The woman closed her eyes, and tears seeped from under her lids. “Alice and Alan…found out something.”
“What?” asked Decker.
“I don’t know, she wouldn’t tell me. But it was something important. And…and they were going to use it to…”
“To what? Make some money?”
Kelly opened her eyes and looked up at him. “I told her not to do it. But she wouldn’t listen. I…I hope she’s okay. I never liked Alan. He was too…slick.”
“So why tell you to run if you knew nothing?” asked Andrews.
“The people involved in this might think she had told me something. They might learn of the connection between us. That’s why Alice warned me.”
“You left your husband behind,” noted Decker. “They might have assumed that he knew something, too. They might have killed him.”
She looked up at him in fear. “I wasn’t thinking. I was so scared. They…they haven’t hurt him, have they?”
“Not yet, but he’s very worried about you. You left without saying anything to him. Haven’t answered his calls or texts.”
She let out a gush of air. “I didn’t know what to do. When that text came in…I tried to call Alice, but she didn’t answer. I tried so many times to call her before I turned off my phone.” She looked up at Decker again. “Is she…is she…？”
“You’ll need to come with us, Mrs. Kelly,” said Decker. “We can protect you. But we’ll need your full cooperation.”
“I’ve told you all I know.”
“I don’t think so. And at the very least, there are probably things you can remember better.” He put a hand under her elbow. “Let’s go. We’ll drive you back.”
“My car!”
“Will be taken care of. Do you have a bag?”
“Just over there.” She pointed to a small duffel in the corner.
White snagged it, checked her watch, and said, “Let’s go. Long drive. We should be back in time for breakfast.”
They stepped outside, Andrews in front and Decker next to Kelly. White closed the door behind them and they stepped off into the sandy front yard.
The first shot dropped Andrews. The second round drilled a hole right through Patty Kelly’s forehead.
Decker and White flattened themselves to the sand, guns out and searching for something to shoot. When the car started up, they rose and ran forward. They both fired at the taillights of the car but missed.
They ran back to the fallen people.
Andrews was breathing, but Kelly had reached the end of her life.
White called for help, while Decker staunched the blood coming from the unconscious Andrews’s shoulder.
When the ambulance showed up along with the police, Decker helped them load Andrews onto a gurney, and it sped off with the man to the closest hospital. White rode in back with the wounded agent.
Decker turned to look at Kelly, lying there dead in the sand in front of her now-widowed husband’s fishing shack. She looked at peace when her life had ended in any way but peacefully.
The electric light blue was engulfing him, like a big wave on the beach. He was surprised that he wasn’t used to it by now. But it still took his breath away, still made him feel sick and lightheaded. But perhaps death deserved to have that effect, particularly the deaths Decker typically encountered.
He glanced away from the body and closed his eyes. Kelly dead and Andrews wounded, none of that was fair. Not one single bit.
Decker opened his eyes, let the electric blue dissipate, along with the nausea, and then he went back to work.
Chapter 47
ANDREWS WAS GOING TO RECOVER, but it would take time. He had undergone surgery and was being transported back to a hospital in Ocean View. It was now just Decker and White as the visiting team taking over for the locals.
Patty Kelly’s body had been transported to Fort Myers and was currently undergoing an autopsy by Helen Jacobs. Steve Kelly had been informed of his wife’s murder. They had no leads on who had done the deed. Neither Decker nor White had gotten a good look at the car. There had been no license plate on the rear.
As Decker sat in his hotel room having a late breakfast after dealing with the Key Largo cops and driving back with White, he thought about Patty Kelly’s not even knowing her daughter had been murdered.
What does it matter now?
As he was having his final cup of coffee, White knocked on his door and he let her in. Her hair was still damp from her shower, and she had on a fresh set of clothes and looked ready for anything. She sat down and eyed him.