She nodded dumbly.

  “I thought so.”

  She looked astonished. “My God. It was here all that time. But I never looked at those photos. I’m not in any of them, you see. What’s his name?”

  “Trevor Perlman. Ring any bells?”

  “No, none.”

  “I doubt he was part of your father’s staff. And that may not have been the name he was using back then.”

  “Then why is he in the picture?”

  “Politicians take lots of pictures.”

  “Yes, but why would my father keep that one in particular? There are lots of others with my mother and his staff.”

  “I don’t know. But I’m very glad he kept this one.”

  “What does this all mean, Agent Decker?”

  “Hopefully, it means a killer is about to get caught.”

  * * *

  After a long discussion with Fellows, and White making some phone calls, they drove back to Ocean View and to their hotel.

  In White’s room they held a quick conference.

  “Okay, let me try to get this straight,” began White. “Trevor Perlman helped clean up the mess in Miami back in 1981.”

  “As we talked about before, he also may have created the mess.”

  “You mean a setup?”

  “A consultant? Traveled the world and speaks several languages? Goes to Cuba by private boat?”

  “What exactly are you saying?”

  “I’m saying that I would bet more money than I have that Kanak Roe’s boat is in Cuba, where Perlman took it after killing him and dumping his body in the ocean.”

  White stammered, “Are you…was Perlman working for—”

  “—enemies of this country, yeah. He sets up Tanner, who was a shoo-in for election. The guy owes his political life to Perlman and his handlers. In return for their taking care of the dead woman in his bed and never revealing the truth, he would do anything they asked. You heard Deidre describe her father. He had no stomach for actual legislating. He just liked the glitz and glamour of it. He’d do anything not to be exposed.”

  “Like leaking information to our enemies?”

  “Yes. And voting in certain ways to help whoever Perlman was working for.”

  “But if the guy was blackmailing him, why would Tanner keep a photo of the man in his house?” White asked.

  “Tanner might have had no reason to believe that Perlman was involved in the blackmail scheme. He might have just thought Perlman tried to help him, but then someone else found out about it. And that way Perlman could blackmail other politicians. Getting compromising dirt on politicians and using it to further an agenda isn’t exactly a new concept.

  “And Roe somehow sees what’s going on and Perlman has to co-opt him into helping, probably using the story that he was just trying to prevent a scandal and maybe the girl had overdosed or something. I’m sure he poured it on thick that the truth coming out would not be good for POTUS. That probably cinched the deal for Roe. But then decades later Roe finds out he’s terminal and maybe stupidly tells Perlman he needs to spill his guts, which Perlman can’t allow to happen.”

  “And Draymont and Lancer?” asked White.

  “Draymont was in their house. I bet he was snooping around and found something incriminating, because I don’t think Perlman is really retired. I bet Perlman knew Cummins’s interest in Draymont was solely sexual and he would have an opportunity to get to Draymont at the house. So with that scene set, he nicks Cummins’s condo key and security card to Barry’s place in order to get Barry’s gun. They were longtime friends, and Perlman probably would have known of its existence.”

  “Okay, that makes sense.”

  “Then Perlman’s people hacked Kasimira’s credit card and ordered the Slovakian currency. Later, they kill Draymont while the Perlmans are out of town. They probably followed Draymont and learned about his ties to Lancer, and through her to Patty Kelly. They kidnap Lancer and store her somewhere, and make her talk. She had warned Kelly, who ran for it. They kill Lancer and stuff her mouth with the money. They could have transported the body in Perlman’s car easily, and then transferred it to Cummins’s house when the coast was clear. Then they put a trace on our car, followed us to Kelly’s getaway place in Key Largo, and took her out just in case Lancer had told her anything. After Lancer’s murder they put the gun back in the drawer at Barry’s condo, and Barry helps them out immeasurably by pulling it out and taking it to his ex’s house. We get the gun and it turns out to be the murder weapon. So down goes Barry.”

  “Damn, Decker, it all adds up. But why not kill Cummins at the same time?”

  “They had no beef with her. And they were friends. Barry was still the perfect patsy because he had every reason to kill Draymont. Perlman just thought the judge would find the body, call the police, and they would investigate, and poor Barry would be left holding the bag. And then the cops would track down the source of the Slovakian money, think it was Kasimira Roe also involved somehow, and Gamma goes down in scandal.”

  “But can we prove it?”

  “We have the ID of Perlman by Fellows and what she saw that night in Miami. That should be enough to take him down.”

  “Let’s hope so, before he takes us down.”

  Chapter 90

  A​T NINE O’CLOCK THAT NIGHT Decker knocked on the door of the Perlmans’ home. A lot had happened between their leaving Deirdre Fellows’s estate and now. And the next few minutes could go any number of ways.

  Trevor Perlman, dressed in beige slacks and a collared white shirt, answered the door. “Agent Decker. My wife said you had come by earlier. Please come in. Where is your partner?”

  “Working on something else.”

  “I see.”

  Perlman closed the door and escorted Decker into a small furnished room off the main living area.

  “Now, let’s fill out the rest of the group,” said Perlman.

