Best Laid Plans(65)

The May 11 meeting was at one at N. Zarzamora.

The latter was definitely a street, but it was miles long.

She looked at the calendar again. That was the day he’d cancelled a meeting. His admin had remembered because it was out of character. And her husband had seen him.

She immediately called Debbie Alexander on her cell phone.

“Hello?” the admin answered.

“Debbie, this is Special Agent Lucy Kincaid. Do you know what bar your husband saw Harper leaving?”

“No, but I can ask him.”

“Would you? And call me right back.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, just following up.” She hung up and circled the meeting. This was important, she could feel it.

Now if only they could find out what the initials G.A. stood for.

Barry hadn’t returned, so Lucy did an Internet search for Roy Travertine, congressman plus Harper Worthington to narrow the list to articles that referenced both of them.

Most of the information she read in Travertine’s obituary and an extensive article on Travertine after his death. Travertine and Worthington had known each other since childhood. Travertine was godfather to Jolene Hayden, and Harper was godfather to Travertine’s firstborn son. They had had completely different careers—Travertine was an architect. When he died, he left behind a wife and three children, the youngest of whom was now in college. After Travertine’s death, Harper had donated a large sum of money to renovate an old library in San Antonio and rename it the Roy H. Travertine Memorial Public Library.

Travertine himself had been in office for five years. He was only forty-eight when he died. He wasn’t a career politician and still kept his business. He ran for office primarily because of business issues, but had quickly adopted a tough-on-crime stance—particularly federal drug crimes. His crowning achievement was to make it easier for federal, state, and local authorities to pool resources in border states to combat smuggling—drugs, weapons, humans.

Why was Worthington thinking about his old friend now? Did the information on the tablet have anything to do with Travertine?

Barry came back into the room. “Let’s go. Juan gave us the green light to talk to Adeline, give her the cause of death, ask her about the information on the tablet. First I want to talk to Jolene.”

“Did you look up Harper’s schedule the week he bought the tablet?”

Barry nodded. “His office has him marked down as being on vacation from May fourth through the ninth, but he changed it last minute to fly back on the eighth—to Dallas instead of San Antonio. He then spent a few days there before coming back to San Antonio the morning of the eleventh.”

“Was Adeline in D.C. with him?”

“It appears so—we’ll ask her about the trip. But what I really want to know is what happened on the seventh or eighth that prompted this change of schedule? We’ll ask Jolene and Harper’s admin.”

Lucy slid over her notes about the two other meetings with “G.A.”

“June first—that’s only days before he died. And the one on May eleventh? You said he returned to San Antonio that morning. That’s also the day his admin said he cancelled an important business meeting. I called and asked her to check with her husband, who saw Harper’s car in an unusual area, where he saw it. What if it was near North Zarzamora?”

Barry looked over Lucy’s notes and compared the days and times on the schedule, just as she had done. “It’s worth following up on,” he said.

It didn’t take long to drive to HWI since the morning rush was over. Jolene was in her office—a small, cluttered office with many homey touches, including a pillow-covered couch, a hand-knit afghan, and lots of pictures of her and her dad and husband, or her and a horse. She seemed less angry and more heartbroken this morning than she had yesterday. “I’m glad you’re here—I have some information for you.”

She picked up a thick file folder from her desk. “I made a copy for you. This is my father’s will. He had a living trust, so the settlement process shouldn’t take too long, but Adeline is going to contest it.”

Barry took the folder, but didn’t open it. “Is it important that we have this?”

She shrugged. “My father’s attorney didn’t see anything wrong with giving you a copy. A few weeks ago, my father contacted his attorney about changing his will. It was finalized three days before he died. I didn’t know anything about it. When my father married Adeline, he changed his will so that, essentially, she and I would split his estate, plus a trust fund to keep open the library he helped rebuild and a few other bequests. Now, everything Adeline was going to receive has gone to me, including the house. He didn’t tell me. He didn’t tell Adeline—at least, that’s what she says.”

“You don’t believe her?” Barry asked.

“I don’t know.” Jolene rubbed her eyes. “She appeared shocked when the lawyers told us yesterday afternoon. Completely stunned. Scott doesn’t think she was faking it. But what if she knew he planned on cutting her out? What if she killed him?”

“It’s a serious accusation,” he said, “but there is no proof that she had anything to do with your father’s death. We’re still investigating his death as suspicious, but there is nothing that points to Adeline.”