THE HOUSEKEEPER THEY had seen on a previous visit answered the door. She was in her sixties, with gray hair pulled back in a bun. She had on the same garb that Decker had seen her in before. Black slacks, a white smock, and black rubber-soled shoes. Whether she was required to wear this or not he wasn’t sure.
“They’re not here,” she said in reply to Jamison’s query about the Dabneys.
“Do you know when they’ll be back?” asked Jamison.
“Oh, in about a half hour. They’re at the viewing service for Mr. Dabney. The funeral is tomorrow.” She shook her head sadly. “My God, what a damn shame. He was such a good man. Can’t believe what happened.”
“And your name is?” asked Decker.
“Cecilia. Cecilia Randall. But folks just call me Cissy.”
“Cissy, do you think we could wait for them?” asked Decker. “It’s sort of important.”
She looked hesitant but then opened the door farther, allowing them to pass. “I know you’re with the FBI, so I guess it’s okay. Can I get you a drink or anything?”
Jamison began, “No, we—”
Decker said, “I’d like a cup of coffee if that’s not too much trouble.”
“No trouble a’tall. They have a Keurig. Just pop in a pod and there you go.”
They followed her to the kitchen, where she pulled out a box of pods. “Full strength or decaf?” she said.
“Real coffee, just black.”
She busied herself with making the coffee while Decker watched her.
“This is a beautiful kitchen,” said Jamison.
“Yes, it is,” Cissy said proudly. “Mrs. Dabney’s renovated it twice since they’ve lived here. She’s got the eye for stuff like that.”
“So you’ve worked for them a long time?” said Jamison, glancing at Decker.
“Over thirty-five years. I diapered all four of them girls, I can tell you that. All right here in this house.”
“Wow,” said Jamison. “That’s a long time.”
“They’re a wonderful family.”
Decker said, “So Mr. Dabney bought this place while he was still working at the NSA?”
Cissy took a cup out of a cabinet and put it under the Keurig’s spout. “Don’t know about that. He never talked about work, least with me.”
“It’s just that I know this area is expensive. I just assumed he bought this place after he started his own company and started making the big bucks.”
“Again, I don’t know nothing about that. But I do know Mrs. Dabney had some money.”
“Oh, she told you that?”
“Not in so many words. But you could tell she came from money. The way she dressed and walked and talked. Mr. Dabney wasn’t always such a sharp dresser, and I remember he used to drive a really old car when they first got this place, but then he bought himself this yellow Porsche. Now that was a beautiful car.”
“Porsche, nice,” said Jamison, throwing a glance at Decker. “So the Dabneys have had a nice life. Up until now,” she quickly added.
The coffee cup filled, Cissy handed it to Decker before throwing the used pod away in a slide-out trash can. “Well, everybody’s got problems, and Mrs. Dabney’s no exception.”
“So you mean before now?” asked Decker.
“I mean way back.” She hesitated and then, in a lower voice, though no one was around, said, “She had two miscarriages and a stillborn baby. Little girl. It was awful.”
“Oh my God!” exclaimed Jamison. “Was that before she had her four daughters?”
“Stillborn was. That was before my time, but Mrs. Dabney talked to me about it once. The two miscarriages were in between Ms. Amanda and Ms. Natalie.” Cissy wiped up around the Keurig machine with a cloth. “But they have problems too.”
“I noted Amanda’s arm, and Natalie’s toes,” said Decker.
“Right, had those since birth. Plus they all got the asthma pretty bad. But they’re all smart, and Ms. Amanda and Ms. Natalie have kids.”
“And the other girls?”
Her voice dropped lower. “To tell the truth, I’ve heard Ms. Jules and Ms. Samantha got problems in that department. I mean having babies. Might be why they’re not married yet.”
Jamison looked around. “Do you think Mrs. Dabney will stay here?”
“Don’t know. Have to tell you I’m worried ’bout that. I’ve worked here a long time. And they’ve taken real good care of me. But if she moves in with one of her daughters, she won’t need me.”
“Well, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. She might want to stay.”
“Maybe,” Cissy said doubtfully. “Now, I’ve got work to do, so…”
Decker and Jamison thanked her and retreated to the library to wait for the Dabneys to arrive home.
“Wow, I had no idea the Dabneys had been through all that,” said Jamison. “Makes it even sadder.”
Decker said nothing. He just sat there staring around the room.
Then his eye caught on something. It was a black bag strap sticking out of the drawer of the desk that was situated against one wall of the room.
He walked over, opened the drawer, and pulled out the bag.
“What is that?” asked Jamison.
Decker unzipped the bag and pulled the device out. “A really old video recorder. Uses VHS tapes.”
“Anything in it?”
“No, but there’s a tape still in the wrapper.” He felt around inside the bag and pulled out remnants of a wrapper from another tape. He looked down at the plastic with the 3M logo on it. Next he opened up all the desk drawers and looked through them.
“Anything?” asked Jamison.
“Walter Dabney was a very tidy and organized man. Even the rubber bands are neatly arranged, pencils and pens divided, not a stray scrap of paper.” He looked around the library at the books. “We searched this place before and you know what we found?”
“What?”
“That all the books are alphabetized by the last name of the author.”
“Organized, like you said.”
Decker held up the odd scraps of plastic. “So why not throw this away? There’s a wastebasket right next to the desk.”
“I don’t know.”
Decker held up the tape. “And we’ve seen something shaped like this before.”
“We have? Where?”
“In the bag the woman was carrying when she and Dabney were leaving the bank after cleaning out his safe deposit box. You could see the rectangular outline through the bag.”
“Wait a minute, you think he used that camera to do a videotape? And that was what was in the safe deposit box?”
