CHAPTER
56
THEY DROVE BACK to the apartment and grabbed some sleep. They woke early, showered, changed clothes, and met in the kitchen. Decker had gotten there first and made coffee for both of them. The rain continued to pour down outside.
Decker sipped his coffee while standing over by the window and looking out.
“Have you heard from Brown?” asked Jamison.
Decker shook his head. “No. Why?”
“Just wondering.”
He turned to look at her. “Why, Alex? I know she’s not your favorite person.”
“She and I had words last night. Okay, I spoke most of the words.”
“What did you say?”
“I was brutally candid.”
“About what?”
“About everything.”
Decker snorted. “Then I’m surprised she didn’t shoot you.”
“I had a gun too.”
Decker walked back over to her. “She’s not a bad person, Alex.”
“But she’s not a particularly good one either. And she missed the stuff on Natalie. That was big.”
“And you thought back in Burlington that I had murdered my own family.”
Jamison’s features turned dark. “I never thought that!”
“You suspected it.”
“I was a journalist back then. I had to cover all the angles.”
“So you’ve never made a mistake?”
“Of course I have. We all have.”
“I’ve made my share, particularly on this case. And I don’t see you jumping on my butt.”
“Well, you own up to them. And you’ve done a lot of great stuff too. But I haven’t seen her do much.”
“Okay, so long as you’re keeping score, Brown saved my ass in the parking lot out there. But for her you’d be living alone. And she opened up a lot more about her work than she probably wanted to. When I went to DIA that day it was clear that her colleagues were pissed at what she’d done. And I got the impression that it might even cost her career-wise. But she did it because she wants to find out the truth. So she went to bed with Melvin. So what? The woman probably works hundred-hour weeks and doesn’t know what country she’s going to be in week-to-week. She has all this money, but she apparently doesn’t have anyone in her life. Her parents are dead. She has no siblings. She’s probably pretty lonely. Just like Melvin. So they found each other, at least for one night. Good for them.”
“Those are all fair points, but I don’t see why you feel the need to keep defending her.”
“Because men seem to get an easy pass on a lot of things from the ladies. I don’t know why, but they just do. It’s like women hold other women to a higher standard in some ways.”
“Maybe we do,” said Jamison. “But women know how other women can be…”
“Cagey? They’re doing calculus while men are still adding and subtracting?”
Jamison smiled grimly. “I was going to use another term, but I’m fine with cagey.”
“The fact is, we need Brown if we’re going to get to the bottom of this thing. You don’t have to like her, Alex. You just have to be able to work with her.”
“After our last meeting, I think that’s going to be hard. Maybe more for her than me. I mean, I really laid it on, Decker.”
“She might have thicker skin than you think.”
“I’ll guess we’ll find out.”
“Ellie, one of the daughters?” said a stunned Jamison.
“No. It was the housekeeper, Cecilia Randall.”
CHAPTER
57
THEY WERE NOT at the luxurious home of the Dabneys in tony