She was dressed in a black jacket with a white cuffed shirt underneath and a long skirt. Her choice of lipstick was flaming red, her fingernails the same shade. The briefcase she carried lightly smacked against her thigh as she walked.
A couple of construction workers catcalled out to her as she passed by. Katz ignored them.
Decker heaved himself off the bench and went to work.
Just like old times.
Chapter 14
SHE LOOKED UP AT HIM, recognition flitting across her features as he stopped her on the sidewalk.
“I remember you.”
“Amos Decker. I investigated the death of your husband when I worked on the Burlington police force.”
“That’s right.” She frowned. “And I heard on the news that the man who killed him came back to town. And that he was found murdered.”
“That’s right. Meryl Hawkins.”
She shuddered. “Well, I can’t say that I was sorry. But I thought he was in prison for life. What was he doing here? The news didn’t say.”
“They let him out because he was terminally ill with cancer.”
She had no reaction to this. “And what are you doing here?” she asked.
“I just have some questions for you.”
“Do you still work for the police? I thought I heard that you left town.”
“I work for the FBI now. But I’m still a sworn officer in Ohio.” He showed her his official credentials.
“And what exactly are you investigating?”
“Hawkins’s murder. And that of your husband and the other victims at the Richardses’ that night.”
She shook her head, looking confused. “We know who killed my husband and the Richards family. Meryl Hawkins.”
“We’re taking another look at it.”
“Why?”
“There are some anomalies we need to sort out.”
“What sort of anomalies?”
“Do you want to go somewhere to discuss this rather than out on the street? Or we can go down to the police station.”
She looked around at several passersby staring at them. “My condo is right over here.”
He followed her into the building, which had a concierge, and they rode up in an elevator to her floor.
“Didn’t know they had places like this in Burlington,” noted Decker as they walked down the plush corridor. “At least they didn’t when I lived here.”
“We just completed this a year ago. I’m actually involved with the development company that renovated this building. We’re working on two others. And I’m also working with another group in several new projects around town and a slew of businesses, including some restaurants. We have big plans for Burlington.”
“Economy finally turning around?”
“Seems to be. We hope to get several large companies to come here. We’re really rolling out the red carpet. Two Fortune 1000s have already started building regional headquarters in the area. And a high-tech start-up just opened its headquarters downtown, which brought in a lot of young, affluent people. It’s a lot cheaper to live here than in, say, Chicago. And we enticed a hospital system to build a new facility. And we’re well along to getting a parts supplier to the Big Three in Detroit to build a new factory on the north side of town. Those people have to live, shop, and eat out somewhere. New restaurants and places to live downtown are already popping up, in addition to what I’m working on. So, yes, things are looking up.”
“Great.”
They entered her condo, which had an open floor plan and lots of twenty-foot windows. Decker watched as Katz used a remote to open the shades to let in the fading light.
“Beautiful place,” he observed, looking at all the expensive architectural details, like exposed beams and repointed brick walls, slate floors, high-dollar appliances in the kitchen, and oil and acrylic paintings on the wall. The furniture was big enough not to be overwhelmed by the large footprint, with several comfortable seating areas laid out.
“It was featured in Luxe,” she said. “That’s a design magazine,” she added when Decker looked blankly at her. “Targeted to the very affluent.” She paused. “Sorry if that sounded snooty.”
“No problem. I’m just not very knowledgeable about that stuff. And I’ve never been affluent.”
“Well, I wasn’t born with a silver spoon. And being a CPA, I work about a hundred hours a week.”
“You must have gotten off early today, then. It’s not yet five. I was expecting to be waiting longer before I saw you coming home.”
“This is just a little break for me. I head back to the office in a couple hours for a client meeting. And then I have an event later tonight. I was hoping to catch up on a few domestic chores right now, so if we could get down to what you wanted?”
She sat down on a couch and motioned for Decker to sit in a chair opposite.
“So what anomalies were you referring to?”
“I can’t get into specifics because it’s an ongoing investigation. I can tell you that Meryl Hawkins came back to town to ask the police to reopen the investigation.”
“Reopen it. Why?”
“Because he said he was innocent.”
Katz’s features turned ugly. “So you’re taking the word of a murderer to reopen the investigation? Are you kidding me?”
“No, not just that. There are the anomalies I mentioned.”
“And that you won’t specify. So what do you want with me?” she said abruptly.
“Can you tell me why your husband was there that night?”
“Good God, I already testified to this.”
“It would just take a minute. And you might remember something you hadn’t before.”
Katz let out a long, annoyed sigh and crossed her arms and legs. “It was a long time ago.”
“Just whatever you can remember,” prompted Decker.
“Don Richards was the loan officer at the bank, so David knew him. He’d been instrumental in getting the loan for the American Grill construction. My husband was very ambitious. That was one trait that drew me to him. He wanted to make a lot of money and also do things to help bolster the community. I appreciated that.”
“When did you two meet?”
“Shortly after the Grill opened.” She got a far-off look on her face and smiled. “We were set up on a blind date, of all things. We were both so busy, it was hard to find time to meet people. We hit it off right away and were married six months later.”
“And as you said, you still own the American Grill?”
“Yes. It was in both my and David’s names. It passed to me after Hawkins murdered him.”
“Has it been profitable for you?”
“We’ve had good and bad years. Right now it’s doing okay.”
“So, as far as you know, your husband was just there that night to shoot the breeze with Don Richards? Or was it about business?”
“I don’t know. I told you that before. I didn’t even know he was going over there that night. They might have been talking about some business projects, because David had several things going on at that time, and Don was his main contact at the bank. But I don’t know why he would have done that at Don’s home.” She added icily, “As you know, David never came home alive, so he couldn’t tell me what they discussed. I thought we’d be together for life. Turned out it was only for a short time.”