“You’re really good, Decker. I mean, really good, if unorthodox. And that might be your undoing.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning maybe this case is a way for the Bureau to pull out a thorn in its side.”
He drank his beer down and set the glass on the table. “So I blow this, I’m history?”
“I’m not saying it’s fair or right.”
“How did you score this information?”
“A gossipy friend at the Bureau. I began to think about Andrews being blindsided by our assignment to this case. Bureau doesn’t usually do things that way. So I called the gossipy friend. He filled me in. They want to jettison you and decided this would be a good way to do it. And that also explains the strange way Talbott was acting when I reported in with him. It was like he was glad Andrews was out of the way, and that we didn’t want any reinforcements.”
“So the blame would fall on us and no one else?”
“You should be pissed. I would be,” said White.
“Being pissed doesn’t change anything.”
“What does?”
“I imagine if you and I manage to solve this sucker, they won’t be able to kick me to the curb.”
“I wouldn’t think so, no.”
“But if we don’t, you shouldn’t be collateral damage, Freddie. So you can jump ship and go do something else.”
“I was assigned to this, Decker. I can’t just leave.”
“Blame it on me. Impossible to work with. Goes against everything the Bureau stands for, at least that part will be true. That way you don’t go down with me.”
“My gossipy friend suggested something similar. But, see, you’re not the only one the Bureau doesn’t like, Decker. Why do you think my ass got dragged from Baltimore on a moment’s notice to come down here with you?”
Decker cocked his head. “So is the Bureau planning to clean house with me and you?”
“My gossipy friend either didn’t know or wouldn’t reveal it to me for obvious reasons. If the latter, I need to make new friends. And in any case, he was really gleeful over the prospects of your getting cut down to size. And he probably won’t shed any tears if I get canned.”
“You don’t deserve this crap. You’re a good agent, Freddie.”
“And that apparently is not enough. I’m a woman and I’m Black on top of it. And while everyone who doesn’t know shit about how the world really works seems to think that’s like the golden apple combo package, those of us in the trenches know different. You get smiles and applause and the media sucks it all up, but then when the applause dies down and the public attention gets turned away, everyone misses the knife that stabs you in the back minute by minute, day by day. Which is exactly what is going on right now.”
“So why have you stuck around this long?”
“Because I’ve put a lot of time and effort into building a career, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let a pack of assholes take all that away from me just because they think they can. I hope you feel the same way.”
“I do.” Decker leaned back in the booth. “So where does that leave us?”
“I figure our only way out is solving this case. Together.”
“Hell, I intended to do that for free. Sticking it to the suits is just an added bonus.”
White laughed. “You are really starting to grow on me, Decker.”
“Look out then, Freddie, because there’s a lot of me to grow on.”
Chapter 80
DECKER HAD TAKEN OFF HIS shoes and socks and was walking on the beach after dinner.
I might get used to this sand thing, and how ironic would that be?
There were a lot of moving pieces with this case, and even his superior memory was having a difficult time keeping track and syncing things up properly. He decided to take them in different silos.
Julia Cummins’s murder. If his theory was right, whoever had killed Cummins had not killed Draymont, or Lancer, or Lancer’s biological mother, Patty Kelly.
Ten stab wounds, the justice-is-not-blind symbol left behind, the legal phrase, all smacked of a highly personal killing. She’d had a sexual relationship with Alan Draymont, which she’d tried to hide under the subterfuge of her needing protection. But there had been no actual threats, at least that they knew of, and she hadn’t hired Gamma to protect her.
At first, it would have seemed logical that there was only one killer. Whoever had stabbed Cummins would have also murdered Draymont. The motive would have been jealousy perhaps, because the two had had sex that night.