Walk the Wire (Amos Decker #6)(57)

Decker squatted down in front of the man. “Did you talk to Mary about some of the things you’d done?”

“You haven’t answered my question yet, so why should I answer yours?”

“You liked Mary?”

“She was a nice gal. Patient. Pushed me to do my therapy, but she did it in a way that wasn’t too overbearing like some of them can be here. I liked her. Too bad when she left. Where’d she get to?”

“Would it surprise you to learn that she moved to London, North Dakota?”

The old man flinched. “London?”

“Yes. It’s where the Douglas S. George Defense Complex is located.”

“Well, I know that.”

“Because you worked there? A long time ago?” said Decker.

“Maybe I did and maybe I didn’t. But if I did, it’s classified,” said Daniels. He closed his eyes and gripped the head of his cane tighter.

“But you talked to Mary about it?”

“How do you know that?” said Daniels. “Did she say I did?”

“No. But why else would she have moved up there? I mean, otherwise it’s a really big coincidence.”

“I got nothing to say on the subject.”

“Did you know that the Air Force sold most of the land around the radar facility?”

“Sold the land?” said Daniels sharply. “To who?”

“A religious organization called the Brothers. Ever heard of them?”

Daniels shook his head.

“And they in turn leased some of the land to frackers.”

“Frackers?”

“Companies that drill down for oil and gas.”

“They’re drilling on that land?” asked Daniels.

“Yes.” Decker glanced at Kelly and then Jamison. He turned back to Daniels. The old man was staring directly at him. “The thing is, we unfortunately can’t talk to Mary.”

“Don’t know where she is, then?” Daniels said.

“No, we do.”

“So what’s the problem?”

“Someone murdered her.”

The old man seized up. For a moment Decker thought he might be having a stroke.

“Get out of here,” he suddenly roared, blinking away tears. “You just get out of here, right now. Leave me alone. Leave me the hell alone.”

A uniformed nurse rushed into the room.

“Mr. Daniels?” she said frantically. “What’s wrong?”

He pointed at the others. “These people are harassing me. I want them to leave.”

The nurse looked sternly at the three.

Jamison held out her FBI badge and said, “We had to ask him some difficult questions because of a police investigation.”

“Oh, I see. But he’s upset now. I . . . I think you should leave. He’s not in the best of health.”

Jamison tugged on Decker’s arm. “I think you’re right. We’re going.”

They left the room.

As they walked down the hall Decker said, “He knows. He told Cramer something that made her quit her job here, change her name, and move to London.”

“We just don’t know what,” said Kelly.

“He worked at the Air Force station,” said Jamison. “That has to be the connection. He said he was a navigator and was into radar and radio waves and all. That’s what they do up in London.”

“We need to find out when he was there, exactly,” said Decker. “It’s been around since the fifties, you said?”

“That’s right,” said Kelly. “I don’t know the exact date when it opened.”

“I can get Bogart to check on that,” said Jamison.

Decker said, “And when we find out when he was there and what he was doing, we’re going to come back here and have it out with that guy.”

“But he’s a really old man, Decker,” said Jamison.

“Yeah, I know. And right now, he’s also the best shot we have to solve this case.”

As they walked outside, Kelly said, “What the hell is going on here?”

“I don’t know,” said Decker. “But we’re getting closer to them.”

“Okay, but let’s just hope they don’t get us before we get them,” said Jamison ominously.





“AND BOGART SAID he was on it?” asked Decker.

He and Jamison were walking to a restaurant where they were having dinner with Baker and Caroline Dawson.

Decker had changed into another pair of pants, a clean white shirt, and his worn corduroy jacket with elbow patches, which constituted his most elegant set of clothes. The weather had changed; the temps had dipped into the sixties and the humidity had vanished.

Jamison had on a dark skirt that hit at her knee, ankle boots with zippers on the side and chunky heels, and a white blouse with a jean jacket over it.

“Yes. I talked to him just a bit ago. And since it has to do with the military he was going to call Harper Brown.”

Harper Brown was with the DIA, or Defense Intelligence Agency, and she had worked with them on a previous case.

“Good. Anything on Cramer and why she’s important to the Feds?”

“No. I asked him and he said he had come up empty. Boy, the wind really makes it chilly,” said Jamison as she pulled her jean jacket tighter.