Decker said, “He was convicted of burning down a home with a banker inside. A banker who’d foreclosedon his house after he lost his job at a company founded by the Barons.”
“Again, it’s not relevant,” said Lassiter.
“It is, because you and this whole town have a grudge against the Barons, so don’t try to sugarcoat it and say that no one here might have it in for him.”
Kemper was about to say something when Decker’s food arrived: a thick steak, rare, fries, and asmall salad.
“Why bother with the salad?” noted Kemper wryly.
“Veggies are important, and technically fries are potatoes.”
As he ate Kemper said, “So do you have anything else to share?”
“Toby Babbot was injured on the construction site for the Maxus Fulfillment Center. And he had a piece of graph paper in his trailer. It had marks on it from the paper he’dmade drawings on.”
“Drawings of what?” asked Kemper.
“The fulfillment center construction plans.”
“Wait a minute, where did you find that?” asked Lassiter.
“In his trailer.”
“And you didn’t tell us this why?”
“I didn’t know what it was until a short time ago.”
Kemper said, “Why construction plans?”
“I don’t know. Maybehe was thinking of suing Maxus, although you’d think he would have done it by now. But I talked with Betsy O’Connor, his last roommate. She said Babbot had a beef with Maxus and talked about getting even with them.”
Lassiter took a swig of her beer and smacked the glass on the table. “I came to you for answers and now all I have are a ton more questions.”
“Anything else?” askedKemper.
“The plane I saw on the night I found the bodies?”
“You’re not going to tell me that was a drug runner’s plane landing in western PA,” said Kemper.
“No, I’m telling you there was no plane that night.”
Both women looked puzzled.
Kemper said, “I don’t understand. Are you saying you didn’t see a plane?”
“No. I think it was a drone.”He explained his conversation with Dan Bond, and that he had confirmed no flights had gone anywhere near Baronville that night.
Lassiter looked chagrined. “When I went to interview him, I didn’t ask Bond about the plane you said you saw because I didn’t think it was important.”
“Neither did I. I just happened to mention it to him. Goes to show that simply assuming somethingis true is never good enough.”
“A drone?” said Kemper. “What would it be doing on that street?”
Decker looked at her. “Remember we were speculating that your two agents had set up a surveillance nest at the house next to the one where their bodies were found?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, maybe that drone was doing surveillance too.”