Walk the Wire (Amos Decker #6) - David Baldacci Page 0,72
Jamison.
“I finally told myself to ignore it. He did what he wanted and so did I. We have no children. So I would get glammed up and go out and have some drinks, and if I didn’t come back at night and I was in someone else’s bed, so what?”
“That night I saw you at the bar?” said Decker.
“I left you to attend to just such an appointment,” said Southern, avoiding their gazes.
Decker moved a bit closer to her. “So someone else might have found out about his affair. They might have sent him photos or other incriminating evidence and threatened him with exposure if he didn’t do what they said.”
“It’s certainly possible.”
Jamison said, “But people do have affairs. Would the threat of exposure be enough to make him alter postmortem reports? He had to know that whoever wanted him to do that might have had a hand in the murders.”
“Walt was a very proud man. A very upstanding citizen of this town. I agree that it seems crazy that he would do the bidding of what could be a murderer in order to keep his reputation intact. But I also know that’s what he did.”
“Who was he having an affair with?” asked Kelly.
Southern shook her head. “No, I’m not going to tell you. It has nothing to do with the murders.”
“You don’t know that,” said Kelly.
But Southern shook her head.
Decker took all this in and said, “Did he mention anything, even in passing, that might shed some light on who was making him do this?”
“I’ve been wracking my brain trying to think of just that,” she said. “And I can’t come up with anything.”
She sank back against the pillow and closed her eyes.
JAMISON AND DECKER dropped Kelly off at the police station and drove back to their hotel.
Along the way Jamison said, “We’ve got three people dead, two murdered and one suicide, including the coroner who did the post on the other two and screwed them both up because he was possibly being blackmailed for sexual indiscretions. And the guy who found the first body is missing and presumed dead. What a mess.”
“And an old man in a nursing home who knows a lot but won’t tell us anything,” added Decker, gazing moodily out the window.
“I agree that Cramer came here possibly because of what Brad Daniels told her. But if he won’t reveal to us what he might have told her, what do we do? We can’t waterboard the guy.”
“We can threaten him with obstruction and put him in prison,” pointed out Decker.
“A ninety-something-year-old war veteran in a nursing home? Really? Do you see the FBI or a court doing that?”
The phone that Robie had left him started to vibrate.
He pulled it out of his pocket and hit the green button. “Yeah? Robie?”
Robie said, “Be at this address in a half hour.” He gave the destination and clicked off.
Decker looked at Jamison, who said, “What?”
“Change of plan.”
He punched the address into his phone, and they set off.
* * *
It was fifteen miles outside of town at what looked to be an abandoned apartment building.
“I guess this was a casualty of the last bust,” said Jamison as she pulled their SUV to a stop in front of the structure and they climbed out. “So where’s this Robie guy?”
Robie stepped out from the shadows of the front entrance and called out softly to them. “Follow me.”
He led them down a covered walkway that led to the rear of the building.
He opened a door there and motioned them inside.
As she passed him Jamison said, “Nice to meet you, Robie.”
He simply nodded.
Inside, Robie closed and locked the door and led them past an empty, stained pool and down an interior corridor, illuminating the way with a small tac light. He opened another interior door and motioned them in.
When he closed the door behind him, a small light came on in the room, brightening it, if feebly.
In a chair sat Blue Man, dressed in a regulation suit and tie that would have allowed him to blend in at most any event in Washington, DC, but made him stick out conspicuously in London, North Dakota.
“Mr. Decker, Agent Jamison, please sit,” said Blue Man.
“Who the hell are you?” said Decker.
“A wise question. Your phone should be buzzing any moment, ah.”
Decker lifted out his vibrating cell phone and hit the answer button.
“Ross? What’s going—? What?” Decker glanced at Blue Man. “Yeah. We are. Okay. You’re sure? Right. Thanks.”
He clicked off and looked at Jamison. “Bogart says