“How’d you get these?”
Robie just looked at him.
“Do they know someone was there tonight?” asked Decker.
This comment drew a look of respect from Robie.
“Or was it clean?” added Decker.
“My exit was not as clean as I would have liked. But they won’t know what my area of interest was, that I can guarantee.”
“That’s good to know.”
“What are you going to do now?”
“Show the picture to someone to make sure it’s the right guy.”
“We don’t need you showing this picture all around.”
“I’m only going to show it to one guy. A person I trust implicitly.”
“I hope your trust is well placed.”
“It is. That I can guarantee you.”
“And if it is the right guy?” asked Robie.
“Then we need to track down this Ben Purdy.”
“And if you can’t?”
Decker looked at him. “Why would that be a problem? Even if his current assignment wasn’t in the file. He’s in the Air Force, not in hiding.”
“He was in the Air Force. We don’t know if he still is. And if you find him he may not talk. For a number of reasons,” he added grimly.
“You think it goes that deep?”
Robie ran his fingers along the chair’s armrest. “FYI, I wouldn’t be here otherwise.”
“That’s also good to know.”
“Anything else?”
“When I asked you about Irene Cramer, you hung up on me. Why?”
“I had nothing to contribute to that discussion.”
“You have a funny way of not answering questions.”
“Goes with the territory I call home.”
“I can deal with half-assed answers and even outright lies, because pretty much everybody lies to me at some point. But to solve the case, I have to get to the truth. And FYI, I will.”
Robie eyed the phone. “Those are the facts. Do with them what you think is best.” He rose from the chair, a bit stiffly.
This was not missed by Decker. “I take it the nonclean exit was also painful?”
“They almost always are.”
Robie was at the door when Decker said, “I know getting this wasn’t easy. Thanks.”
Robie turned back long enough to say, “It’s my job. Now do yours.”
“THAT’S THE GUY,” said Baker.
He, Decker, and Jamison were having coffee the next morning at a café down the street from their hotel. Decker had shown him the picture of Ben Purdy that Robie had sent him.
“You’re sure?”
“Oh, yeah. That’s him. He still around? Haven’t seen him since that night.”
“All the military guys are gone except for the man who runs the place, Colonel Sumter. The rest are private contractors.”
Baker shook his head. “Never liked those guys. They were paid three times what us grunts got and did a quarter of the work we did.” He eyed Decker. “Where’d you get that picture?”
Jamison glanced at her partner. Decker had already told her about the encounter with Robie.
“Just good, old-fashioned police work, Stan,” said Decker, taking his phone with the photo on it back as Jamison hiked her eyebrows at this comment.
“If he’s gone, how are you gonna talk to him?”
“Have to think of a way. Did he say anything else to you? Talk about his family? Friends? Anything that might help us track him down?”
“Well, he said his family was from Montana. Just over the border.”
Decker sat up. “Did he mention a town?”
“No. Just that it was small and rural. I guess most of Montana is rural.” He checked his watch. “I got to get going. I’m normally at work by now, but we had some repairs to make and we don’t start staging for another two hours.”
“Thanks, Stan, see you later.”
“Hey, um, Caroline wanted me to ask if you two wanted to join us for dinner tonight.”
“Dinner?” said Decker. “I don’t—”
But Jamison interjected, “That would be great, Stan.”
Baker grinned. “I’ll email you with the details. You’ll love the restaurant. It’s a pretty special place.”
Before they could comment on this, Baker hurried off.
Decker whirled on Jamison, who put up her hand.
“He’s your brother-in-law.”
“Soon to be ex.”
“Is he your friend? Do you like him?”
“Well, yes. He’s a nice guy, solid as a rock.”
“And didn’t you two just fight off a bunch of guys together?”
“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.”