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CHAPTER
64
IT WAS BARELY NOON AND the news of Fred and Ellen Ewes’s having been murdered had circulated throughout Cowl and Comely.
Devine abruptly left his office and sought out Wanda Simms.
“Any idea where Mr. Cowl is?” he asked.
“I’m not his keeper, Travis,” the woman said sharply, but then her look immediately softened. “I’m sorry, but this is all getting to me. Four people have been murdered. And two of them worked here, and the other victims were the parents of one of them.”
“You’d think the head of the company would be around to lead the troops.”
She looked at him skeptically. “For all I know he jetted off to some island with a group of swimsuit models. But if you say I told you that I’ll deny it.”
“Have you spoken to his little group of executives?”
“I have. And they won’t say a word about him. Too afraid, I would imagine.”
I would imagine, too.
“Wanda, do you have any idea what’s on the fifty-first floor?”
Her look immediately became guarded. “Why, what’s it to you?”
“Four people have been killed, like you said. And that floor is the only one that no one can access.”
“Oh come on, Travis. Every investment house has secure areas. It’s probably where the high-frequency trading takes place. Just servers and the like. Did you ever think of that?”
Yes, I did, thought Devine. “One more thing. Did you tell anyone that I had come up to the fifty-second floor on the morning Sara’s body was found?”
She looked warily at him. “Why?”
“Just trying to figure something out.”
“I might have mentioned it to Jenn Stamos, actually. Now she’s dead, too. And she was really broken up about Sara’s death. I didn’t think they were that friendly.”
“Well, you just never know. Thanks.”
So that’s why Hancock was sicced on me so fast. Stamos might have learned from Sara that we had slept together. And then I show up asking questions. She tells Cowl, and Cowl gives marching orders to Hancock—or Bartlett, rather—to go play detective and find out what he can. And Stamos also told Cowl I had come back to the building that night and that the guard saw me. He checked the security log and there was my security card for the fifty-second floor. And then he sees my security card log-in and my face on the video on the night Sara died and plans to frame me.
And he also thought that might be why Rachel Potter from Channel 44 had been on his case, too. One of her confidential or probably anonymous sources might have been Hancock/Bartlett using her to put the squeeze on him.
He texted Campbell, asking for a meeting.
He got a nearly instant reply, and location. He left Cowl and headed for the Fifties again.
And on the way he got another email from the untraceable source.
I was surprised I could find Mr. and Mrs. Eweses’ hearts to stab. The world is better off without them. I hope you agree.
Devine slowly put the phone away and kept walking. But with every step the dread he was feeling grew like a cancer, creeping to every organ he had.
* * *
The restaurant door opened for Devine and he slipped inside.
Campbell was waiting for him in the same room.
