He helped Davidson to stand and then looked at Tyler, who was staring out the window, his arms folded over his heaving chest. Decker glanced at Andrews. “Let’s get him to the bathroom.”

  Tyler called out, “Bring me his clothes. I’ll put them in the wash to get the stink of the booze out.”

  Decker and Andrews helped Davidson to the bathroom, got the shower going, and pulled out some towels and toiletries. They got the man stripped down and into the shower. Then Decker left him there with Andrews and gave the soiled clothes to Tyler. He followed Tyler to a laundry room, where he threw the clothes into the washing machine.

  “Didn’t know I was going to have to clean up after my dad,” Tyler said sullenly. “I did my stuff earlier. I had my run early this morning with the guys and got soaked through. I’m a big sweater.”

  “Yeah, me too. But we have a lot more skin than most people.”

  “I guess.”

  He turned the machine on, leaned against the wall, and then abruptly started to sob.

  Decker let him do so for a bit before saying, “Can I get you anything, Tyler?”

  “N-no.” Tyler wiped his face, composed himself, and suddenly eyed Decker’s large frame. “You look like you might’ve played some ball.”

  “Ohio State. And the NFL, for the briefest of times. I was a walk-on with the Browns.”

  “The Ohio State University already offered me a scholarship. And I’ve got three other offers.”

  “Great school. Great program. Where else?”

  “Alabama, Georgia, and Stanford.”

  “The best of the best. You want to play in the NFL?”

  He shook his head. “I’m not at that level and never will be.”

  “Most young men your age wouldn’t be able to make that sort of frank self-assessment. They usually think they’re good enough.”

  “I’ve been making frank assessments all my life. I want to go into business. Silicon Valley. That’s where a lot of cool stuff is happening.”

  “Well, they’re all great schools, but Stanford is right where you want to end up. And they play a pro-style offense. So as a tight end, you’ll get a lot of throws your way.”

  Tyler looked intrigued. “How’d you know I played tight end?”

  “You’ve got the build, the height, and your hands have calluses and abrasions all over them, especially the palms and the fingertips.”

  “I could be a QB.”

  “QBs throw the ball, they don’t catch it. You get that level of toughened skin from frequent high-velocity impacts with the pigskin.”

  “Wide receiver, then.”

  “You’re too beefy to play wideout. Those guys are slim with lightning in their shoes. And a high school coach would never waste a guy your size on that position. You could play any slot on the line with your beef. And they’d use you as an extra lineman on running plays.”

  “Yeah, I pretty much do exactly that. What position did you play in college?”

  “OLB,” said Decker, referring to outside linebacker.

  “You’re big for that.”

  “I’ve put on weight since then, but I had decent wheels. They tried me on the D-line, but even back then those boys were all three-twenty plus. And I wasn’t athletic enough to hold my own at two-sixty against O-lines where the tackles made me look like a middle schooler. OSU plays in the big leagues and the NFL is another planet. With the Browns I did most of my field time on special teams. I was never going to be a starter.”

  “Guys we play against in high school are running four-threes like it’s nothing.”

  White said, “Well, not to put a stop to the shop talk, guys, but…?”

  They turned to see her standing a few feet from them.

  Decker glanced at her and said to Tyler, “You want to talk here or somewhere else?”

  “How about the beach?”

  White hiked her eyebrows at Decker. “You mean out on all that sand?” she said.

  “Fine,” said Decker. “Why don’t you wait here, Agent White? And let them know where we went.”

  White was about to protest, but then she glanced at Tyler and slowly nodded. “Sure, I can let you footballers have some alone time.”

  The two big men walked off, leaving White to sit down in a chair and wait, her lips pursed and her gaze hanging on Decker’s broad back.

  Chapter 11

  I’M…UM, I’M SORRY ABOUT your mother,” said Decker as they reached the sand and headed south. Decker had taken off his shoes and socks and rolled up his pants. Tyler had slipped off his flip-flops and was carrying them. Decker was awkward at social encounters like this. As a young man, before his brain injury, he could be empathetic and consoling and even glib. Now, on the other side of his near-death experience, he was none of those things.

  “I think I’m gonna wake up and she’ll be there waving at me.”

  “I can understand that. So, when was the last time you actually saw your mother?”

  “I stayed with her last week, this week I’m with my dad.”

  “Tough going back and forth?”

  “It was at first, but then I got into a routine. Well, I did with Mom. Dad never has had much of a routine.”

  “So you saw her last a week ago?”

  “No, I had lunch with her three days ago, at the golf clubhouse where she lives.”

  “Wasn’t she at the courthouse then?”

  “She had the afternoon off, she said.”

  “She seem okay, no problems?”

  “Yeah, she was fine.”

  “Did you ever meet her private bodyguard?”

  “No. When I was with her last week, she didn’t have a bodyguard around.”

  That remark caught Decker by surprise but he decided not to comment on it. “But at some point did she tell you that she had one?”

  “Yeah, she mentioned it at lunch. I asked her what was up.”

  “And what did she say?”

  “She said it was over some stupid stuff from being a judge, but she didn’t want to take chances.”

