“Again, none of your concern.”

  Decker glanced at the man’s collar. “You going to see Gloria later?”

  “Yes, why?”

  “Piece of advice. Change your shirt.”

  “Why?”

  “You have lipstick on your collar. Interestingly, it’s the same shade of red that your assistant, Rose, is wearing.”

  Langley pulled a hand mirror out of his desk drawer, checked his collar, and used a tissue to rub off the lipstick. “She was congratulating me on my upcoming marriage and got a little carried away.”

  “Really? I assume she kissed you before you told her that you were betrothed.”

  “Think whatever you want.”

  “How exactly did you get the prostitute to drop the charges against you?”

  Langley rose. “You are very, very close to a defamation suit.”

  “Don’t think so.”

  “Oh, so now you’re a lawyer?”

  “No, everything I said was true. She was a prostitute, you were charged with assaulting her, and she then dropped the charges and left town. I hope she’s still alive.”

  “Goodbye, Decker.”

  Decker walked out of his office and closed the door.

  He stopped in front of Rose’s desk. She was crumpling up a tissue and wouldn’t look at him.

  He sat down across from her. “I take it you heard about the wedding plans?”

  She nodded and blew her nose.

  “And you two were…?”

  “At least I hoped so. I mean, I know he was seeing her, but I never thought…” She glanced up at him, her eyes brimming with tears. “He told me he loved me.”

  “I’m really sorry,” Decker said as she blew her nose again. “That was not a nice thing for him to do.” He looked around. “This is pretty expensive office space, and it’s built out top dollar. And the guy drives a Bentley. I mean, I know lawyers do well, but is there something else going on here?”

  She looked at him guardedly. “I don’t think I can talk to you about anything having to do with this firm.”

  “That’s fine. I don’t want you to do anything you’re uncomfortable with. Seeing as how he’s been so loyal to you.”

  He heard her say something under her breath that sounded basically like, Fuck it.

  She glanced at her computer and a few seconds later tapped some keys. “In addition to being Mr. Langley’s assistant and paralegal, I also handle the firm’s accounts. Now, I have to go and see someone about something. I’ll be back. You can just hang around here if you want.”

  She walked off and Decker immediately sat down behind her desk.

  The pages he was scrolling through were financial in nature. He took screenshots of all of them and then studied the pages as he walked out.

  The embittered Rose had just given him a piece of low-hanging fruit. Langley should treat his employees better.

  When he passed by the Bentley, he smiled and patted its hood.

  Now he understood Dennis Langley quite clearly, not that it was so very difficult.

  But was he also the murderer of Julia Cummins?

  Chapter 78

  W​HITE HAD MADE A DOZEN calls and come up essentially empty.

  The senior members of Tanner’s former Senate staff were almost all either deceased or long retired. She had gotten some names and a few pictures online of these people from their younger days. She supposed they could show them to Deidre Fellows to see if she recognized the man in the bedroom helping Kanak Roe to wrap up a dead woman and stuff her into a suitcase.

  But if the person had been a young aide, a secretary, or some very junior member of the staff, it was going to be really difficult to track that person down now. It wasn’t like they kept exhaustive lists of such personnel in some neat and tidy archive. A lot of the staff had probably gone on to work with other members of Congress after Tanner retired, or left the political arena entirely. If the man was a personal aide of Tanner’s and not part of his political operation, they still might be able to identify him, but she wasn’t sure how. Mrs. Tanner was dead. Mr. Tanner would be of no help. Deidre was an only child, and she hadn’t recognized the person that night. Kanak Roe would know, but he was probably dead, too. And all of this had happened before Kasimira Roe was even born.

  She had contacted the Miami–Dade Police Department and spoken with someone from their Cold Case Squad. Without revealing specifically what her case was about, she gave the woman’s description and the date and location in question. The officer said he would get back to her—but she was in a long queue, he had warned, and without a name it was not going to be quick or easy. In fact, he said, it was going to be pretty much impossible.

  There was a Cold Case database run by an independent organization that covered forty-six states and fifty Florida counties, but, again, without a name White’s search turned up no hits when she put in the information she had.

  Shit. She rubbed her eyes and wondered how Decker was getting on.

  She got some email responses on other lines of inquiry they had started. The traffic cameras had turned up nothing on Langley’s Bentley or Chase’s Aston Martin at the time in question. Barry Davidson had made no suspicious payments. They hadn’t heard back from the liquor store, so she had called and was told the night clerk had remembered seeing Langley come in that night at the time he said he had.

  Three strikes and we’re out.

  She forwarded all of this to Decker, and then called her mother to check on the kids. She had refrained from getting her children phones yet, but she knew that would change soon, especially for her oldest.

  And in no time they’ll be in college and then married and off living their lives far, far away from their mother.

  And you are wallowing in self-pity, Freddie, and it is definitely not a good look.

  “Hi, honey,” said her mother. “How’s it going in sunny Florida? Sunny Baltimore is currently in the forties.”

  “It’s going slowly. I’m not sure when I’ll be back again.”

