“Meaning he would be privy to national security intelligence,” said White.
“Right. And back in Miami he ends up with a dead woman, possibly a prostitute, in bed. Then this man shows up to take care of things. And then Kanak Roe appears and together they get rid of the body.”
“So they were setting up Tanner for blackmail, and Roe shows up by chance and they enlist him to help? Why not just kill Roe? How could they be sure he wouldn’t pull his gun and arrest them all? I mean, I know we went over this before, but that’s what I would have done. It’s what you would have done.”
“The Secret Service is a little different. Reagan was Kanak Roe’s boss, the most powerful man in the world. The repercussions if the truth came out might have been really bad. Better to bury it than have it become a national scandal. And Roe probably only had seconds to make a decision. And keep in mind that he might not have known that anyone had set up Tanner or was planning to blackmail him over this. He might have only been told that the woman had died by natural causes and they just needed to get her out of there to save Tanner’s reputation and chance at winning his election. She had no obvious wounds, so he might have believed that she had a heart attack or maybe overdosed. And they might have made him an offer of payment, or he might have come back later with that sort of demand. Since he might have wanted to confess decades later, my thinking is he decided to demand payment for his silence. Tanner had enough money to pay him off. And that’s also why they didn’t just kill Roe. Maybe you could make a prostitute disappear without consequences, but you can’t do the same with a Secret Service agent. There would have been a scorched-earth investigation and they couldn’t chance that. So they paid him off.”
White shook her head. “God, dirty all around. And Lancer and Draymont?”
“They were already in the blackmail business. I think they stumbled onto all this, or maybe something else just as incriminating, and believed it could be a big payoff for them.”
“So you think the fix-it guy in Tanner’s hotel room is down here now?” asked White. “And they tried to blackmail him?”
“I do. Only this guy decides to bite back. Hard. He kills Draymont. And then snatches Lancer from the hospital, and kills her after getting whatever information they could out of her.”
“But why the Slovakian money?”
“Whoever is behind this might have seen it as Kanak Roe’s having taken the money years ago to build his empire, then deciding to rat them out. They would not have been happy about that. And that’s why they killed him.”
“Okay. But trying to implicate Kasimira?”
Decker said, “If she goes down for murder, what happens to Gamma Protection Services?”
“It would probably go down the tubes. And you still think the murder of Julia Cummins is unconnected to all this?” she asked.
“I do.”
“Damn, Decker, this is getting to be the messiest case I’ve ever been involved in.”
Decker didn’t respond to this. He was thinking something else entirely.
Maybe in some ways, it’s finally beginning to clear.
His phone buzzed. Decker listened, mumbled a few words in response, and then clicked off.
“That was the U.S. attorney. They let Barry Davidson go.”
“What? Why?”
“A neighbor on the floor just below him was out on his balcony that night. He came forward to make a sworn statement that he heard Barry in his office—I guess the doors were open—from around eleven thirty until around three.”
“Why was the guy up that late and why didn’t he come forward before?”
“He went out of the country the morning the bodies were discovered and just got back and found out about the murders and Davidson’s arrest. And he was up late because he’d been in Asia for a month and was still on that time zone. But he swears that Barry was in his office that whole time.”
“So Tyler and Barry were telling the truth.”
“Yeah. They still have his gun as evidence, but he could not have pulled the trigger. And the U.S. attorney is of the same mind I am. If Barry knew that his gun was the murder weapon he would have gotten rid of it.”
“So now the pendulum swings back to Langley?”
“Yes, it does.”
Chapter 86
DECKER TOOK OUT THE PHOTO of his wife and daughter as he lay in bed in his room.
Recently, he had felt compelled to take it from his wallet each night before turning in. He looked at the twin faces, studied the eyes, the mouths, the slopes of their necks. He, of course, remembered exactly when it had been taken. He had actually been the photographer. It was just a picnic at a local park. A rare day off for Decker that had coincided with Cassie’s scheduled time away from the hospital where she worked as a nurse. Molly had been home because it was a teacher workday, and she was the one who suggested the picnic. At first, Decker had not been too thrilled with the idea. There were some chores for him to do around the house, and social outings, even just with his family, were awkward for him. But Molly had persisted, and they had all joined in to make the food for the picnic. And it had been a truly glorious day. The sun bright and warming, the flowers in bloom, the breeze invigorating, the company the best in the world. Every bite of the simple luncheon the most wonderful food that Decker had ever had.