“How did you know something was wrong?”
“When I woke up one morning and couldn’t remember Sandy’s name for about a minute. I blew that off, chalked it up to overwork. But little things like that started to happen with more frequency. That’s when I went to the doctor.”
Decker sat back and thought about his momentary inability to remember Cassie’s favorite color. “Is that the reason for you and Earl splitting up?”
“Earl is a good guy, couldn’t ask for a better one. But he has enough to do taking care of Sandy. I do not need to add to his burden.”
“A good guy would not see it as a burden.”
She looked at him. “Cassie never saw you as a burden, I hope you know that.”
Decker looked away, his gaze drifting over the field where he had run like the wind, opposing players bouncing off him like pebbles flung against a mighty oak, people cheering him on, a normal kid with abnormal, even freakish athletic talent. Those had been some of the happiest times of his life, only to be dwarfed on the happiness scale by his time as a husband and father.
“I know that,” he said quietly. “But I don’t think you should give up on Earl that easily. The words are ‘in sickness and in health.’”
“‘Till death do us part.’ Those vows are easy to make when you’re young, healthy and happy and in love, your whole life ahead of you.”
“Are you still in love with Earl?”
She looked at him, startled. “What?”
“I’m still in love with Cassie. I’ll always love her. I don’t care if she’s dead. But Earl isn’t dead. Earl is right here. I would give anything for Cassie to be here. And nothing, not early onset dementia or anything else, would keep me from her. Any second without her would be a waste of my life.”
Decker rose and walked down the steps as the rain picked up.
Mary Lancaster watched him every step of the way.
Chapter 43
“You look tired. Didn’t you sleep okay?”
Mars asked this as he and Decker sat in the dining area of the Residence Inn the next morning having coffee.
“Slept like a baby,” lied Decker. He sat back and fiddled with his paper napkin. “Planning went into this. They had to get the print, the DNA, and come up with the light switch plate. They had to kidnap David Katz. They had to commit the murders, leave the evidence, and flee the crime scene. This was clearly premeditated.”
“I agree.”
“So why did they pick that night, then? To do it? Was it just a coincidence that it was around the time of the only known phone call between the two men for a long while?”
“Maybe they found out about the phone call another way. What time did it happen?”
“Twelve-ten p.m.”
“And Richards got the call at work?”
“It was his cell phone, but because of the time presumably it was—” Decker sat up straighter, his eyes wide.
“What?” said Mars, looking a bit alarmed.
“It was on a Monday in October.”
“Okay.”
“It was actually also Columbus Day.”
“A holiday, then.”
“Yes, and that meant two things. There was no school and the bank was closed.”
“So where was Richards when he got the call, if not at the bank?”
“He could very well have been at home,” said Decker.
“With his kids. And his wife. Do you think one of them might have overheard something, and then told someone?”
“That’s certainly possible. But regardless, they would have had to act fast. Get the print on the switch plate and take it with them to the Richardses’. Then someone scratches Hawkins’s arms and collects his DNA that way.”
“And you think it was his daughter, Mitzi.”
“It would explain why he kept quiet. He would obviously know who scratched him.”
Mars said thoughtfully, “I see what you mean. His wife was dying, and he didn’t want their daughter to get into trouble, even if it cost him his freedom.”
Decker nodded. “When they finish testing the DNA sample, I bet it will show that Mitzi’s DNA is also mixed up in what we found under Abigail’s nails.”
Mars said, “But why would she frame her own father?”
“She was a drug addict. Out of her mind half the time. She could have been easily persuaded to do it.”
“But what would be the motive of somebody doing all that to kill Katz and Richards? And how does that tie into David Katz going over to Don Richards’s house? Wait, do you think those guys were into drugs too?”
“Not that we know—” Decker stopped. “But Richards’s son, Frankie, was. And we found out he was also dealing.”
“But again, what’s the connection?”
Decker closed his eyes and dialed up his cloud. After a few seconds he shook his head. “It’s not in the case file.”
“What’s not?”
“The name of Mitzi’s drug dealer.”
Chapter 44
Natty was sitting sulkily behind his desk in the open room of the homicide department. Four other detectives were there working away, including Mary Lancaster.
A moment later Decker and Mars burst into the space. Decker glanced at Lancaster, who had a questioning look on her face, before marching over to stand in front of Natty.
“Karl Stevens,” he said.
“Who?”
“He was the dealer who’d sold some stuff to Frankie Richards.”
Lancaster had risen from her chair and approached. “We know that, but he had an alibi for the time of the murders. We checked that back then.”
“Not the point,” said Decker brusquely.
“So, what is the point?” snapped Natty.
“Did he also deal to Mitzi Hawkins?”
Lancaster and Natty exchanged a look. Natty said, “I don’t know. It’s been a long time. Does it matter?”
“It could.”
Natty sighed. “I can check. No guarantees that it’s in the records anywhere. And Karl Stevens sold to a lot of people.”
Mars said, “Where is he now?”
Lancaster answered. “I can tell you that. He’s at Travis Correctional Center. It’s a private prison now. Stevens is serving ten to twenty on a second-degree murder conviction. He killed a guy over a heroin transaction. He’s five years into his term. I was the one who busted him.”
Decker said, “Travis Correctional? Isn’t that where Meryl Hawkins ended up serving his time?”
Natty got on his computer and tapped some more keys. When he reached the page, his jaw fell. He looked up.
“You’re right.”
“Were they both in gen pop?” asked Decker, referring to the prison’s general population.
“I don’t know. But that’s usually the case. They don’t have the space to segregate prisoners. They’re way beyond capacity as it is.”
Lancaster said, “They could have interacted at the prison, then.” She looked at Decker. “What are you thinking?”
“If they did interact, Stevens could have told him something that led Hawkins to come back here asking us to prove his innocence. I wondered about the timing of all this. I mean, did Hawkins just learn something that made him believe we could prove his innocence? He wanted to meet with me. Maybe it was then that he was going to tell me what he knew.”
Lancaster said, “He must have learned it recently, otherwise why wouldn’t he have raised it while he was still in prison?”
“What could Stevens have told him?” asked Natty.
“For one thing, that he was Mitzi’s dealer,” replied Decker.
“So what?”
“That could mean a connection between Frankie Richards and Mitzi.”