“Of what?” asked Decker. “Getting into another bad marriage?”
“No. I think she was just afraid…of something. Or someone.”
Chapter 41
L?ATER THAT DAY DECKER WAS sitting in his hotel room reading over the latest report from the medical examiner. It was Alan Draymont’s DNA on the sheets, towels, and washcloths. That meant he and the judge were having a sexual relationship. And they both died after a night of sex.
Andrews had confirmed Barry Davidson was on the Zoom calls when he said he was. And if Tyler was telling the truth, his alibi for his father made it clear that Davidson could not have killed his ex-wife. There just wasn’t enough time in the firm window they had to work with. And even if you added some time on either end of the TOD, it would have been too tight to get to Cummins’s place and back. And Decker didn’t see Barry Davidson as capable of murdering his wife and then calmly getting on a Zoom call with clients. But even with the unusual frenzied killing, the hit man angle was still a possibility. Andrews had said he would have information on Davidson’s financial records soon.
He glanced at his phone. Maya Perlman had sent him the emails detailing the messages from Gamma. Alan Draymont had been one of the security personnel assigned to them, among others. Alice Lancer was not on the list, however.
And then, as confirmation of his theory, Roe emailed that Julia Cummins had not contracted with Gamma for protection or even made an inquiry about such services. And yet Draymont’s name had been given to the security people by Judge Cummins as an authorized person, so he could come and go at any time. That made sense if they were seeing each other.
He texted Andrews and told him about Roe’s email.
Andrews texted back that neither Davidson’s Mercedes nor Tyler’s BMW had accessed the gate on the night of the murders.
Well, that made sense if Barry had hired someone to do the deed.
He called White in her room and filled her in.
“She never hired Gamma? So how did she and Draymont hook up?” she asked.
“Let’s head back over to Cummins’s house. Got some things to check.”
*
They cleared security and drove to the judge’s house.
Decker had a key for the police lock that had been placed on the front door. They entered and White said, “What do you want to look at again?”
“Everything.” He leaned against the wall of the foyer. “Now we know Draymont wasn’t officially guarding the judge. He was here on his own dime.”
“Then why did they stonewall us at that meeting then? They could have just told us that in the first place.”
“Roe might not have known that Cummins hadn’t hired them. And if she did know she was probably wondering what the hell Draymont was doing at Cummins’s home. She probably didn’t want to commit one way or another until she saw how things played out because it could adversely affect her company.”
“Okay, I guess that makes sense. She’s a sharp lady.”
“In Roe’s email, she said his work records showed that Draymont had been taking some time off, but he’d also been doing some daytime assignments in Fort Myers.”
“So presumably he might stay overnight with Cummins when they were together? He was there late that night.”
“Possibly. Roe didn’t mention Draymont requesting a hotel room or anything like that as a business expense. There are probably official channels at Gamma you have to go through for that. And if he had required housing they would have just used someone from the Naples office to cover the assignment in Fort Myers.”
“But Trevor Perlman said the judge asked him about Gamma. He took that to mean she was looking for security.”
“That’s right. And at their lunch she told Tyler that she was having security protection. He told his dad about it. Barry texted the judge to ask her about it but she never got back to him.”
“So, she lied to everybody?”
“Maybe she didn’t want Barry to know she had a new boyfriend, so she made up the story about needing protection and told Tyler, knowing that he would tell his dad.”
“Well, apparently everyone knew she was dating Dennis Langley.”
“We don’t know that for sure. Maya Perlman just knew there was someone but didn’t have a name. Doris Kline, maybe her closest friend, knew his name, but Julia swore her to secrecy. And he never came to her house, at least by his own admission. And if he’s to be believed, they only had sex at Langley’s house, and once went all the way to Miami to do it.”