“And her connection to Brad Cowl?” added Ekman. “If he is involved in some crooked money scheme, and maybe Sara Ewes found out? They could have been afraid that she had told her parents something.”
“I was thinking that, too, but now I seriously doubt that actually happened,” said Devine. “She was estranged from her parents. They were Christian missionaries, and I don’t think they would have had any interest in or understanding of any part of Sara’s world.”
“You mean her and Stamos being a thing, like you told us before?”
“Yes. Her mother was not in favor of same-sex couples and made no secret of it.”
“But how could someone even know that? They just got to New York.”
“Well, I found out just by being around her for a few minutes. And she thought her daughter was a slut sleeping around outside of marriage.”
Shoemaker said, “We seem to be going in circles. If all these deaths aren’t connected to the Cowl business, what then?”
Devine thought back to the emails he had gotten. The one that not even the likes of Will Valentine could trace, and he didn’t know if Campbell’s people would have better luck. Although he was hoping Tapshaw, and her magical fingers, could do the trick.
Was the killer trying to let me know that I’m involved in all this? Do they blame me for what happened to Sara and Jennifer? Who would have that sort of grudge against me? What have I done?
He debated on whether to share this with the detectives, but decided not to. It would just piss them off that he had withheld such evidence. And they were getting along so well right now.
“You said the Eweses were stabbed in the heart?”
“Right through, yeah. Why?” asked Shoemaker.
“The heart symbolizes emotions, beliefs, feelings.”
“So?” said Ekman.
“I don’t know. Just thinking out loud. Maybe the killer murdered each person in ways to symbolize the reason why they were killed.”
Ekman and Shoemaker exchanged another, interested glance.
“Sara Ewes was hanged. What does that symbolize?” asked Ekman.
“Well,” said Devine, “in the past, they used to hang traitors.”
So when does my turn come?
CHAPTER
64
IT WAS BARELY NOON AND the news of Fred and Ellen Ewes’s having been murdered had circulated throughout Cowl and Comely.
Devine abruptly left his office and sought out Wanda Simms.
“Any idea where Mr. Cowl is?” he asked.
“I’m not his keeper, Travis,” the woman said sharply, but then her look immediately softened. “I’m sorry, but this is all getting to me. Four people have been murdered. And two of them worked here, and the other victims were the parents of one of them.”
“You’d think the head of the company would be around to lead the troops.”
She looked at him skeptically. “For all I know he jetted off to some island with a group of swimsuit models. But if you say I told you that I’ll deny it.”
“Have you spoken to his little group of executives?”
“I have. And they won’t say a word about him. Too afraid, I would imagine.”
I would imagine, too.
“Wanda, do you have any idea what’s on the fifty-first floor?”
Her look immediately became guarded. “Why, what’s it to you?”
“Four people have been killed, like you said. And that floor is the only one that no one can access.”
“Oh come on, Travis. Every investment house has secure areas. It’s probably where the high-frequency trading takes place. Just servers and the like. Did you ever think of that?”
Yes, I did, thought Devine. “One more thing. Did you tell anyone that I had come up to the fifty-second floor on the morning Sara’s body was found?”
She looked warily at him. “Why?”
“Just trying to figure something out.”
“I might have mentioned it to Jenn Stamos, actually. Now she’s dead, too. And she was really broken up about Sara’s death. I didn’t think they were that friendly.”
“Well, you just never know. Thanks.”
So that’s why Hancock was sicced on me so fast. Stamos might have learned from Sara that we had slept together. And then I show up asking questions. She tells Cowl, and Cowl gives marching orders to Hancock—or Bartlett, rather—to go play detective and find out what he can. And Stamos also told Cowl I had come back to the building that night and that the guard saw me. He checked the security log and there was my security card for the fifty-second floor. And then he sees my security card log-in and my face on the video on the night Sara died and plans to frame me.