.

“Harder than you might think.”

She left.

Decker put the bottle down and went over to the window where outside the rain was now bucketing down.

He let the frames of his perfect memory whir back to their encounter with Regina Montgomery.

Cartier watch.

Three boxes from Neiman Marcus.

Two boxes from Chanel.

Two from Saks.

One from Bergdorf Goodman.

One from Jimmy Choo.

Then there was the Hermès purse.

He pulled out his computer, went online to each of those retailers, found the items he had seen, and priced them out.

He totaled them in his head.

Fifty-four thousand dollars and change.

The Hermès bag had cost over nineteen thousand alone. The watch was another fourteen thousand. The Jimmy Choos another grand.

Decker shook his head.