  “I meant to ask you, don’t they have FBI down there? Why did you and Decker get called in for this?”

  “I’ve been asking myself that from day one. And the agent we’ve been working with down here was not particularly happy about it.”

  She had not told her mother that Agent Andrews had been shot, and that she had been shot at, too. And she prayed her mother did not see it in the news somewhere.

  “Well, it could be that the Bureau considers you and Decker crackerjack agents and you get sent out only on the tough ones.”

  “Yeah,” said White sarcastically. “I’m so crackerjack I’m two promotions behind. But that might just be due to my winning disposition.”

  “And the fact that you don’t take crap from anybody, particularly from male agents who try to put you in a place they want you to be. But you keep fighting the good fight, honey.”

  They spent some time going over how the kids were doing, and White told her mother she would get up to see them as soon as possible.

  She clicked off, sat back, and wondered again why they had been sent down here when there were FBI agents all over South Florida, and the Bureau also had large field offices in both Tampa and Miami.

  It’s not me, that’s for sure. So, is it Decker? I mean, I know the guy is good, but is that it?

  She couldn’t very well ask her superior about it.

  Hey, sir, why did you send our sorry asses down here when you already got all that manpower in the Sunshine State?

  On a whim she decided to call Jim Pollard, a friend of hers at the Hoover Building who kept his ear to the ground and knew all the Bureau gossip.

  “Hey, Freddie, how goes it?” said Pollard in a booming voice.

  His voice matched his stature, she knew. He was a big, gregarious guy with the rep of a good agent, but he had a secret desire to act—and did so in local productions. Everything about the man was larger than life. He also loved the inner drama of the Bureau, of which there was an endless supply.

  “I’m down in Florida on a case.”

  “I know you are, Freddie. With the one-of-a-kind Amos Decker, no less.”

  “So you knew that?”

  “Hell, everybody knows that. Sorry you got stuck with him as his new partner. I heard his old one ran away to New York.”

  “Actually, Alex Jamison thinks the world of him,” retorted White, who was surprised at how angry his comment had made her.

  “Not what I heard.”

  “What did you mean everyone knows about us being down here?”

  “You mean you haven’t heard?”

  “Heard what?”

  “Ross Bogart was Decker’s protector. Now that he’s retired the Bureau is getting tired of the man. Granted he’s had some success, but word is Decker is an absolute dick to work with.”

  “He’s a little out of the mainstream, but he’s got a brilliant mind and a softer touch with people than I would have imagined.”

  “Wow, I didn’t expect to hear that from you.”

  “I just call them like I see them,” she replied coldly. “And what do you mean they’re getting tired of him?”

  “They want to get rid of him, that’s what. I’ve heard scuttlebutt from the executive suites that they just want to cut bait on him. He’s rude, won’t follow orders, won’t toe the Bureau line, and is never going to fit in.”

  “He gets results, Jim. I looked at his record. He has a one hundred percent solve rate. Name me another agent who has that. He got an innocent guy off death row. And he saved a U.S. president’s life once, and got a medal for it.”

  “The execs don’t care about that. They want people who will walk the walk and talk the talk on the Bureau’s terms. And he never even wears a suit. I’ve seen him a few times at the WFO when I was over there. He looks like he’s homeless.”

  “He’s not an official FBI agent. He’s a consultant.”

  “Which makes it easier to cut him loose. I’m stunned he’s lasted this long.”

  White had to bite back the comment she was about to make and calm her rising anger. “But that doesn’t explain why we got assigned to this case. Last time I looked Florida had lots of agents.”

  “Federal judge and a private security guard, right?”

  “Right. How did you know those details?”

  “Grapevine. It looked to be a really complicated case where nuance was required.”

  White did not like his gleeful tone. “Where exactly is this going, Jim?”

  “I think the powers that be sent Decker down there to fall flat on his face. With his termination to come right after.”

  “Why run the guy around by the nose like that? Why not just fire him?”

  “He’s made some enemies here, Freddie. It’s payback time. They want to rub his face in it.”

  “And I’m down here with him, so what happens to me if we don’t solve this sucker?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “I’ve made enemies, too, but it’s mostly because some male agents don’t want me around.”

  “Look, Freddie, what you need to do is make sure you stay far enough away from the fallout so that you survive this intact.”

  “What the hell are you talking about, ‘stay far away’? Not do my job? Sabotage the investigation?”

  “Of course not. I’m just saying don’t go down with the ship.”

  “But what about Decker?”

  “What about him? Don’t tell me you like the guy?”

  “I haven’t known him that long, but—”

  He interrupted, “Well, hopefully, you won’t have to know him much longer. Hang in there. Gotta go, hear the boss coming. Bye.”

  White slowly put her phone down.

  Chapter 79

  SOMETHING ON YOUR MIND?” ASKED Decker as he stared across the width of the table at White in the hotel restaurant.

  “Why do you ask?”

  “You seem off.”

  White shrugged and drank from her glass of water. “It’s the case. It’s frustrating.”