“Yeah, I do. And by that time Dabney probably didn’t care about being neat and tidy, so the plastic wrapper just got left there.”
It was right then that they heard a car drive up. Decker quickly put the camera bag back, looked out the window, and saw the five women get out of an SUV. A few moments later they could hear them coming into the home.
A minute later Ellie Dabney came into the library. “I didn’t expect you to be back,” she said, her expression weary.
Jules appeared behind her. “What’s going on, Mom?”
Decker said, “We just have a few more questions.”
“Have you found out anything?” said Jules. “About Dad?”
“We’re working on it,” said Decker.
Ellie sat down, and a moment later Cissy came in carrying a cup of steaming tea. She handed it to Ellie, glanced surreptitiously at Decker, and then hurried out of the room. Jules sat down next to her mother.
Ellie said absently, “What questions?”
Decker sat down across from her. “Your husband had done well for himself.”
“Yes, he had,” snapped Jules. “What of it?”
Decker kept his focus on Ellie. “He was at NSA when you got married?”
“That’s right. He was there for about a decade, right out of college. He started his business on our wedding anniversary.” She smiled weakly. “He said it was good karma, good luck to take the plunge then. The kids were still young. In fact, Natalie was just a toddler.”
Jules said, “What does any of this have to do with what happened?”
Decker said, “We’re trying to establish certain things in connection with what happened. The first one being is there a connection between your father and the victim.”
“I told you that I could think of none,” said Ellie.
Decker eyed her closely. “Has Natalie spoken to you?”
“About what?”
“Her husband’s gambling debts.”
“No, I haven’t.”
This came from Natalie, who was standing in the doorway, her overcoat still on, and a glass of white wine in her hand.
Ellie looked at her youngest daughter. “Gambling debts, Natalie? What is he talking about?”
Natalie looked sourly at Decker, walked into the room, and flopped down into a chair. She took a swig of her wine and said, “Okay, why the hell not? I guess it’s not enough that I had to go and look at my father’s dead body today.” She sat up, drained her glass, and said, “Corbett had gambling debts. They were huge. The people he owed them to were really bad. They threatened to kill us, and they meant it. I called and asked Daddy for help.” She stopped there and looked away.
A stunned Ellie glanced at Decker. “I don’t understand.”
“Your husband found the money to pay off those debts by stealing classified government secrets and selling them.”
Ellie Dabney slowly rose on wobbly legs. “What?”
Jules stood and supported her mother with an arm under her elbow.
“What bullshit is this? Dad stealing secrets? That’s crap.”
“How else was he going to get ten million dollars?” asked Decker.
Jules paled and shot her sister a glance. “Ten million dollars! Is this true?”
Natalie looked dully at her older sister. “Why in the hell do you think I’m divorcing the prick, because he’s no longer good in bed?”
“You asked Dad to come up with ten million dollars!” screamed Jules.
“Who else was I supposed to ask?” her sister screamed right back. “Don’t you understand? They were going to kill Corbett, me, and Tasha, okay? My daughter was going to die. I had no choice.”
The noise of the confrontation brought the two other sisters rushing into the room. Samantha exclaimed, “What the hell is going on?”
“Your bitch of a little sister made our father commit treason to pay the gambling debts of her dickless husband, that’s what!” shouted Jules.
The blood drained from Amanda’s and Samantha’s faces. “W-what?” said Amanda in a quavering voice.
“How could you, Nat!” said Jules, tears now streaming down her cheeks.
“I didn’t know he was going to steal government secrets,” said Natalie in a hollow voice. “Look, I…I never thought…”
“That’s right, you never thought,” accused Jules. “You never did think, except about yourself! And now we know why Dad killed himself. Because he was ashamed of what he did. Of what you drove him to do!”
During all this, Ellie had just stood there staring at the floor.
Decker was watching her. He said, “Mrs. Dabney, can we talk privately?” He eyed the sisters. “I think this might be more productive without the histrionics.”
“Histrionics,” exclaimed Jules. “You sonofabitch! What the hell gives you the right—”
Ellie turned and slapped her daughter across the cheek. “Shut up!”
Jules fell back, holding her cheek and looking stunned.
“But Mom!” began Natalie.
“All of you, not another word,” said Ellie. “Leave, just get out, go somewhere, get drunk, I don’t care. But just leave this room. Now!”
Looking hurt and offended, the sisters, shooting dark glances at Decker and Jamison, slowly filed out of the room. When the door closed behind them Ellie sank into her chair.
Decker waited a few more moments before saying, “The question becomes, was this a one-off or not.”
“What does that even mean?” said Ellie, not looking at him.
“Your husband was able to find a buyer for the secrets relatively fast. If he hadn’t committed espionage before, reason would dictate that he wouldn’t have been able to do that. But if he had sold secrets before, then he might have had a ready-made purchaser. You see the logic?”
She slowly nodded. “I see the logic. But I can’t believe it applies in this case. My husband was a patriot. He would never betray his country.”
“But that’s exactly what he did do,” Decker pointed out.
“Only to save his daughter,” she shot back. “That would be the only reason. His family!”
“It’s still treason. And we have to find out if he had committed it before.”
“I can’t believe that he did.”
“So you can’t help us?” said Decker.
“I knew nothing of his business. I already told you that. If Walt were stealing secrets, I have to imagine that someone at work would have known about it. But they have checks and balances in place for just that reason. He told me that.”
Decker shot Jamison a glance. “We should have followed that up before.”
Decker and Jamison stood. She said, “We’re sorry to be putting you through all of this.”
“I didn’t think this could possibly get worse.” She paused. “Only it just did.”
They left her there staring at…nothing.
Which was maybe all that the woman had left.