  Another door opened and a man came in. He was one of the same men from the beach. He had a pistol pointed at Decker. They searched Decker. Perlman took Decker’s gun and laid it on a table behind him.

  “And now this,” said Perlman.

  He took out a wand and ran it all over Decker. When it didn’t beep he said, “I’m surprised. I thought for sure you would be wired. Please sit.”

  Decker sat. “Where’s your wife?”

  “Off doing some things, like your partner.”

  Decker looked up at the other man, whose face still showed the effects of White’s karate skills. “I bet you didn’t think a person so small could inflict that much pain.”

  “We plan on taking care of her later,” he said.

  “We have a witness to what happened in Miami,” Decker said to Perlman.

  “Oh, you must not have checked your news feed. There was a terrible accident in Sanibel Island. A woman died. The daughter of a very prominent former senator. She apparently fell off her balcony. It was so sad. My other colleague just happened to be in the area when it happened and texted me the sad news. A Deidre Fellows—you may have heard of her. She might have seen something long ago and told you about it? I’m just speculating here.”

  Decker took a moment to absorb all this. “How did you arrange for the dead woman in Tanner’s bed?”

  “We hired her to be there. As a gift to the soon-to-be senator. He was giddy about the fund-raiser and was appreciative, without ever thinking it through. We knew this would be the case. We had a thick dossier on the man. His brain was in his pants. But, unknown to him, she had been given a drug that would soon kill her. And it did, right in his bed. Tanner freaked out, as we knew he would. I was there right on cue and took care of everything. I told him I was with the president’s team.”

  “And then Kanak Roe showed up.”

  “That was a complication. He must have heard something. But I’m used to complications. It worked out all right. And Deidre Fellows’s death leaves you with no evidence at all.”

  “How did you blackmail Tanner?”

  “He never knew it was me, of course. But the room had been wired for picture and sound. After he won the election, he was given a sample of the evidence and he had a choice to make. He chose wisely.”

  “I’m not sure this country would think so. And your guy here? My partner and I can identify him as one of the men on the beach that night who attacked me.”

  “I received a text informing me that my man who was near Fellows’s home when she died has already left the country. And this gentleman will be on the other side of the world by this time tomorrow.”

  “I suppose Draymont and Lancer had no idea who they had run into when they tried to blackmail you.”

  “I ate amateurs like them for lunch. I almost laughed when Draymont tried to use something he overheard, and a piece of paper he found, against me. I pretended to be a cowering, helpless target just waiting to pay him money. But what I was doing was collecting intelligence on him and his associates. And when the time was right I returned the favor. I recommended Gamma to Julia. Even if my wife was clueless, I could easily tell what Julia wanted from Mr. Draymont. She even confirmed it when I asked her.” He smiled. “It was our little secret.”

  “So you stole the key and security card from Cummins’s house to get the gun from Barry. And you ordered the Slovakian money in Kasimira’s name. Then you had Draymont killed while you were out of town.”

  “He was about to leave the house after his little sexual encounter with Julia when my men arrived. They were under strict instructions not to harm her no matter what. We later searched his apartment and took his electronic devices and the information he had on me. We did the same at Lancer’s place. I had learned they were working together when I did my research on Draymont.”

  “And Patty Kelly?”

  “We saw the text that Lancer sent her. We beat the information out of Lancer and it became apparent that Kelly was a loose end that needed cutting. Her husband, we determined, knew nothing. The fact that she left him behind confirmed that.”

  Decker looked at the other man before glancing back at Perlman. “When we told you the judge had also been killed, your wife was stunned, but you were merely confused. Because you knew it was only Draymont who had been killed by your people.”

  “Yes, that was puzzling. My men reported that they never saw her. They killed Draymont downstairs, stuffed the money in his throat, and left.”

  “You killed a lot of people, Perlman, or whatever your real name is.”

  Perlman sat down across from Decker. “What you don’t understand is that the number of people dead is of no significance. This is a war, Mr. Decker. And in any war there are casualties. The key is to have more on the other side than on your own.”

  “How many people died from the secrets you blackmailed Tanner into leaking to you?”

  “Apparently not enough, since the Soviet Union fell anyway.”

  “We did a search on you. Everything was perfect, all the way back to childhood. Too perfect. So perfect it had to be made up.”

  “Good, thank you for that. Though technically retired, I will have our people inject such flaws in future background profiles.”

  “How did you kill Kanak out in the Atlantic? Were you hidden on the boat, or did you overtake him in yours?”

  Perlman shook his head, a weary expression on his features. “What does it matter? After all we did for him. Stumbled onto an incredible opportunity in Miami that ended up making him rich. And he wanted to betray all that simply because he was dying and felt the need to publicly confess. Well, people die every day. As did he.”

  “He wanted to save his soul in the eyes of God.”

  Perlman pointed a finger at Decker. “That is why religion is so dangerous. It makes you do stupid things. That is why I am an atheist. As Marx said, religion is the opium of the masses.”

  “And what happens with me? My partner knows I came here and why. If I don’t show back up, things will get really bad for you, really fast.”

  “You have no proof of anything. I could let you go right now and you can go and spew all the theories you want, claim that we all confessed, and what will it amount to?”

