DECKER SAID INTO his phone, “Agent Bogart?”
“Decker. How’s it going down there? I assume you’re still in Alabama.”
“Yes. It’s going, slowly. We might have got a lead on the guy who killed Regina Montgomery. He might have been seen. The cops down here are following up.”
“I’m glad for you.”
“I appreciate you paying for some more nights at the hotel. And the rental car too.”
“You’re welcome. It was not my intent to leave you high and dry.”
“Are you back at Quantico?”
“Yes.”
“What do they have you doing?”
“Right now, not much.”
“Why is that?”
“I can’t really get into that.”
“Does it have to do with most of your team opting to continue the investigation?”
“Would it matter to you if it did?”
“I don’t want this to hurt your career.”
“I think that ship has sailed.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Way it goes sometimes. Maybe my big idea to have this team of folks from different walks of life was stupid anyway.”
“I don’t think it was stupid,” said Decker bluntly.
“Face it, Decker, you don’t need anyone working with you. You can figure pretty much anything out by yourself.”
“I needed help in Burlington. To find my family’s killers.”
“You would have gotten there without us.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. Is everything else going okay?”
“What, you mean my marriage? I got served with divorce papers this morning, as a matter of fact. Funny, after all this, I thought we might make it work.”
“So it was a surprise?”
“Yes, it was a surprise. And my soon-to-be ex apparently has a new boyfriend who’s a struggling artist, so she’s coming after me for substantial alimony.”
“You need a good lawyer.”
“I have a good lawyer. Problem is, so does she. Look, what can I do for you? I know you better than to think you called to chitchat.”
“I know this might sound crazy, but can you run something down for me?”
He heard Bogart sigh, but he also heard the clicking of a pen. “Like what?”
“Like whether Roy and Lucinda Mars were in the Witness Protection Program?”
“What?” Bogart exclaimed.
“They have no past that anyone can find. I think they might have been relocated.”
“But why Witness Protection?”
“It would be a great motive for someone other than their son to kill them.”
“And Charles Montgomery?”
“His wife was bribed to make him confess. The stuff I saw in her little duplex totaled over fifty grand. A down payment only. But they killed her so they wouldn’t have to pay anything else. And also we were putting pressure on her. She might’ve cracked and let something slip. She had to die.”
Bogart was silent for a few moments. “You know that the U.S. Marshals have never lost a protectee before.”
“And maybe they didn’t want anyone to know they’d lost the Marses.”
“That’s a big accusation.”
“And it’s a pretty big case, so that’s symmetry for you.”
“And if they were in Witness Protection, why didn’t the U.S. Marshals come forward during Mars’s trial?”
“Well, if no one knew they were in Witness Protection no one would know to ask them. And I doubt they would volunteer anything if they didn’t have to.”
“But they would know about the trial. They would know that an innocent man might have gone to prison.”
“The evidence was pretty substantial against Melvin. They might have believed that he actually killed them, and thus it had nothing to do with why they were put into the program in the first place.”
“Okay, let’s say I look into that for you. And I’m not saying I can. That would be potentially opening a big can of worms with the Marshals.”
“I understand.”
“But if I did, and they were killed by someone from their past, how do you explain Montgomery being paid off to lie and spring Mars from prison?”
“I can’t explain it. Not yet, anyway.”
“Did Mars suggest this?”
“No. It was my idea. He knows nothing about his parents’ past.”
“You can’t know that for sure. His parents might have told him.”
“They might have,” conceded Decker. “But if they were in the program it might give us a handle on who killed them.”
“It might indeed,” said Bogart. “I’ll let you know one way or the other.”
“Agent Bogart, I am sorry for what happened. It wasn’t my intent.”
He heard the other man sigh. “I know. For you it’s all about the case.”
“Actually, it’s all about finding the truth.”
“Well, good luck with that.”
Bogart clicked off and Decker set down his phone.
The Witness Protection angle had occurred to him several days ago actually, but after thinking about it in the shower after his workout he had decided to ask Bogart to make an official inquiry with the U.S. Marshals.
If Roy and Lucinda Mars had been in Witness Protection it would explain a lot of things: their lack of personal history, their showing up in a small town in West Texas, the scar on Roy Mars’s face, ultimately their murders.
But what it couldn’t explain away was what had so recently happened. Namely, someone paying off the Montgomerys to get Melvin Mars out of prison.
Who would do that? The same people who had killed his parents and framed him, sending him to prison and nearly to his execution over the course of the last twenty years?
No, it could not be them.
So who?
Unless he answered that question, Decker feared he would never bring this case to a satisfactory end.
He went downstairs to the hotel lobby to find Jamison waiting for him.
“Have you eaten?” she asked.
He shook his head. They went into the restaurant off the lobby.
When Decker started to order the All-American Breakfast, complete with fried eggs, pancakes, sausage and bacon, grits, and fried toast, he got a piercing gaze from Jamison.
Instead, he ordered orange juice, plain toast, and an egg white omelet.
As they ate he told her about his idea.
“Witness Protection?” she said. “That’s interesting. I guess it could explain some things.”
“But not the main thing. Why Melvin is free.”
“No, I guess not that.”
He didn’t mention his meeting with Mars in the hotel gym, and the man’s sudden reluctance to see the case through. It didn’t matter to Decker what Mars thought. If he wanted to quit the case that was fine. Decker would continue on alone if need be.
He did tell Jamison about his talk with Davenport.
“Well, at least she brought light beer,” said Jamison. “So, a book deal, huh? I wondered about that.”
Decker looked at her, slightly surprised. “Why?”
She looked uncomfortable.
“Why?” he asked again.
“Because back in Burlington I sort of had the same thought when we were investigating the murder of your family.”
“That what, you’d write a book about it?”
“About it. About you. You are fascinating, Amos, you can’t deny that.”
“If I am fascinating, it’s only because of a traumatic brain injury suffered on the football field. It’s not like anyone should be encouraged to duplicate what happened to me.”
“But your mind, your memory capability?”
He put down his fork. “So, do you still want to write a book on me?”
She looked at him, annoyance followed by guilt flitting across her features.
“Not anymore, no.”
“Good, because if you did it would have to be done without any help from me, Jamison.”
“I get that. I mean, I know that about you now.” She looked around the room. “So what do we do? Stay in Alabama and see what the police come up with?”
Decker shook his head. “The events in Alabama are just part of the effects. Charles Montgomery being executed. Regina Montgomery being killed. The cause of it all is back in Texas. That’s where we need to go.”
“But didn’t this really start before Texas? I mean, if the Marses were in Witness Protection?”
“Absolutely, Jamison. But to get to there we have to go through Texas first. Because, for Melvin, that’s where all this started.”
The next moment Decker froze.
“What is it, Amos?”
Decker mumbled, “Heisman?”
“Heisman. What, the trophy?”
Decker rose. “No, all the hoopla associated with it.”
“How is that connected?” she said.
“I think it might be the catalyst for all the rest.”