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“You okay?” asked one of the firemen.
“I am now.”
“Anybody else in there?”
“Not in the office I was in now. I don’t know about the rest of the building.”
“Any idea how it started?”
“Yeah, which is why I’m calling in the arson squad.” Decker showed the stunned firemen his creds. “Someone turned off the sprinkler system in the building,” he said.
Another fireman came up with the box Decker had dropped. “We found this on the street.”
Decker took the box from him. “Right where I dropped it. Thanks.”
As the men were fighting the fire, Decker sat on the opposite curb and called up Burlington’s arson squad and filled them in. Then he called Lancaster and did the same.
“Youjumpedout of a building?” she said.
“Well, not by choice. It was either that or be quick fried. I wouldn’t recommend either, actually.”
“What the hell is going on, Decker?” she said. “It feels like the whole town is under siege.”
“That’s because I think it is.”
“I’m still filling out forms. I’m starting to regret shooting the guy.”
“I’m heading back with a box of stuff I collected from Katz’s office. I’ll meet you at the station.”
Decker hefted the box and looked at the ladders and hoses and men combatting the fire. He set off down the street, climbed into his car, and drove to the police station.
Decker met Lancaster inside. He followed her into the same small conference room, set the box on the table, cut away the bubble wrap, and opened it. He handed Lancaster a stack of stuff and put another stack in front of himself.
“Her laptop wasn’t there. I think whoever searched her office took it. Or maybe she has it somewhere else. When she comes out of surgery and regains consciousness, we can ask her.”
Lancaster looked at him doubtfully. “You think she’s going to cooperate?”
“Considering somebody just tried to kill her, what choice does she have?”
“You might be surprised.”
“Well, life is just full of surprises. That’s why we play the game.”
He turned his attention to the stack in front of him. Financial documents, construction plans, Excel spreadsheets.
“She had a lot of business going on,” commented Lancaster as she started going over her set of files.
“Did you have any luck running down any of her backers?”
“Not really. But we did find out that they were shell companies for the most part with locations in countries where they believe transparency is a bad word.”
“I wonder why that is.”
“It would seem that her financial backers don’t want to be publicly known. But they might still be legit.”
“And Imightbe short and skinny,” said Decker. “Is there any way we can find out who’s behind those companies?”
“How about your people at the FBI?”
