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Decker didn’t know where his thirst for justice, for right over wrong, had come from. He did know that he had possessed it long before his family was taken from him.
Maybe because that hit on the field stole me from me. And I’ve been looking for something to fill that hole all these years. And catching killers seems to be the only thing that cuts it. Because they steal the most precious thing of all: somebody’s life.
He had no idea if that was the whole story or not. He just knew that right now, that’s all he had to hold on to.
As he drove, he focused on the problem at hand. What he desperately wanted to know was, if David Katz had arranged to meet with Don Richards, and that had been communicated by a phone call that had involved only the two men, how had their killers known the men were going to be meeting that night?
He couldn’t believe that Susan Richards had been party to it, because that would necessitate Decker’s believing that she would sacrifice both her kids as well. Decker had seen the woman that night. As Lancaster had said, Susan had been hysterical, utterly out of her mind with disbelief and rage. She was a woman who had been truly shocked to learn that she had gone out for the evening and come home to find out she had no family left.
Decker slowed the car down as he thought back over all these points.
He settled on the phone call between Katz and Richards.
There was actually no way to know that it was Katz who had called Richards. It was just Katz’s phone. Anyone could have made that call. And there was no guarantee that it was Richards who had answered, for the same reason.
The possibility was obvious: There could have been no scheduled meeting between the men. Decker had just assumed there was. The killer could have orchestrated all that to make it look like there was a meeting, or just Katz coming over for a beer. The fact that Decker believed that the killer or killers had driven an unconscious Katz over there made sense under that scenario. They could have gone in, held the Richardses hostage, brought in Katz, methodically killed them, laid their evidence casting guilt on Meryl Hawkins, departed the house through the back, and an hour later called in a disturbance.
So now the question was, who was really meant to be killed? Richards or Katz? The banker or the borrower?
And why?
And why did their killers pick that night to do it?
Decker knew if he could find an answer to any or all of those three questions, he might be able to blow this sucker wide open.
But he wasn’t there yet. Maybe not even close.
He drove to a very familiar place: Burlington High School, where a little over two years before, a horrific mass shooting had stunned the town.
Decker parked his car and made his way to the dilapidated football field. Burlington no longer fielded a football team—they didn’t have enough guys interested in playing the game. He climbed up into the bleachers as a light drizzle began to fall.
He took a seat and stared down at the field where he had been a superstar many years before. The only player in Burlington High history to go on to play in the NFL, if only for one play. He wrapped himself in his coat and stared moodily out.
As his gaze drifted to the right, he flinched as he saw her coming toward him. Mary Lancaster slowly made her way up the metal steps and sat down next to him.
“Didn’t we do this before?” she said.
He nodded. “In the rain. After the school shootings. How’d you know I was here?”
“I didn’t. You know my house backs up to the school. I take walks late at night. I saw you.”
He nodded again. “But it’s after one in the morning. It’s not really safe for you to be out alone.”
“And it is for you?”
“Well,” he said. “I’m a lot bigger than you.”
She opened her coat and he saw her pistol riding in its holster. “Someone wants to try to mug me, they’ll be eating a round.”
“I can see that. So, how’s it going?”
“It’s going. I hear you’re making progress on the case.”
“From who do you hear that?”
“Of all people, Natty. He seems to have had a change of heart about you after Sally was killed.”
Decker said, “Did you know they were seeing each other?”