  “She wasn’t more specific?”

  “No. But she’d gotten threats in the past and nothing had come of it.”

  “Were you worried that you might be in danger while you were over there?”

  “I’m a big guy, I can take care of myself. But I always worried about my mom. Lots of psychos out there, you know.”

  “When you were over there, did you ever see anything weird?”

  “Nope. By the time I got home after school, I was pretty beat. Usually ate dinner, listened to some music, did my schoolwork, and then hit the sack.”

  “You on a year-round workout schedule?”

  He nodded. “We were runner-up for state, so everyone’s gunning for us. The team that beat us lost half their starters to graduation, while we’re still stacked. I was first team All-State as a junior. And even though I’ve got my scholarship offers, my take is I’ve got to be even better than I was last year. Weight room, cardio, playbooks, passing and blocking drills. Never stops.”

  “Same way in college. And in the pros, it’s your life.”

  “Maybe I’ll make enough money to buy my own team one day.”

  “There you go. So you never saw or heard anything else troubling your mother?”

  “Except for my dad.”

  “What do you mean?” Decker said sharply.

  Tyler suddenly looked fearful. “No, hey, I just mean, well, he’s like a little kid who never grew up. Nothing wrong with that. He just loves life, you know?”

  “I get that, but was that the reason for the divorce?”

  “Yeah, and there was some dumb tax issue that she was really upset about. This was about five years ago, after she became a judge. She filed for divorce pretty soon after that. I didn’t really get it. I mean, blow up a marriage over taxes? They both had plenty of money. Anyway, Mom didn’t like Dad’s lifestyle after the divorce, and she didn’t want Dad having his girlfriends stay over while I was with him. She didn’t think it was right.”

  “What did you think about that?”

  “Well, I have to admit, it was nice seeing the young ladies running around the condo in T-shirts and pretty much nothing else, or tanning themselves on one of the balconies or by the pool, but it did get old after a while. I mean, it was my dad! And they were only in it for his money anyway. Even though he does keep himself in decent shape, he’s almost fifty. Twentysomething ladies don’t go for that without the cash to back it up.”

  “So, you were with your father last night? Here?”

  “Yeah. I got home around seven. We had dinner, watched some TV, and I finished some schoolwork. Then I went to bed.”

  “What time?”

  “About ten thirty or so. I was beat.”

  “And your dad?”

  “I heard him talking in his office. My bedroom’s right next door. He has clients all over the world, so he operates in different time zones. Kept waking me up when he went on the Zooms. It’s like he thinks he has to talk loud because they’re in Asia and shit.”

  “Happen to check the time when you woke up?”

  “It was off and on. And I didn’t go back to sleep right away. Once was around one or so. I remember because I was thinking I had to get up at six to go for my run and I was pissed.”

  “Okay.”

  “And another time was after two. I remember looking at my Apple watch. And then again close to three.”

  “Okay.”

  “And while I was trying to fall asleep I heard him in his office before then walking around and practicing his pitch, you know, what he says to his clients. He does that all the time.”

  “So let me get this straight: You heard your father either on a Zoom call or walking around and practicing his pitch when, exactly?”

  “Well, pretty much from like before midnight until almost three.”

  “You mean you never fell asleep?”

  “Okay, yeah, I did. Around three when I heard him get up and leave his office. So he might have left the condo after that but I don’t think so. I heard him pass my room and then his bedroom door opened and closed. It has a weird squeaking sound. Then I heard his shower start up.”

  “He showers at three?”

  “Like I said, he keeps weird hours because of his business. And he sweats like I do, especially when he’s dealing with clients. He says they’re very demanding. And the showers help to calm him, let him get relaxed for bed. And he usually has a drink before he goes to bed.”

  Decker took all this in. “Okay, thanks for that.”

  “He cared for my mom. A lot. This blew him away. He’s been crying all morning and drinking like a fucking fish.” He paused and looked out to the water. “I think part of him is also terrified that he’s the sole parent now. He can’t drop all the responsibility on Mom anymore. She really did it all with me. SAT prep, schoolwork, doctor’s appointments, making sure I was all set for the prom, helping pick out colleges, dealing with recruiters, riding my ass on grades. She never missed one of my football games. And when I was younger I played every sport and she was right there. She even coached one of my Little League teams.”

  “Sounds like a superwoman, considering she was a lawyer and then a judge.”

  “Yeah, we were all real proud of her when she got to be a federal judge. The freaking president of the United States had to nominate her. I mean, is that cool or what?”

  “Pretty cool.”

  Tyler shook his head. “Now what’s going to happen?”

  “You’re going to finish high school, go to a great college, and make your mom proud.”

  “But with her not here, I’m not sure I can keep my shit together anymore.”

  “Any time you start thinking that, think about all the things your mother did to get you ready for life. It was worth it to her, so it has to be worth it to you. It shows respect.”

  Tyler looked at him funny. “Sounds like you lost somebody close, too.”

  Decker eyed the young man and saw in him a bit of his younger self. Supremely confident in his athletic abilities, unsure of everything else.

