“But who would care about her having sex with either Draymont or Langley?”
“Her ex-husband, for one. And, despite what he said, Langley might have a problem with getting dumped and then replaced by Draymont. And we have to check his alibi with his new girlfriend, though she might have a motive to lie for him.”
“They picked up his gun and did the ballistics. It wasn’t a match for the weapon that killed Draymont.”
“I know. Andrews texted me. But Langley might have more than one gun. And if he did kill Draymont, no way he gives us that gun. The murder weapon might be in the ocean.”
“Langley said he thought she was afraid of something or someone, Decker.”
“That’s if Langley was telling the truth. If she was really afraid, why not hire protection? Which she didn’t. But, as I said before, I think she was afraid of someone, too.”
“But you think whoever killed Draymont didn’t kill the judge. So, at least with your theory, those crimes aren’t connected.”
“Not connected at one level, but maybe at another.”
“Damn, Decker, you’re making this really complicated.”
“If it is complicated, then I’m just laying it out accurately. Let’s go to the bedroom first.”
They headed up the stairs and looked around.
Decker leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. Something was bugging the crap out of him. And then, as he draped, one over another, the layers of conversations they’d had with third parties, along with facts uncovered, a startling inconsistency occurred to him.
Thank you, superpower.
He opened his eyes. “We went to Gamma after Draymont was killed. We wanted to know why Draymont was here. We assumed he was guarding the judge, right?”
“Right,” replied White.
“They told us they couldn’t reveal anything pending a review by their counsel. But we pushed it.”
“Yeah, so?”
“So they brought in Alice Lancer to talk to us about the matter.”
“But she fainted dead away and then got taken from the hospital by two fake cops.”
Decker nodded. “But now we know that the judge never contracted with Gamma or even made an inquiry about hiring them. So why did they bring Lancer in to talk to us about something that never happened? What could Lancer possibly tell us?”
White looked confused. “I…she…Damn, that doesn’t make sense.”
“The woman who brought her in said that Lancer would be able to provide us information about Draymont. She didn’t specify anything about Draymont being assigned to guard the judge.”
“I don’t remember the exchange exactly,” said White.
“But I do. So we need to check with Gamma and find out why Lancer, out of all the people there, was picked to talk to us.” He pulled out his phone and punched in a number.
“Who are you calling?”
“Kasimira Roe,” replied Decker.
“She won’t tell you anything. That lady hides behind the lawyers.”
“I think she might talk to me this time…Kasimira? Yeah, it’s Decker. Look, I went over your father’s file, talked to Danny Garcia, and I have some thoughts and leads I’m going to run down. But on my case, I need an answer to a question.”
He asked about Lancer.
“Right, yeah. Okay…Is that right? She did? All right, yeah, thanks. I’ll be in touch about your father. Thanks again.”
He clicked off and looked at the floor.
“Well!” snapped White. “What did she say?”
Decker glanced up at her. “Gamma didn’t pick Lancer to talk to us. Kasimira said that Lancer approached the associate Kasimira sent out of the meeting and told her that she could help with the inquiry.”
“You mean she basically volunteered to come and meet us?”
“Yeah, but she didn’t meet with us, did she? She pulled her fainting act before she said a word, and now she’s disappeared.”
White looked thoughtful. “So she might have seen us come in, anticipated what we would ask about, and then seized the opportunity?”
“But why come forward and then disappear? Why not just slink off into the shadows and we’d never know of her involvement, since Gamma wasn’t protecting the judge?”
“Did Roe say why Lancer came forward?” asked White.
“She didn’t know for sure, but she said that Lancer and Draymont worked closely together at Gamma. He was the field guy and she was a supervisor. But still, Lancer could have just kept silent. There would be no reason for us to question her.”