“I can understand that. How long did you have protection?”
“For about a month, I think.”
“What happened to your wife’s old client?”
“He attacked someone living in his halfway house and nearly killed the guy. He’s back in prison awaiting another trial. Hopefully, this time they put him away for good.”
“Do you think your wife is up to talking with me now? It’ll save me having to come back.”
“Let me check.”
He went off while Decker finished his coffee. He rose and walked around the lanai.
Decker hadn’t owned a home since the one his family had been killed in. After that, he’d ended up basically living in a cardboard box in the back of a Walmart parking lot for a longer time than he cared to remember. You never think that would happen to you, until it did. And then your thinking changed measurably to, I’m never going to get out of this nightmare.
He had gained a hundred pounds from eating crap and not exercising at all. He could barely stand with the extra weight. And the only thing that saved him from remaining on the streets and probably dying there was waking up one day, seeing the cardboard ceiling of his “home,” and realizing how ashamed his wife and daughter would be of him.
His recovery had not happened overnight. It had taken nearly a year. During that time he had gone to live at a local Residence Inn, and used the dining area as the office of his fledgling detective business.
When the first few clients came to him, he knew they were repulsed by what they saw in him. A huge, hulking, not overly clean man with a thick beard and nothing approaching an outgoing and engaging manner. The only thing that saved him was the fact that Decker was damn good at his job. He could figure out just about anything.
I hope that holds for this case.
“Agent Decker?” said a woman’s voice.
He turned to see the Perlmans at the entrance to the lanai. Trevor was holding his wife’s hand. She looked pale but collected.
“I’m sorry about…what happened earlier.”
“No need to apologize. It was a shock, I know. I won’t take too much more time. Just a few questions if you’re up to it.”
They sat down across from him.
“When was the last time you saw or spoke to Judge Cummins?”
“I talked to her on the phone right before we left for New York, so about nine days ago. I was just giving her our travel details, in case of emergency. We always did that with each other.”
“And the last time you actually saw her?”
“A couple of days before that. We had a drink, down near the courthouse.”
“Did she seem okay, nothing troubling her?”
“No, she was fine.”
“You practiced at that court?”
“Yes, but never before Julia, of course.”
“I understand from your husband that a former client threatened you?”
“Yes, Gerald Garvey. He’s the sort that gives defense attorneys a bad name. I knew he was guilty, but he was entitled to legal representation. I got him a sweetheart deal, but he didn’t see it that way.”
“And you hired Gamma Protection?”
“Yes.”
“How did you hear of them?”
“I think it was someone at the courthouse. Plus, they’re a well-known firm.”
“Did you know Alan Draymont? Your husband didn’t know if he was one of the people who guarded you.”
Decker held up the picture of Draymont.
“Yes, he looks familiar. But, as you alluded to, there were several different people who protected us. Men and women. I don’t remember all their names. They had credentials and everything, and we were sent a secure email with their names and pictures to verify their identities.”
“Can you look up those emails?”
Trevor interjected, “Surely, you can get those details from Gamma?”
“You’d think, wouldn’t you? But they’re having some personnel problems right now.”
She said, “I can look later. Right now, I just need to go lie down. This has been a terrible shock.”
She rose and her husband stood with her. “I think that’s all for now,” he said.
He escorted Decker to the door and closed it firmly behind him.
Decker took in the sunshine and felt the warmth and heard the ocean and then the thwack of a golf ball from somewhere. On a cart path that cut through the trees, two people in their sixties rode past on bikes and waved at another couple drifting by from the other direction on their spiffy, decked-out golf cart. They all looked happy, content.