The Fallen (Amos Decker #4)(60)

“Why was Frank here last night?”

“Part of his job was to oversee things in the addition. He would normally make rounds through here right before he left for the day. The construction workers get in at seven and knock off around five. I wasn’t here when it happened, but I got a call telling me about it.”

“Who called?”

“Marjorie Linton. She’s in operations. She and Frank worked together. She knew that he had gone to check some things out. When he didn’t return, she tried his cell phone but he didn’t answer. Then she went to look for him. And found his body.”

“And then she called you?”

“Yes. She was hysterical. I was the one who called the police after I got her to calm down so I could understand what she was saying.”

Decker looked at the murderous robotic arm. “So he would have been here inspecting the robot?”

“Sure, he could have been. Frank knew how the different robots functioned.”

“So the thing was operational?”

“Well, it was powered up but it wasn’t on. We had tested it, or the company that manufactured it had, on site about a week ago. Everything was good to go.”

“So how did it kill him?”

“That’s why the robotic company is sending a team in. We won’t know until they do their diagnostic.”

“But will they be able to tell? To give a definitive answer?”

Ross shrugged. “I don’t have the technical expertise to answer that. I hope so, because, like I said, we have to make sure this never happens again.”

Decker looked at the bloody wall. “Well, once is one time too many.”

They walked past a large table on their way back to the fulfillment center. Decker noted the unrolled sheaf of papers on it.

“What’s that?” he asked.

Ross walked over to the table. “Construction drawings for the addition. It’s pretty much the existing one just halved in size. Why?”

Decker stared down at the drawings, the mental frames flowing past in his head, until he arrived at one, and then moved on to a second one. When he put the two together in his head, it literally clicked inside his brain.

At least his memory seemed to be working okay now.

“No reason,” he said.





Chapter 36



DECKER, WHAT ARE you doing?”

Decker had pulled out the construction drawings he’d seen earlier in the Mitchells’ front closet.

He had sat down at the kitchen table and was unrolling them as Jamison had come into the room.

He flattened out the drawings and looked up at her. “These are construction plans for the Maxus FC.”

Jamison sat down across from him. “So what? And why did you stay behind?”

“I wanted to see where Frank died.”

Jamison looked dumbstruck. “Why? It was an accident.”

Decker looked over her shoulder at the doorway to the kitchen.

“Where are Amber and Zoe?”

“Amber’s still out and Zoe’s taking a nap. I don’t think she slept much last night. She could barely keep her eyes open on the drive back here.”

Decker refocused on the drawings, leafing through the pages until he got to the one he wanted.

“Hang on a sec.”

He jumped up and ran out of the room.

“De—” Jamison began and then stopped, shaking her head. She glanced over the plans but had no idea what she was supposed to be looking for.

A minute later Decker returned with a folded piece of paper in his hand. He opened it on the table, smoothing it out.

“What is that?” Jamison asked as Decker rummaged in a couple of kitchen drawers until he found a pencil. He didn’t answer but sat down at the table and started making lines on the paper.

As Jamison studied him, she said, “That was the piece of graph paper we found in Toby Babbot’s trailer.”

“Yep.”

“What are you doing with the pencil?”

“Filling in the indentations on the paper. Remember, whatever he drew was done on the piece of graph paper above this one in the pad. But his marks were carried onto the paper because of the pressure he was applying.”

“Okay, I get that. Probably many a marriage has ended because a cheating spouse didn’t know that the bottom page carries impressions made on the top page. But what does that have to do with anything?”

Again, Decker didn’t answer. He kept filling in the lines and then sat back when he was finished.

Jamison looked down at the paper.

“Compare it to this page of the construction drawings for the FC,” said Decker.

Jamison looked between the two documents and her jaw dropped. “They’re the same, just on a smaller scale.” She looked at Decker. “Why would Toby Babbot have been recreating the construction drawings for the Maxus Fulfillment Center?”

“I don’t know. But I want to find out.” Decker picked up the piece of graph paper. “When I saw the plans for the addition, it jogged my memory of the plans I’d seen in the closet here.” He held up the paper. “And then it struck me that the marks on this looked very close to the marks on the drawings in that closet.”

“Well, I think your memory is as good as ever, then,” said Jamison. “But I don’t really see why we should waste time on this.”