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“Well, yeah.”
“The point is, he invited us to dinner. We should accept. At the very least we might learn something that could be helpful.”
Decker fingered his coffee, looking uncertain.
“What?” she said.
“If you want the truth, I guess I’m pissed that he seems so happy. Without my sister. I know that’s stupid and petty, but . . .”
Jamison put a hand on his shoulder. “And it’s also normal to feel that way after something like this happens to a family member. But you have to let it go. It’s his life to live, not yours. Don’t judge him, Decker, just support him. Like you just said, he’s a good guy.”
He refocused and said, “If Purdy’s family lives in Montana just over the border we should be able to find them.”
“It’s a long border, Decker. What about Robie? Could he help?”
“He got us the photo and the name. He did his job. His forte is not running stuff down in a database or interviewing witnesses. We should be able to do that.”
“In a normal case, yes. But this is apparently not a normal case.”
Decker thought about this for a long moment, took out his phone, and punched in a number.
“Who are you calling?” she asked.
“A professional colleague . . . Hello, Bernie, it’s Amos Decker. Yeah, it has been a long time. Yeah, still doing PI. Look, I’m on a job for a client who’s trying to track a deadbeat dad. Name’s Ben Purdy. He’s in the Air Force, but I think he might be AWOL, so he’s got bigger problems than alimony and child support. We tried to garnish, but the guy’s gone all cash and the military’s not been very helpful. Right, I know. Same old story. Now we got a lead on some of his family being in Montana, near the North Dakota border. I remember you know a guy out that way who was pretty good. Any chance you dial him up and get some intel for me on Purdy and his family? An address for them because I happen to be out that way?” Decker paused and listened. “Yeah, that’s right, that’ll work. Give him my number so you don’t have to be caught in the middle. Right, thanks, Bernie. Beers on me next time and I’ll cover the guy’s hourly.”
He clicked off and looked at Jamison. She stared back at him incredulously.
“You just called in a favor from, what, your private PI boys’ club? I thought that only happened in the movies.”
“Bernie Hoffman used to be a homicide detective in Cincinnati. We got to know and trust each other working some joint cases. About the time I went private so did he. We helped each other back then, too. I remembered he had a really good guy in South Dakota. Bernie will put him on the case and we’ll see what pops. And it’s not a favor. I’m paying the guy.”
When she kept staring at him, he said, “What?”
“Well, you handled that so deftly over the phone. I mean, you weren’t, um . . .” Her voice trailed off and she looked a little embarrassed.
“I get tongue-tied in social situations, Alex. Put me in the middle of a dinner, or a party or anything like that, I’m not your guy for eloquence or even stringing a few words together. But when it comes to what I do for a living, I don’t have that problem. I thought you would have remembered that from our first few encounters back in Ohio.”
She smiled, shamefaced. “You’re right about that. Okay. So what do you think Purdy meant when he said they were all sitting on a time bomb here?”
“He could have been speaking metaphorically. Or literally.”
“The latter gives me the chills.”
“Robie got the photo by breaking into the military facility.”
A wide-eyed Jamison said, “You didn’t tell me that part. Did he actually say that?”
“He didn’t have to. But it was a close call for the guy, and he strikes me as the sort who can pretty much go where he wants. So the security there must be tough.”
“Well, itisa secret government facility,” said Jamison.
“Yeah, I just wonder what thesecretis.”
“What do you mean?”
In response Decker brought up some photos on his phone. “Robie didn’t tell me about these. I guess he thought the photos would speak for themselves, and they sort of do.”
He showed Jamison shots of the men on the gurney being taken to the ambulance, and the man and two women getting off the jet.
