Chapter66
“OKAY, I’VE GOTBADNEWSand bad news, which do you want first?”
Decker was talking to Alex Jamison on his cell phone.
“Well, I guess it doesn’t matter, does it?” he said.
“Okay, we struck out on the shell companies you gave us. We can’t penetrate them.”
“Okay.”
“And the tattoos on the two dead guys? I ran them through the relevant databases and came up with zip. I mean, most of the tats taken separately are well known. But the Bureau has never seen them all strung together like that before. It’s quite a mix of hate groups. Nazi, Aryan, Klansmen.”
“Well, thanks for checking.”
“No, you don’t understand, Decker. I’ve got people freaking out here. When the FBI can’t find out something, that’s news. And they’re also afraid that maybe these different hate groups are starting to come together, sharing resources, coordinating terrorist actions, accomplishing more terrible things together than they can separately.”
“You mean the shell companies are unusually hardened, and the tats may reflect some new sort of new terrorist threat?”
“Bingo. When I told Bogart, he was really concerned.”
“Well, I share that concern.”
“Anything from Rachel Katz yet?”
“She hasn’t regained consciousness. The doctors are getting worried.”
“What else can you do?”
“I can find out what’s in the basement of the American Grill.”
“Haven’t you seen the movies? Younevergo down to the basement.”
“I did in Baronville.”
“My point exactly.”
Decker clicked off and went in search of Lancaster, finding her getting some coffee in the break room.
“You want a cup?” she asked.
He shook his head. “We need to go to the bank.”
“Why, do you need money?”
“No, answers.”
***
On the drive over to Don Richards’s old bank, Decker said, “David Katz owned a late-model Mercedes sedan when he was killed. It’s the car I think his murderer drove over in. Katz and his wife were living in a very nice apartment in town. He owned the American Grill after building it with a construction and operating loan. And he might have had other loans.”
“So?”
“So how do you get a big loan like that without putting up collateral?”
“Maybe he put up collateral.”
“Meaning he had money of his own.”