  “Not much.”

  “But I am a man who does not care for loose ends. And you like to go for walks on the beach at night. There is a beach here. You will walk on the sand.” He pulled out a syringe from a drawer of a credenza. “And then your heart will feel funny, like it is racing. You will not be able to breathe. You will stumble and fall and that will be that. And you are a large man and not a young one, so nothing unusual about such a man having a heart attack. And by the time the postmortem is done, what is in this syringe will no longer be detectable in your body.” He uncapped the needle. “So, shall we begin your last walk, Mr. Decker?”

  Decker looked at each of the men. “I suppose I can’t convince you to turn yourselves in?”

  Perlman shook his head and smiled. “I don’t believe there is a phrase for that in Russian.”

  “Yeah, I didn’t think so.” He rose. “Well, okay, I’m sick of this case. Let’s do it.”

  The door was kicked in and a team of armored personnel poured into the room pointing automatic weapons. Perlman’s accomplice quickly dropped his gun, and Perlman the syringe, as they backed up against the wall.

  Perlman snapped, “What is going on? You have no right to be here. This is a private house. This man broke in and we were simply defending ourselves.”

  One of the armored people took off their helmet. White brushed hair out of her eyes. “You good, Decker?”

  “Much better than I was a minute ago.”

  Perlman shouted, “You will leave my house now. You have no proof of anything.”

  Decker walked over to the table and picked up his gun. He turned, pointed the gun right at Perlman, and pulled the trigger.

  Perlman screamed and fell to the floor, his hands over his face.

  Instead of a bullet coming out of the gun, though, they all listened to the conversation that had gone on in the room before White and the others had shown up.

  “A recording device disguised as a gun?” said Perlman in disbelief.

  “It smacks of the old Cold War days, doesn’t it?” said Decker. He lowered the gun and turned off the recorder by pulling the trigger again. “And just so you know, Deidre Fellows is alive and well. As soon as she became a key witness, we put her under protection.”

  “But my man, the news feed,” snapped Perlman.

  “Yeah, your guy is in custody. We caught him sneaking into the grounds, made him talk, and then we used his phone to text you that the mission was complete and he was leaving the country as planned. And the news feed was set up by the Bureau to make you think what we wanted you to think.”

  He looked down at Perlman. “And you walked right into it, amateur.”

  Chapter 91

  HE KEEPS ASKING TO CALL his damn embassy,” reported White to Decker after Perlman and his men had been arrested and charged.

  “He can call Vladimir Putin for all the good it will do him.”

  They were at the police facility where the men had been brought to be booked for the murders.

  White had contacted Agent Andrews and filled him in. As they were standing there, Maya Perlman rushed in, looking alarmed.

  “There was a police officer at my house when I got back. He drove me here. Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on?”

  “Your husband and two of his associates have been charged with murder and attempted murders,” said Decker.

  “Murder? That’s ridiculous. Who is Trevor supposed to have murdered?”

  “Alan Draymont, Alice Lancer, Patty Kelly, and Kanak Roe. And the attempted murders were a woman named Deidre Fellows and me.”

  She gaped. “You?”

  “We have it all on audio,” said White. “Your husband is some kind of Soviet spy from way back.”

  She looked at White. “A Soviet spy? You must be delusional.”

  White squared off with the woman. “Are you saying you knew nothing about any of it?”

  “Of course I didn’t. Because none of it is true.”

  Decker said, “Well, then you might want to ask your hubby why he keeps demanding to speak with someone at the Russian embassy.”

  Perlman shot him a terrified look. “The Russian embassy?”

  “Yeah. If you listen closely you can hear him.”

  She looked down at the floor. “Oh my God, what is happening?”

  White said, “A lot is happening, Mrs. Perlman, and none of it good. Your husband is a bad guy, a real bad guy who blackmailed Americans into turning against their country.”

  She put a hand to her mouth and sobbed. “This isn’t happening. It can’t be.”

  White’s look softened. “Okay, I know this is a lot to process. Let me get you some water before you pass out. Then I’ll find you a room where you can have some privacy. I recall you have kids from your first marriage, right?”

  Perlman dumbly nodded.

  “You can call them. They can come and be with you. Okay? Help you get through this?”

  Perlman shot her a grateful look and nodded. “Y-yes, thank you.”

  White led her away and then returned to Decker.

  “She’s either a Viola Davis–level actress or the woman was clueless about old Trevor.”

  “He probably didn’t tell her. No reason to. Need-to-know spy bullshit.”

  She sat down next to him. “You solved this sucker and brought the bad guys down.”

  “We did, Freddie. I wasn’t solving anything without you.”

  “Thank you for saying that,” she said warmly. “But it seems like Perlman didn’t have the judge killed. And Barry couldn’t have done it. So are we back to Dennis Langley?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Who else is out there? Langley has no alibi, really. And Barry now has two alibis, Tyler, and the neighbor.”

  Decker looked at her funny. Barry has two alibis. Tyler and…But the neighbor’s alibi was enough. Tyler’s wasn’t needed.

  “Decker, I know that look. You thought of something, didn’t you?”