Best Laid Plans(66)

Lucy wondered why Barry didn’t tell Jolene that they’d confirmed homicide.

“Elected officials get a pass all the time,” Jolene said bitterly. “On corruption, adultery, any number of things. When Uncle Roy was alive, he had these stories about people, both Republicans and Democrats, who were so corrupt in taking money for this and that and passing legislation to help their friends, and no one did anything about it. Aren’t you guys supposed to stop that?”

Barry said, “Are you referring to Roy Travertine, the former congressman?”

“Yes, I’d known him since I was born. I’ve always called him Uncle Roy, and his wife Aunt June. Uncle Roy was my daddy’s closest friend.”

Barry slid over the list of numbers. “We accessed the tablet you gave us. On it were a bunch of spreadsheets and this list of numbers. Do you know what this is?”

She studied them. “These are land tracts, these”—she pointed to a group in the middle with the same beginning numbers—“are in Bexar County, but the others are a variety of different counties. I don’t know which ones offhand.”

“Were these your father’s properties?”

“No. He only owns his house and a couple commercial buildings, including the HWI buildings here and in Dallas. Maybe this is related to one of his clients. Do you want me to run it through our system?”

“No—not yet. We’ll let you know if we need your help there, but we’re still pursuing a couple of angles. One other thing—we were going over your father’s schedule for the last month. He was in D.C. the first week of May. His office indicated that he was on vacation. He had a change of travel arrangements.”

Jolene seemed confused by the question. “I vaguely remember that. He went to D.C. with Adeline because she was being recognized at some award dinner. He really didn’t like going to D.C. Daddy was a homebody.” She smiled wistfully and looked out the window, lost in thought.

Lucy gently prodded. “He flew in a day early, to Dallas, not San Antonio.”

“Yeah—it was strange. Maybe—that was about the time he became preoccupied. I should have asked him more questions. Pushed him. Maybe I was too selfish to see that something was bothering him.”

“Maybe he hid it from you,” Lucy suggested. “Fathers do that when they don’t want their children to know something. My dad was in the hospital after a heart attack over Christmas, and none of us kids knew he had been having heart trouble because he and Mom didn’t want us to worry.”

Jolene nodded. “Maybe you’re right. My dad didn’t like me to worry about him.”

“On that weekend he was in Dallas, there was nothing on his calendar, but he didn’t return to San Antonio until the eleventh.”

“I really don’t remember. I wasn’t in Dallas with him. Our office manager, Beth Holloway, might know what he was doing. You’re welcome to contact her. Her information should be in the employee files Gregor sent over.”

Barry wrote down the information. “We’ll do that. One more thing—can you think of a friend or colleague of your father’s who has the initials G.A.?”

Jolene looked at the ceiling, her brows furrowed. “No,” she said slowly. “I can look through his personal files. It could be a client. HWI has hundreds of clients.”

“If you could, that would be great.”

“What does it mean?”

“We don’t know yet, but if you come up with a list, it would be helpful.”

Barry thanked Jolene, and he and Lucy went down the hall to Debbie Alexander’s office. She was on the phone, so they waited.

A minute later she hung up. “Agent Kincaid, I was just going to call you. That was my husband.” She tore off the top sheet of a note pad. “This is the street where he saw Harper’s car parked. There were only three businesses on that side of the street—a bar, a tattoo place, and an auto body shop. It’s not a great area. Across the street is low-income housing.”

Lucy asked, “Could he have been meeting someone at the apartments?”

“Doubtful, but then I wouldn’t think he’d drive out there in his Lincoln.”

*



“Call Beth Holloway,” Barry said as he drove toward Adeline’s house west of the city.

Lucy called the HWI Dallas number and identified herself, and shortly Beth Holloway came on the line.

“Ms. Holloway, I’m Special Agent Lucy Kincaid from the San Antonio FBI. Jolene Hayden suggested you might have some information pertinent to our investigation into Harper Worthington’s death.”

“Anything I can do to help. Jolene is just heartbroken, bless her heart. I saw her right after she found out, poor thing. She loved her daddy, they were very close. He raised her, you know, after his wife died.”

“Yes,” Lucy said. “I’m calling specifically about a change in Mr. Worthington’s schedule on May eighth. He wasn’t planning on being in Dallas then, but flew from D.C. to Dallas on the eighth and stayed for three days. His San Antonio office doesn’t know what he was doing there, he had no scheduled meetings, and he didn’t usually work out of the Dallas office.”

“I remember, but let me just pull up my own calendar.” She clicked on the keyboard. “That was a weekend. Then on that Monday, he came into the office in the morning. I was surprised, it was the first I’d known he was in town. He said he was just taking a bit of time to himself.”