“Or, like you suggested before, he could have hired someone to do it. Either way, we need to check his financial records.”
“Andrews is already on that. But let’s discuss the possibility that someone else killed her because they had a beef against Barry.”
“But why kill the judge and not him?” asked White.
“You kill him, maybe you don’t get your money back.”
“If so, and he knows who it is? And maybe that’s what he’s not telling us?”
Decker said, “He’ll either eventually tell us, go after them on his own, keep his mouth shut because he’s afraid—which would get my vote—or disappear because he’s scared shitless.”
“I like how you summarize things. So neat and orderly.”
He eyed her cagily. “Jamison told you about the electric blue, right?”
White did not answer. She just kept watching him steadily.
“When I walked into the judge’s house and had my little ‘moment’？ I saw the look on your face. Death equals electric blue. You knew that. I could read it in your face.”
“She did tell me, yes,” White conceded.
“And this was not just idle chatter from a long time ago. You called her after you got assigned to partner with me.”
“And to her credit she didn’t want to tell me anything. She’s totally loyal to you, if you have any doubt about that. But I used my girl-agent-to-girl-agent card.”
“Anything else I need to know from the girl-agent exchange system?”
“I’ll let you know if it becomes relevant.” She paused. “Does that tick you off?”
“No, it’s actually the only thing you’ve said so far that made me smile.”
She gaped. “You smiled? When? Because I didn’t see it.”
“I do it internally.”
She smiled resignedly. “Of course you do.”
They went to their rooms.
*
White immediately phoned home and talked to her mother and then her kids.
She had a lot to catch up on even though she hadn’t been gone that long. It was good to hear their voices, especially now, with so much change going on in her life.
While she was doing that, Decker sat on his bed and stared out the window, where the sun had long since faded, but he could hear the roar of the Gulf through the glass.
He closed his eyes and once more envisioned the gun in Mary Lancaster’s hand. He watched as she lifted it to her mouth, inserted it between her lips, letting the muzzle rest on the tongue, because it was very awkward to hold a gun that way. Then her finger would slip to the trigger. She probably closed her eyes, let her mind wander to wherever it needed to.
And then…
He opened his eyes, rose, and walked over to the window. The ocean view was inspiring: vast, sprawling, infinite, smooth, yet somehow chaotic, clunky, unpredictable to him. After he’d lost his wife and child, Decker had only wanted to be left alone. Part of him still felt that way. Yet part of him was terrified of having no one left, either. Sometimes it was just him…and his mind.
My ever-changing mind. Just like the rest of my life. Always fluid, never stable. And according to the good folks at the Cognitive Institute, the ride is going to get a lot bumpier.
Later, his phone buzzed. He didn’t recognize the number and it wasn’t in his contacts because no name came up.
“Decker,” he said.
“Agent Decker, this is Helen Jacobs. I’m the medical examiner?”
“I remember you, Ms. Jacobs. So, Draymont’s gun?”
“Had not been fired. But there’s something else.”
“What?”
“He was killed by two gunshot wounds to the heart, I confirmed that.”
“But?” prompted Decker.
“But I also found what looks to be a wad of cash crammed down his throat.”
Chapter 15
DECKER ROUSED WHITE FROM HER room and they drove over to the medical examiner’s office, a one-story, low-slung concrete building that was so ugly it seemed unjust to bring someone’s remains here to be legally cut up.
Helen Jacobs met them at the front door. She had on a long white lab coat, and her hair was done up in a bun and covered with a blue surgical cap.
White said, “Did you contact Agent Andrews as well?”
“Yes. But he didn’t answer, so I left a message.”
“Let’s go,” said Decker impatiently.
Jacobs led them down a long corridor with scuffed white walls, cheap laminate flooring, and feeble fluorescent light. She unlocked one door with her security card and ushered them in.