The Fallen (Amos Decker #4)(90)

Yours truly,

Nigel



Decker put the letter aside. If there was a clue in there he wasn’t seeing it. It was a bit pathetic how Nigel seemed to worship Baron solely because he was wealthy. But then again, lots of people still did that to this day. And Nigel had not been far off the mark about both men’s failing health. The letter was dated only six weeks prior to his and Baron’s deaths.

He looked up when Jamison walked into the room.

She sat down across from him and glanced at the letters.

“Find anything relevant?” she asked.

He shook his head and leaned back in his chair. “How are Zoe and your sister?”

“I think it was a good idea to take Zoe back to school today. She needs structure to keep her mind off what happened. I’ll pick her up later. Amber is at the bank going over some financial things. And she called that lawyer Ted Ross recommended. He’s coming here to meet with her.”

“Good. She needs to make Maxus reach into their deep pockets and pay.”

“I told her that too, and not to sign anything they might send her. And Frank also had life insurance. A half-million-dollar policy, so that will help too. From what she said, it’ll be paid out pretty shortly.”

“Did he have that through work?”

“I think so, yes.”

Decker nodded and looked down at the letters.

“Any idea why Dan Bond might have been killed?” she asked.

“Because of something he might have known about what happened that night.”

“Not something he saw, then, but something he heard?”

Decker nodded. “I did confirm that Fred Ross was at the hospital that night getting checked out. So whatever Bond heard, it had nothing to do with him.”

“Do you think Alice Martin might be targeted next? Whoever killed Bond might be afraid she saw or heard something too.”

“Which is why I asked Green to have a patrol car make regular rounds down her street for now.”

“Good plan,” said Jamison.

Decker rose.

“Where are you going?”

“To the Baronville Historical Society.”

“Everyone left this morning to go back home. You want company?”

“Good to have you back, partner.”

*



“Yes, I remember Mr. Costa quite clearly.”

Decker and Jamison were at the historical society speaking with the director, Jane Satterwhite, who was apparently the only employee of the place. She was a dowdy gray-haired woman in her late sixties wrapped in a pink shawl and with granny glasses dangling from a chain.

The society was housed in a drab brick building with abandoned structures on either side of it.

“We have a very rich history in Baronville,” Satterwhite said. “Only we lack the resources to fully tell it.”

She was speaking the truth here, for as Decker and Jamison looked around, the shelves were only half full and the displays looked old and dusty. The entire place had an air of neglect.

“Do you get a lot of visitors?” asked Jamison.

“No, I’m afraid not. People aren’t interested in history anymore, it seems.”

“Then they’re doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past,” noted Decker.

“Exactly,” said Satterwhite, suddenly animated. “You’ve hit the nail right on the head. Everyone looks to the future for answers, which ignores the fact that people, despite the passage of years, remain fundamentally the same.”

“You were telling us about Bradley Costa?” prompted Jamison.

“Oh, yes. That’s right. A very nice young man. Very interested in our town.”

“Anything in particular?” prompted Jamison.

“Particularly in John Baron. The First, I’m talking about. The one who founded this town.”

“What exactly was he interested in having to do with John Baron?” asked Decker.

Satterwhite led them into another room.

“This is our Baron Room, as I like to call it. Here, we house everything we have about John Baron, from his birth to his death.”

“I understand that he died on the same day as his butler, Nigel Nottingham.”

“Yes, that’s right. Are you an historian too?”

“An amateur one,” lied Decker. “Was Costa interested in that fact?”

“Well, he asked me about it. He wanted to know if we had any correspondence from Nigel. He was the first person ever to ask about that.”

“And did you?” asked Decker.

“No, we didn’t.”

“Did he ask about anything else?”

“Any business correspondence that Baron might have had in the time leading up to his death.”

“And did you have anything like that?” asked Jamison.

“Just one letter.”

She turned to a file cabinet, opened it, and rummaged through its contents. “That’s funny.”

“You can’t find it?” asked Jamison.

“Well, it was right here. Maybe it was put back in the wrong place.” She went through the other drawers, without success.

“Well, that is strange,” she said more to herself than to them. “It’s not here.”

“When was the last time the letter was accessed?” asked Jamison.