  Decker kept his gaze on her for a moment longer and then looked away. “Yeah.”

  “So, you found out Dennis Langley is broke?”

  “He should have cut off his assistant’s access to the financial files before he told her he was marrying Chase.”

  “What are you going to do with the info?”

  “Info I’m not supposed to have.”

  “Look, it’s not like I have any love for the woman, but I have even less for Langley. And he did attack that prostitute and got away with it. And I don’t want any woman or any person to suffer the same at his hands.”

  “Then you’ll be happy to know that I printed out what I took pictures of, put it in an envelope, and dropped it through the slot at her office. I also added an unsigned note telling Chase to make sure to do a prenup if she decides to go through with the quickie wedding. And I highlighted the fact that the bill for her engagement ring already went to collection. Apparently, Langley bought it a month ago and then stiffed the dealer. And the Bentley’s not far behind.”

  “Wow, I wish I had a ringside seat for that.”

  “Who knows, we might.”

  “At least you had something positive happen. I struck out on Tanner’s aide and the dead woman. And I sent you the results of the other inquiries. A bunch of nothing.”

  “The Tanner piece is not surprising, since it was over forty years ago. It might take a miracle.”

  She eyed him nervously. Decker was quick to pick up on it.

  “If you don’t tell me what you want to tell me, I think you might actually explode with the built-up pressure,” he said.

  She sighed and sat back. “I might need a cigarette before I do.”

  “Or you could just tell me and save your lungs.”

  “Decker, have you made enemies at the Bureau?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t dress the part. And I’m a little annoying to work with. You might have noticed.”

  White smiled weakly. “I did, but just a bit.”

  “Why do you ask?”

  “They have a lot of agents down here. They didn’t need us to come down and investigate this. And they didn’t even let Andrews know we were coming. That way he had no path to object.”

  He eyed her shrewdly. “Any idea why we are here?”

  “You’re really good, Decker. I mean, really good, if unorthodox. And that might be your undoing.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Meaning maybe this case is a way for the Bureau to pull out a thorn in its side.”

  He drank his beer down and set the glass on the table. “So I blow this, I’m history?”

  “I’m not saying it’s fair or right.”

  “How did you score this information?”

  “A gossipy friend at the Bureau. I began to think about Andrews being blindsided by our assignment to this case. Bureau doesn’t usually do things that way. So I called the gossipy friend. He filled me in. They want to jettison you and decided this would be a good way to do it. And that also explains the strange way Talbott was acting when I reported in with him. It was like he was glad Andrews was out of the way, and that we didn’t want any reinforcements.”

  “So the blame would fall on us and no one else?”

  “You should be pissed. I would be,” said White.

  “Being pissed doesn’t change anything.”

  “What does?”

  “I imagine if you and I manage to solve this sucker, they won’t be able to kick me to the curb.”

  “I wouldn’t think so, no.”

  “But if we don’t, you shouldn’t be collateral damage, Freddie. So you can jump ship and go do something else.”

  “I was assigned to this, Decker. I can’t just leave.”

  “Blame it on me. Impossible to work with. Goes against everything the Bureau stands for, at least that part will be true. That way you don’t go down with me.”

  “My gossipy friend suggested something similar. But, see, you’re not the only one the Bureau doesn’t like, Decker. Why do you think my ass got dragged from Baltimore on a moment’s notice to come down here with you?”

  Decker cocked his head. “So is the Bureau planning to clean house with me and you?”

  “My gossipy friend either didn’t know or wouldn’t reveal it to me for obvious reasons. If the latter, I need to make new friends. And in any case, he was really gleeful over the prospects of your getting cut down to size. And he probably won’t shed any tears if I get canned.”

  “You don’t deserve this crap. You’re a good agent, Freddie.”

  “And that apparently is not enough. I’m a woman and I’m Black on top of it. And while everyone who doesn’t know shit about how the world really works seems to think that’s like the golden apple combo package, those of us in the trenches know different. You get smiles and applause and the media sucks it all up, but then when the applause dies down and the public attention gets turned away, everyone misses the knife that stabs you in the back minute by minute, day by day. Which is exactly what is going on right now.”

  “So why have you stuck around this long?”

  “Because I’ve put a lot of time and effort into building a career, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let a pack of assholes take all that away from me just because they think they can. I hope you feel the same way.”

  “I do.” Decker leaned back in the booth. “So where does that leave us?”

  “I figure our only way out is solving this case. Together.”

  “Hell, I intended to do that for free. Sticking it to the suits is just an added bonus.”

  White laughed. “You are really starting to grow on me, Decker.”

  “Look out then, Freddie, because there’s a lot of me to grow on.”

  Chapter 80

  DECKER HAD TAKEN OFF HIS shoes and socks and was walking on the beach after dinner.

  I might get used to this sand thing, and how ironic would that be?

  There were a lot of moving pieces with this case, and even his superior memory was having a difficult time keeping track and syncing things up properly. He decided to take them in different silos.