  “We’ve all lost somebody close, Tyler. It’s how we deal with it that counts, because if you mess that up nothing else really matters.”

  Chapter 12

  I HAD A ZOOM CONFERENCE with a client in Hong Kong from two a.m. to around three. Before that I was speaking with another client in Beijing from midnight to one. I prepped for the Beijing meeting from around eleven fifteen on, and for the Hong Kong meeting after the Beijing call. They’re both twelve hours ahead of us. Then I grabbed a shower, had a scotch, and went to bed.”

  Barry Davidson had showered and changed his clothes. After a couple cups of coffee and two bottles of water, he seemed more composed and focused. They were back in his office. Tyler had left to get some air.

  “We’ll need to check any video recordings you made and talk with those folks,” said Andrews.

  “Do you really consider me a suspect in Julia’s murder?” snapped Davidson.

  Decker said, “Spouses and ex-spouses are always suspects until their alibis are established.”

  “I never went near Julia’s place last night.”

  White glanced at Decker. “Okay, let’s move on from there, Mr. Davidson. In speaking with your wife, did she voice any concerns, was she having problems with someone? Maybe a case she was overseeing?”

  “Julia and I don’t…didn’t really talk much about her work. I’m not a lawyer, and that world is pretty foreign to me. And she never really got what I did for a living, though it provided very well for us.”

  “I understand your ex-wife also came from money, and lawyers and federal judges make good income,” said White.

  “I’m not saying I was the major breadwinner or anything, although I made far more than her salary. As a judge, she was dramatically underpaid, in my opinion.”

  “Have to take that up with Congress,” noted Decker. “When was the last time you saw or talked to her?”

  “A few days ago. She wanted to remind me about Tyler taking his allergy meds. He needs to get on it early with spring starting. I’m on Zyrtec year-round myself.”

  “And you saw her last when? You mentioned you were at her house a couple weeks ago to pick up Tyler.”

  “Julia wasn’t at the house then. Let me think a minute. Yeah, it was at school. About a week ago. There was an awards program at school. Tyler was getting the student-athlete of the year.”

  “Nice,” said White. “I’m sure you were both proud.”

  “He works hard and deserves it. I was never much of an athlete in high school, and I didn’t do any sports in college. He gets some of his size from me, but Julia was a great swimmer and tennis player. His athleticism definitely came from her.” He looked up at them, his face a tapestry of misery. “How…how did she die? No one told me.”

  White exchanged a glance with Decker, who said, “She was stabbed, Mr. Davidson.”

  “Oh my God.” He put his head in his hands.

  Andrews pulled out his phone. “Something was left beside her body.”

  Davidson looked up. “What?”

  Andrews held up his phone. “This note.”

  Davidson looked at them. “‘Res ipsa loquitor’? Sounds like Latin. What’s it mean?”

  “We hoped you could provide some information about it, and also about any enemies she might have had.”

  “I don’t know Latin. And she had no enemies that I knew of.”

  Andrews said, “I did a preliminary check of her past trials. She’s overseen a number of drug cases, syndicates, gangs. Some pretty dangerous characters.”

  “I…I guess. I just never focused on that,” said Davidson.

  “And she had a personal bodyguard. Any idea why?” asked Decker.

  “Tyler mentioned something about that after he had lunch with her, so I texted Julia to see what was up. She never got back to me.”

  Decker nodded, looking thoughtful. “Do you have any enemies?”

  Davidson looked up in surprise. “She had the bodyguard, not me.”

  “Maybe she was more cautious. So, any enemies?”

  Davidson looked away. “N-no. No enemies. Look, I…I need to end this interview. I’m going…to be sick.” He rushed from the room.

  They walked outside and stood around Andrews’s car.

  “Anything from your talk with Tyler?” asked White.

  “Confirmed his father’s alibi in all respects, so unless the kid is lying to cover for his old man, which I don’t think he is, Barry might be off the suspect list if the TOD holds. Tyler said he never saw any security guard around his mother’s place while he was there. But he did say his mother told him about it, and that it was about some stupid stuff having to do with her job. That’s probably Tyler’s word choice, not the judge’s.”

  “How would he not see a guard there?”

  “Well, if the guard was outside the whole time, and he arrived and then left while Tyler was sleeping, it could be the case. We need to get that info from the company.”

  “So the ex may be free and clear?” said White.

  Decker said, “Not necessarily. We could be looking at a murder for hire. Then his alibi is meaningless.”

  When Decker got into the car and closed the door his phone buzzed. He recognized the number.

  It was Earl Lancaster.

  Chapter 13

  E​ARL, IS ANYTHING WRONG?” SAID Decker anxiously.

  “It’s Sandy, Amos.”

  Decker felt his gut clinch. “Sandy! What’s the matter? Is she okay?”

  “I tried to talk to her about her mom. But I could make no headway.”

  Decker relaxed. “Earl, the police department has some really good grief counselors. They can talk to Sandy—”

  A clearly desperate Earl Lancaster interrupted. “We’ve tried that, Amos, it was no good. The thing is—”

  “What?”